Red Lily

pregnant.”
    “God, do I have to spell the word out for you?” Not sure if she wanted to weep or rage, she yanked the test stick out of her pocket. “There, read it yourself. P-R-E—”
    “Hold it.” He took the stick from her, stared at it. “When did you find out?”

    “Just today, now. A little while ago. I was in Wal-Mart, getting some things. I forgot Lily’s diapers and bought mascara. What kind of a mother am I?”
    “Quiet down.” He rose, took her shoulders and nudged her onto the stool. “You’re all right? I mean it doesn’t hurt or anything.”
    “Of course it doesn’t hurt. For Christ’s sake.”
    “Look, don’t crawl up my ass.” He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck as he studied her. Much, she thought, as he did his plants-in-progress. “It’s my first day on the job. How much are you pregnant?”
    “Pretty much all the way.”
    “Damn it, Hayley, I mean how far along, or whatever you call it?”
    “I think about six weeks. Five or six.”
    “How big is it in there?”
    She dragged a hand through her hair. “I don’t know. About as big as a kernel of rice.”
    “Wow.” He stared at her belly, laid a hand on it. “Wow. When does it start to move around? When does it get, like, fingers or toes?”
    “Harper, can we focus here?”
    “I don’t know any of this stuff. I want to know. You need to go to the doctor, right?” He grabbed her hand. “We should go now.”
    “I don’t need to go to the doctor now. Harper, what are we going to do?”
    “What do you mean what are we going to do. We’re going to have a baby. Holy shit!” He plucked her right off the stool and a half a foot off the ground. The face he tilted up to hers was split with a dazzled grin. “We’re going to have a baby.”
    She had to brace her hands on his shoulders. “You’re not mad.”

    “Why would I be mad?”
    Now she felt dizzy, overwhelmed, shaken to the core. “Because. Because.”
    He lowered her, slowly, back onto the stool. And now his voice was careful and cool. “You don’t want the baby.”
    “I don’t know. How can I think about what I want? How can I think at all?”
    “Pregnancy affects brain waves. Interesting.”
    “I—”
    “But, okay, I’ll do the thinking. You go to the doctor so we’re sure everything’s okay in there. We get married. And next spring we have a baby.”
    “Married? Harper, people shouldn’t get married just because—”
    Though he leaned back against the worktable, he still managed to hedge her in. “In my world, where the sky’s blue, people who love each other and are having babies get married all the time. Maybe this is a little ahead of our regularly scheduled program, but it’s the kind of bulletin you pay attention to.”
    “We had a regularly scheduled program?”
    “I did.” He reached over to tuck her hair behind her ears, then tugged gently at the ends. “I want you, you know I do. I want the baby. We’re going to do this right, and that’s the way it’s going to be.”
    “So you’re ordering me to marry you.”
    “I had planned to charm you into it, at some point a little farther down the road. But since the timing’s changed—and pregnancy’s jammed your power of thought—we’re going this way.”
    “You’re not even upset.”
    “No, I’m not upset.” He paused a moment as if taking stock. “A little scared, a lot awed. Man, Lily’s going to love this. Baby brother or sister to torment. Wait till I tell mybrothers they’re going to be uncles. What till I tell Mama she’s going to be a . . .”
    “Grandmother,” Hayley finished and nodded, subversively pleased to see a flicker of doubt in his eyes at last. “Just how do you think she’s going to feel about that?”
    “I guess I’ll find out.”
    “I can’t—just can’t take all this in.” She pressed the heels of her hands to her temples as if it would stop her head from spinning. “I don’t even know what I’m feeling.” Dropping her hands in her lap, she stared at him. “Harper, you don’t think this is a mistake?”
    “Our baby’s not a mistake.” He gathered her in, felt her breath give a hitch as she struggled with tears. “But it’s one hell of a surprise.”

eighteen
    H E WENT IN and out of a daze for the rest of the day. There was a lot to be considered, worked out, planned. The initial steps were crystal to him, as clear and precise as the initial steps in any graft.
    They would get Hayley into the doctor, get