CHAPTER ONE
GOLDIE POUNDED HER FIST AGAINST the steering wheel in a moment of desperation. Sunlight glared beneath the line of her visor. She flipped it back into its place and raised her hand, attempting to block out some of the orange blinding her, all while keeping the rest of her attention for some sign on the side of the road that might give her an inkling of where she was.
“Stupid GPS,” she grumbled to the maps app blaring on her phone. It usually was so trusty, so reliable. Good old Siri, telling her where to turn and when. Heaven knew she needed it. Squiggly lines on a map may as well have been a completely different language for all the good they did her. She could never keep her directions straight.
There she’d been, on the freeway between Montana and Idaho, when Siri told her to take some random exit.
So what did she do? She’d followed it. It had made no sense at the time. Why in the world would Siri tell her to turn off when she knew—she knew—she was headed in the right direction?
“I should have followed my gut,” she went on, glowering at the lines and lines of pine trees stacked on either side of the road. The road curved again, and her hands turned the wheel to keep from veering off the asphalt. She couldn’t keep this up. She had to try to find her way back to the freeway again.
Goldie pulled off onto the generous shoulder and checked for bars on her cell phone, but service was MIA out here, and her phone’s internet was being completely stubborn.
Despair began to settle in. It wouldn’t be much longer before the sun’s orange rays sank completely behind the trees, leaving her in darkness. With no cell service, no map, and the line on her gas tank sinking cruelly closer to the little E, she was more lost than she could ever remember being.
She could just hear her mother now. While her dad had always been helpful and encouraging, Goldie’s mom had always found her incompetency with directions irksome.
If someone could tell her to turn left at the bank and stop at the house straight across from the elementary school, she was good to go. But north and south? What were they, other than the title of one of her favorite movies with a great kiss at the end?
Goldie sighed and sank her head against the steering wheel. This was why she never went anywhere. This was why she stayed at home in Baldwin, Wisconsin, a rinky-dink little town where she’d known every landmark from the time she could spell the names.
Until the letter arrived. The letter from a woman claiming to be her mother’s sister.
Goldie couldn’t deny the lure of that letter. Her mom had no siblings—or so Goldie had always thought. Then who was this woman inviting her to meet her halfway across the country? She would have disregarded the letter completely if her mom hadn’t acted so plumb guilty about the thing when Goldie had asked her about it.
“You are absolutely forbidden from going,” her mom had snarled on the phone. Like Goldie was still a teenager under her roof instead of a grown woman living on her own across town.
Her mom’s defensive, angry reaction—and blatant lack of denial about her sister—had the opposite effect she’d clearly meant. It had sparked curiosity in Goldie. Her mom had a sister she’d hidden from her for her entire life? What was that all about?
“So like a fool I’ve followed some crazy, wild goose chase,” Goldie growled. In frustration, she stepped out of the car and into the chilled air. It was so much colder on these winding mountain roads. Why had she ever gotten off the freeway?
Goldie whirled around and rested against the side of her Toyota truck. It was perfect for a girl needing to get back and forth from the grocery store and her job.
A job she’d taken a two-week break from for this.
Two weeks. She was not off to a great start.
The stars twinkled breathlessly above her. She couldn’t deny how enchanting it was. But she didn’t want enchanting. She wanted the peace of mind kind of relief that came with seeing the freeway, dang it. She scraped her hands through her hair and tromped a few feet away, needing to move, to think. To breathe.
That was when she saw it.
Tucked beyond the road, bathed in the last remaining slices of light, was a quaint, log cabin. Hope began to swell inside of her. If someone was there, they could tell her which way to go. They could help her get off this tangled forest road and back where she belonged. Maybe they even had some super sleuth, outdoorsy way to contact someone for help.
Goldie didn’t dare drive as far as there. Knowing her luck, she’d lose sight of the cabin the instant she tried moving her truck. Instead, she retrieved her bag, lobbed it over her shoulder, and began the trudge through the brush.
Despite the chill and the fading light, the air smelled amazing. Fresh pine and clean dirt, reminding her of home. Twigs cracked beneath her feet. She did her best to keep her eyes on the cabin ahead of her, using her cell as a flashlight in the darker places where the latticed trees above provided a little too much cover.
“Whew,” she said as she approached the cabin’s door. It was a single-level structure, Lincoln logs blown life-sized, with a slanted roof and an awning over the door. Not the kind of getaway most families would use. More like a rustic, romantic escape, tucked away like a secret.
She bit her lip and knocked.
There was no answer.
Goldie sighed and stared at the last dregs of amber light sinking behind the horizon. Fade, fade, fade. She had the weirdest urge to reach her hand toward the light like a dying heroine in a movie. Like that would do any good. Within moments, she was surrounded by darkness.
“Well, that’s just great,” she mumbled. Leave it to her to not only get lost on the road, but then leave that road and get lost in the woods to boot!
Chirruping noises came from the trees, accompanied by the occasional scuffle of some kind of critter that could undoubtedly see her, even if she couldn’t see it.
She knocked again, pounding her fist on the door. “Hello? Anyone in there?”
The dead cabin windows stared at her in reply.
Goldie plopped her bag down on the wooden planks serving as a porch. She tromped to the window and peered inside. Through a small crack in the curtain, she saw more blackness.
Perfect. Just perfect. Little Miss No Luck stuck out here, in the woods, in the dark. She checked her cell again, but there was exactly the same zero service there’d been the last time she tried. Even if she did have service, her aunt had only given her an address and an email. No number.
“I can’t stand around here all night,” she mused, feeling the very depths of hopelessness.
As far as she could tell, she had two options. She could attempt to make it back to her truck, but that could only make things worse than they already were if she got lost again. Or, she could rough it out here in the cold air. Slinking against the porch with her arms folded, she was too afraid to sleep for fear of who knew what lived out here. She hadn’t heard a wolf howl yet—thank you very much, Pocahontas—but she didn’t want to discount the fact that there could be very silent, very hungry wolves stalking her right this second.
There was only one thing for it.
“Great.” Using the dwindling battery life on her phone, she shined a light toward the door once more. She reached for the handle. It didn’t budge. Fighting away despair, she reached again, clicking down the latch, jiggling it, ramming her shoulder in for good measure.