Page 10

"Find someone else."

"There is no one else." Her voice dropped. "Come on, Alex. You've been blowing me off for months. Months, Alex. Months! I'm your sister. Don't you love me anymore?"

"Ugh. Fine."

"Great! Come straight backstage."

I found a spot in the parking lot and headed inside. The auditorium was already filling up. I was cutting through to backstage when a voice called out from the third row.

"Captain Holloway?" Sawyer had been about to sit down in the third row. He straightened up, grinning. "This is a rare sighting of Captain Holloway outside his natural habitat."

"What are you doing here, Kane?"

"My cousin is playing a cloud. Possibly the most adorable cloud in the history of live theater."

Perfect.

Sawyer stepped into the aisle. "Are you here for anyone in particular?"

"My sister. She's got some trouble backstage." I started walking. "I should go check on her."

"I'll save you a seat."

Maybe Sawyer being here was a blessing in disguise. If I could convince Erin to put him on that stage instead of me, this whole problem went away. He was a performer. I'd never been one.

Backstage was chaos. Kids in costumes chased each other between set pieces. A cardboard castle listed to one side. Someone's mother was trying to reattach a sequined star to a wand with a glue gun and losing. Erin spotted me from across the room and her face went from panic to pure relief.

"Thank God." She grabbed my arm and pulled me through the crowd. "Your scene partner is right over here. She's already in costume. She's a little nervous but she's got it. Come on."

She steered me around a cluster of kids in animal costumes and toward the wings.

"Erin, I might know someone who⁠—"

A woman in a prom-style dress and a plastic tiara was standing in the wings, script in her hand.

The first thing I noticed was her green eyes. Those were the exact green I'd been carrying in the back of my mind for twelve years without once being able to describe it to myself accurately. And her dark hair was longer than I remembered, but the same.

I'd spent an hour after midnight walking those streets, looking for her. She was gone. I went back to my hostel, sat on the edge of the bed, and told myself it was just a New Year's kiss, just a tradition, just a stranger.

And now she was here, in Boston, in my sister's play.

"Alex, this is Janine Curtis, my best friend. Janine, this is my brother, Alex."

I held out my hand. She took it.

"Nice to meet you." Her voice was familiar. I'd heard it before, but I couldn't place where.

"You too."

Erin looked between us. She clapped her hands. "Oh! Have I ever mentioned that my brother is a fire captain?" She turned to me. "Janine is a dispatcher. You two might have worked together and never even known it."

I looked at Janine. "Engine 19."

"You're Captain Holloway?"

"Yeah."

"Dispatcher 41."