So when I cross to Cole and look at him through tears, it’s not acting. It’s not even becoming.

It’s just me existing.

“I know that song,” I tell him. “I hear it in my heart sometimes.”

“Come and sit beside me,” he says, so I do. And I feel the soft press of his thigh against mine. He’s so warm and so alive.

I wonder for a second if he can feel the heat of me. But then I remember that he can’t. Because I’m dead.

Cold. And gone.

“I knew you’d come,” Cole says.

“Again,” I say. “You knew I’d come again.”

He smiles. “I knew you’d come again.”

“I thought about being somewhere else,” I admit. “But I didn’t know where that was.”

Cole takes my hand. He’s moving his thumb back and forth across my wrist. Rubbing the spot where my compass rose should be.

“This is where you belong,” he tells me.

“It’s late,” I say. “You should go home.”

He looks at me, confused. Gray eyes. Dark circles.

“I already am home.”

“This isn’t your home,” I tell him, and I reach out to touch his face.

“You’re my home, Eden. I want—”

I put my fingers to his lips and stop him in mid-sentence.

“I’m not the same,” I warn him. “Being dead changes you.”

“Living changes you, too,” Cole says, and he puts his hand under my chin and tilts my face toward his. “But I know that I will always love you.”

He bends down and kisses me, slowly and gently. Then he puts one hand on each side of my face and looks into my eyes. I feel my world start to tilt—I hear the sound of wind chimes, the pounding of the waves—and I bite my lip to bring the real back into focus.

“I love you, too,” I say. “I know now that I always have. It’s always been you and me. Hasn’t it.”

“Over and over,” he says, and I nod.

“Over and over.”

“Maybe we’ll get it right, next time.” Cole’s voice is so sad. “Maybe next time I really can save you.”

I reach out and run my fingers through his dark waves. “You save me every time.” I smile. “Maybe next time I’ll save you.”

Cole shakes his head. “Next time we’ll save each other.”

“Blackout!” Jude says, but nobody in the theatre moves. Cole and I are still staring at each other, and Willa is watching us.

Someone starts to clap. And pretty soon the whole barn is filled with applause. It should make me feel good. That sound. Because to an actress, there’s nothing better. But I can’t tear myself away from Cole’s eyes.