“Glory says that was your mom’s idea,” I tell him. “They just wanted to help.” I feel the weight of everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours settling on my chest. “She’s going to get away with it, Cole. Glory. I don’t have any proof. There isn’t any way to prove it.” We’re sitting side by side in the grass, staring down at the foaming water.

“We’ll figure something out. I promise. But even if we don’t—” Cole stops and pulls me into a kiss.

His hands are on my face, and he’s running his thumbs over my cheekbones. I feel him trembling. There’s this sadness that seeps into me through his skin.

Something feels different. This kiss isn’t like any of the others we’ve shared.

This is a goodbye kiss.

“What’s wrong?” I ask him. But Cole won’t say. He just walks me back to the little blue cabins. We skirt wide around the hog pen. But I can hear them grunting tonight.

The smell burrows its way into my nose.

Before I go in to bed, Cole presses a piece of green sea glass into my hand.

“For protection?” I ask him. But he shakes his head.

“To help you remember me,” he says. “Next time.”

“You’re scaring me,” I tell him. But he just pulls me into another kiss, and when it’s over, he’s smiling at me. “What?” I ask him.

Cole touches my arm, and I feel the heat from his fingertips radiating out through my body.

“Do you want to know how the book ends?” he asks me.

I can’t answer him. The lump in my throat is too big.

I look down at our feet, but he tilts my chin up so he can see my face. And then he asks again. His voice is warm and soft, like a winter coat.

“Do you want to know how the book ends, Avril?”

My heart is in ten thousand pieces, but I still know my line.

“That would ruin the surprise.”

“But what if it makes you sad?” he asks, reaching out to brush a strand of hair away from my face. His voice is barely a whisper.

Wind in the dune grass.

“I’d rather take my time to find out all the lovely things that happen along the way, without worrying about the ending.” I press myself into his chest. “Wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I think I would, too,” Cole says. He’s pulling me tighter against him. “Now that you mention it.”

He kisses me one more time.

And then he’s gone.