Lily paused by the side of Chase’s Jeep. “Seriously?”

“Yep. There’s a good place on the lake not far from the sports outlet where we can get you some boots. And we can walk around town a bit if you like.”

“I would like very much.” Lily looked forward to the evening far more than she’d imagined she would. A night where she wasn’t taking care of sick or dying patients, where the air was clear, the sky was bright, and the company was exciting? She couldn’t ask for anything more.

The ride down the mountain with the sun setting behind them and Chase driving was a completely different experience than what Lily’d experienced driving up. That day seemed part of a different lifetime. Despite the clear blue sky and brilliant sunshine, her world had been tinged with gray. Without her noticing, the gray had disappeared. She studied Chase, her profile a study in light and shadow as the sun sank low and lanced at an angle across the open-topped vehicle. Chase was a study in contrasts too—fiercely independent and self-sufficient, but not without human attachment or needs. She loved Sarah as deeply as Sarah loved her. And she wanted Lily. To pretend otherwise would be to lie to herself. The wanting might be a physical one, but the need for touch—to give and receive physical pleasure—was as basic a human need as breathing. Lily had forgotten that need for a long time and welcomed the awareness of it now.

Chase glanced at her and smiled quizzically. “What?”

“I need a Jeep,” Lily said. No reason for Chase to know just how much she enjoyed her attention.

“You would if you’re going to go back and forth yourself,” Chase said, “but you know, I’m happy to chauffeur.”

“Right. In your free five minutes once a week.”

“I could probably squeeze in a few more minutes for you, Lily.” She reached across the space between them and took Lily’s hand.

Startled, Lily shifted to face her.

“You mind?” Chase said, her other hand on the wheel and her eyes on the trail.

“No,” Lily said truthfully. She liked the warmth and strength of Chase’s hand in hers. She liked the contact. She liked the connection. And she wasn’t going to look more closely than that. “You can really do this one-handed?”

Chase laughed. “I’ve been up and down this trail five hundred times. I know every rock.”

“Then I don’t mind a bit.”

“Good,” Chase said in that low, sexy rumble. “Neither do I.”

* * *