Of course, that was the entire explanation. She hadn’t been thinking. She’d been seduced—by the newness of walking through the wilderness in the moonlight, by a woman who was at once charming in an oh-so-unpolished way and quietly sensitive in unexpected moments. All that without even mentioning how utterly and unabashedly sexy she was.

And, surprise surprise, she wasn’t so far gone that she hadn’t noted Chase’s interest from almost the moment they’d met. The appreciative glances, flirtatious smile, the gentle but not-too-subtle innuendos. No, she hadn’t lost so much of herself in the last two years that she hadn’t noticed that. She would’ve said it was impossible a few days before that any woman could have her acting so unlike herself, but then Chase was like no one she’d ever met before either.

Lily turned on her side and hugged her pillow, watching the moonlight flicker through the trees outside her window. They’d shared a kiss, a few moments of human connection, something universally, intrinsically human. And that’s all it meant. She was human, and surprisingly, she was still alive.

She must’ve drifted off to sleep, because she woke with a start and, for an instant, couldn’t place her surroundings. An on-call room? A cubby in the ER? No. The air was too fresh. No alarms blared. No beeper at her waistband trilled a warning. She took a deep breath, stilling the racing of her heart.

She wasn’t in the hospital. She was in the mountains. Far away from all that.

Then what?

The rumble of an engine cut through the silence, and Lily rose up in bed in time to see headlights flash for a moment outside her window before they disappeared into the forest. Someone leaving. The quiet returned, and she settled back down, pulling the light blanket up against the unexpected chill, and let sleep come.

Chapter Six

Lily woke a little before five after only a few hours’ sleep, but those hours had been deep and restful, her dreams only vague shadows that left her mercifully unhaunted. She showered quickly in her little bathroom and pulled on a favorite pair of jeans that were too loose now, along with a long-sleeved, button-up cotton shirt. She smiled as she laced her running shoes, thinking about new boots. Maybe she needed to add new jeans to that list, if Chase had time and didn’t hate shopping. Lily wasn’t wild about shopping, and hadn’t been in so long her wardrobe—excluding her new camp clothes, of course—was probably hopelessly out of style. Chase didn’t give off born-to-shop vibes, but people could be surprising. She laughed aloud. She’d surprised herself just accepting the mad invitation to hide out here for the summer, and what did she do to disturb the peace and quiet she was after but practically jump the first attractive woman she met. Although, in her defense, Chase was a pretty extreme example of attractive, like a 10 on the Richter scale.

And she really needed to stop thinking about Chase every spare minute. She’d see her in a little over two hours, not that she was clock-watching or anything.