Funny, it felt as if the cabin had been patiently waiting all these years for her return, but this time as owner rather than guest. Rayanne eased her car around a slow bend to the right, her pulse picking up speed even if the car didn’t. After fifteen years, she was about to catch her first glimpse of the chimney that marked the location of her new home. The trees had grown taller, but she could just make out a glimpse of gray stone. Tension had been riding her hard ever since she’d learned of Ray’s death. All the arguments about her decision to take a last-minute leave of absence from her job and move to the mountain hadn’t helped. But as she neared the cabin and the freedom it had always represented, the muscles in her shoulders and neck eased, and her mood lightened. “Well, Uncle Ray, we’re almost there.” Wouldn’t her mother freak out to hear Rayanne carrying on a one-sided conversation with her uncle?
