“You left the church hours ago. I called him. Where did you go?”

“I drove around.”

Tai turned over, just inches away. We were eye to eye. Her long hair spilled across the pillow. I could see her bare shoulders and breasts where the blanket slipped down.

“What are you not telling me?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

She stayed silent for a while, watching me. “I’m glad you’re safe. Those two days without you were hell. I was worried about you.”

“I know.”

“Why don’t we go away this weekend? We could drive to Lake Geneva, find a little B and B.”

“I can’t.”

“Oh. Okay. Whatever.”

I heard her disappointment and regretted the harshness in my voice. She didn’t deserve that. She had no way of knowing she was in bed with another man. “Tai, I’m sorry.”

She nudged closer and put her lips on mine. “You know, I can’t fix something when I don’t know what’s broken.”

“I already told you, it’s not you. It’s me. It’s all me.”

She kept kissing me. My lips. My chin. My eyes. Her taut nipples brushed against my chest, and her long hair caressed my skin. Her hand slid between my legs and began to tease an erection from me.

“Tai, it’s not a good night for that.”

“I don’t care.”

Her motions grew more urgent, her fingernails working on me with long, gentle strokes, and I responded to her touch despite myself. Yes, it felt good, but my body and mind were in two different places. I was thinking about the first time Karly had touched me, when I lay on the bed in the dollhouse, still in casts and mostly unable to move. She’d given me a sponge bath, and we made jokes to defuse the awkwardness of the effect it was having on me, which was impossible to miss. When we ran out of jokes, she giggled and said, “Oh, what the hell” and made me come harder than I ever had in my life.

That’s what I was remembering when Tai took hold of my shoulder. “Make love to me.”