With a mental curse, she shook free of the anger that still caught her by surprise and took a deep breath of the sweetest air in the world. She let it out along with her ghosts.

Maybe a trip up to the lodge wasn’t such a bad idea. Maybe she’d run into Lily. A telltale flare of interest hit her, and she enjoyed the sensation despite the impossibility. Lily was undoubtedly exactly as she’d seemed. A wealthy parent, out of her depth in the mountains but a little too arrogant to admit it. Chase snorted. Not a few people had mentioned that being a little too overconfident might have been a wee problem of hers back in the day. Not so much any longer. Hell, she’d paid the price, after all.

She sighed and let the image of Lily Davenport fade. Fantasies weren’t really her thing, and she wouldn’t have time for much more than that until September.

Chapter Two

Lily breathed a sigh of relief when a sweeping, three-story log lodge—of course it was log, because what else could it possibly be—loomed into view around the curve of the road, its broad timber front porch wrapping around both sides of the massive structure like huge arms. A dozen smaller log cabins, crouched like baby ducks around their mother, sat tucked within cozy little clearings among the towering evergreens to the right of the main building. The road she’d so laboriously climbed ended in a small turnaround beside a split-log fence. A mud-streaked Kermit-green Jeep and a black pickup truck showing some wear in the rusted-out fenders sat on the hard-packed ground beyond the fence.

Lily edged through the opening in the fence and parked next to the big Dodge Ram. Before she shut off the motor, she closed the top on the convertible and rolled the windows up. Already the seats and the dash were covered by a fine layer of dust, and she could only imagine what it was going to look like in another few days. Not that she planned on driving up and down the mountain any more than she had to. As in not until she was headed…somewhere…in September.

That was a decision for another day.

Lily pocketed the key fob and her phone, climbed out, and stretched.

“Lily!”

Lily’s heart lifted, a flood of pleasure she hadn’t experienced in so long her throat tightened. Sarah hurried toward her, looking as she always did, a smiling picture of old-fashioned wholesome in a short-sleeved plaid shirt, faded jeans, and hiking boots, her honey-brown hair caught back in a ponytail, her smile so warm and welcoming Lily teared up for no reason she could imagine. Hurrying toward her oldest friend, she blinked the telltale moisture away. Then she was in Sarah’s arms, her head on Sarah’s shoulder, holding on as if Sarah might suddenly disappear as quickly as the morning mist.

“Oh my God,” Sarah whispered, her voice husky. “You’re here. You’re actually here.”

For just a moment, Lily could only nod. Swallowing around the unexpected and slightly embarrassing emotion, she forced her grip to loosen and pulled back to meet Sarah’s gaze. “I am. And you look amazing as always.”