Sooner than Lily expected, the mechanical rumbling of an engine drawing near cut through the soft background noise of the forest. Sarah, driving the Kermit-green Jeep, emerged from the trailhead into the small clearing in front of the cabin, and Lily rose, dusted off the back of her borrowed shorts, and climbed into the passenger seat.

“Sorry to drag you all the way out here,” Lily said.

Sarah three-pointed a turn and headed back down the trail before speaking. “It’s fine. These things happen.”

These things happen. Well, yes, they probably did, to most people, possibly, but not to her. Her night with Chase—her entire affair, and she really ought to call it that although the word made her cringe for some reason—was definitely not on the spectrum of her usual behavior. She was far too busy and far too…grounded—yes, that was a good word for it—to have a torrid one-night-stand with a hot younger woman. But she had and was contemplating doing it again as soon as possible the next morning. She’d spent the time waiting for Sarah drifting in the still-fresh sensations of sex with Chase. Viewing herself in retrospect, as she’d never imagined herself to be. Aggressive, demanding, and—to use another word she’d never dreamed of applying to herself—wanton. She smiled to herself. Surprisingly, it fit, and she didn’t mind. Chase made it easy to accept what she wanted, to give and take pleasure of every kind freely. A rare gift she’d never expected and hoped she had returned with all the joy and wonder she’d experienced.

“This is a little awkward,” Sarah said.

Lily really, really hoped all of that had not shown on her face. “I know. You first.”

Sarah half smiled, still watching the road. “Ordinarily, I’d tease you about your activities of last night and try to get you to tell me how it was. That feels a little weird now.”

Lily laughed. “You know I wouldn’t tell you anything interesting anyhow. At least not much.”

“You always were pretty stingy with details.”

“That’s because there weren’t any good bits to really share,” Lily said, intending to divert the conversation away from her sex life but realizing instantly that her previous encounters really hadn’t been particularly interesting ones. She’d had what she considered good sex, satisfying for both parties, she hoped, but nothing that had expressed or spoke to what had been burning deep inside her for probably all her life. The need to connect with another person as deeply, more intimately, physically—and as a consequence, emotionally—as she had the night before with Chase. The realization was stunning and terrifying.