The song is a mid-tempo ballad in which the narrator recalls a teen-aged encounter with a female, during a late summer vacation in a beach town. In the chorus, he explains that although he has to leave the next day to his home in Cleveland, Ohio, he still tells her "I don't see how you could ever be anything but mine". The radio edit features an abridged intro and outro, while the album version features a false ending, followed by another repetition of the chorus run through a vocal filter.

"Anything but Mine" was written by Scooter Carusoe, who also co-wrote Chesney's 2008 Number One hit "Better as a Memory" with Lady Goodman.

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