Lydia chuckled and bumped Eve with her shoulder. “Oh, shut up.”
Eve giggled. “Is it serious? Or…”
“Definitely ‘or’. It’s been a fun couple of days, and I’m sure we’ll keep in touch more than we have in the past, but neither of us are in a place where we’re ready for something like what you and Aspen have going on.”
Eve’s stomach twisted uncomfortably at Lydia’s assessment of hers and Aspen’s relationship. “Yeah, that’s…”
When she didn’t finish the thought, Lydia asked, “Eve? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Eve protested weakly. It wasn’t a lie. Nothing was wrong. Everything was the same as it’d been two minutes ago. Aspen was filling the role of her plus-one for the gala weekend, and tomorrow she’d be flying back to New York.
She blinked when Lydia grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her up short. “What?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’?” Lydia frowned. “You got all sad when I talked about you and Aspen. What’s going on?”
Eve licked her lips and looked up the trail at Aspen, who was wiping snow off her face and rounding on Jack like she was going to throw him into one of the snowbanks that lined the trail. Aspen had shed the lightweight jacket she’d startedthe hike in and was looking particularly handsome in her forest green flannel with the sleeves rolled to just below her elbows, and Eve’s heart wrenched at the idea of losing her in a little more than a day’s time. “It’s…” She sighed. “Complicated.”
“Complicated, how?”
Maybe it was the concern so plainly etched in Lydia’s expression, or the number of years they’d been friends, but the truth spilled out of Eve in a torrent. “Complicated like I met her for the first time Wednesday evening because Michael asked her to fill-in as my plus-on for the weekend when he couldn’t get out of work. Complicated like she lives here and has her own business, and I live in New York City. Complicated like she can’t—” Eve’s throat tightened too much with emotion for her to get anything else out, but she didn’t need to say anything else. The understanding that was dawning on Lydia’s face was enough to tell her that she’d more than made her point.
“Oh shit,” Lydia murmured.
Eve nodded and pulled her sunglasses off to wipe at her eyes.Oh shitwas a rather apt description of the situation. “Yeah.”
“You’ve seriously only known each other for…” Lydia’s voice trailed off as she did the math. “Like two and a half days?”
“Pretty much,” Eve confirmed as she put her sunglasses back on.
“Damn. No offense, but I didn’t think you had that in you.” When Eve shrugged in a way that signaled she didn’t disagree, Lydia said, “Well, you guys aren’t just gonna end things after this weekend, are you?”
“We haven’t talked about it.”
“You haven’t…” Lydia gaped at her. “Why the fuck not?”
Eve shrugged. “It hasn’t come up.”
“So bring it up,” Lydia said, like it was the easiest thing in the world.
A small smile quirked Eve’s lips in spite of the heaviness of their conversation as she watched Aspen shove a snowball down the back of Kit’s shirt. Her stomach fluttered when Aspen turned to her with a triumphant grin before scampering away from Kit’s reach, and she sighed as she turned back to Lydia. “It’s only been two and a half days, Lyds.”
“And you both look at each other like you’re the only two people in the world,” Lydia retorted in a tone that said she thought Eve was being an idiot. “Seriously, you’re like a couple of newlyweds or something. Like, I get it, long distance sucks, but it’s not an insurmountable hurdle. It’s not like either of you are hurting for cash and can’t afford plane tickets.”
Eve conceded that point with a small nod. “Yeah, but…”
“But, what?”
“What if it doesn’t work out?” Eve whispered.
“Oh, Eve,” Lydia sighed. “But what if it does?” When Eve just pulled a face and didn’t respond, she said, “Just do me a favor and think about it. Okay? I know you treasure your independence, and believe me, I get it, but you are going to regret it if you let her go without at leasttrying.”
Eve’s heart squeezed as she watched Aspen ruffle a hand through her hair as she turned to find her, and she lifted her camera to capture the carefree set of Aspen’s shoulders and the way her skin seemed to absorb and radiate with the warmth of the sun shining down on them. “Do you think it’s that easy?”
Lydia frowned. “Do I think what’s easy?”
“Being happy,” Eve whispered, letting her camera fall.
“Yeah, Eve.” Lydia gestured toward Aspen, who was loping back down the trail toward them with a thoroughly endearing smile. “With her, I think it really would be.”
