When rehearsal ends I look for Cole outside the theatre, but I don’t see him. It’s a perfect night. Beautiful and clear. No fog. No damp. No chill. Everyone seems to have found someone to enjoy the gorgeous weather with.

Lex is leaning against the wall of the barn. Jude goes in for a kiss. They whisper together, forehead to forehead, and Lex giggles as he slips his hands into Jude’s back pockets. They’re completely wrapped up in each other. Oblivious to everything else in the world.

Val is flirting with one of the guys. A blond named Nixon who’s wearing a Star Trek shirt. She tosses her long, dark curls over her shoulder and laughs. He tells her she was really good in the scene tonight, and I see her touch his arm. Bat her long eyelashes. I wonder if this means she’s broken things off with Chester for good. I also wonder if she’s taken Nixon skinny-dipping yet.

Finally I spot Cole. He’s sitting on the edge of the steps. Alone. Just staring off into the dark. I walk over and touch his hair, but he doesn’t look up.

“Come on,” I say, “we need to talk.” I reach down and take his hand. Then I pull him to his feet and around the corner toward the amphitheater. But there are people there, too. Some of the techies are hanging lights. Gearing up for the big performance. Midnight Music by Willa Culver, starring all of us.

“Shit,” I mutter. Because I don’t know where to go.

“It’s okay,” Cole says. “I know a place.” He leads me toward a little gravel path that runs around behind the barn.

There’s a bench against the back wall of the building. Two big coffee cans filled with sand sit at either end. “This is where the crew comes for smoke breaks,” Cole tells me in a voice that sounds like he’s apologizing. But it feels like the perfect spot to me, because we have it all to ourselves. We just sit there for a few seconds. Grateful to be alone.

We’re facing a clearing that extends from behind the barn to a line of trees not far away. A little trailer sits off to one side. There’s a tiny garden. And couple of beat-up lawn chairs.

“George’s place,” Cole tells me. I see lights inside the trailer. The flicker of a television screen, maybe. I think about George finding me on the beach last night. In the fog.

“Remember that first night? At the bonfire?” I say. “On the beach.” Cole nods. “You told me Whisper Cove was different from other places.”

“I remember.”

“What is it that happens here? At night. In the fog.”