Red lily

That’s what she got paid for. Not for flirting, not for spending half the day reminiscing. And certainly not for kissing customers before she waved bye-bye.

She was nearly to the grafting house when she saw him out in the field. He was already crouched down, examining grafts on the magnolias she’d helped him graft and plant weeks before.

He flicked her a glance and a smile as she approached. “Take a look. These are coming along. Couple of weeks we can remove the tape.”

“If you say so.”

“Yeah, they’re looking good. I need to check some of the other ornamentals. I think we’re going to have some nice weeping pears and cherries for next season. Have I shown you the fruiting pears I did? The dwarfs?”

“No. Did your friend get what she was after?”

“Hmm. Yeah.” He rose, walked across to check the balance of the canopies on his weepers. “Kept it simple,” he said absently as he studied the tree. “Low maintenance. What I did here was use pyrus communis for stock—three-year-olds, and grafted three pendulas. You gotta make sure you get the spacing right, so you produce a nice shape.”

“And you know all about shapes.”

“Yeah. I like chip-budding these. I did these two springs ago, and these this spring. See how they develop?”

“I see how a lot of things develop. I was surprised you didn’t go with her, carry the plants to her door.”

“Who? Oh, Dory?” He flipped Hayley an absent look as sarcasm sailed, visibly, over his head. “She’ll be able to handle it. A couple trips.”

He continued to walk, continued to examine.

“Here? For these weeping cherries, I used a semi-dwarfing rootstock. Should make a nice specimen tree for smaller spaces. ’Round October, I’m going to take some ripe shoots from the Colt stock. What you do is bundle them, and drop them root-end down in a trench in the nursery bed, and hill ’em up so they’re about three-quarters buried. Then next spring, we’ll lift the bundles, plant the cuttings, and by summer they’ll be ready to use for rootstocks.”

“That’s all just fascinating, Harper. Did you spend all that time with Dory lecturing her on how to make a damn rootstock?”

“Huh.” His distraction was evident on his face as he glanced around. “She’s not interested in this kind of work. She’s in public relations.”

“Private ones from what I saw.”

“What?”

“I was about to come back and suggest the two of you get a room. You ought to know better than to make out in one of the retail areas.”

This time his mouth dropped open. “What? We weren’t. We were just—”

“Those doors are glass, Harper, in case you’ve forgotten. I saw you, and you ought to have more respect for your workplace than to fool around in one of the public areas during working hours. But as you’re the boss, I guess you can do what the hell you like.”

“My mother’s the boss, and I wasn’t fooling around anywhere. Dory and I are old friends. We were just—”

“Kissing, touching, flirting, making dates. It’s unprofessional, in my opinion, to do that during work hours. But it’s downright rude to do it in front of me.”

“Behind your back would be better?”

Because it echoed her own nasty thoughts, her eyes went hot, searing like suns. “Let me just say, fuck you, Harper.”

Since it was as good an exit line as she could think of when her brain was ready to explode, she turned on her heel. And spun right back when he grabbed her arm.

He didn’t look distracted now, she noted. He looked ice-cold mad. “I wasn’t flirting or making dates.”

“Just kissing and touching then.”

“I kissed her because she’s a friend, a good one, who I haven’t seen in a while. I kissed her the way you kiss a friend. Which is nothing like this, for instance.”

He gave her a yank that threw her off balance so her body collided with his. Then was scooped up, pulled in. He got a fistful of her hair, gave it a quick tug. And had his mouth crushed to hers.

Not sweetly, not warmly, but with the stark heat of raw temper. She struggled, shocked that she was clamped so hard and tight she couldn’t fight her way free. A thread of fear snaked through her anger, and began to tighten just before he let her go.

“That’s how I kiss women I don’t feel friendly toward.”

“You think you have the right to treat me that way?”

“As much as you do to accuse me of doing something, of being something I’m not. I don’t cheat and I don’t lie, and I’m not going to apologize for my behavior. If you want to know something about my relationship with Dory, or anyone else, past or present, then ask. But don’t come tearing into me with accusations.”

“I saw—”

“Maybe you saw what you were ready to see. That’s on you, Hayley. Now I’ve got work. If you’ve got any more to say about this, then say it after hours.”

He strode off toward the pond, leaving her no choice, as she saw it, but to storm away in the opposite direction.

“THEN HE HAD the nerve, the nerve to snap at me and act like I was in the wrong.” Hayley paced back and forth on Stella’s front porch while Lily raced over the lawn after Parker. “Acting like I’ve got a dirty mind or that I’m some crazy jealous witch because I have a reasonable and legitimate complaint about him slobbering all over another woman. And in front of my face.”

“Before you said she was slobbering over him.”

“It was mutual slobbering. And when I walked in on them, after seeing all this going on through the door, he acts like it’s nothing. He doesn’t even have the grace to look embarrassed or nervous.”

“So you said.” Twice, Stella thought, but she understood the nature of female friendship and didn’t mention the repetition. “Sweetie, we’ve both known Harper for some time now. Don’t you think he would’ve looked embarrassed if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t?”

“I guess I just don’t mean enough to him for it to embarrass him.”

“Now stop. That’s not true.”

“It feels true.” Hayley slumped to the steps. “It feels awful.”

“I know.” Sitting beside her, Stella wrapped her arm around her shoulders. “I know it does. I’m so sorry you were hurt.”

“He doesn’t even care.”

“Yes, he does. Maybe what you saw hit you wrong because of the way you feel about him.”

“Stella, he kissed her.”

“He’s kissed me, too.”

“It’s not the same.”

“If you hadn’t met me before, and you saw him kiss me, what would you think?”

“Before or after I mentally ripped your lungs out through your nose?”

“Ouch. I’m not saying it didn’t look bad, but that you might have, possibly, misinterpreted. I’m saying that because I know Harper, and because of his reaction.”

“You’re saying I overreacted.”

“I’m saying, if I were you, I’d want to find out for sure.”

“He slept with her. Okay, okay,” she muttered when Stella stared at her. “Before, and before is before, blah blah. But she was so pretty. She had a great body, and those dark, exotic eyes. And this sheen, you know, this polish. Oh, hell.”

“You’re going to go talk to him.”

“I guess.”

“Want me to keep Lily while you do?”

“No.” Hayley let out a long sigh. “She needs her supper soon, and besides, if I take her with me we’re not as likely to yell at each other.”