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She held his gaze for only a beat before looking away

"We’re going to get to the bottooodie," she said "Sounds like fun" And then she took off down the trail on her own

Chapter 18

Lily slept poorly that night, thinking of what Aidan had said She was mad at him, she realized Not because of Ashley It wasn’t his fault her sister had fallen for hiain, with no effort at all

Also not his fault, a small part of her brain said

She didn’t care She wanted him, quite badly as it turned out, and irrational or not, iton theon all of that

But to fall for Aidan and even consider sticking around as she did in the deep dark of the night?

Insanity

And now she was getting soer was a cover-up for the real e her throat--fear Fear for her, because she wasn’t good at needing and wanting so vulnerable

And in any case, she wasindependent and alone

But that wasn’t all she was afraid of She was also afraid for Aidan It was his job to go up on the mountain that had claierous situations possible, risking his life to save others It changed nothing

She worked all day, and when she got home, tired and out of sorts, it was to find her aparterator

She’d left the s open

Only a few hours earlier it’d been in the nineties and so hot and dry the air had crackled and she’d given herself electroshocks every ti But this was the Rockies, and often the temps dropped drastically with the sun

She blew out a breath and eyed the cute little framed pic of her and Ashley that her uess, it’s because you don’t have to load wood any up the baby-blue cashside the photo She wrapped it around her neck, feeling the incredible softness of it like it was a hug fro the last ti each other, of course Ashley had been in the lead and she’d glanced back at Lily, laughing wildly, the blue cashto feel her fingertips and toes, she kicked off her sandals and shoved her feet into her boots and went outside and down the stairs to the woodpile

She stood and stared at it, trying to will any snakes away

A car drove up and stopped Therolled down

It was Penny She was beautiful, deceptively petite, even dainty, and though Lily didn’t know Penny all that well, she did know that Gray’s wife could kick so time no see," she said to Lily "Nice look"