She took a cautious sip. Smooth, light, a hint of fruit. “Okay…this is actually good.”
“I’m full of surprises,” he said, sliding into the seat across from her.
“Clearly.”
They sat in easy silence for a moment. Then Joe leaned forward, elbows on the table. “So,” he said, “what’s next, teacher?”
Krista hesitated, then pulled up her phone. “Actually…I wanted to show you something.”
She shared the journal entry she’d translated last night.
Joe leaned in as she read, her voice soft:
“Tonight, the lake called me again.
The house sleeps, but my heart cannot.
When Jonah kisses me, I feel alive.
But this cannot last. Tomorrow I choose: duty or desire.”
Silence stretched between them as Joe seemingly thought through Isabel’s words.
“Whoever Jonah was, she loved him,” he said after a moment.
Krista nodded. “You can feel it.”
He rubbed his chin. “The entry’s dated, right? If we hit the library, we can check the newspaper archives. Maybe we’ll find something about her. Or him.”
Krista’s eyes brightened. “Are you free now? I have staff running the Hideaway today to give me time to prep for the swap. I can sneak away for a while.”
Joe smiled. “I’m all yours.”
TWELVE
JOE
Thursday, One Day Before the Summer Swap
Krista climbed into the passenger seat of Joe’s rental SUV with a fresh iced coffee and then pointed her straw at the dash like she was directing a getaway car. “Okay,” she said. “Head out and turn left.”
Joe pulled onto the road, leaving the lake behind. The morning sun warmed the windshield, the air freshener giving the rental that unmistakable new car smell.
“So…you moved here when you were sixteen…” Joe started to say.
Krista picked up the conversation, telling him how she finished high school here, became friends with Zoe first, then Madison, Zach, Liam, and Jackson.
“Any jealous exes pining for you?” Joe said jokingly.
“Ha, no. What about you? You leave a trail of broken hearts in your wake?”
“No, nothing like that. There was one woman I dated for a while, but our schedules, long-distance…it just didn’t work out.”
The library sat on the residential side of the lake, near thepost office, schools, and quiet neighborhoods. Between that side of the town and the Hideaway stretched a pocket of wilderness that held the campground, rolling hills, trails that climbed to overlooks. From up there, Maple Falls looked like it belonged exactly where it was, in the valley with the lake cradling it.
They made it all of three minutes before Krista changed her mind.
“Actually,” she said, eyes fixed ahead. “Pull off up here.”
