Red Lily (In the Garden 3)

“How about now? Harper, I’m going to steal your girl for a few minutes. There’s something I want to show her.”

Without waiting for a response, Roz hooked an arm through Hayley’s and led her out of the room and toward the stairs.

“You giving any thought to the sort of wedding you want?”

“I—no. It’s so much.”

“I’m sure it is.”

“Harper . . . he said something about getting married here.”

“I was hoping. We could use the ballroom if you want something splashy. Or the gardens and terrace if you want something more intimate. Y’all discuss it and let me know. I’m dying to dive in, and I plan to be very opinionated, so you’ll have to watch me like a hawk.”

“You’re not mad.”

“I’m surprised you’d say such a thing to me.”

“I’m trying to put myself in your place,” Hayley said as they climbed the stairs. “And I can’t quite get there.”

“That’s because you’ve got your own place. I like having mine to myself.” She turned toward her wing.

“I didn’t get pregnant on purpose.”

At the entrance to her bedroom, Roz paused, looked Hayley squarely in her swimming eyes. “Is that what’s going on in your head? Me thinking this is calculated on your part.”

“No—not exactly. A lot of people would.”

“I’m pleased to say I’m not a lot of people. I’m also a superior judge of character, with only one major stumble in my illustrious career. If I thought less of you, Hayley, you wouldn’t be living in my home.”

“I thought . . . when you said we had to talk.”

“Oh, that’s about enough of this business out of you.” Roz walked over to the bed, opened the box that sat on it. She lifted out what looked like a pale blue cloud.

“This was Harper’s blanket, what I had made for him right after he was born. I had one made for each of my boys, and they’re one of the things I saved to pass on. If you have a girl, you’ll use something of Lily’s or want something new and feminine. But I hope, if you have boy, you’ll use this. In either case, you should have this now.”

“It’s beautiful.”

Roz held it against her cheek a moment. “Yes, it is. Harper is one of the great loves of my life. There’s nothing I want more on this earth than his happiness. You make him happy. That’s more than enough for me.”

“I’ll be a good wife to him.”

“You damn well better be. Are we going to sit down and have a cry now?”

“Oh yeah. Yeah, that’d be good.”

WHEN SHE LAY beside him in the dark, she listened to the steady, drumming rain.

“I don’t know how I can be so happy and so scared at the same time.”

“I’m right there with you.”

“This morning, it felt like everything crashed down on my head, like a whole bookcase, and every book smacked me with the hard edge. Now it turns out it was flowers falling, and I’m covered in all these soft petals and perfume.”

He took her hand, the left, the one where her thumb kept rubbing along her third finger. The ring was in its box on the dresser. “I’ll get it to the jeweler tomorrow.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to feel about being married to somebody who reads my mind.” Then she rolled over onto him, tossed back her hair. “I think I can read yours, too. And it goes something like this.”

She lowered her lips to his.