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Alex pulled her closer and whispered in her ear. “I think what I’m hearing you say is that you want me to take your clothes off and ravish you in my bed?”
Lily laughed, her hand dropping to Alex’s abs and over the taut curve of one hip. Then her hand stilled as she felt it under her fingertips, the unmistakable shape of it burning into her skin. She stepped back, her breath gone. Alex looked confused and started to reach for her, then followed Lily’s gaze to the front of her pants.
“Lily, let me explain.” Alex’s words fell from her mouth in a rushed scatter, every one of them louder than they needed to be. “I mean, I can’t actually, but it’s not what you think.”
“What do you mean you can’t explain?” Lily’s eyes filled with tears. “You’re clearly not thinking of me with that, or you would have just told me, so what other explanation can there be?”
“Shit.” Alex raked a hand through her hair and paced toward the bathroom. “Lily, you’re going to have to trust me here. I can’t tell you why I’m packing, and I know that sounds laughable, but it’s the truth.” She paused, reaching out for Lily’s hand. “But I’m not cheating on you. I wouldn’t do that.”
“Really?” Lily said, betrayal quickly honing her words to a razor’s edge. “If it’s not for me, then who is it for?”
Alex paled, and she shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her khaki trousers. “I can’t tell you. Not yet.” She looked up, her jaw tense. “And I know that just sounds like an excuse, but it’s not.”
Lily took another step back, her arms crossed tightly across her chest. The tears burning the backs of her eyes blurred her vision with liquid anger as she tried to think of a reason Alex wouldn’t be able to tell her why she was packing. The clear truth was that the reason didn’t even matter. She wasn’t wearing it for her, and that was all she needed to know.
“Just tell me one thing truthfully, Alex.” Her voice was a wounded scrape, and she blurted out the rest of the sentence as if she couldn’t wait to push the words as far away from her as possible. “Where were you just now? Before you came back to the cabin?”
Alex’s shoulders dropped, and she stepped back to lean against the bunk bed frame.
???“Just…” Lily’s words dropped at the speed of her heart. “Tell me.”
Alex looked into her eyes and spoke, her words strangely flat. “I was at Charlotte’s cabin.”
Lily’s tears blinded her with their sudden heat, and she swiped at them with her forearm as she picked her bag back up and put it on her shoulder, the world turning under the ball of her foot as she headed for the door.
“Lily, wait.”
Alex put her hand on her shoulder to stop her, and Lily shook it off. She turned to tell Alex she’d known it was going to happen anyway, that she’d known all along, but the words disappeared. She backed out of the cabin, willing Alex to meet her eyes, until she realized there was a reason she couldn’t look at her. Lily watched Alex crumple to the floor before she made herself turn and walk away.
* * *
“Hey, there!” Sara gave Lily a quick hug at the door, almost tipping over a nearly empty bowl of ice cream in one hand. “I didn’t know you were coming over.”
It didn’t take long for Sara to notice Lily’s tearstained face and motion her in, guiding her to the living room with her arm around her shoulders. A phone rang in the background, and Sam glanced their way with a worried look as she went to grab it off the kitchen counter.
“Lily, what’s wrong?” Sara led Lily over to the leather couch and handed her a glass of water. “What happened?”
“I just can’t…” Lily just shook her head and wiped her face with the sleeve of her faded jean jacket. “Talk about it.” She paused, glancing back at Sam, who was still on the phone. “Not yet anyway…” She stopped abruptly and took a deep breath to steady herself. “I just came to ask if maybe I could stay the night in your old cabin next door?”
Sara nodded, taking the box of tissues from the table and handing it to her. “Of course you can. It might be a bit dusty, but the sheets are clean, and there might even be a bag of Hershey’s Kisses in the fridge if Sam hasn’t found them.” She paused as Lily took a handful of tissues and twisted them in her lap. “But what’s going on? Are you sure you don’t want to talk about it?”
Lily shook her head slowly and met Sara’s eyes for the first time. “I’ll just come over tomorrow, and we’ll talk, okay?”
Sam walked toward the couch from the kitchen, clicking her cell phone off and dropping it in her pocket. Lily looked up, her eyes red and swollen. “What did she say?”
“What did who say?” Sara shook her head, looking back at Sam as well. “What am I missing?”
“I told Alex we’d take care of you.” Sam put a warm hand on Lily’s shoulder and squeezed it gently. “She just wanted to know if you were here and safe, but she didn’t tell me anything else, and I didn’t ask.”
Lily nodded and buried her face in her hands, her narrow shoulders shaking with the quiet sobs. When she gathered herself and looked up again, Sam had returned with a shot of whiskey in a rocks glass with no rocks, then whispered to Sara that she was going to go catch the last of the pickup game in town with Moxie and drive her home. She leaned down to give Sara a quick kiss and let herself out, scooping her keys off the hall table as she went.
Sara offered Lily the whiskey, but she waved it off as she reached for more tissues.
“So,” Sara said, downing a long sip of the whiskey as she looked out the windows to the expanse of night sky. “Tell me what happened. It might all be a mistake.”
“Well, I saw Alex and Charlotte hugging today on the docks.” Lily rubbed her eyes with her fingertips and looked up, taking the glass out of Sara’s hand. “But I brushed it off and went into town to eat dinner at the diner. But when I came home to the cabin after, I guess I surprised her.”
“And?” Sara sat cross-legged on the leather couch, clutching the fuzzy throw from the back. “Please don’t t
