On their way back to the clambake, the moon appeared over the ocean, sprinkling silvery light across the water. In that perfectly romantic moment, Clancy turned Evie to him, put his hands on her waist, and kissed her. It was the bomb of all kisses that had happened anywhere, anytime. Evie couldn’t imagine that a girl had ever been kissed like this in the history of the earth—sweet and tender, full of emotion, full of hunger. It dawned on her that this is what girls meant when they warned of going too far to stop. She’d never understood the concept before. She always figured that if a person wanted to stop, they just said, “Hey. I think we should stop.” But right at that moment, if Clancy had pressed the issue, Evie might have said yes.
The kiss was that good.
Fortunately, he didn’t push. He was too much of a gentleman. And that made her love him even more.
“You are special, Evie. I’m so glad you came here this summer and that I had a chance to meet you.” He played with her hair and let his eyes take her in, all the way from her hands and fingers to her bikini top, belly, jeans, and bare feet. She felt a little shy and it must have shown. “Don’t ever be embarrassed about how gorgeous you are. I can’t stop looking at you, you’re so beautiful.”
Evie ran her fingers through his curls and slipped her fingers inside the neckline of his shirt, just to feel more of his bare skin. “You are the most wonderful person I’ve ever met, Clancy. I love kissing you, touching you, laughing with you—just being with you makes me happy.”
They dropped into the sand. They rolled, kissed, and stroked each other, right there in the sand on the dark beach. At one point, he rolled with her so that she was on top of him, with her legs spread. She started breathing fast. And then she let him put his hand on her jeans, right on her butt! And a few minutes later, when they’d reversed positions, she did the same to him! Evie couldn’t believe she had the nerve to do something like that! To think—a few days ago she didn’t even know how to kiss, and now look at her, touching a guy’s butt!
When they returned to the clambake, the DJ was rockin’ the crowd. He picked some truly lame music for the old people, like the Rolling Stones and even the Eagles. Evie and Clancy sat those out. But when he got around to the real stuff, like Hootie and the Blowfish, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, and the Goo Goo Dolls, they danced nonstop.
A slow song came on. After just the first few lines, it became clear to Evie that it was their story, their song, drifting down on them as they danced on the sand under the fairy lights. Clancy slipped both his arms around her waist and Evie wrapped hers around his neck. They gazed into each other’s eyes as the music said it all—in a moment in time, a boy and girl became one, and time or distance would never erase that.
Clancy put his lips to her ear and sang along, telling Evie the words she was hoping and praying he would say to her. “Our love will never end.”
At ten minutes after ten, Amanda showed up. Clancy offered to walk them to the Sand Dollar, to make sure they got back safely. Unfortunately, they lost track of time and had to break into an all-out run for the last block.
Amanda straggled behind, which gave Clancy enough time to pull Evie into the motel courtyard to steal one last kiss.
“Tomorrow?”
“Of course. Thank you for tonight. I had a wonderful time.”
“Meet you in front of Frankie’s at noon.”
“Okay.”
“Evie?”
She turned back. He blew her a kiss before he slipped into the shadows and ran off.
Amanda arrived breathless at the motel room door just as Evie slipped into place at her side. They counted to three and Evie opened the door. Their mom and dad were waiting for them.