Page 99 of Hello, Summer
He closed his eyes and buried his head in his hands. “Gaaaaaah,” he groaned. “I was such a pig. Such a loser.”
“I had the night all built up in my mind,” she went on, liberated by the wine and the passage of time. “I was the only girl in my class at boarding school who was still a virgin. Okay, maybe the others were lying, but I was convinced that I was the only virgin left in the world. So I decided it was high time to… you know… become a real woman. And I’d made the decision that the most perfect boy in the world to give it up to was… Sean Kelly. The world’s cutest boy next door.”
He raised his head and regarded her with sad puppy dog eyes. “You’re totally making this up just to torture me.”
“Nope,” she said sadly. She mimed anXover her chest and repeated the oath she and Grayson—and Sean—had shared as kids. “Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.”
“You’re killing me here,” Skelly said.
“I had the whole evening all planned out. We’d dance the night away. You’d wrap your arms around me during the slow dances, and I’d press my miniature breasts up against your masculine chest, and you’d be so swept away with passion, you’d kiss me right there on the dance floor.”
Skelly took a long gulp of his own wine. “Go on.”
“That’s about it,” she said, shrugging. “At one point in the evening, I went to the ladies’ room, and some girls had a flask of Southern Comfort. I took three or four swigs, and then, when I went back out to the ballroom to start my big seduction, you were dancing with Steffi. And you had your hands all over her ass.”
“She askedmeto dance,” Skelly protested. “And for your information, she was grinding on me like a cat in heat. Also, now that you mention it, the guys in the men’s room were passing around some stuff that night, but it wasn’t Southern Comfort. I guess I was semi-buzzed, because if I’d been sober I never would have had the nerve to grope Steffi whatshername right there in front of God and the chaperones.”
“You broke my heart that night,” Conley said. “I found Grayson and begged her to get her date to take me home, but they had plans of their own, so I just had to sit there, watching you dry hump the biggest slut in Silver Bay.”
“I’m sorry,” Skelly said. He took both her hands in his. “Teenage boys should not be allowed out in public. They should be chained until their hormones are under control and they learn how to be decent human beings.”
Her mind wandered to Charlie Robinette and the excruciating humiliation he’d inflicted upon her only a year or two after that night at the country club with Skelly. They’d both been horny teenagers, but the difference was that Charlie had gone out of his way to hurt her.
“That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?” Conley said, looking down at their entwined hands. “Anyway, in retrospect, it’s probably allfor the best. No telling how long that condom I stole from Grayson’s dresser drawer had been in there.”
Skelly’s eyes widened. “You brought a condom? To the country club dance? For real?”
“It was in my evening bag with my lipstick, a roll of Certs, and a quarter for the pay phone. My mama might not have been around a lot, but she did sit me down when I turned thirteen to explain the facts of life,” Conley said primly. “Her only words of advice before my freshman year of college were to never let a stranger buy me a drink in a bar and to get myself to the student clinic and get on the Pill.”
“Well, damn,” Skelly said. “Just… damn.”
“I know,” she agreed. “You didn’t even kiss me at the front door. All my fantasies died that night.”
Skelly leaned his forehead against hers. “If only there were a way I could make it up to you now,” he murmured, tilting her chin until his lips hovered over hers. “If only I knew your big sister wasn’t hiding in the bushes, waiting to beat the crap out of me for making a move on you.”
Conley’s lips curled into a smile. “I happen to know that at this moment, Grayson’s ensconced at the bar at the club, and I’m the last thing on her mind. What the hell. Give it a shot.”
“Really?”
She took his face in her hands and kissed him, long, slowly, deliberately.
He pulled away for a moment. “So that’s a yes?”
Her response was to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him closer. “Do you need a permission slip?”
His first kiss was gentle, tentative, like a prolonged sigh. He wove his fingertips through her hair, kissed her earlobes, then the hollow of her throat. He rained kisses on her bare shoulders, then worked his way back up to her mouth, parting her lips with his tongue.
“Okay?” he asked, his lips still against hers.
“Skelly?”
“Mmm-hmm?”
“You’re doing just fine.”
His kisses grew more urgent, and Conley responded in kind. Bymutual agreement, they tumbled, giggling, out of the swing and onto the soft sand below. At some point, she realized that the sky had grown darker, violet deepening to purple.
“Hey,” she said, sitting up suddenly. She pointed toward the horizon. “The sun’s about to set.”
