Black Rose

her.
    “Really? That’s not what you said when you begged me to buy them.”
    “That was before.”
    Perhaps in sympathy, perhaps for the fun of it, Lily stopped banging her teething rattle and threw it—along with her mangled Zwieback. The eagle-eyed Parker fielded the Zwieback before it hit the floor, and the rattle landed with a solid plop in Luke’s bowl of Cap’n Crunch.
    Milk fumed up and over the rim of the bowl, causing Lily to scream in delight. In a chain reaction, Parker let out a spate of ear-piercing barks and did canine flips while Gavin doubled over in hysterics.
    Stella was quick, but for once Luke was quicker and had the rattle out of the bowl and tossed, dripping, into his brother’s lap.
    “Oh, for God’s sake.” Stella grabbed a napkin with one hand and held up the other to block Gavin’s retaliation. “Don’t even think about it.”
    “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Hayley scooped up the bowl, more napkins as the boys shoved at each other.
    A calm in the storm, David walked over with a damp rag. “We’ll mop it up. Troublemaker,” he said to Lily, who answered him with a huge, crumby grin.
    Roz studied the chaos, and just beamed.
    “Morning,” she said and strolled in.
    Heads turned.
    “Roz?” Stella stared at her. “What are you doing here?”
    “Since I live here, I thought I’d come in and get myself a cup of coffee.” She bent down to brush a kiss over the top of Lily’s head. “Hello, boys. That baby’s got pretty good aim, doesn’t she? Two-pointed it right in the goal.”
    The idea was so intriguing the boys stopped fighting. “Do it again, Lily!” Luke tugged on his mother’s sleeve. “Give it back to her, Mom, so she can do it again.”
    “Not right now. You’ve got to finish up or you’ll be late for school.” She checked her watch and saw it was indeed just after eight, and a full hour after Roz was usually on her way out the door.
    “My cereal’s got baby spit in it now,” Luke complained.
    “You can have a muffin instead.”

    “Then I want a muffin.” Gavin shoved his cereal aside. “If he can have a muffin, I can have a muffin, too.”
    “Fine, fine.”
    “I’ll get them.” Hayley gestured Stella back. “Least I can do.”
    “Mmm, don’t they smell great?” Roz sniffed at the bowl filled with fresh apple muffins. She plucked one out for herself, then leaned back against the counter, her coffee in one hand, her muffin in the other. “Can’t be a better way to start the day. And look at that rain. Nothing like a good all-day soaker.”
    After Hayley passed out muffins, she bent close to Stella’s ear. “Somebody got her batteries charged.”
    Stella fought to swallow a snorting laugh. “We’ll be out of your way in a minute.”
    “No rush.” Roz bit into the muffin.
    “You’re usually gone, or finishing up before the invasion.”
    “Slept in a little today.”
    “That explains the bulletin I heard on the news this morning about hell freezing over.” David didn’t bother to hide the smirk as he brought the coffeepot over to top off Roz’s mug.
    “Aren’t you full of sass this morning.”
    “I’m not the only one full of something. How’d the... lasagna go over?”
    “Very well.” She gave him a bland look over the rim of her cup, and wondered if she was wearing a sign: Recently Got Laid.
    “You ought to have a nice big helping of it more often. Puts roses in your cheeks.”
    “I’ll keep that in mind.”
    “I could use a nice hot dish of lasagna myself,” Hayley commented. “Come on, baby doll, let’s get you cleaned up.” She took Lily out of the high chair.

    “You guys go up and get your things—including raincoats,” Stella ordered. “It’s almost time to go.”
    But she loitered another minute. “You want to ride over with me?” she asked Roz.
    “I guess I will.”
    STELLA WAITED UNTIL they were starting down the drive. By her calculations, swinging just a half a mile out of the way to drop Lily off at the babysitter’s should give them enough time.
    “We made a lot of progress on the painting last night. It’s going to be nice to have the dining room finished and put together by the wedding. I’d really like to have a dinner party once we’re set. David and all of us, Harper, my parents. Oh and Mitch, of course.”
    “That’d be nice.”
    “He’s around so much—Mitch, I mean—these days, he feels like part of the household.” At Roz’s noncommittal hmmm , Stella glanced in the