Red Lily (In the Garden 3)

“That’s a terrible thing to say!”

“You started it. Amber,” he said with a chuckle as he lifted the baby high over his head to make her laugh.

“Of course. She looked like an Amber.”

“She’s a corporate lawyer.”

“She is not.”

“God’s truth.” He held up a hand like a man taking an oath. “Beautiful doesn’t have to mean bimbo, of which you are living proof.”

“Good save. Were you serious—and forget that spilled out. I hate when women, or men for that matter, poke into past relationships.”

?

??You showed me yours. Not serious. She didn’t want serious, neither did I. She’s focused on her career right now.”

“You ever been serious?”

“I’ve approached the parameter of serious a few times. Never crossed over into the zone.” He sat Lily between them, snugging her in so she could swing.

Better leave it at that, Hayley told herself. Leave it comfortable with the three of them lazing on the glider with the bees humming in the hazy heat and the flowers bursting through it with bold summer colors.

“This is the best part of summer,” she told him. “Evening shade. It seems like you could sit where you are for hours, without a single important thing to do.”

“Don’t want to get away from here awhile?”

“Not tonight. I wouldn’t want to leave Lily two nights running.”

“I was thinking we could take her to get some ice cream after dinner.”

Surprised, she looked over. Then wondered why she’d been surprised he’d suggest it. “She’d love that. So would I.”

“Then it’s a date. In fact, why don’t we go out, get a burger and finish it off with ice cream?”

“Even better.”

STEAMY JULY MELTED into sweltering August, days of white skies and breathless nights. It seemed almost normal, almost peaceful as day blended into day.

“I’m starting to wonder if just finding out her name was enough.” Hayley potted up pink and yellow pentas. “Maybe the fact we worked to find it, and how she’s Roz’s great-grandmother’s, satisfied her, calmed her down.”

“You think she’s done?” Stella asked her.

“I still hear her singing in Lily’s room, almost every night. But she hasn’t done anything mean. Every once in a while I feel something, or sense something, but it fades away. I haven’t done anything weird lately, have I?”

“You were listening to Pink the other day, and talking about getting a tattoo.”

“That’s not weird. I think we should both get tattoos—a flower theme. I’d get a red lily, and you could get a blue dahlia. I bet Logan would think it was wicked sexy.”

“Then let him get the tattoo.”

“Just a little one. A girly one.”

“I think girly tattoo is an oxymoron.”

“Absolutely not,” Hayley protested. “Flowers, butterflies, unicorns, that kind of thing. I bet I could talk Roz into getting one.”

The idea had Stella tossing back her red curls and laughing. “Tell you what, you talk Roz into getting a tattoo and . . . Nope, I still won’t join the party.”