She did not have a good answer, especially when her mother used to talk often about the time she spent working in Jackson Hole.
Perhaps she knew that visiting would only cause her to miss her mother more, as Elizabeth had loved it so much.
She walked through the forest, listening to the birdsong and enjoying the cool breeze that ruffled her hair. The morning seemed perfect, like something out of one of those relaxation videos on YouTube that she watched when she couldn’t seem to wind down after another eighteen-hour workday.
She had almost missed this.
All of it.
The realization chilled her more than the morning mountain air.
She had been dead, not breathing on her own for several minutes before the paramedics arrived, kept alive only by Alison Wells and her fierce determination.
Why had she survived? Was there something else in store for her?
She was only thirty-four years old, but she felt as ancient as the mountains. Old and withered and exhausted. Even walking this short distance left her tired.
And what was next for her? Try as she might, June couldn’t quite picture herself returning to her hectic corporate life of travel, meetings, product launches.
While she could certainly afford to retire and live off her investments as one of the three founders and major stockholders of Move Inc, she couldn’t see herself living a life of leisure.
Anxiety pressed in on her and she forced herself to breathe, pushing away the stress. She didn’t have to decide anything right now. She was only days removed from a major life change, when everything she thought about herself, everything she planned, had vanished in a literal heartbeat.
“Are we getting close?” she asked the dog. She could swear he beamed at her before he bounded away again along the trail.
Ahead, beyond the treetops, she could see the roofline of a decent-size structure. Curious now, she walked farther and then had to catch her breath as the trees opened up, revealing the property beyond.
How was it possibly fair that someone like Beckett Hunter lived in such an enchanting place?
The house was beautiful, smaller than The Painted Sky ranch house, made of log and stone. A pasture surrounded by split-rail fences held four horses who grazed in the morning sun. Closer to her was a large wood-framed outbuilding with a peaked roof and a massive barn-style sliding door.
From inside, she heard the low buzz of power tools that seemed to ring through the whole property.
The large door was open to the morning breeze, and the dog ran straight inside before June could call him back.
“Hello?” she called out. “I brought back your dog.”
When no one answered, she took another step closer, then another, until she could peer through the doorway.
It was a workshop of some sort. As her eyes adjusted to the lower light inside, she saw someone working with a power tool, polishing a slab of wood. His back was to her and she saw strong muscles working beneath a snug red T-shirt.
She waited until the machine stopped and he lifted the wood and blew away sawdust before she took a few more steps into the building.
“Hello.”
The worker whirled around in surprise and she was glad she had waited until he was done. She wouldn’t want anyone to cut off any body parts because of her.
“Sorry to bother you. I’m looking for Beckett Hunter. Do you know where I can find him?”
He lifted the safety glasses and the ear protectors that had concealed his identity and she blinked when she realized that muscular back she had noticed belonged to the man himself.
“Oh. Morning. Sorry. I can’t hear anything with these things on. I hope you haven’t been there long.”
“I just got here.”
“I tend to lose track of time when I’m deep in a project.”
“Time is not the only thing you lose track of. That must be why you didn’t notice when your dog disappeared.”
