Page 100 of Hello, Summer
Skelly propped himself up on one elbow, dropping a kiss on her bare shoulder. He gazed out at the orange fireball poised to disappear. “Beautiful. Like you.”
“I’ve missed this,” she said.
“What? Making out on the beach with the cutest boy next door?”
“I was gonna saysunsets.I can’t remember a single night, living in Atlanta, that I stopped what I was doing just to watch the sky turn this amazing color. But making out with you on the beach is pretty amazing too,” she said, smiling down at him.
He sat up and wrapped his arms around her chest, kissing her neck and shoulders, and she leaned back into his embrace. Finally, the sky was an inky blue black, scattered with stars and a waning crescent moon.
Skelly pulled her back down into the sand, tugging at her clothes with renewed urgency, nudging her knees apart with his own. She pulled his shirt over his head, and he obligingly removed her top. He easily removed her shorts. She found his zipper and slowly inched it down, stroking him as she went.
They reclined on their sides, facing each other, their legs entwined, touching, stroking, kissing.
“Um, Conley?”
She was kissing his chest, working her way down his abdomen, enjoying how ragged his breathing got the farther south she moved.
“Did you by any chance keep that condom you stole from Grayson?”
She stopped what she was doing. “A twenty-year-old condom? Um. No. But what kind of pharmacist doesn’t keep birth control in his pocket for emergencies like this?”
“The newly divorced kind. The kind who’s convinced he’ll never have sex again.”
She kissed him lightly, then pulled him on top of her. “Lucky for you, I was a Girl Scout. And I’m always prepared.”
“Wow,” Skelly said, draping an arm over her side. “What was in that wine?”
“Nothing special,” Conley said lazily.
“Unlike you,” he said, nuzzling her neck. “I can’t believe what just happened here. Sarah Conley Hawkins jumped my bones.”
“I seem to remember that you made the first move,” Conley said, reaching for her top and pulling it over her head.
“I was trying to restore your faith in humanity. To make all your teenage fantasies come true,” he said.
She chuckled. “I’d say my fantasies were more than realized.”
Skelly sat up and gazed around. “I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to spoil the mood, but for a while there, I kind of had this creepy feeling that we were being watched. You, uh, you don’t think your grandmother could see us from the house, do you?”
“No way,” she said flatly. “I can see the cove from my room, but G’mama sleeps downstairs. What time is it, anyway?”
He consulted his watch. “Nearly nine.”
“Then G’mama and Winnie are either bent over their jigsaw puzzle or fast asleep. I’d vote for sleeping.”
“Hope so,” he said, pulling on his shirt. “I don’t want her chasing me down with a shotgun for besmirching her granddaughter.”
She handed him his pants and donned her own panties and shorts. “Don’t be so dramatic. The besmirching was mutual. Anyway, my grandmother adores you. Always has.”
He put one leg into his pants and then the other before pulling her to her feet. “And what about you?”
Conley busied herself brushing the sand from her bare legs, arms, and neck. “God. I’m a mess. I’ve got sand in places I didn’t know I had.”
“Me too,” Skelly said. He reached for her hand. “You haven’t answered my question.”
“Skelly.” She drew out his name. “What do you want from me?”
“Never mind,” he said curtly. “What was I thinking? We literallyhad sex on the beach here a few minutes ago, but how self-involved am I to think you might indicate you have some kind of feelings for me?”
