My husband kissed me goodbye, saying he was heading out of town for work. I believed him. Then I showed up at our lake house with the kids and found him digging a grave-sized pit in the backyard. He froze when he saw me and screamed at me to stay back. I should’ve listened.Adam stumbled into my life 12 years ago. I still remember that rainy Tuesday. He walked into my little café downtown, dripping wet and clutching his laptop.He ordered a cappuccino and asked if our Wi-Fi could handle a “code deployment.” I laughed and told him I had no idea what that meant. But I promised to make his coffee strong enough to power whatever magical computer spell he was casting.

He kept coming back every Tuesday. Then he started showing up every day. And somehow, he never left.Now we’re married with two kids, Kelly and Sam. And we juggle two coffee shops that barely keep us sane during the morning rush. Adam leads a tech team at some startup with a name I still can’t pronounce.We’re busy people, but we’re happy people. At least, I thought we were until the lake house changed everything.Adam’s father left it to us three years ago. It’s a creaky old place with uneven floors and windows that stick in the summer heat. But it sits right on Millfield Lake, and when the sun sets, the water turns gold.The kids love it there. We all do. It’s where we go to breathe and unwind.