And she wished they still laughed and loved each other.

And then she hoped that her mom would maybe find someone else to take her to Country Swing someday. And that maybe they’d laugh and love each other.

And then Ginette wondered if she’d ever find somebody to laugh with and love.

She thought she had with Pete.

A little over an hour ago, they had told each other that they loved each other. And then they laughed and loved with each other for a few minutes. And those few minutes were the best few minutes Ginette had ever experienced.

But they were in the past.

And it seemed so wrong that all that laughing and loving was a part of their past.

It should have been a part of their present.

But it wasn’t.

And Ginette realized that the farther and farther away she got from Pete, the less and less likely it was that she and Pete would ever laugh and love—or do much of anything—together again.

At 8:15, Ginette found herself approaching Lendall Tardy’s house, which was about a quarter of a mile down the road from the Rec Center. Lendall was the guy you called if you wanted your kitchen remodeled, or if you were building a garage, or if you were painting your house. He had worked on just about every house and building in Almost, so everyone knew him. But no one knew him well. He was a quiet guy.

But Lendall’s girlfriend, Gayle Pulcifer, was not quiet. She was a dynamo and ran the Rec Center, so everyone knew her, too—and she had a magical way about her that made everyone feel like they knew her really well.

Gayle had done wonders for Almost. Thanks to a grant from the Burby Foundation, she had transformed the Rec Center building—which had almost been abandoned years ago—into a bustling community center that offered programming for everyone in Almost.

For kids, there were arts and crafts classes and all kinds of board game tournaments and intramural basketball leagues and Nerf dodgeball leagues and free gym time to help young people fight off cabin fever during northern Maine’s long winters.

And, because adults in northern Maine need help fighting cabin fever as much as kids do, there was plenty of programming for grown-ups. There were yoga classes, CPR classes, cooking classes, a gentlemen’s basketball league, cribbage and bridge tournaments, AA meetings, and a painting class taught by an artist named Merle Haslem from Allagash.

And the Rec Center offered plenty of all-ages activities, like Saturday morning nature hikes and movie nights and game nights and dance socials—like the Country Swing night that had been underway for a while on the night when all the extraordinary things did or didn’t happen.

Ginette figured that Gayle must have been at Country Swing, supervising. And that Lendall must have been there with her, dancing with her and helping her make sure that everything was going smoothly, because he was always there for her. And she was always there for him.