When the opening chords to “Good Vibrations” hit the air, even Emery couldn’t resist the energy of the crowd, and the way the Beach Boys transported so many of them back in time when the post-war world was changing.
The couple next to her danced a slow dance in the aisle to “Surfer Girl,” and Emery snapped a couple more photos and jotted in her notes. She lost herself in “Fun, Fun, Fun” and danced the swim in front of the stage with a couple of well-dressed, gray-haired women who were probably former prom queens.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard her mother’s subtle advice.“Be present,Emery. Everything comes in good time. If it doesn’t,it was never yours.”
Too soon it was all over, and she walked with the energized crowd to the parking lot, singing “wish they all could be Florida girls.” Heading home, Caleb stopped at 7-11 for a couple of waters.
“I needed tonight,” she said after a long drink. “Wasn’t it fun? Meeting Mike and Bruce, talking to couples who grew up in that generation, feeling the vibe of the crowd, and hearing the music. I really have to get Delilah to talk to me.”
“You’ve got a great story for theGazette,” Caleb said, not matching her enthusiasm. Somewhere toward the end of the concert, he’d gone quiet on her.
At the Sands Motor Motel, the courtyard was lit by the fire and the lights strung from cottage to cottage, the Beach Boy’s music playing from mounted speakers.
“All right, Ransom, what’s up?” she said as he walked her to her door. Delilah’s cottage was shut tight, but Emery sensed the ambiance of the courtyard was her doing.
“All right, since you asked. First, I had a blast. Thank you for inviting me.” He walked toward the firepit, then turned back to her. “You know how the couple next to us danced to ‘Surfer Girl’? I, um, wow, now it sounds silly, but I wanted to dance with you to that song.” He laughed. “Ever since you invited me, I had it in my head, some romantic notion of—” He waved off his comment.
The bass chords and the harmonic “oooohs” of “Surfer Girl” dropped into the atmosphere. He glanced at her and laughed softly. “I think Delilah is spying on us.” He held out his arms. “Can I have this dance?”
“All you had to do was ask,” she said, resting her cheek in the strong spot of his chest, listening to his heartbeat as she followed him through the rhythm of the music. “At the concert, I mean.”
“Let’s always do this,” he whispered close to her ear.
When she looked up at him, he bent toward her until his lips found hers. It was the first, next kiss, in a sixteen-year gap. New and exciting, yet familiar and known. Everything she remembered aboutthatsummer.
When the song ended, they continued in a slow sway, stealing kisses and forgetting a world beyond the Sands and Sea Blue Beach existed.
“Maybe you’ll knock on my window tonight like you did that summer?” She laughed as if she were teasing but she felt the eagerness in her voice.
“Maybe I will. Your dad’s not here to put some Krav Maga move on me.” Caleb kissed her one last time as she leaned against the doorframe. “But I still fear the Boyfriendinator.”
EMERY
Then . . .
When she came in from the beach holding Caleb’s hand, Dad was once again pulling burgers off the grill, and Emery Quinn made a decision. Actually, two.
One, she loved Caleb Ransom. At sixteen, almost seventeen, she’d found her forever man. Wow! She’d never, ever, ever imagined she’d like a boy so much to think he was The One. Not until after college. But why not?
Grandma and Grandpa Force, Mom’s parents, met at sixteen, married at eighteen. Caleb told her his Ransom grandparents fell in love at fourteen and married after his grandpa came home from Korea.
As Dad would say,“There’s precedent for it.”
Two, she was never leaving Sea Blue Beach. That’s as far as she’d gotten with that one. The logistics were complicated. What about Dad’s professorship at Case Western? Or Mom’s power job at the bank? Or Emery starting as point guard for Hawken School? Details, details. Florida had universities. And banks. Nickle High had an exceptional girls’ basketball team. Emery had meet several of the players this summer. They were super cool.
In six-and-a-half short weeks, she’d become a bona fide member of Sea Blue Beach. Even a queen, according to Caleb’s friends. Queen of Operation Revenge. Two nights ago, when Caleb worked the Starlight, Emery went skating with Shift’s sister and her bestie. Had a blast.
“Young Mr. Ransom,” Dad said, trying to sound stern but fooling no one. Last night he told Mom how much he was going to miss “that boy.” He hoped Emery would find a nice kid like him back home. But there was onlyoneCaleb Ransom.
“Tell your father thanks for the grilling tips,” Dad said. “I’ve become the grill master I’ve always wanted to be.”
“Hayden Ransom is your guy, Mr. Quinn.” He released Emery to help Dad with a platter of meat.
“After dinner, can I go to the Starlight with Caleb? He’s not working, and it’s eighties night.” Emery tossed her beach towel over one of the Adirondacks. She’d become more tan and more lean over the last month from all the beach volleyball and bike riding.
“We thought we’d have a family dinner tonight.” Dad motioned her inside. “Just us three.”
“Okay, but can’t Caleb stay?” He was family to her. She reached for his hand after he handed the platter to Dad. “There are six burgers here. We can’t eat all of them.”
