By the time she reached Chapter Four, the light had faded so much that only the e-readerβs backlight illuminated her face. Morgan smiled. She had come to the mountains for solitude, but with her new download, she realized she wasn't going to be lonely at all.
The sun was just beginning to dip behind the jagged peaks of the Cascades, casting long, amber shadows across the trailhead where Morgan stood. She wasn't here for the sceneryβat least, not primarily. In her hand, she clutched an e-reader, the screen glowing with the title sheβd been waiting weeks to dive into: .
She hiked a mile into the woods, found a fallen cedar that looked comfortable enough, and sat. As the real Timber Fallsβthe actual geographic region she was currently surveying for her forestry jobβhushed into the quiet of dusk, she opened the file.
