Trail Maps, Tea and Temporary Insanity

A wrong map should have been Lyle Waltham’s biggest problem.

As a cartographer brought to Dalton to overhaul the preserve’s trail system, Lyle expects bad signage, inconsistent markers, and an infuriating amount of local improvisation. What he does not expect is Hawk Stone — the town’s maddeningly calm outdoor guide, who knows the mountain better than any map ever could and seems far too amused by Lyle’s professional suffering.

Hawk has spent years guiding people through Dalton Ridge Preserve, which means he knows exactly where the old map fails, where the unofficial trails begin, and where visitors are most likely to get themselves into trouble. He also knows that the sharply dressed man with the tea thermos, precise opinions, and deeply personal grudge against incorrect contour lines is a lot more fun than he first appears.

Working together should be simple. Fix the trails. Update the signs. Survive the town’s relentless meddling.

Instead, long days on the mountain turn into sharp banter, quiet trust, and a chemistry neither man is prepared to navigate. Lyle likes structure. Hawk trusts instinct. Lyle believes in clarity. Hawk believes some things have to be felt to be understood. But when a public trail event goes sideways and a misunderstanding threatens everything they’ve built, both men have to decide whether what’s growing between them belongs to the project timeline — or to the rest of their lives.

Set in the warm, meddling, absurdly opinionated world of Dalton, Maine, Trail Maps, Tea & Temporary Insanity is a funny, heartfelt M/M romantic comedy about wrong turns, right people, and discovering that sometimes the clearest route forward is the one you never planned to take.