He shrugged, grinning. “I probably won’t even get in. But whatever. It’s taking the chance that counts, right? Anyway, it’d be nice to get out of the city, go someplace smaller.” He glanced around us, eyes soft. “Like this.”

I smiled. “You know, it used to be that everyone in my senior year wanted to get out of a place this small.” I stretched both my arms behind my back, lacing my fingers together until the ache in my lower back went away. “Not me. I think it’s nice to be in a place where everybody knows your name.”

“Like Cheers?”

“What?”

“It’s an old television show. It’s about this bar where all the main characters hang out. They’re like a family.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Look it up on Netflix sometime.”

“Okay.” I rubbed an itch on my nose. “I’m surprised. Most New Yorkers who come here say that they could never imagine leaving the city.”

His brow furrowed, like he was really thinking about it. “People always talk about getting out of New York, but…” He glanced at me. “I think my dad would love it here. So would Mom. They just never get around to leaving. Sometimes I think they’re so scared of change that it paralyzes them into doing nothing, because nothing is better than making the wrong decision.”

“How do you mean?” I found myself stepping closer to him, drawn like a honeybee to the secret parts of him.

“It’s one of those vague ‘in the future’ things they think they want to do—or they want to want to do. But when it comes down to it, they can’t imagine living anywhere else.” Levi rolled his eyes. “And as much as they complain about it, it’s home.”

“I don’t know if I’d ever find home somewhere other than here. There’s memories in every inch of Oar’s Rest. The beach, the lighthouse. Busy’s. Everywhere.” Dangling my legs off the pier, watching hermit crabs hunt for shells during molting season, burying my fingers in the hot white-gold sand … a lifetime of memories coursed through my mind. I clung to them like old friends, taking solace in how solid they felt.

“You’d make new memories,” he said.

I would. But the same memories that made Oar’s Rest painful at times were also the ones that contained worlds. First kisses and dripping ice cream cones. Fumbled sex and really good weed. Sleepovers at Penny’s and racing hermit crabs with Chad. Learning how to make soup dumplings and sandcastles. The awning Elodie had been standing under when I’d first realized I had feelings for her.