I smoked the last two cigarettes from the pack on the porch as the setting sun backlit the trees ringing the lakeshore in a molten yellow, totally dazzling, though my thoughts were a thousand miles away. I played over our conversation, savoring his words, analyzing how his voice had sounded; it had been good to hear his humor, if just for an instant. I’d been so glad to hear his voice; even with the distance between us it resounded in the deeps of me, places that had never been touched before him. I loved my girls unequivocally, and my family, but there was something so powerful between Blythe and me that I could sense, if not exactly define. And it was astonishing to me, certainly nothing I’d been seeking, nor even realized I’d needed until I’d found him. I wrapped my arms hard around myself, which I had been doing plenty these days. I closed my eyes against the tail end of the sunset light, letting it bathe my eyelids with the last of the day, picturing Blythe and his teasing grin, the love in his smoky eyes.
