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“She misses you.”

I stiffen. “That’s not your concern.”

Julie lifts her chin. “She made it mine.”

I hold her gaze. She doesn’t flinch.

“You know, you could’ve done this in the city,” she says. “It’s safer there.”

“City’s got rules. Too many of them. Too many distractions. Here… here, the world’s still quiet enough for something new to grow.”

She tilts her head. “You ever think you’re trying to fix something out here so you don’t have to fix what’s in there?”

Her eyes flick briefly to my chest.

I say nothing.

She steps back. “I’ll go check on her.”

And she does.

I pull out my phone. Twenty-three unread emails. The contractor’s already called twice. No time for heart-to-hearts, especially not with some upstart secretary overstepping her position.

I swipe to answer the third buzz.

“Torack.”

“Boss,” Groth’s voice comes in crackly, “we got arealproblem now.”

I close my eyes, inhale slowly.

Here we go again.

CHAPTER 3

JULIE

Idon’t know what hell I signed up for, but it definitely wasn’t this one, where my shoes are plotting against me and the ground makes wet farting noises when I walk.

Groth leads me past the construction fence like a troll-shaped GPS, and every step feels like a betrayal. My boots—Ithoughtthey were rugged—are about as useful here as high heels in a bog.

“This isn’t swamp,” Groth says, voice gravelly and way too smug. “It’s engineered sediment. Natural drainage field.”

“It’s moist soup,” I reply, doing a little skip-hop to avoid sinking deeper. “A field of soup.”

He grunts, amused. “Bet your resume doesn’t say ‘terrain tactician,’ huh?”

“No, but it does say ‘fluent in three scheduling apps and capable of hosting a Zoom call during a fire drill,’” I mutter.

“Useful out here.”

“I’m wildly underqualified for nature.”

He gestures to the half-framed bath house ahead. “Boss says you’re project-side now. I figured it’s time to teach you where not to step.”

“I feel like this whole zone is a big screaming NOT HERE sign,” I say, eyeing the ground suspiciously like it might lunge.

Groth chuckles like a garbage disposal swallowing gravel. “You’ll get the hang of it. Or you’ll lose a shoe. Either way, you’ll remember.”