Blue Dahlia

excited and ... Oh, wow, I’m having a baby!”
    “You’re going to have a fabulous baby.”
    “The books say things can get pretty tricky during transition, so if I yell at you or call you names—”
    “Been there. I won’t take it personally.”
    By the time Roz arrived, Hayley was ensconced in a birthing room. The television was on—an old Friends episode. Beneath it on the counter was an arrangement of white roses. Stella’s doing, she had no doubt.
    “How’s Mama doing?”
    “They said I’m moving fast.” Flushed and bright-eyed, Hayley reached out a hand for Roz’s. “And everything’s just fine. The contractions are coming closer together, but they don’t hurt all that much.”
    “She doesn’t want the epidural,” Stella told her.
    “Ah.” Roz gave Hayley’s hand a pat. “That’ll be up to you. You can change your mind if it gets to be too much.”
    “Maybe it’s silly, and maybe I’ll be sorry, but I want to feel it. Wow! I feel that.”
    Stella moved in, helped her breathe through it. Hayley sighed out the last breath, closed her eyes just as David strode in.
    “This here the party room?” He set down an overnight case, a tote bag, and a vase of yellow daisies before he leaned over the bed to kiss Hayley’s cheek. “You’re not going to kick me out ’cause I’m a man, are you?”
    “You want to stay?” Delighted color bloomed on Hayley’s cheeks. “Really?”
    “Are you kidding?” From his pocket he pulled a little digital camera. “I nominate myself official photographer.”
    “Oh.” Biting her lip, Hayley rubbed a hand over her belly. “I don’t know as pictures are such a good idea.”
    “Don’t you worry, sugar, I won’t take anything that’s not G-rated. Give me a big smile.”
    He took a couple of shots, directed Roz and Stella to stand beside the bed and took a couple more. “By the way, Stella, Logan’s taking the boys back to his place after school.”
    “What?”
    “Your parents are at some golf tournament. They were going to come back, but I told them not to worry, I’d take care of the kids. Then apparently Logan came by the nursery, ran into Harper—he’s coming by shortly.”
    “Logan?” Hayley asked. “He’s coming here?”
    “No, Harper. Logan’s taking kid duty. He said he’d take them over to his place, put them to work, and not to worry. We’re supposed to keep him updated on baby progress.”
    “I don’t know if—” But Stella broke off as another contraction started.
    Her job as labor coach kept her busy, but part of her mind niggled on the idea of Logan riding herd on her boys. What did he mean, ‘put them to work’? How would he know what to do if they got into a fight—which, of course, they would at some point. How could he watch them properly if he took them to a job site? They could fall into a ditch, or out of a tree, or cut off an appendage, for God’s sake, with some sharp tool.
    When the doctor came in to check Hayley’s progress, she dashed out to call Logan’s cell phone.
    “Kitridge.”
    “It’s Stella. My boys—”
    “Yeah, they’re fine. Got them right here. Hey, Gavin, don’t chase your brother with that chain saw.” At Stella’s horrified squeak, Logan’s laughter rolled over the phone. “Just kidding. I’ve got them digging a hole, and they’re happy as pigs in mud and twice as dirty. We got a baby yet?”
    “No, they’re checking her now. Last check she was at eight centimeters dilated and seventy percent effaced.”
    “I have no idea what that means, but I’ll assume it’s a good thing.”
    “It’s very good. She’s breezing through it. You’d think she had a baby once a week. Are you sure the kids are all right?”
    “Listen.”
    She assumed he’d held out the phone as she heard giggles and her boys’ voices raised in excited argument over just what they could bury in the hole. An elephant. A brontosaurus. Fat Mr. Kelso from the grocery store.
    “They shouldn’t call Mr. Kelso fat.”
    “We have no time for women here. Call me when we’ve got a baby.”
    He hung up, leaving her scowling at the phone. Then she turned and nearly rammed into Harper. Or into the forest of red lilies he balanced in both hands.
    “Harper? Are you in there?”
    “She okay? What’s going on? Am I too late?”
    “She’s fine. The doctor’s just checking on her. And you’re in plenty of time.”
    “Okay. I thought lilies because they’re exotic, and she likes red. I think she likes