Page 71 of Chasing Shelter

Trace briefly glanced my way before turning his focus back to the road. “You’re not one for patience, are you?”

I did the only mature thing I could and stuck my tongue out at him.

Trace barked out a laugh.

“This is cruel and unusual punishment,” I muttered, pulling a leg up onto the seat so I could rest my head on my knee.

“We’re almost there. Do I need to promise you candy if you don’t ask how long again, just like I do with Keely?”

I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling. “I do have a thing for Twix bars.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

We drove for another few minutes, and I let myself really take inour surroundings. To the east, the Monarch Mountains, four craggy peaks that never lost their snow, even in the height of summer. To the west, Castle Rock, golden rock faces looking permanently sun-kissed. And a mixture of fields and forests leading to both.

God, it was beautiful. But more than that, there was power in it. A raw realness that took my breath away every time.

“I love it out here,” I whispered.

I could feel Trace’s eyes on me. A beat longer this time before he turned back to the road like the responsible driver he was. “Me, too. Can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

“I can’t imagine what it was like growing up here. Having all this wildness around you.” Maybe that’s what called to me about Sparrow Falls and its surroundings. That it was just a little unkempt, free. Almost dangerous. It tempted me to be all those things, too.

“What was it like in New York?” Trace asked.

I thought about that for a long moment. “There were good things. The Natural History Museum is a dream for a kid. The Central Park Zoo, too. The park itself is beautiful. But how I lived… It was stifling—never experiencing the things that make a city like that so rich. And at some point, it just started to feel like I couldn’t breathe.”

Trace took all that in, mulling it over before he spoke. “And here?”

“Here, I’m trying to learn to breathe again.”

“Seems like a good place to start.”

It was. The landscape. The people. The air. It all seemed to help.

Trace flicked on his blinker, even though there wasn’t a car in sight, and turned onto a drive. He stopped at a gate and cattle guard, hopping out of his SUV but leaving it running. “One sec.”

He unlocked a chain, swung the gate open, and then ran back. Just as he’d promised. I was starting to realize that about Trace. He did everything he said he would. I didn’t know anyone else I could say that of.

“I hope you’re not breaking and entering,” I said, studying him. “I happen to know the sheriff.”

Trace’s dark green eyes flicked my way. “Pretty sure you only know a chief of police, and we don’t have one of those around here.”

A soft laugh left my lips. “Touché.”

He grinned as he guided the SUV down a gravel road. Trees were scattered on either side of our path, making it difficult to see much beyond what was right in front of us. But after a few minutes, the drive dumped us into a wide-open space.

I couldn’t help the audible gasp that left my lips. There were fields and meadows that felt like they went on for miles before morphing into forests and then unobstructed views of the Monarch Mountains and Castle Rock. My fingers were undoing my seat belt before I consciously gave them the command. I opened the door before Trace even shut off the engine, sliding out and into that openness.

A barn stood off to my left, paddocks and pasture beyond it. It looked solid and sturdy but aged—the kind of time-lapse that spoke of weathering storm after storm.

That called to me, and I found myself moving toward it, pressing my hand to the worn wood. Even the feel of it had character. I traced a seam with my fingertips and turned to see something else in the distance. Not a structure but something mapped out on the ground.

Trace sauntered in my direction, not in any hurry. “You want the tour?”

I nodded, heading toward him. His mouth split into a grin like a little kid about to show you his favorite Christmas present. “There will be a walkway here.” Trace moved his hands like he was guiding a plane into place.

“Tons of windows so you can see right through the house downstairs. It’s shielded from the road, and we’ll have a gate with security codes, so no need to worry about people you don’t want seeing in.”

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