Cover Reveal & Sneak Peak

Chapter One

Trek It, Girl

Anabel

The light of the sun was fading - and quickly. With the cascading pine trees reaching toward the heavens at heights that terrified Anabel, the idea of darkness quickly descending kind of tugged at her with a gnawing degree of concern. She wasn’t used to this - not in the least. Anabel had been raised in the Midwest among the plains and in a place, she had to get away from as soon as life would allow it. It so happened, that came with the crisp envelope that held her acceptance letter to the University of Oregon. It was the moment Ana had been waiting for since girlhood, and much to her parents’ dismay there was nothing that would hold her back. Ana instinctively tightened her fingers on the steering wheel glancing at the car gauges and immediately groaned upon noting the external temperature outside was a brisk -3 degrees.

“Jesus fucking Christ - it got cold quick. Damn me,” pursing her lips, Ana grimaced and visibly quaked as her car rolled past a large flashing road sign. At the top, it read -

WHEN FLASHING CHAINS OR SNOW TIRES REQUIRED: $800 MINIMUM FINE.

“Wow, well hopefully things don’t take a turn for the icy. I’m just moving through - take it easy on the newbie in her Subie.” Anabel attempted to joke aloud, a move to settle her uneasiness with the route through the Santiam Pass. It was a route known to be dangerous and one that many people had lost their lives on. Time and time again, dismissive, or ignorant drivers had gotten lost in the area - some never to be recovered alive. Ana wrinkled her nose then, leaning forward to shift on the heat, the last conversation she’d had with her mom running through her mind as her fingers squeezed harder on the steering wheel. There was still some light out and she was damn determined to prove her mother wrong.

“Ana, you’ve never traveled more than thirty minutes from home by yourself. And you think the ice here in Nebraska is bad for driving in! I don’t know why you think going out there now is a good idea.”

“You wouldn’t let me go earlier and I got a spot by random chance. Do you think I am going to give that up?” Ana muttered, turning to toss her suitcase in the back seat with an air of vehemence.

“But Ana, it’s dangerous. What if you get lost?” Her mother’s pleading voice seared into her mind and the attempt to guilt trip her became apparent.

“When are you going to accept that I am not falling for that anymore?” Ana mumbled as she moved to walk around the car - her body language stiff and irritated, was clear from the way she stomped into the crackling leaves that littered the driveway.

“Why are you so defiant? I just want you to be safe. I don’t understand why you don’t see how hard it was for us - for me.” her mother whimpered, the sound of her voice laden with a deep sadness that otherwise might have pained Ana’s heart if not for her sheer willpower and refusal to submit to the mental fatigue, and manipulative string-pulling of her traditionalist mother. Kaya Megumi Beauregard, her married name of course, had been the daughter of Japanese immigrants and she broke her own mother’s heart by marrying a French American - Anabel’s father - Émile Laurent Beauregard. Anabel’s Japanese grandparents had disowned her mother for this, and yet Kaya still stood to honor her old traditions. This was something Ana could never wrap her mind around. They had never accepted her, and then her parents chose to move to the Midwest, the last place she ever felt she belonged.

“What do you want from me? Should I be like Nana Kano who you never cease to talk about from the Ireichō? I’m breaking out in my own way, and you should respect that. Oregon accepts Asian people more than here does, Mom!”

“Your name is Anabel Sayuri Kano-Beauregard, and you should honor all your ancestors in that, Ana. It pains my heart you do not agree.”

Anabel sighed, shaking her head as she rounded a chicane. The quiet was starting to get to her, and the only way to shake it - she felt, was to change the vibe up,

“Okay, time for some music,” she reached for the dial and began to switch it around, hoping that the blinking sign she’d seen earlier would just vanish and she’d be long through this area of the darkening forest before the warning would ever be needed. In a few seconds, a song came blaring on the radio and Ana smiled as the upbeat pop music filled her car, “That’s better.”

It wasn’t too many hours away. From her last calculations after coming out of Sisters, Oregon - Anabel would be arriving in Eugene within two hours, and she had been certain there would still be at least thirty minutes of light left when she arrived. It wouldn’t take too long, but as Ana continued on her trek through the dark Willamette Forest, however, the initial courage that had led her this far began to diminish. As the music kept up on the melodic upswing, a sudden gasp slid free of Ana,

“Shit!” The sound of pure annoyance was detectable in her tone as Ana’s eyes widened to spot the first snowflake descending upon her windshield and all hopes for a precipitation-free ride instantly evaporated.

“Just keep your eyes on the road and stay calm. That’s it, Ana,” she muttered to herself - knowing that her solitude was starting to make her even more nervous,

“Getting all freaked out over a snowflake isn’t going to get me there in one piece, is it?” With nothing but her own willpower and her Subaru Forester’s horsepower to keep her alive, Ana kept driving - praying that somehow that one snowflake wouldn’t accumulate, and two hours would deliver her to campus without any setbacks,

“Trek it, girl.”

PREORDER 12/4 ON AMAZON.