Red Lily

she tightened the band that held her mass of curling red hair into a tail. “Maybe you’re just a little nervous on the board? You know, taking that dive into the dating pool again.”
    “I’ve never been nervous about dating. It’s one of my primary skills. I like going out. And I know if I wanted to, you or Roz, or David would take care of Lily.” The knowledge brought on another stab of guilt for the resentful thoughts that had wormed into her mind. “I know she’d befine, so that’s no excuse. I just can’t seem to get myself in gear.”
    “Maybe you just haven’t met somebody who makes you want to oil the gears and get them moving again.”
    “I guess . . . maybe.” She took another long drink, braced herself. “The thing is, Stella . . .”
    When the silence dragged on, Stella glanced up from the pot she was building. “What’s the thing?”
    “First you gotta promise, swear that you won’t tell anybody. Even Logan. You can’t say anything.”
    “All right.”
    “You absolutely swear?”
    “I’m not going to spit in my palm, Hayley. You’ll have to take my word for it.”
    “Okay. Okay.” She walked down the aisle between tables, then back again. “The thing is, I like Harper.”
    Stella nodded encouragement. “Sure. So do I.”
    “No!” Frustrated, mortified to hear herself say it out loud, Hayley set the water down and clamped her hands over her face. “God.”
    It took her a minute for the light to shine. “Oh,” Stella said with her eyes going wide. “Oh. Oh,” she repeated drawing out the syllable. Then she pursed her lips. “Oh.”
    “If that’s the best you can do, I’m going to have to hit you.”
    “I’m trying to take it in. Absorb it.”
    “It’s crazy. I know it’s crazy.” Hayley dropped her hands. “I know it’s not right, it’s not even on the table. But I . . . forget I said anything. Just highlight and hit delete.”
    “I didn’t say it was crazy, it’s just unexpected. As far as not being right, I don’t follow you.”
    “He’s Roz’s son. Roz, the woman who took me in off the street.”
    “Oh, you mean when you were penniless, naked, andsuffering from some rare, debilitating disease? It was saintly of her to take you in, clothe you and spoon-feed you broth night after night.”
    “I’m allowed to exaggerate when I’m being a fool,” Hayley snapped. “She did take me in, she gave me a job. She gave me and Lily a home, and here I am imagining how I can get naked and sweaty with her firstborn.”
    “If you’re attracted to Harper—”
    “I want to bite his ass. I want to pour honey all over his body then lick it off an inch at a time. I want to—”
    “Okay, okay.” Stella held out one hand, laid the other on her heart. “Please don’t put any more of those images in my head. We’ll just agree you’ve got the hots for him.”
    “Major hots. And I can’t do anything about it because we’re friends. Look how screwed up things got for Ross and Rachel. Of course Monica and Chandler’s a different story, but—”
    “Hayley.”
    “And I know this isn’t a television show,” she muttered over Stella’s roll of laughter. “But you know how life imitates art? Besides, he doesn’t think about me that way.”
    “The honey-licking way?”
    Hayley’s eyes went blurry. “Oh God, now I’ve got that image in my head.”
    “Serves you right. Anyway, are you sure he doesn’t think of you that way?”
    “He hasn’t made a move, has he? It’s not like there haven’t been opportunities. And what if I made a move on him, and he was just, like, horrified or something?”
    “What if he wasn’t?”
    “That could be even worse. We’d have ourselves some wild jungle sex, then after we’d both be . . .” She lifted her hands into the air, waved them wildly. “Oh God, what’ve I done, and all awkward with each other. And I’d have totake Lily and move to Georgia or somewhere. And Roz would never want to speak to me again.”
    “Hayley.” Stella patted her on the shoulder. “This is just my impression, just my opinion, but I’m fairly sure Roz knows Harper has sex.”
    “You know what I mean. It’s different when he’s having sex with women she doesn’t know.”
    “Oh yes, I’m sure she’s perfectly delighted that her son has sex with strangers. Strangers to her, anyway,” she added with a laugh. “And naturally she’d be appalled to learn that he might be intimate with a woman she knows and