Prologue
Harlow Jones sat in the back seat of her family’s station wagon, looking out the window as the two-story colonial house faded into the distance. Hot tears stung her eyes as she whispered words of goodbye to the only home she had ever known. “I’ll never forget you.”
They had packed up all of their belongings and a bunch of muscled movers had put them in the back of their U-Haul. It didn’t seem right that they were leaving an empty house behind.
She would always remember the sleepovers in her petal-pink bedroom, playing double Dutch in the driveway, hide-and-seek with Malcolm, and the great oak in the backyard. She’d fallen out of that huge tree on her sixth birthday. Harlow smiled at the memory of the hot-pink cast on her arm. She had worn it for weeks and been the hit of her first-grade class. Everyone had thought it was so cool. Her entire class had lined up to sign their names on it.
Her brother reached over and squeezed her hand, whispering, “Don’t worry, Harlow. We’re going to have an even better house in Philly.” Harlow looked over at Malcolm. He was smiling at her in a fake way that didn’t make it all the way up to his eyes.
She didn’t care about a better house. It still wouldn’t feel like a home to her. Leaving Chestnut Ridge hurt her heart. Her friends were here. Janie Duckett and Devikah Kumar had been her best friends since nursery school. Best friends didn’t grow on trees. She didn’t want to even think about going to a new school or making new friends. She’d been the spelling bee champion at Chestnut Ridge Elementary for three years running. Now Billy Dempsey would get the title. She hated him. He was an awful boy who’d said terrible things about her father.
But he hadn’t been the only one. That was one of the reasons they were leaving Vermont. Her daddy had been accused of stealing lots of money from his work. And now he was dead. Nothing would ever be the same again. All her mother ever did now was cry and talk about how much she hated Chestnut Ridge. Harlow still loved this town, even though she’d lost her father and now her mother as well. Her mother didn’t laugh anymore or make lame knock-knock jokes. And her father was just gone in a car wreck. Harlow hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye to him.
Malcolm kept pestering her to play I Spy to kill time until they reached Pennsylvania. She finally gave in, her mind scrambling to find objects as the vehicle raced down the highway. An American flag. A water tower. A helicopter flying low. A pink house.
“I bet that made you feel better,” Malcolm crowed once the game was over.
“I do,” she said, lying through her teeth. Stuffing down her feelings was easier than dealing with them. She had learned that lesson on the day of her father’s funeral. Her mother had freaked out when she’d burst into tears. So she had stopped crying and held the tears back from falling.Never let them see you cry.
It was late that night when they pulled up to their new home in Philly. She took one look at it and knew that Malcolm had been wrong. This oatmeal-colored house wasn’t nearly as nice as the one in Chestnut Ridge. It was much smaller, with a tiny yard. Someone had painted the fence an ugly green color. Most important, Daddy wasn’t here. And he never would be again.
“We can paint it a nice blue color. The two of you can pick,” her mother said once they’d gotten out of the car for a better look at the property. “What do you think?”
“Sounds good to me,” Malcolm said, smiling. “I like this place.” They both looked over in her direction, waiting for a response.
“Harlow? Is the house okay?” her mother asked, nervously fiddling with her collar. Harlow would do just about anything to take away the look of worry stamped on her mother’s face. She didn’t want to be yet another reason her mom cried late at night in her bedroom.
Harlow plastered on the biggest grin she could muster. “I think it’s fantastic.” She stuck her tongue out at Malcolm. “Dibs on first pick of a bedroom,” she called out as she took off running toward the house.
“No fair,” Malcolm yelled, racing after her as their mother’s laughter filled the air.
Once she was all settled in for the night, Harlow gazed up at the moon from her bedroom window. So far the moon was the only thing that seemed the same. Everything else in her life had shifted.
She had a funny feeling in her stomach that her family would never be as happy as they’d once been in Vermont. All of that had vanished the day they’d driven away from Chestnut Ridge.
Chapter One
Nineteen Years Later
One minute Harlow Jones was cruising down the scenic coastal Maine road admiring the gorgeous fall foliage and the next her car was sliding on the wet pavement before slamming through the guardrail. She tried to remember everything she’d ever learned about skidding and how to properly maneuver a vehicle, but it happened too fast for her to react. And now her ten-year-old Saab was dangling between the guardrail and a terrifying drop down below to the frosty Maine waters. Fear gripped her by the throat. How was she going to get herself out of this dangerous predicament?
Don’t panic!she warned herself.Try to breathe.
People who talked about their lives flashing before their eyes were right. From the instant her tires began to slide, images flashed into Harlow’s mind’s eye—birthdays, breakups, her family, her dad’s accident. Love, loss, heartbreak, Bear. Malcolm. It was all laid out for her like a roadmap of her life. Oh, she’d made so many mistakes along the way, leading up to this gigantic misstep.
This terrifying situation was all her fault. At the very moment she was navigating a sharp curve in the road, a fox had darted in the path of her car. In an effort to avoid the animal, she had swerved to the shoulder and crashed through the barrier. A disastrous decision. It served her right for coming to this hick town called Mistletoe in the first place. She should have just stayed put in Seattle, where things like this never happened to her. The worst thing in Seattle had been a coffee order gone wrong. Wild animals weren’t running around the city. She didn’t have to worry about veering off the road to save them from becoming roadkill.
But the state of Maine had made her an offer she hadn’t been able to refuse. They’d dangled a big old carrot in front of her eyes—spend a year as a veterinarian at a Mistletoe practice in exchange for the erasure of her student loans. For Harlow, the decision had been a no-brainer.
Harlow knew her position at the moment was incredibly precarious. One wrong move and her vehicle could shift, which would cause her to plummet into a watery grave. Could she safely reach for her cell phone to call 911? Fear grabbed her by the throat and wouldn’t let go. She didn’t want to move a muscle. Surely another driver had seen her lose control of her car and would notify authorities of a crash? Harlow shut her eyes and prayed for someone to rescue her.
“I’ve called for help. Just stay put,” a female voice called out to her.
Stay put?It wasn’t as if she had any other options. It was either stay still or plunge to her death. All things considered, she was fine staying put. Honestly, she was too petrified to move a muscle. She didn’t dare turn her head to see the woman or even respond. Any movement at this point was risky. She barely wanted to breathe. Minutes passed during which Harlow made countless promises to God, begged, pleaded, cried, and let out a few curse words for emphasis. How on earth had she landed in this predicament?
The fact that her own father had lost his life in a car accident only served to heighten her anxiety.Please, please, please.She didn’t want to go out like this. She’d barely hit her stride in the world. Beads of sweat pooled on her forehead, and she suddenly wished that she wasn’t wearing layers of clothing. The interior of the car felt so hot. She wanted to fan herself, but she didn’t dare move in case the car slid. Her seat belt was tight against her chest, making breathing even more difficult. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but her breathing sounded labored and choppy.
Time seemed to crawl by as Harlow waited for rescue. After what seemed like an eternity, wailing sirens rang out in the stillness, alerting her to the fact that help was on the way. Approaching voices announced the arrival of emergency rescue personnel, and out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of movement. Someone was standing right beside the car. She was too scared to crane her neck to look over at them.
