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Chapter 1
Alison stopped in front of the dark, rambling house and dragged herself out of the car. It had been a long, punishing day of driving, but she didn’t care. She was here. She was finally here.
When she’d decided to pull up stakes and take an extended sabbatical far away from the pressures of New York, she’d gone about completing the necessary preparations in an efficient way, checking items off the list one by one.
Sublet her co-op. Check.
Stop her subscription delivery services. Check.
Choose a destination and arrange a long-term rental with an option to extend. Check and check.
But when she’d gone online to book her plane ticket, a little voice inside urged her to reconsider. Not the trip itself. Hell, no. She knew she needed that. Just the mode of transportation.
Alison flew all over the country, even the world, on a regular basis. There were meetings, press junkets and other promotional duties, and touring from time to time. Flying would seem like part of the same old life. It wouldn’t give her the feeling of separation she craved.
Now, driving across the country, hair tucked up under a ball cap and oversize sunglasses firmly in place so as to remain anonymous? That sounded like just the kind of deep dive into her new life she could get behind.
Not to mention, she was going to need a car in her new small-town Oregon coast life, anyway. Not every place was like Manhattan, where any destination was just a subway ride or a hailed cab away.
In fact, most places weren’t like Manhattan, and not just in that respect. That was exactly what she was counting on.
The metallic thunk of the car door closing split the silent darkness. Until that sound hit her ears, she hadn’t even realized how profound it had been. It reached depths of quiet that Manhattan never did, not even at the darkest and loneliest hour of the night. When it was restored again, she stood still and drank it in.
Mmmmm. Amazing. Now if I can just get a little peace to go along with that quiet, it’ll be an awesome start.
She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with cold, clean air. It was salty and tickled her nose. She liked that—a nice reminder that the crashing ocean waves were just on the other side of the dunes at times when she couldn’t hear or see them.
A playful breeze kicked up, tickling the hair on the back of her neck as it lifted the strands and made them dance in the night air.
A smile touched her lips and filled her heart. It was the first in quite a while. Hopefully the first of many.
She was here. She hadn’t even been scheduled to arrive until tomorrow, but when she’d stepped out of her Montana hotel room and hopped in the car early that morning, she’d been seized by a sense of determination. Shaking the rental property keys out of the padded FedEx envelope they’d arrived in, she’d held them in the palm of her hand and made a decision.
She would drive straight through, no matter how long it took. She had wrung every bit of symbolism, not to mention enjoyment, from her meandering trip across the nation. Now she just wanted to arrive.
And thirteen hours, two gas stops, and three hastily wolfed-down fast food meals later, she had.
Now that she was finally standing in front of her new temporary home in Valentine Bay, she wanted something else, and the desire was overwhelming.
Sleep.
She pulled her suitcase out of the trunk and rolled it up the gravel drive to the porch steps, her eyes getting heavier with each step. She prayed the bed was comfortable—although, in this state, she would’ve even settled for a spring or two poking into her back.
Her tired fingers fumbled with the key but finally managed to turn the lock and then, blessedly, she was in the house. She closed and locked the door firmly behind her. Dragging her suitcase along, climbed the stairs on heavy feet, stepped into the first bedroom she came to, and fell on top of the covers, fully clothed. She didn’t even stop to take off her shoes.
The lack of comfort hardly mattered, though. She was sound asleep before her head had even fully sunk into the fluffy pillow.
