Wild Wishes

Vada Starling is almost twenty-nine, and her life has settled into something small, quiet, and tightly controlled. For the past decade, she has lived in the shadow of her aunt and uncle-serving, accommodating, and shrinking herself to meet their expectations. Days blur together in a house that feels more like a cage than a home, cut off from neighbors, friendships, and the wider world just beyond her reach.

But there are glimpses of something else-fleeting moments that stir a quiet longing she can't quite name. Like the sight of Bernard, the elusive boat mechanic, whose untethered, wandering life stands in stark contrast to her own. He is everything she has been taught not to be: spontaneous, unbothered, free.

When her aunt and uncle's carefully planned anniversary celebration falls apart, and a sudden snowstorm traps Vada in place, the fragile structure of her life begins to crack. In the stillness, she receives news that shifts everything-it reframes her past and places an unexpected urgency on her future.

With time no longer something to be endlessly endured, but fleeting, Vada is faced with a choice: continue living the life that was handed to her, or step beyond fear and claim something entirely her own.

She has one year.

And for the first time, it might finally belong to her.