Faultlines (Juniper Ridge #1)

Prologue

Ethan—Seven Years Earlier

The house is quiet, except for the sound of rain tapping against the kitchen window. It’s been raining since dawn, turning the backyard into a muddy mess.

“Go ahead,” Claire says to our six-year-old daughter.

With a quizzical look, Ellie asks, “really?”

“Really?”

And that’s all the permission she needs. With a shriek of excitement, she tears through the back door. A second later, she’s splashing through puddles in bright pink rain boots and a matching jacket that were clean thirty seconds ago.

I watch from the kitchen window, coffee in hand, shaking my head. “You’re impossible.”

Claire leans against the counter beside me. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“It’s raining.”

“She’s six.”

“It’s forty-eight degrees outside.”

“She’s wearing a coat.”

“She’ll get covered in mud.”

Claire sips her coffee. “Probably.”

I watch my wife. She meets my gaze, trying and failing to hide a smile.

Outside, Ellie discovers a puddle large enough to be its own small lake and jumps into its center, sending muddy water exploding in every direction.

Claire laughs, a sound that fills the kitchen, a sound I try to commit to memory without knowing why.

For now, though, I stand there, listening to it while our daughter attempts to swim through the back yard.

Claire nudges my shoulder. “You should go out there.”

I look at her as if she’s lost her mind. “Absolutely not.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m an adult.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

I narrow my eyes, and she smiles. That same smile convinced me to skip work one afternoon at twenty-three and drive to the coast with her.

“Claire.”

“Ethan.”

“No.”

“You used to be fun.”

“I still am.”

She raises an eyebrow, and I hate it when she does that, because she’s usually right.

Before I can formulate a defense, the back door bursts open and Ellie comes flying inside.

Her coat is splattered with mud, it cakes her boots and is smeared across her face.

Frankly, I’m impressed she found that much mud.

“Daddy!” she shouts.

I take a step backward. “No.”

“Daddy!”

“Absolutely not.”

She launches herself at me anyway. A second later, my jeans are ruined. Claire doubles over laughing. Ellie wraps muddy arms around my legs. I look at the disaster that used to be my clothing. I look at my wife with a smile. “I blame you.”

Ellie giggles, and before I know it I’m laughing too.

I pull them both into a hug, and all three of us are laughing. Rainwater and mud drip across the floor, and it feels perfect.