Prologue
Ember Thomas
Adating app.I shook my head before rolling over in bed and looking through the big bay window that looked out over Main Street in Moonlit Pines. My apartment sat above the new bookstore that had just opened, and the view was incredible.
I’d been tossing and turning for the last hour, yet sleep seemed to be illusive. Again. The slight buzz I’d felt after spending time with the girls had long faded as I stared out into the inky black sky littered by silvery stars.
A dating app. Rosie’s suggestion kept popping up in my head.
Could that be the answer to meeting someone when you were pretty certain you knew everyone in the small town you lived in? I wasn’t sure. But as I leaned over and picked up my cell phone, the idea didn’t sound bad.
Who was I kidding? Meeting a complete stranger off the Internet sounded like a nightmare or the beginning of aDatelinestory. How many of the nurses I worked with had their own cautionary tales of getting catfished by guys they met online? Showing up to dates only to find a guy who looked nothing like his pictures.
That wasn’t for me.
My finger hovered over the popular dating app Rosie hadn’t been able to stop talking about. Locked 4 Love allegedly had some kind of guarantee to find the love of your life within four matches, or you got your money back. Four matches. Could it be that easy? I’d read the reviews and hardly believed my eyes. It didn’t make sense, but then again, I guess it didn’t need to. For all I knew, they were fake reviews.
Either way, I wasn’t going to spend a hundred and fifty bucks to get matched.
Instead, an ad for a cabin rental app I’d heard about caught my eye, and I downloaded that. I scrolled through the places until I found one to spend a week in before returning to work in the new year.
The girls might be attending = the black-tie gala held at the brewery in town, but I was going to get out of town, even if it was only an hour away, and chill.
Alone.
Who could blame me for wanting peace and quiet when they knew that my days in the ER were full of nothing but noise and chaos? A trip away would be good for me. A little time to recharge my batteries and think about what I wanted to accomplish this upcoming year. A moment to reflect.
“What the hell,” I muttered to myself and hitBookon the app.
The cabin was cute.
In the middle of nowhere, just an hour away. A one-bedroom with a bathroom that had a bear claw tub and a gorgeous skylight above it that promised a staycation of sorts. I flipped through pictures. I liked the backyard, too. It was small yet sweet with warm fairy lights hanging off the rafters and two chairs next to firepit. Two chairs. Something about the sight of it tugged at my heartstrings. Only one would get used, but that was okay.
This was what I needed.
A trip away would be good for me.
And even though I would be alone, it would make the new year feel a little less lonely. Slight guilt prickled at the back of my neck. The girls had always had my back, and now with Abby and Tab hooked up, this trip meant it would leave Rosie all alone.She’ll be fine,a voice in my head that sounded a lot like her whispered. She was on this whole trying-out-new-things kick since she realized turning thirty was inevitable. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she announced tomorrow that she was taking some kind of intercontinental cruise.
My phone buzzed, and I read the confirmation email for the cabin rental that confirmed my deposit was non-refundable. I felt my lips start to quirk up as I got out of bed and grabbed the water bottle I’d left by my nightstand and sat down on the bench seat in front of the window. Pulling my throw blanket over my lap, I looked up at the sky filled with stars. The winter had been mild, and we weren’t expecting snow, which made the weather for New Year’s Eve perfect. Excitement like I hadn’t felt in a while started to spark inside of me.
But what’s that saying? We make plans, and fate laughs. Turned out destiny or serendipity or whatever higher power you believed in had a crazy sense of humor.
I wasn’t looking for anything or anyone, but that’s the beauty of love. It happens when you least expect it!
1.Ember
If there is one thing I have learned from my time as an emergency room nurse, it’s that change is inevitable.
One moment, you’re minding your business thinking about whether you want to add whipped cream to the coffee you’re going to cross the street for, and the next, your life is changed in the blink of an eye, all because some teenager got a text and didn’t see a red light.
True story of a call I had… just this last week.
Being on the front line, trauma after trauma, from small to horrendous, it jades you. Chips away at your soul a little. Don’t get me wrong, I loved what I did day in and day out, but somewhere along the lines in the last few years since I’d returned to Moonlit Pines, my life had become about two things: work and my girls. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my life. I didn’t feel like anything was missing. Not even when Rosie started talking about how our twenties were almost gone earlier in the year was I fazed by it.
But somewhere along the lines of seeing Tabitha with her guy and watching Abby fall hard and fast in love with hers after Thanksgiving, it made me open my eyes. It was like I’d seen something, and my body and heart kind yearned for it.
I wasn’t jealous.
