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Lacey laughed. “Has anyone underestimated the power of phone sex? What do you think people did before the internet when they weren’t in the same place?”

I turned on my side and wished she was here so I could see her face. “Erotic letters?”

“If you waited for the postal service to get yourself off, you’d be waiting a long time,” Lacey said, and I dissolved into giggles.

“I miss you,” I blurted out in the post-orgasmic haze.

Lacey let out a breath. “I miss you. I know you were just here, but I do. What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Just cleaning and working on my website and other random things,” I said. Sterling and Kai had gotten me into the Sunday chore routine.

“Shit, I need to do a lot of things too. How about we do what we need to get done and then you come over for dinner again? And since we’re going to the same place on Monday morning, you can just stay over. If you want.”

That sounded just about right to me.

“Should I bring something?” I asked. It seemed only fair since she was doing all the cooking.

“Just that hat, and yourself. And if you wanted to pick up something for dessert.”

I pretended to gasp. “But I thought I was dessert?”

She chuckled. “Okay, bring something for second dessert. Since you’re the first.”

“I’d better be.”

We both sighed at the same time and I wanted to reach through the phone and pull her until she was in this bed right next to me.

“I should let you get some sleep after we stayed up so late last night,” she said, and a part of me wanted to beg her to stay on the phone with me until I drifted off, but that was silly. I had slept many hundreds of nights without her and only one with her. I could handle it.

“I guess,” I said reluctantly. “Just let me know what time to come over tomorrow.” I’d have to go to Castleton and grab something from Sweet’s. Something decadent.

“I will,” she said, her voice low. “Sweet dreams, princess.”

“Sweet dreams, Lacey,” I said and ended the call.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I was naked and it took me a second to remember the phone sex session with Lacey from the night before. I’d even forgotten to take off the hat, so it was on the bed right next to me.

I got up and dressed, getting ready for a chore day. I did all the dishes and dried them before getting down to business and cleaning and wiping everything down. The worst part was dumping the dirty water, which Sterling did for me since I wasn’t comfortable driving the van and never would be. Maybe it was bad of me to rely on her to do that, but she had offered. Sterling also checked the solar panels and the power and the fridge and everything like that. She’d learned so much about so many things and it made me feel like I knew nothing when she walked me through her maintenance routine.

“And how are things with Lacey?” Sterling asked as she checked the fan and then sat on the bed facing me. I’d swiveled the passenger seat in the van all the way around to face her. She kicked her feet and grinned at me.

“I’m going over for dinner tonight and staying the night. She also wants to come and stay with me in the van for whatever reason,” I said, touching one of the fairy lights.

“You should bring her over. We can have dinner in the house and then you two can have a romantic van date. Put up the projector screen and everything.” My sister and I had very different ideas of what constituted a romantic date. Sure, I liked watching a movie as much as the next person, but I’d rather do it in a living room, and especially in a place with access to a real bathroom with a flush toilet.

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

She was silent for a little while as she studied me, her head tilted to the side. “You’re happier lately. You laugh and you smile and it’s good to see. Whenever I talked to you when you were living in Boston you were never smiling.”

That was absolutely not true.

Was it?

“I can assure you, I was happy in Boston. Why do you think I’m working so hard to get back there?” Everything I had done since I’d lost my job and apartment had been in service of clawing my way back. Well. Except for everything with Lacey. That was actively steering me away from what I wanted, but I couldn’t help myself. I was addicted to being around her.

Sterling nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced. “I think you’ve been telling yourself that.”