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CHAPTER ONE
Nancy had been uncertain about her escape plan, but as soon as she got behind the wheel of the rented Jeep, put the windows down, and crossed the state line, she knew she’d made the right decision.
The wind blowing through her long, red hair felt amazing, and she couldn’t help but smile as she temporarily left her life in Boston behind.
She didn’t know what she would find in the mountains of Vermont, but anything had to be better than the life she’d had with Ben.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t love Ben, at least at first. They had met in college and hit it off immediately. Of course it helped that they were both bisexual and tended to run with the wild same crowd.
No one was really shocked when Ben and Nancy decided to get married after graduation. They had long been monogamous, or so Nancy thought, so marriage seemed like the next logical step in building a life together.
“Time to grow up and leave the wild life behind,” she remembered Ben saying. And so they did, for awhile.
The first few months were great, but as soon as the honeymoon phase wound down, Ben quickly fell back into his old ways.
After the third time Nancy caught Ben in bed with someone else (twice with another man, once with another woman), she filed for divorce, against the advice of his parents and hers.
Screw them, Nancy thought. If they think so highly of Ben let them put up with his shit.
Now that she was officially free —the divorce was finalized just two days ago — Nancy could finally put the memories of her old life with Ben behind her for good.
* * *
She’d always been a fan of the outdoors, which was a lifestyle her husband (ex-husband, she reminded herself happily) had never been fond of. Ben’s idea of roughing it was running out of towels at a four star hotel.
As soon as she knew she was free, she packed a bag, grabbed her Papillion, Maxine, and drove off into the midmorning mountain air in the direction of Vermont.
She smiled as she merged onto the interstate and turned up the radio. Bruce was singing Born To Run.
Nancy could not think of a more appropriate song to use as the theme for her new life.
CHAPTER TWO
The drive was uneventful until Nancy and Maxine reached the base of the mountain on which they would be staying.
There was still a good half hour’s worth of driving to be done to reach the lodge near the summit, but she and the dog both needed a break, so Nancy pulled over at a small general store and climbed out of the Jeep, happy to have a chance to stretch her legs.
As she headed to a nearby patch of grass to let Maxine do her business, she noticed a woman with long dark hair sitting alone at a picnic table next to the store with a half-eaten sandwich between her hands. There was a beer bottle on the table to her left.
They met each other’s gaze and smiled, and Nancy gave a little wave, then pointed at her dog and said, “Sorry!”
The other woman swallowed her bite of food and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it,” she said, tipping the bottle to the dog. “When you gotta go, you gotta go, right?”
“I didn’t realize there were tables over here, or I’d have gone further before I let her do this,” said Nancy.
The woman gave her a wary eye. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
Nancy muttered “good girl” as Maxine finished her business, then turned to the woman and smiled. “Is it that obvious?”
“That’s a Boston accent,” the woman said, chewing, nodding. “Hard to miss.”
Nancy picked up Maxine and held her on her left hip. She moved closer to the table and held out her hand. “I’m from Nancy Davidson.”
“Sasha Miller,” the woman said, wiping her hands on her blue jeans before reaching across the table to shake Nancy’s hand. She was probably five or ten years older than her, Nancy thought. She had her hair pulled back into a ponytail and a naturally pretty face that needed no makeup. She had an air about her that immediately put Nancy at ease.
Sasha jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “This is my family’s general store, so I guess I can officially welcome you to town.”
“Thanks,” Nancy said. She nodded toward the mountain behind her. “I’m actually staying up the mountain at the lodge. It’s at the end of this road, correct?”
“Sure is,” Sasha said with a nod. She picked up the rest of the sandwich and held it ready at her mouth. “It’s stick season, so you may be pretty lonely up there.”
“Stick season?”
Verna waved a hand at all the trees that surrounded them. “No pretty leaves left on the trees, but no snow on the ground yet. Stick season, we call it. It means there ain’t much to see right now but the sticks on the trees.”
“Ah, I see.”
