CASEY BREATHED IN THE cool night air and the sweet campfire smell. The dancing flames licked the dark, illuminating the campers as they milled about, talking and laughing. Cider bubbled in a pot on the edge of the fire. They poured it into chipped camping mugs, adding generous glugs of bourbon and passing the bottle around.
She’d changed out of her Berkeley sweatshirt, afraid of looking too collegiate, and put on a green wool sweater instead. She’d even pulled her hair back with bobby pins, tucking the loose strands behind her ears. She had a wool hat tied around her neck in case she needed it later and a light pair of black knit mittens—an old present her best friend from college, Hannah, had made.
She’d banged her thumbs up worse than she thought in the boat. Now the raw patches were w
