“Yeah. You still wanna go see those mares this week?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, I’ll carry you there, then?”
Lily smiled at Jack’s Southern speech. “That’d be great.” Lily backed out of the driveway and watched as the receding figure of Jack stood in front of the farmhouse, watching Lily drive away.
CHAPTER 15
When Lily came into the living room to announce that dinner was ready, she found Jack lying on her back on the floor, holding up Mimi, whose little arms were outstretched like the wings of an airplane.
“She’ll play airplane forever,” Lily said. “My arms get tired before she does.”
“Not mine. If I can carry a calf, I can play airplane with a baby girl.”
Lily and Mimi had gone with Jack this afternoon while she vaccinated the mares. Mimi had played in a pile of sweet-smelling hay while Lily had sketched the beautiful animals.
Lily had been planning on cooking dinner for Ben and Ken tonight, and so she had invited Jack to join them. She was making ratatouille with fresh vegetables Granny McGilly had brought them from her garden. A one-dish meal could always be stretched to feed one more person.
The only creature in the household who seemed to object to Jack’s presence was Mordecai. When he saw his veterinarian walk in the door, he had slunk down the hall and hidden under Mimi’s crib. Jack had lured him out with Milk-Bones and assurances that she was not there in an official capacity.
Ben and Ken were cuddling on the couch. Lily had never seen her “husband” so happy. For as long as she’d known him, Ben had a cynical streak that was equally likely to express itself in dark humor or sulkiness. Since Ken had arrived on the scene, Ben’s sulkiness had disappeared entirely.
Lily, Jack, Ben, and Ken sat companionably around the dinner table. For a moment it reminded Lily of her and Ben’s old days with Dez and Charlotte, except that Ken lacked Dez’s flamboyance, and Jack ... Jack was not Charlotte.
After dinner, Ben announced that he and Ken were going back to Ken’s place for dessert.
Lily grinned as she cleared the dinner dishes. “I bet I know what’s on the dessert menu.”
Jack laughed. “Not been married half a year, Lily, and he’s already stepping out on you.”
Ben’s face reddened, but he was laughing.
“You just be sure not to fall asleep over there,” Lily warned. “You need to be spending the night at home, like a dutiful husband.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t neglect my husbandly duties.”
With Ben and Ken gone and Mimi tucked into bed, Lily and Jack sat together on the couch, coffee in hand.
