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I let out a sigh of relief then slip out of the room and close the door behind me. I don’t doubt she’ll be up at some point in the night, but for now, I’m grateful she’s as exhausted as I am.
I glance in the direction of the front door, knowing I should try to get the rest of the car unloaded. Instead, I head to the kitchen, eager to return to the bottle of wine I saw sitting on the counter when I first walked in. It’s a twist-off, thank god, and I tilt it back, taking a long,longdrink. Then I tug open the card that was sitting next to the bottle with a bouquet of tiny sunflowers.
Welcome home, Busy and Junie! Excited to see you. Let us know how we can help get you settled in. Love, Briar and Andy.
My lips turn up. Out of everyone, my oldest sister has been the most supportive about my decisions over the past few years. About school. About Jay. About motherhood. She sent money even though I told her not to and flew down to LA to take care of Junie during finals at the end of each semester so I could focus on my schoolwork. She’s been a godsend, and I honestly don’t know where I’d be without her.
I take another swig from the bottle and tuck the note back in next to the bouquet, then I step outside onto the back deck that overlooks the lake. The glowing moon shines bright, reflecting off the water and casting shadows on the ground. I can’t wait to see this view again in the morning.
I leave the light off and take a seat on the steps that lead down to the shore, tilting my head back to look at the night sky, feeling small and tired and wondering not for the first time what the hell I’m doing. I have no idea what’s to come from this new beginning, no clue if I’m really making the right choices—for myself, but more importantly, for Junie. All I know for sure is raising her near her grandparents and aunts and uncles, in the town that always felt so safe and welcoming, didn’t feel like thewrongchoice.
And maybe that’s all you can do when it comes to being a mom: make as many not-wrong choices as you can and hope everything turns out okay.
chapter two
Reid
The shrill sound of my alarm drags me out of a fitful sleep, and I swat at my nightstand, my hand finally finding my phone and shutting it off.
Fuck.I was up way too late last night to have such an early day. My head throbs, and I turn to my side, finding Sydney snuggled up on the pillow next to mine.
“Excuse me,” I grumble, giving her a shove. “You know better.”
My six-year-old Australian Shepherd looks back at me and lets out a whine, but she can tell by my facial expression that I’m not budging, so she slowly…oh so slowly…slides off the edge of the mattress and slinks over to where her cot sits in the corner, dropping into it with a huff.
I can’t help but chuckle at her attitude, but it cuts off quickly as my head pulses angrily again. My entire body protests as I shove up and out of my bed, stumbling my way through the house into the bathroom then the shower.
I shouldn’t have gone out for beers last night. The past few days at the shop have been more than enough to send me home completely beat, and the plan was a beer, some baseball, and collapsing into bed before I got back to it this morning. Instead, Iconvinced myself going out with Nick might be a good idea. Take the edge off the stressful week.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Once I’ve showered and dressed, I grab a cup of coffee and step out onto the back deck. Sydney rushes past me, bounding over to her favorite pee spot, and I take a few minutes to stretch my weary body before I drop down into my chair, looking out at the lake.
This is the way I like to start my mornings, exhaustion aside. A little caffeine, a good stretch, and a quiet, relaxing moment with nature. The temps are getting warmer much faster this summer than years past, but right now? The tiny bit of dampness in the air as I sit in the shade of a giant pine, the sun still low in the sky and barely beginning to crest the eastern ridge…it’s perfect.
Quiet.
Serene.
Beautiful.
It took about twenty minutes to walk to the water from where I grew up, tucked into the southwest part of town, and I always dreamed of living on the lake. So when my life kind of fell apart three years ago, I decided to take my aunt’s offer to live in one of her rental cabins.
Lakefront life suits me just fine.
Sydney finishes her inspections and joins me, curling up on the deck at my feet and falling back to sleep, both of us just enjoying the way the water quietly laps at the shore.
This spot is perfect. All the way at the northern end of Cedar Point, tucked away from all the other homes in a cove, surrounded by trees. Like I said: quiet, serene, beautiful.
Of course, it’s as I’m musing about how quiet it is that I hear music turn on next door. I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees and holding my coffee mug carefully in both hands,glancing over at the green cabin. At least it’s music I don’t have a problem with—an alternative rock band that was popular in the ’90s and ’00s. It could be much worse.
When the couple who used to live in the green cabin moved out last year, my aunt did a bunch of short-term rentals back to back. I’ve had to deal with the full range of annoying temporary neighbors, though the partiers who gave zero fucks about town curfew and the families who fought their entire trip were definitely my least favorite. I didn’t realize Lois had decided to go back to longer rentals, hence my surprise at finding my new neighbor picking my lock last night.
Busy Mitchell.
If she wasn’t a surprise and a half…
I’m not much for listening to town gossip, so I don’t know much about her except she’s the youngest of the Mitchell kids. I remember she used to wear these funky mismatched florals and dye her hair constantly, but that’s really the extent of it. Things from my early 20s are a little hazy because my grandfather was rapidly declining, and we were spending a lot of time over at my grandparents’ house in Belleview.
