there's a big old moon shining down at night

Chapter 1

"That's the last of it, Miss Cabello."

The leader of the sweaty men who have been hauling half her belongings into her new place closes up the moving truck, gesturing for his coworkers to climb into the cab, and Camila relaxes incrementally.

She'll be alone soon. Thank god.

"Thank you," she says, politely ignoring the sweaty hand he holds out to shake. "I appreciate all your hard work."

"It's no problem, really."

Camila really wishes this conversation was over. She's paid them, the job is done, and now he's trying to make small talk when all Camila wants is to go inside, lock the door, and not interact with another human for as long as possible.

With an awkward nod the man finally climbs into the truck and trundles down her long driveway, and for the first time in what feels like years, Camila starts to decompress. The May air around her is warm without being too hot, there are birds chirping, and she can hear the soft sounds of the water moving in the breeze behind the house. She takes a deep lungful of clean air, and opens her door to start unpacking.

Camila knows exactly why she's chosen this as her summer home.

The house is beautiful, to be sure – sprawling and modern, glass walls facing a sparkling lake lined by dozens of types of trees, a private dock and a boathouse (not that she has a boating license, but it came with the place). But she's seen dozens of similar million-dollar houses on the outskirts of rural areas, and for some reason, this is the one that stuck. The wilderness around the property reminds her of the only good memories of her childhood – camping with her birth mother, before she was adopted.

But it isn't the house that sells her. There are a hundred like it built on every pretty lake in the province. The reason she decides to settle on Slave Lake, is because of the town.

It's completely, totally unremarkable. Nestled at the intersection of a slow-moving river and the lake it empties into, the population is small, and it looks like it never quite left 1998. There's a single strip of tiny shops – a hairdresser, an off-brand pizza place, a restaurant, a grocery store of a chain she's never heard of - and still there are buildings with "FOR LEASE" signs in the windows. There's only one school that goes to 8th grade, and the kids have to bus 45 minutes south for high school.

It's a town that's clearly seen its hayday a while ago, one that used to see the tourism of campers and vacationers coming through and now serves only locals thanks to the diversion of a new highway. Everyone has a slight accent, the kind that you usually only hear exaggerated for laughs on American TV, and she'd place a sizeable bet that most of the people here have never even heard of Cabello Inc.

It's small, and anonymous, and perfect.

For two weeks after she moves in, Camila hardly has to leave her house. She builds a nest for herself there, tinkering with new tech she hasn't had time to work on in the last few years. She brought in enough groceries to last her a while when she got here, and she settles in more easily than she thought for her months of leisure time. With weekly updates from Dinah and Harry, her need to know what's happening with her company are soothed, and she's more grateful than she's ever been for her two best friends. If it weren't for their loyalty, she'd never have been able to turn the company around.

In fact, the two of them are the only reason she took this extended vacation in the first place.

It feels distinctly like an ambush, the way Dinah and Harry are standing on either side of her desk like freakishly tall sentinels, and all of a sudden, Camila suspects that the work meeting they requested is going to have more of a personal slant.