“Whaddya say to hitting the ‘restart’ button?” she said to Lincoln, unclipping him from his car seat. He relaxed in her arms and she touched the tip of her nose to his, relieved he didn’t seem scarred from her earlier freak-out. “Onward and upward, right, love bug?”

Propping Lincoln on her hip, she made her way toward the Coastal Kids Medical Group.

Until Dot Turner stepped into her path after a scant ten feet.

“Sadie, darlin’. How’s it going?” she drawled in her thick Maine accent, punctuating each word with a thrust of her five-pound hand weights. Dot was in her seventies now and had been Sadie’s middle-school gym teacher. She still wore her signature neon-pink tracksuit and was probably in even better shape than she’d been fifteen years ago. “Heya, Link.”

Sadie hid her wince. The nickname always made her think of breakfast sausage. And just now the idea of processed meat made her want to barf.

“Hi, Ms. Turner.” Sadie smiled weakly, pretending that her stomach hadn’t just randomly decided to exit through her mouth. Had she undercooked the chicken last night? “I know, I know…I should call you Dot. But old habits die hard. How are you?” Running into old teachers was one of the weird but enjoyable side effects of moving back to Cranberry Cove.

“I’m grand,” Dot panted. “Just grand. Training to solo hike the Appalachian Trail this June. Ain’t that something?”

“Wow,” Sadie said breathlessly. “Impressive.”

“Ayuh, another one for the bucket list. Say, you should join me for a jog sometime.” Dot winked. “Everyone with a pulse should be able to run three miles. Use it or lose it, kiddo.”

Sadie gaped—Dot wasn’t insinuating that she was overweight, was she? Sadie had worked hard to shed the baby weight, although she’d slacked in the last few months. She needed twenty-eight hours in a day to fit in all her jobs: nurse, short-order cook, playmate, teacher, housekeeper, babysitter.

Who knows where the hours went. It was like living life stuck on fast-forward.

“Okay, gotta go, kiddo.” Dot forever called her students “kiddo.” “Need to keep the old ticker over one twenty! See ya around.”

Sadie sucked in her stomach and continued her walk. Wave caps broke in the distance and the air had a salty tang. Lincoln closed his eyes and smiled, the breeze tickling his cheeks.

Just as they passed the Cranberry Cove Bank with its emerald-green shutters and orange brick, a police cruiser rolled to a stop.

“Morning, Sadie. Lincoln.” Officer Tyler Cox tipped his hat like a movie star from an old western movie. He looked like one, too, with his eternal five-o’clock shadow and whiskey-colored eyes. “You two holding up okay?”

Everyone knew Ethan commuted and the citizens of Cranberry Cove, especially the town’s small-but-mighty police force, were constantly checking in on Sadie as if they knew she was barely treading water.

“We are, thanks.” Fake it until you make it.

“I pee-pee!” Lincoln announced. “I make the silly pee-pee go in the tub!”