Red lily

number of uncomplimentary things about you, Roz.”

“Oh, tell.”

“Well, um. Scheming harlot for one.”

“I always wanted to be called a harlot. People just don’t use the word enough these days.”

“That’s what started getting my back up. I thought maybe she was entitled to call me ungrateful, because I was.” Jane fisted her hands on her hips, jutted her chin in the air. “My apartment’s not a rathole, it’s just sweet, but with her tastes it might seem like it, and she didn’t know Carrie—my boss?—so she might think she’s brainless to give me a chance. But she had some nerve calling you names when she’s the one who stole from you.”

Jane squared her shoulders, gave a decisive nod. “And I said so.”

“To her face.” Hooting out a laugh, Roz framed Jane’s face in her hands. “I couldn’t be more proud.”

“Her eyes almost bugged out of her head. I don’t know where the words came from. I don’t have much of a temper, but I was so mad. I just cut loose on her, said all the things I hadn’t hardly let myself think when I was living with her, and waiting on her hand and foot. How she was mean and spiteful and no one had an ounce of affection for her. How she was a thief and a liar, and she was lucky you hadn’t called the police on her.”

“Get you.” Hayley gave her an elbow nudge. “That’s better than tossing her out the window.”

“And I wasn’t even done.”

“Keep right on going,” Hayley prompted.

“I said I’d beg on the street before I’d come back and be her whipping girl. Then I told her to get out of my apartment.” Jane threw out an arm and pointed. “I gestured, just like this? Sort of over the top, I guess, but I was wound up. She said I’d regret it. I think she might’ve said I’d rue the day, but I was so stirred up I didn’t pay much mind. And she left.”

She blew out a breath, waved a hand in front of her face. “Whew.”

“Why, Jane, you’re a Trojan.” Roz took her hand, gave it a squeeze. “Who’d have thought?”

“It didn’t end there, exactly. She tried to have me fired.”

“That bitch.” Hayley’s face darkened. “What did she do?”

“She went to Carrie, told her I was a woman of loose morals, how I’d had an affair with a married man, and that I’d stolen from her when she’d graciously taken me into her home. Said she felt it was her Christian duty to warn Carrie about me.”

“I’ve always thought there were special front row seats in hell for Christians such as Clarissa,” Roz commented.

“When Carrie called me into her office and told me she’d been there, what she’d said, I was sure I was going to be fired. Instead she asked me how I’d stood living with that horrible old crow. That’s what she called her. And the fact that I had told her I had a lot of patience and fortitude, which she thought were good qualities in an employee. Since I had them and had proven I was willing to work hard and learned fast, she was giving me a raise.”

“I like Carrie,” Hayley decided. “I’d like to buy her a drink.”

“THERE’S NOTHING BETTER than a happy ending.” Unless, Hayley decided, it was sitting in the shade on the glider, sipping a cold drink while Lily played on the grass. And Harper swung beside her.

“It’s always a happy ending when Cousin Clarissa gets the heave-ho. She used to terrorize me when I was a kid, whenever she came around. Before Mama booted her out.”

“Know what Jane said she called your mama?”

“No.” The relaxed expression on his face settled into cold stone. “What?”

“A harlot.”

“A . . .” The stone broke into a huge, rolling laugh that had Lily clapping her hands. “A harlot. God, Mama would love that.”

“She did. You really know her, don’t you? It was just such a good morning. Pushed all the bad stuff away awhile. Seeing somebody who’d discovered themselves the way Jane has, or is, I guess. The one time I met her before? She was practically invisible. Now’s she’s, well, she’s pretty hot.”

“Yeah? How hot?”

She laughed, elbowed him. “Never you mind. One cousin at a time.”

“Exactly what kind of cousins are we anyway? I’ve never figured it out.”

“I think your daddy and mine were third cousins, which makes us fifth. At least, I think. Maybe we’re fourth cousins once removed. It could be third cousins, twice removed. I can never get it just right in my head. And there’s half blood in there, too with my great-grandmother’s second marriage—”

It was probably just as well he stopped her mouth with his. “Kissing cousins covers it,” he decided.

“Works for me.” Because it did, she leaned in to take his mouth again.

Lily interrupted with a few squawks and babbles, tugging on Harper’s legs until he hauled her up. Curling her arm around his neck, she pushed Hayley back.

“Well, I guess that shows me.” Amused, Hayley leaned in again, and Lily pushed her back and wrapped tighter to Harper.

“Girls are always fighting over me,” he said. “It’s a curse.”

“I bet. That one you were with last New Year’s Eve looked like she could scratch and bite.”

He smiled at Lily. “I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Oh, yes, you do. The blonde with about a yard of hair and perfect Victoria’s Secret breasts.”

“Yeah, the breasts are coming back to me.”

“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.”