But it wouldn’t be okay. And that’s what she kept screaming as she watched herself walk through the boreal forest to the bonfire in the back of the Bowie family’s Northwoods estate, where her friends, classmates, and more had gathered for the end-of-the-summer party.

Woodsmoke haunted the air as the massive flames shot sparks into the sky, still light from the long daylight hours. They’d all be leaving soon—some to the Lower 48 for college, some for Anchorage, a few others getting married. In her class of twenty-eight, most of the graduates had plans beyond Copper Mountain.

Not her. Sure, she’d played with the idea of going to Anchorage to pursue a biology degree, but how could she leave her father alone on their homestead after everything he’d been through?

“Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars pumped out from a nearby speaker. The sky overhead had turned a deep lavender, not dark, but with a hint of twilight that would just slightly deepen then burst back to life in a few hours. She’d parked in the gravel lot of the beautiful log home, poised on a tiny lake south of Copper Mountain, and hiked back through the woods to their recreation area. Her guess was that Malachi’s parents were probably in Anchorage or beyond, maybe even in DC, for him and his brothers to be holding such a rager. A giant trash-bag-lined garbage barrel held a brew of alcohol and punch that made her head swim just from the fumes.

Don’t do it.

“Echo!” The voice carried from across the glow of the fire. And for a second, her heart simply stopped. She didn’t expect to see him—not after the fiasco she’d made of his proposal. But surely he’d be here. It was his party too.

Except, as he came closer, through the glow, her heart restarted.

Not Dodge, but Colt. Just ten minutes younger, but he could have been years apart for the differences in personality. He looked similar, of course, with dark hair, now long and behind his ears, and the similar tall, rangy build. But Colt had brown eyes, a smile that could charm a girl out of her common sense, and a laugh that told most he didn’t take life too seriously. He lived for the moment, dove in with his whole heart, and didn’t care about the consequences.

Nope, not a smidgen like Dodge, the guy with the five-year plan, a to-do list, and forethought before every word that left his mouth. And Dodge’s smile might be hard-won, but when it happened, all the darkness fled.

“I didn’t think you’d be here. You never come to the bonfires,” Colt said, a dangerous twinkle in his eyes.

She played with the charm on her necklace, fitting her thumb into the small heart. “I just thought, since it was the last one . . .”