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Chapter one
Lifeisn’tlikeabox of chocolates. It’s like dodging cars on the freeway until you get hit by a plane.Tessa sighed, her hands tightening around the steering wheel of her beat-up Honda Civic. Rain tapped at her windows, and she couldn’t help but think it was a little on the nose.
Her entire life had managed to implode in a matter of days, and now everything she owned was stuffed in boxes in the backseat of her clunker. With a heavy sigh, she pressed her head against the wheel and listened to the storm rage on around her. When she was a kid, the sound of rain had always soothed her, but now, it just felt like it was mocking her.
She glanced over at her Australian Shepherd—named Pippin, after the best hobbit—in the front passenger seat, who observed her with sad eyes. Even he thought she was pathetic. Just great. Meanwhile, Merry, her geriatric tabby, snoozed in the backseat, completely unaffected by this depressing turn of events.
From the center console, Tessa’s phone rang.I should answer it,she thought, seeing her favorite coworker’s name pop on the caller ID. Well,formercoworker now. She was likely checking on her after everything that had transpired. Tessa had been shown the door so quickly there had been little time to say her goodbyes.
“Tessa speaking, screwup extraordinaire,” she muttered as she answered.
“Oh girl, you know that’s not true.” Angela’s voice was so gentle the lie almost felt true. “It could’ve happened to anyone.”
Tessa groaned and scrubbed her hand over her face. “You’re a good friend.”
The truth was, ithadbeen a spectacular screw up. Monumental, really. Tessa’s editor was a notorious stickler, and in her frustration, she had shot off a message to Angela jokingly detailing her plan to shove him in the trash compactor. Of course, that was what shethoughtshe’d done. Instead, she had accidentally sent it as a memo to the entire company. Police were called, and though they eventually realized it wasn’t a legitimate threat when the dust had settled, Tessa was out of a job.
“So, what is your next move? I have a friend at an online publication. Hawthorne… something. But I can ask him if they’re currently hiring book reviewers.”
“Maybe,” Tessa said with a sigh. “I don’t know. I need to think of something quickly. Currently living out of my car.”
There was a gasp on the other end of the line. “What do you mean you are living out of your car, Tessa? I thought you lived with Owen in that cute apartment by the water.”
“Yeah, well. Owen wasn’t exactly thrilled about the whole situation where his girlfriend was investigated for threats against someone’s life.” Tessa let out a heavy sigh. “He dumped me last night. And since he owns the place and I don’t… well. I am currently in the market for a roof over my head.”
“You can stay with me until you find a place,” Angela offered.
Tessa considered it for the briefest of moments. But she couldn’t take the offer. She knew that. Angela had two kids and a dog, all crammed into a two-bedroom apartment. It was already a tight fit, and Tessa didn’t want to add to the chaos. “No. That’s okay. I think—I think I just need a fresh start, you know?”
Angela chuckled. “Don’t we all. Just don’t do anything too crazy, okay?”
“Of course. Thanks for checking in, Angela. I should probably go back to licking my wounds.” Tessa said her goodbyes and hung up, tossing the phone back onto the passenger seat.
It was true. She needed a new start. There wasn’t much left for her in this town. Even Angela, while sweet, was a friend of convenience. Tessa had no doubt that their friendship would dwindle now that they no longer worked together. There was nothing left in this city for her.
That realization hit her like a freight train as she traced her fingers along the dashboard. Boston had been home for the past few years, and she had grown accustomed to the buzz of the city, the excitement of her fast-paced lifestyle. Landing the job as a book reviewer forOlivier Reviewhad been a dream come true. When she’d received the job offer, Tessa could not believe her luck that she would get paid—actuallypaid—to write about books full-time. The first few weeks, she’d pinched herself periodically to make sure it wasn’t a dream.
It had only taken one misclick to flush that down the toilet—three years of her life—just gone in the blink of an eye.
With frustration and a dash of grief, Tessa opened her glove compartment and rustled through the contents, finally pulling free a rumpled map she had bought when her GPS had gone haywire on vacation two years ago. She turned on the overhead light and stared at all the overlapping lines. Roads to anywhere but here. Tracing her fingers along the main freeway, she veered off and saw a small name on the map. It was barely readable, even when she squinted.
“Lucas,” she murmured. Pippin softly woofed from the passenger seat and placed his paw on her arm. “That does sound cute, doesn’t it?”
Okay, so Angela had told her not to do something crazy. But was it crazy to leave behind the city that had betrayed her? Her life was in ashes, and a small town with a cute name was looking rather good right now. Tessa chewed on her lip. Though she had always been impulsive, this was a little wild, even for her.
But a new start was what she needed. With determination, Tessa plugged the town into her phone and set it in the dashboard holder. With a grin, she turned to Pippin and scratched behind his ears. “Looks like we’re going on a road trip, buddy. What say you, Frankie Valli or the Beach Boys?” When Pippin responded with a huff, Tessa laughed. “Okay, okay. The Carpenters it is.”
She fired up her dad’s old iPod and glanced at the map on her phone. As the opening refrain of “Top of the World” filled the car, she smiled at the path before her. She was doing this. It was the craziest thing she had ever done, but Tessa was leaving Boston behind.
Traffic was crazy getting out of the city, but once she was free of the Boston outskirts, the road stretched out before her. The rain was still coming down hard, but what seemed mocking before seemed like a metaphor now, washing her clean of the last week. She kept her playlist light and breezy, bolstering her mood and confidence in her decision.
After an hour had passed, Tessa saw a sign that proclaimed Lucas was in 15 miles. She was about as far from Boston as she could get without crossing over into Vermont.This is good,she thought to herself.After all, if you’re going to start over, start over big.
And she held onto that thought until she came upon the sign that announced her arrival in Lucas. It boasted a population of exactly 632. It was unfair to call this place a town—a village was more like it. Still, it was as different from Boston as possible, which was what she was going for, right?
She scanned her surroundings as she pulled into the town, searching for a hotel.Here’s to hoping it’s affordable, Tessa thought, her thoughts straying to her meager savings. It would be imperative to get a job as soon as possible, but for tonight, the plan was just to find somewhere to sleep other than her car.
The main street greeted her almost as soon as she entered the town. It was cute in a throwback kind of way. There was even an old-fashioned diner at the corner, and Tessa decided it would be a great breakfast stop in the morning. Driving a little past the main street, she was beginning to worry there would be no hotel.
