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1
Sadie
Sadie’sbrightpinkrunningshoes slapped loudly against the beach’s flat, wet sand. It was the only sound she could really hear except for the low music of the lake’s water gently rising up and down the shoreline.
The steady beat of her footsteps pounded in tune with her heartbeat and the rhythm of her breaths as she effortlessly pushed her body down the long, winding beach, her blond ponytail sailing behind her like a streamer.
There was a bite to the late November lake breeze, but it felt mild enough to her in the tight, black thermal running pants and pullover she wore. Not to mention the warm furnace of blood pumping steadily through her veins as she pushed her long limbs steadily forward.
The slight heat from the rising sun warmed her back and turned the sky a bright tangerine color that spread behind the tall mountains and reflected a silky orange sheen onto the glistening water of the lake.
Pine Harbor was her favorite slice of Lake Conrad to run, especially at this time of day. It was always so bare and empty this early in the morning, particularly in the fall when the tourist town tended to be at its quietest.
With not another soul in sight, she could easily pretend that she was the only person who existed in this whole glorious basin. It was a wonderful freedom to feel so alone, so untethered by expectation and … judgements.
Sadie didn’t relish loneliness, but she knew that it was much better than the alternative. It was true that returning to her small apartment every evening to watch reruns ofFriendswith a grocery store salad and a couple glasses of wine wasn't her ideal life. But it was easy, and it was malleable in a way her life had never been before.
When she’d moved to Lake Conrad a year ago from the Sacramento suburb of Antelope Grove, it had been with no small amount of relief, and definitely a lot of expectation for the mysteries that lay before her in this great, unknown space where it snowed and the earth didn’t exist in a flat plane of suburbia.
She’d been surrounded by a constant flow of identical people and places her entire life: the same lifelong friends and supportive family members, matching swathes of boxy houses spreading in all directions, and the unchanging downtown scene where she’d gone on dates and worked at a small bead shop in high school.
Everyone she’d ever known thought she was crazy for leaving Antelope Grove, for leaving them all behind.What about the warm predictability of marrying your high school boyfriend and continuing to work at the same elementary school that you’d attended?
A surge of rejection pumped through her veins at the thought as she picked up her pace a bit, a fine layer of sweat breaking out on the back of her neck as her body pounded down on the packed sand with every step.
She knew she wasn’t exactly breaking world records by moving just two hours west from her hometown and starting fresh, but it felt big to her. The little world she’d grown up in didn’t exist right now. She’d never felt as simultaneously happy and sad than she had during the past year in this beautiful, strange place.
She’d decided to move almost on a whim a little over a year ago. She’d broken up with Tyler, her on-and-off boyfriend all through high school and college … and then post college.
She’d always been so sure Tyler was on the verge of proposing. It wasn’t until they’d been close to celebrating what felt like their seventy-fifth anniversary that she realized she’d stopped looking forward to the thought of getting a ring from him. Instead, she dreaded the thought of marrying this person, of being tethered to him for the rest of her life.
He’d been shocked when she’d insisted that not only were they most definitely breaking up this time, but that she was moving … to the place they’d always gone skiing together as kids. That part had confused him, which did even more to convince her that this was the right choice. And no, he couldn’t come with her. His acceptance of the breakup was still a work in progress, much to her constant irritation.
The transition of living in a new place, surrounded by people who hadn’t known her from birth, had been overwhelming to say the least.
Overwhelmed wasn’t an emotion that the great Sadie Sullivan was used to feeling. She was a winner. She was triumphant. Life always came easy to her. She was blond, pretty, athletic, and dated the hottest guy. Everyone always wanted to be her friend, and everything she did, she did well.
She wasnota sad sack who got rejected by guys in bars and spent Friday nights puttering in her apartment alone while the only friend she’d managed to make was rightfully busy with her own life.
Although it had initially been a hard pill to swallow, in the end she wasn’t too disappointed about the challenges she’d faced since she’d moved here. It sure beat the boring predictability of living a life that was exactly the same as everyone else’s.
And even if her new life had its challenges and everything else had changed, she still hadthis. She could still run until she could barely remember the feelings overwhelming her, let alone the memories and restlessness that caused them. Running was comforting and familiar to her no matter where she lived, no matter who surrounded her.
Her eyes narrowed on the long beach in front of her and the rocky formation surrounding two towering pine trees that cut into the harbor about five hundred yards in the distance.
She always used the twin pines as a turning point. They were about five miles from where she parked her car, and she found the distance to the trees and back was perfect for an early morning run. She visited Pine Harbor to run this stretch a couple times a week. Sometimes she mixed it up with some of the other Lake Conrad trails and beaches, but this one was her favorite.
Picking up her pace a bit, she slowly increased her speed, transitioning into a sprint once she reached a lone boulder that she estimated was about a hundred yards from the twin pine trees.
Reliably trudging along, she was suddenly distracted by a new sound: a constant and deliberate pounding that interrupted the beat of her own footsteps.
Her equilibrium stumbled at the thought there might be someone else on the beach with her. Hazarding a quick glance behind her, she saw something dark a few yards behind her.
Someone’s there.
She couldn’t see who, but the footsteps were getting closer. She was able to catch a quick glance at a long shadow spread behind her, quickly gaining ground.
She let out an annoyed huff and started moving faster much sooner than she’d planned—at least twenty feet before she hit the boulder.
