Chapter 1
Leah
The first breath of mountain air hit my lungs, and I felt alive again. It was so different from the recycled office air I’d been breathing for years.
The trail started gently, winding through trees just beginning to bud. And as I walked, my shoulders relaxed for the first time in months.
I was so glad I’d booked this trip, even if I had to come on my own.
A chainsaw buzzed somewhere in the distance, the sound oddly comforting. There hadn’t been many cars when I’d pulled into the parking lot of the Spring Hollow Wilderness Preserve, so I knew there weren’t that many people here today.
The chainsaw was a reminder that there was someone else out here in these vast, silent woods.
While I hiked, I brooded.
My ex, Colin, wasn’t theonlyproblem weighing on my heart. He wasn’t the biggest problem, either.
My job was slowly killing me. Sixty-hour weeks staring at spreadsheets and datasets, optimizing metrics that meant nothing to anyone.
I made good money. I had excellent benefits. And I was so desperately unhappy that some mornings I sat in my car in the parking garage, screaming silently before I could make myself go in to work.
Colin had trashed my self-esteem, but it was my job that was therealproblem. It was sucking my soul right out of me.
The trail started to go down, down, down into the valley below.
My hamstrings burned, but I pushed through it, letting the physical discomfort drown out the swirling thoughts in my mind.
The chainsaw grew louder as I descended, and I realized I was hiking toward it.
This whole thing, hiking in the woods by myself, was out of character. In fact, I’d never done anything like it before.
The entire vacation to Red Oak Mountain was an anomaly in my life.
It had been five years since I’d taken anything more than a staycation. So actually leaving the state, getting on a plane, then driving to this little speck of a mountain town hidden deep in the Ozarks had been a big step out of my comfort zone.
Just like the tree in front of me. I slowed to a stop as I looked at it.
The tree trunk was thick, and it had fallen across the entire path, blocking the way.
Someone had spray-painted a hot pink x on it, and I imagined it had fallen during the recent storm that had come through Red Oak Mountain.
Should I go back?
I looked behind me where the trail curved up. Then I looked past the fallen tree where the trail continued its winding descent.
Nope. A little obstacle like this couldn’t stop me. I climbed over the trunk, straddling it with one leg, then the other, surprised at how rough the bark felt through my leggings.
Then I was past it, my feet slipping on mud and wet rocks.
The trail was slippery today.
I hadn’t been in love with Colin. I could admit that now.
I’d been in love with theideaof Colin.
Somehow I’d believed that if I just tried hard enough, love would eventually grow. But how long should it take for two people to fall in love? Two years hadn’t been enough time for us, and now I was pretty damn sure I’d just been—
The trail curved around a massive boulder, and I stopped dead in my tracks, all thoughts of Colin leaving my mind in a flash.
