Chapter One
Sienna
If my family ever decided to form a cult, this is exactly how it would start: everyone standing in a perfect semicircle in the middle of the Honey Leaf Lodge great room, wearing varying degrees of concerned enthusiasm on their faces. All they needed were matching robes and maybe one of our rescue animals.
Instead, they had cocoa mugs, which were somehow worse.
My mom perched at the end of the harvest table like the queen of the cozy coup. Dad stood beside the fireplace, hands clasped behind his back like he was about to read a statement to the press. My sisters, Violet and Fiona, hovered near the pastry counter, wearing identicalbrace yourselfexpressions.
And Beck, my older brother, stood arms crossed, looking far too entertained for whatever was about to happen. Liam was MIA.
“Why are you all staring at me like this?” I asked, slowly lowering the stack of trail brochures I had carried in. “Didsomeone die? Did someone break something? Did someone breaksomeone?”
Violet shot a significant glance at Fiona.
Fiona pointed directly at herself, nodded, then whispered loudly, “My money’s on Violet breaking something.”
“I haven’t broken anything today,” she said, which earned skeptical noises from multiple family members.
My dad cleared his throat in the manner usually said right before sentences like,Your mother and I have been thinking we’re going to retireorHave you thought about sticking around for the entire guide season this year?
“Sienna,” he began in his best serious-business-owner voice, “we wanted to talk to you about the upcoming spring and summer schedule.”
“Is this about my wildflower walk descriptions? Because I can tone down the part about flowers having emotional journeys. But the guests liked it.”
Mom gave me a sympathetic smile. “Sweetheart, it’s not about your… poetic liberties.”
“It kind of is,” Beck muttered.
I glared at him. “Don’t you have a fence to build or a tractor to fix or something non-sibling-related to do?”
He grinned. “Nope. I’m free. This is my entertainment for the day.”
Fiona bounced on her toes.
“Okay!” she said brightly. “Sienna! We have big news! Great news! Fantastic news!”
“That level of enthusiasm always means trouble,” I said.
Violet stepped forward with the gentleness of someone approaching a wild animal. “We hired extra help.”
My stomach dipped. “Extra help for… what?”
Mom gestured vaguely to all of us. “For your department, darling.”
“My department is me,” I said slowly. “Iamthe department. I run the treks. I lead the hikes. I handle the retreats. I rescue guests from poorly thought-out interactions with wildlife…”
“You did literally wrestle a squirrel off someone’s backpack last fall,” Beck agreed.
“We contracted with a guide service,” Violet blurted out.
I blinked. “You what?”
The great room fell silent, except for the espresso machine hissing in the background, as if it were even uncomfortable.
My dad cleared his throat again. “Pumpkin, as you know, we’ve had a record number of bookings this year and…”
“Which is great!” Mom added. “Fantastic! Wonderful!”
