Red Lily (In the Garden 3)

She reached up, took off his sunglasses, looked into his eyes. “How about you?”

“I’ve been taking it in. I love her, Mama.”

“I know you do. Are you happy, Harper?”

“I’m a lot of things. Happy’s one of them. I know this isn’t how you’d hoped I would do things.”

“Harper, it doesn’t matter what I hoped or want.” Carefully she selected a blue aster, set it in the hole she’d already dug. Her hands worked, tucking it in, patting the earth as she spoke. “What matters is what you and Hayley want. What matters is that little girl, and the child you’ve started.”

“I want Lily. I want to marry Hayley and make Lily mine, legally. I want this baby. And I know it might seem like I’ve just dropped a pill into a glass of water. Pow, instant family, but . . . Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.”

“I’m entitled to cry when my firstborn tells me he’s making me a grandmother. I’m damn well entitled to a few tears. Where the hell is my bandanna?”

He pulled it out of her back pocket, handed it to her.

“I’ve got to sit all the way down a minute.” She plopped down on her butt, wiped her eyes, blew her nose. “You know this day’s going to come. From the moment you hold your child in your arms, you know. It’s not your first thought, even a conscious one, but it’s there, this knowledge that the thread’s spinning out. Life cycles. Women know them. And gardeners. Harper.”

She opened her arms to him. “You’re going to be a daddy.”

“Yeah.” Because he could, he always could, he pressed his face to the strong line of her neck.

“And I’m going to be a grandmama. Two for one.” She drew back, kissed his cheeks. “I love that little girl. She’s already ours. I want you and Hayley to know I feel that way. That I’m happy for you. Even if you did manage to do this so the new baby arrives during our busiest season.”

“Oops. Didn’t think of that.”

“I forgive you.” She laughed, then pulled off her gloves so she could take his hands, flesh to flesh. “You asked her to marry you?”

“Sort of. Mostly I told her she was going to. And don’t give me that look.”

Her eyebrows stayed raised, her eyes steely. “It’s exactly the look you deserve.”

“I’m going to take care of it.” He looked down at their joined hands, then lifted hers, one by one, to his lips. “I love you, Mama. You set the bar high.”

“What bar is that?”

He looked back up, into her eyes. “I couldn’t settle for anybody I loved or respected less than I love and respect you.”

Tears swam again. “I’m going to need more than that bandanna in a minute.”

“I’m going to give her the best I’ve got. And to start, I’d like to have Grandmama’s rings. Grandmama Harper’s engagement and wedding rings. You said once when I got married—”

“That’s my boy.” With her lips curved, she kissed him lightly. “That’s the man I raised. I’ll get them for you.”

ONE OF THE other things he’d never imagined was how he’d propose to a woman. To the woman. A fancy dinner and wine? A lazy picnic? A giant WILL YOU MARRY ME? on the scoreboard screen at a game.

How weak was that?

The best, he decided, was the place and the tone that suited them both.

So he took her for a walk in the gardens at twilight.

“I don’t feel right about your mother riding herd on Lily again. I’m pregnant, not handicapped.”

“She wanted to. And I wanted an hour alone with you. Don’t—don’t go there. God, it’s getting so I can see what’s going on in your head. I’m crazy about Lily, and I’m not going to spend time telling you what’s so damn obvious.”

“I know. I know you are. I just can’t settle into all this. It’s not like I went jumping into bed all over two states. But here I am, for the second time.”

“No, this time is different. This is the first time. See that flowering plum?”