Chapter 2
Tony Stanley drove slowly up Highway 58-A, staying in the right-hand lane so he could creep along and stare at the mountains.
Damn it felt fine to be back home!
After ten years in Atlanta, first at college and then working short-term contracts as he built up his computer and networking skills, he’d finally had enough. Enough of the crowds, the traffic, the noise… All of it.
At the ripe old age of thirty-five, he turned in his notice at Delta Air Lines and headed back to the Appalachians. He’d been in the Rockies, the Alps, the Grand Tetons, even the Catskills, but nothing made him feel cozy and comfortable the way the Alleghany ridges did. These mountains—hills, technically, given that most of the topography was erosional rather than tectonic—were soft and soothing the way no
