Cassie Linden worries about every word she can’t remember, terrified of the early-onset Alzheimer’s that stole her mother and sent Cassie fleeing the wreckage of her family. Since then, Cassie has constructed a carefully calibrated life—a modest but satisfying career in New York City’s legal department and a teenage son she dotes on. But she didn’t see the break-up of her marriage coming.

Now her ex is remarrying, her son has been suspended from college, her father has developed dementia and Cassie is having troubling memory lapses of her own. She and her dad have never seen eye to eye and after her mother died, Cassie rarely visited. But with her sister on the West Coast, Cassie has no choice but to step in. Cassie soon realizes her dad can’t manage his large Connecticut property and beloved bees anymore. She hires a beekeeper to help while she convinces her father to sell to a developer who’s putting up a luxury project next door. She doesn’t love the idea of her family home being plowed under for McMansions but can’t see another way to pay for the assisted living her dad needs.

Beekeeper Glenn Marsden ardently opposes the housing project on this last open space in town and is disturbed by rumors that the developer is after the Linden’s five acres too. Ever since his wife walked out eight years ago leaving him to raise their young daughter he hasn’t had much to say to women. But something unexpected has sparked with Cassie and he’s starting to believe he might finally have met someone he can trust.

Cassie knows she needs to come clean with Glenn about her plan to sell to the developer but fears it will ruin their blossoming relationship. Then there’s the appointment she forgot and those pesky words she can’t recall. Her sister is after her to get tested for the genetic mutation that guarantees early-onset. But does Cassie really want to know? And will the answer sink her newfound chance at happiness?

Coming from BHC Press in 2025.