Blue Dahlia

beautiful.”
    “Six pounds, eight ounces,” the nurse announced and carried the wrapped bundle to the bed. “Eighteen inches. And a full ten on the Apgar.”
    “Hear that?” Hayley cradled the baby in her arms, kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her tiny mouth. “You aced your first test. She’s looking at me! Hi. Hi, I’m your mama. I’m so glad to see you.”
    “Smile!” David snapped another picture. “What name did you decide on?”
    “I picked a new one when I was pushing. She’s Lily, because I could see the lilies, and I could smell them when she was being born. So she’s Lily Rose Star. Rose for Rosalind, Star for Stella.”

nineteen

    EXHAUSTED AND EXHILARATED, STELLA STEPPED INTO the house. Though it was past their bedtime, she expected her boys to come running, but had to make do with an ecstatic Parker. She picked him up, kissed his nose as he tried to bathe her face.
    “Guess what, my furry little pal? We had a baby today. Our first girl.”
    She shoved at her hair, and immediately got the guilts. Roz had left the hospital before she had, and was probably upstairs dealing with the kids.
    She started toward the steps when Logan strolled into the foyer. “Big day.”
    “The biggest,” she agreed. She hadn’t considered he’d be there, and was suddenly and acutely aware that her duties as labor coach had sweated off all of her makeup. In addition, she couldn’t imagine she was smelling her freshest.
    “I can’t thank you enough for taking on the boys.”
    “No problem. I got a couple of good holes out of them. You may need to burn their clothes.”
    “They’ve got more. Is Roz up with them?”
    “No. She’s in the kitchen. David’s back there whipping something together, and I heard a rumor about champagne.”
    “More champagne? We practically swam in it at the hospital. I’d better go up and settle down the troops.”
    “They’re out for the count. Have been since just before nine. Digging holes wears a man out.”
    “Oh. I know you said you’d bring them back when I called to tell you about the baby, but I didn’t expect you to put them to bed.”
    “They were tuckered. We had ourselves a manly shower, then they crawled into bed and were out in under five seconds.”
    “Well. I owe you big.”
    “Pay up.”
    He crossed to her, slid his arms around her and kissed her until her already spinning head lifted off her shoulders.
    “Tired?” he asked.
    “Yeah. But in the best possible way.”
    He danced his fingers over her hair, and kept his other arm around her. “How’s the new kid on the block and her mama?”
    “They’re great. Hayley’s a wonder. Steady as a rock through seven hours of labor. And the baby might be a couple weeks early, but she came through like a champ. Only a few ounces shy of Gavin’s birth weight, though it took me twice as long to convince him to come out.”
    “Make you want to have another?”
    She went a few shades more pale. “Oh. Well.”
    “Now I’ve scared you.” Amused, he slung an arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go see what’s on the menu with that champagne.”
     
    HE HADN’T SCARED HER, EXACTLY. BUT HE HAD MADE her vaguely uneasy. She was just getting used to having a relationship, and the man was making subtle hints about babies.
    Of course, it could have been just a natural, offhand remark under the circumstances. Or a kind of joke.
    Whatever the intent, it got her thinking. Did she want more children? She’d crossed that possibility off her list when Kevin died and had ruthlessly shut down her biological clock. Certainly she was capable, physically, of having another child. But it took more than physical capability, or should, to bring a child into the world.
    She had two healthy, active children. And was solely and wholly responsible for them—emotionally, financially, morally. To consider having another meant considering a permanent relationship with a man. Marriage, a future, sharing not only what she had but building more, and in a different direction.
    She’d come to Tennessee to visit her own roots, and to plant her family in the soil of her own origins. To be near her father, and to allow her children the pleasure of being close to grandparents who wanted to know them.
    Her mother had never been particularly interested, hadn’t enjoyed seeing herself as a grandmother. It spoiled the youthful image, Stella thought.
    If a man like Logan had blipped onto her mother’s radar, he’d have been snapped