In the beach house bedroom, packing for Montreal, the uninterrupted days she and Griff had spent together were on her mind. A few more schedule-less days in the bedroom, more leisurely breakfasts, another long walk beside the Pacific ocean before they boarded the plane to Montreal would have been welcome.

It had been many years since she went to Montreal with Mom, Dad, and her brother. The summer before her sophomore year in High School. She remembered the car ride on the deserted highway through the endless otherworldly dark pines of the Great North Woods, and in contrast the grand hotel where they stayed in Montreal. Cobblestone streets, sidewalk cafes, the view of the city from a boat boarded in Old Port. Wearing grown-up summer dresses. Admiring glances from sophisticated French Canadian boys. Speaking High School Freshman French with unexpected results. White tablecloths in French restaurants. Dad refusing to eat snails. Parental worry on the day when Jack disappeared. He told no one that he was going by himself to see the Montreal Castors play. How he got to the Stadium by himself and survived Montreal soccer fans was a never disclosed story.

Now, as she packed winter clothes into her suitcase and wished she had time to go shopping for a Christmas dress, she wondered what Jack was doing in the Gold Country. "Following a lead; L.L .Bean catalogs," he said. Mysteriously.