“I realized when I got home that night that I hadn’t really given you a chance to explain. I wanted to go to you, talk things through, but after those things I’d said…” Levi exhaled. “The way I acted.” He shook his head. “I was sure you were going to tell me to go to hell.”

“You had every right to be pissed at me. I know how it looked. She—she came to find me, Levi. Those paintings, they were some kind of tribute to me, a way for her to declare what she felt, but—but—the thing is, I’m not in love with her, Levi. I’m in love with you. I’ll still be in love with you, no matter where you go or how hard it is to make it work.”

He stared at me for so long that I grew self-conscious, tucking hair behind my ear and darting my eyes away from him. “Babe,” he began to say, but then the megaphone boomed, and we both turned.

The judges were standing in front of our sandcastle. “We have a winner!” the head judge said with a broad grin. “Will the architects of this castle come forward, please?”

It took a minute for it to sink in.

“Babe, it’s you!” Lucy shouted, setting off a round of cheers and hoots.

Levi stepped next to me, hand on my back. He met my eyes, and wordlessly, we both stepped forward at the same time, heading toward our creation. The judges pinned blue first-place ribbons on us. Lorcan and Lucy were awarded red ribbons for second place, and another team won third.

“I suck!” Penny shouted dramatically over the commotion. “Chad was robbed!” Even Lucy cracked a smile.

John and Cary kicked their sandcastle back into the beach, which wasn’t hard, considering it was falling apart anyway.

Camera flashes went off, the crowd surged forward. Everyone was in my face, buzzing in my ear, asking me how it felt to break Lorcan and Lucy’s winning streak.

“Everything okay?” Levi whispered in my ear, though it was really more of a shout to make himself heard over all the festivity.

“It will be!” I shouted back.

Over the next week, the coffee shop was jam-packed with people eager to congratulate me and Levi. Lucy and Lorcan, the former reigning champs, swore that next year they’d steal first back from us. It titillated the crowd to think we had a friendly rivalry going on, and someone shouted, “Drinks on me!” which got all the tourists excited until they realized we didn’t serve alcohol.