“Scent is one of our most powerful senses. I thought maybe if you could remember the way Nicole smelled. If you could breathe her in.” Glory looks so lost. “I thought it might help you remember her.” I don’t know what to say to that. She wipes at a stray tear with the back of her hand. “You and Nicki loved each other so much.”

My anger is gone now. And the fear, too. It’s evaporated like the fog in the morning. But it’s left me so exhausted. Suddenly I can hardly stand up. I lean against the cabin wall and close my eyes.

I’m so, so tired.

I keep going around and around and around. But nothing at Whisper Cove makes sense.

“It just seems so unfair that you can’t remember her,” Glory tells me. “I have so many good memories of Nicki. I just wanted you to have some for yourself.” She pulls at the bottom of her sweater. “I’ve tried to tell you things. But secondhand memories aren’t the same. And I know that.”

I think about how good Glory’s been to me these last few weeks. The photos she’s given me. The stories she’s told me.

“I know you only wanted to help,” I say, and the relieved smile that comes over her face makes me sad for her. She seems so lonely. And I wonder if Glory has anybody in her life. If she’s had anybody at all since my mom. “But—”

Glory cuts me off. “Why don’t you come over to my place?” she asks me. “For dinner tomorrow. After rehearsal.” She gives me a nervous smile. “I have some more pictures and things I can show you.”

With less than a week left, I can’t turn down an opportunity like the one Glory is offering me. She has me hooked, and something tells me that she knows it.

“Yeah,” I say. “Okay.”

“Great!” Glory’s beaming now. “I’ll pick you up at six. Meet me on the farmhouse porch. I live just down the road.” She holds out the lavender to me. She’s shy now. Like a little girl handing her teacher a flower. But when I take it, she smiles at me again.

Then she’s gone. And I really am all alone in the fog.

I stand there staring at the drooping bouquet clutched between my fingers and wondering why something still feels so off.

ACT III: SCENE 6

The next morning is Saturday. No classes. No work assignments. Just a full day of rehearsals. And right from the start I can tell Cole is struggling under the weight of what he told me last night. How he thinks I’m right. About his dad. I see the pain of it in his eyes whenever he looks at me. And I feel it in his fingers when we touch.