Second Chance Summer(52)

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 somewhere, she had to admit. Her anger was a cover-up for the real emotion that was clogging her throat—fear. Fear for her, because she wasn’t good at needing and wanting someone, and that made her vulnerable. She hated being vulnerable.

And in any case, she was much better at being independent 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 claimed half of her family, and he did it in the worst, most dangerous 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 apartment the temperature of a refrigerator.

She’d left the windows 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 time she touched anything. 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 mom had sent. Ashley was smiling.

“Let me guess, it’s because you don’t have to load wood anymore,” Lily said, picking up the baby-blue cashmere scarf that she’d left alongside the photo. She wrapped it around her neck, feeling the incredible softness of it like it was a hug from above. Lily buried her face in the cashmere, remembering the last time she’d seen Ashley wear it. They’d been on bikes—racing each other, of course. Ashley had been in the lead and she’d glanced back at Lily, laughing wildly, the blue cashmere flying out behind her.

For a long moment Lily stood there, lost in the memory. Then, needing to 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. The window rolled 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 some serious ass.

“Long time no see,” she said to Lily. “Nice look.”

They both eyed Lily’s cute sundress and Uggs. “I’m freezing my parts off. I forgot how cold it gets at night here in Timbuktu.”

“Yeah,” Penny said. “But since it’s so gorgeous here, I tend to forgive it.”

“I’m working on that.”

Penny’s smile faded. “You doing okay?”

“Sure.”

“I’m not just being polite,” Penny said. “I really want to know. Are you doing okay being back? It’s got to be hard—or so I’m guessing, since it took you ten years to do it.”

Lily sighed. “Yeah. I’m sorry I didn’t keep in touch.”

“No apology necessary. You’re making some changes at the salon, I hear. That facial you gave Aidan made his face look smoother than a baby’s butt. If I come in, can you make my face look smoother than a baby’s butt?”

“Absolutely,” Lily said.

“And maybe while you work your magic, you’ll tell me all about what’s going on between you and my brother-in-law,” Penny said in a casual tone that was in direct opposition to her obscene brow waggle.

Lily kept her cool. “That won’t take long, since there’s nothing going on.”

Penny studied her a beat and then smiled. “Do you know what I do for a living these days?”

“No.”

“I’m an investigator for an insurance company, and I happen to specialize in reading people. That’s how I know you’ve told me two lies in two minutes.”

“I …” Lily shifted her weight. “Well, not two whole lies.”

“First lie,” Penny said, holding up a finger. “You’re not fine. And the second …” She added another finger to the first. “There is something going on between you and Aidan, some sort of relationship. I just don’t know what.”

Lily managed a laugh. “You know as well as I do, Aidan isn’t all that interested in relationships.”

“You’re wrong there,” Penny said. “He’s actually extremely attached to the people in his life and protects his relationships with them like a dog with a bone.” She let that sink in a beat. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll come into the Mane Attraction this week. Maybe we can have drinks after and count the ways in which the Kincaids drive us crazy.”

“You’re married to one of them,” Lily pointed out.

“Which makes me an expert on counting the ways …”

Lily laughed, and when Penny drove off she went back to the woodpile. All she needed were two, maybe three logs. That would warm the place up enough to get going. She carefully chose her logs, surprised at how heavy they were with last night’s rain soaked in. Damn, maybe she needed to lift fewer cookies and more weights.

She stacked the logs in her arms and climbed the stairs. At the top, something dropped from her load and hit the landing. Then it ran over her feet and vanished.

She screamed, took a step back, and—