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Her experiences at the science center gave Rissa a ton of ideas, and she’d created a website full of hands-on lesson plans. It took her a year to build up the site enough to make it live. She set several activities free, then put the rest behind a paywall, aiming at teachers of all levels, from daycare to high school.

When a school board in Philadelphia bought lessons for all its teachers, they invited her to teach her first in-person lessons.

Without teaching qualifications, she couldn’t be a full-time teacher, but one teacher had suggested she do in-person lessons on a traveling basis.

Rissa invested most of her savings into her RV and moved in. She’d been traveling alone ever since, until she’d been teaching at a school on the same day as a local animal rescue shelter.

Frizzle had bounded right out of the worker’s arms and raced to Rissa, barking and smiling until she picked her up.

Rissa grinned. “Love at first sight, just like the fairy tales, right, Frizzle? Once I heard your name, I knew you’d be a great friend.” The Magic School Bus had been Rissa’s favorite TV show before her dad stopped paying their cable bill.

Frizzle barked her agreement as they drove the final mile to Phail. Rissa read out the signs as she passed because Frizzle loved hearing her voice.

“Come to Phail to Succeed. That’s a good slogan for a town named Phail.”

Another corner brought them to the town itself. By the time they passed Phail Phoods, the No Fail Diner, Phail General, and Phail Central, Rissa was laughing. “This is fun. I think we’re going to like it here.”

Rissa drove the Q Lab into the lot nearest the grocery store and backed it into an oversized slot at the back of the lot.

“Well, Frizzle, how do you feel about exploring for a bit? The town is so pretty with all the Christmas decorations out.”

Always ready for adventure, Frizzle bounced while Rissa outfitted her in her Christmas coat and booties. It had taken a while for the terrier to adjust to wearing the boots, but her little feet couldn’t handle much cold. “Maybe we need to head south again after this contract is done.”

Except her Yorkie loved playing in the snow, and Rissa would do anything for her friend.

It took emotional fortitude for Rissa to accept a contract in Vermont, but this wasn’t close to Burlington or Swanton, the town where Burke’s grandfather lived. She wouldn’t run into him here.

She’d survived fine without him. Without anyone. Rissa lifted Frizzle for a nose snuggle. “We don’t need anyone else, do we? Together, we’ve got all we need.”

Burke Malssum didn’t think he’d gone two days in a row without working since he’d been fifteen, almost two decades ago. And that was only because his stint in the military enforced downtime.

Now, he was unemployed and exhausted, body and soul.

Well, several people and businesses were clamoring for him to take them on as private accounting clients, but Burke didn’t have the heart to answer any of the emails or phone calls yet.

The past few months had drained him completely.

He poured himself another coffee and realized the pot was empty. He’d finished the entire pot before seven in the morning on his first day after leaving his job.

Burke made a new pot, then took his mug to the condo’s balcony. Boston Harbor was a hell of a view. From this high up, the hustle was far removed, and for the first time in years, he wasn’t rushing to join it. Since he’d left the military and joined Anderson Accounting, he’d worked almost every day, and he’d mostly loved it.

It surprised him that he felt no regret at leaving the company. Maybe when the exhaustion and heartache cleared, he’d feel differently. Right now, he couldn’t work up the energy.

He hoped like hell that Curt Anderson’s night in jail had been unpleasant and the following years would be worse. The man had wheedled his way out of spending any time in jail before the trial was over. Now, the bastard was facing twenty behind bars, if the criminal family he’d been working for let him live that long. How would Burke feel if the Clancy family put out a hit on Curt? He wasn’t sure he’d care.

His former mentee had spent years skimming from clients at their accounting firm, growing bolder as his gambling addiction grew. Curt had stolen money from his father’s company and destroyed Joel Anderson’s reputation.

At the FBI’s request, Burke spent almost a year digging surreptitiously into Curt’s work and that of everyone else at the firm to ensure the man had been alone in his schemes. He had. The investigation had been a full-time job on top of the sixty hours a week Burke spent doing his own work.

Thankfully, he loved numbers and puzzles. Thanks to his childhood friend Rissa, he’d spent hours reading mysteries, trying to solve them before her. She’d also introduced him to crossword and number puzzles. They’d raced each other there, too. Always wanting to win bragging rights until the next puzzle.

He wondered what she was doing these days. After a drunk driver had killed Burke’s parents, he and his siblings moved in with their grandfather, Fox.

Fox lived in the small town of Swanton, hours away from their former home in Burlington. At fifteen, and the eldest kid, Burke wanted to help Fox and his brothers and sisters whenever he could. His biggest regret from that time was that he’d let his friendship with Rissa lapse, not out of a desire to cut her out of her life, but from pure exhaustion and heartache. She reminded him of good times when his parents were still alive, and every time they spoke, it shattered his heart.

Burke had worked as many part-time jobs as he could find, salting the money away in case Fox needed it. His grandfather had protested, wanting Burke to play sports and spend time with his friends. He’d refused to take any of the money, so Burke had dived into learning the stock market and investment strategies.

The money grew, but he never felt it was enough. He wanted to be ready in case any of his siblings wanted a break or a boost to try something new in their careers. What if Jolie wanted to explore biomes in South America? What if Lawson needed seed money to open his own garage? With extra cash at hand, Amber wouldn’t need to rush between hotel jobs; he could cover her expenses so she could find just the right place. After the military Knox had drifted, looking for what fit him. While Knox had never been without a job, Burke wanted to support him until he found what filled him up, while he’d tried new things to see what fit.