“And I guess I’ll be leaving soon too,” she said.

“Do you really want to leave so badly?” Cam took hold of her hand and they began to walk along the beach. It was stupidly romantic, with the waves beating against the sand, and the ocean—blue closer to shore, but along the horizon, black and infinite—laid out before them. Cam’s hand was much bigger than hers, and warm, and comforting. “I mean, look where you live,” he said. “It’s so beautiful here.” As if on cue, the setting sun turned the waves periwinkle. “Don’t you ever feel lucky to live here, instead of wishing you could be somewhere else, all the way across the country?”

They had almost reached the jetty before the campground; they’d have to turn back soon.

“Not really,” she said. “I just want to get started on what’s next. I do.”

“You know what Confucius said?”

“No,” said Alexa, suddenly irritable. Must they philosophize now?

“He said, ‘Wherever you go, there you are,’” said Cam.

“I don’t get it,” said Alexa, without really thinking. Far, far out, a sailboat glided along.

“Think about it,” said Cam. Then—“Right? Make sense?” He was smiling eagerly.

Despite her best efforts not to understand, she thought she probably did. It wasn’t that complicated. Alexa in California would just be the same as Alexa in Newburyport, although obviously tanner and probably with much cuter clothes, and, eventually, her own dog.

“I guess so,” she said. She kicked reluctantly at the sand with her big toe.

“All I’m trying to get at, Alexa, is that I don’t want you to miss where you are on your way to getting to somewhere else. It took me a while to learn that myself, but I think I finally have. And I think that might be what Confucius was saying.”

Then Cam was putting down his Market Basket bag, and taking her bag from her to place beside his, and holding her face gently, a hand on either cheek, and he was bending down and giving her a glorious, glorious kiss. He stopped and pulled back for a second and said, “Okay?” She wasn’t sure her voice would work—the kissing was really intense—so she just nodded and willed him to please start kissing her again. She put her hands on the back of his adorable, goofy, sexy golfer’s neck and pulled him closer. He moved his hands down to her waist, and his grip was strong and sure.

Then he said, “No pressure. Whatsoever. But if you haven’t moved yet, if you’re still figuring things out, I’ll be back for Thanksgiving. And maybe before that, if you have a free weekend in October, you can come up to St. Mike’s. I’d love to show you around, and maybe you can come to a tourney.”