Red Lily

what happened. In any case, it’s something we’re all involved in, so word should spread.”
    “It’s a little embarrassing to have word of my sex dreams spreading.”
    “It wasn’t like that. Besides, nothing wrong with a good sex dream.”
    “I’d as soon the next one I have be all my own idea.” She tipped back the beer, watching him. “You look a little like him, you know.”
    “Sorry?”
    “Reginald, especially now that I’ve seen him in what you could call a more intimate situation. Something more personal than an old photograph. You’ve got the same coloring, and the same shape to your face—your mouth. His build’s not as good as yours.”
    “Oh. Well.” He lifted his beer, drank deep.
    “He was slim, but soft. Like his hands. And he was older than you, a little gray in the hair. And some hard lines coming in around the mouth, out from the eyes. But still, very handsome, very virile.”
    She got Lily’s sip-cup of juice and her music cube out of the diaper bag. Bribing her, she lifted her away from Harper and set her on the floor.

    “You got better shoulders, and no pudge right here.” She poked her finger into his belly.
    “Okay.”
    Lily sat down with her music cube, playing with it so it switched from “This Old Man” to “Bingo.”
    “I noticed all that,” Hayley said, “seeing as we were all naked and sweaty.”
    “I bet.”
    “I especially noticed the resemblance—the similarities and the differences because when I started out fantasizing—my own part of it—it was with you.”
    “It was . . . what?”
    Okay, a little shocked, but more confused, she decided, and moved in. “It started with you, something like this.”
    She slid a hand around to the back of his neck, rose up on her toes. She stopped, her lips a whisper from his, to savor that instant when the breath catches and the heart stumbles. Then she closed the distance.
    Soft, as she’d imagined it would be soft. And warm. His hair was a silky weight on the back of her hand, and his body such a pleasure to press against.
    He’d gone so still, but for his heart that slammed against hers. Then she felt his hand on her back, the fist he made as he gathered her shirt in his fingers.
    On the floor, Lily’s music cube was a jubilant crash of sound.
    She made herself ease back. One step at a time, she reminded herself. Though her belly was quivering, she did her best to take a casual sip of beer while he stared at her with those dark eyes.
    “So, what do you think?”
    He lifted a hand, then dropped it again. “I appear to have lost the capability for rational thought.”
    “When you get it back, you’ll have to let me know.”

    She turned to gather the baby’s things.
    “Hayley.” He reached out, grabbed her by the waistband of her jeans and tugged. “Uh-uh.”
    Her belly jumped, joyfully. She glanced over her shoulder. “Which means?”
    “The short way of saying you don’t walk in here, kiss me like that, then walk out again. Question. Was that a demonstration to catch me up with what’s happening with Amelia, or was it something else?”
    “I’ve been wondering what it would be like, so I decided to find out.”
    “Okay.” He turned her around, glanced down to be sure Lily was still occupied, then backed her into the counter.
    His hands were at her hips when his mouth met hers. As his tongue dipped in, an intimate taste, those hands slid up, cruising over her, setting off little charges under her skin.
    Then he stepped back, rubbed a thumb over her tingling lips. “I’ve been wondering what it would be like, too. So I guess we both know.”
    “Looks like,” she managed.
    Since Lily came over to tug at his pants, Harper boosted her up on his hip. “I guess it’s complicated.”
    “Yeah, it is. Very. We’ll need to take it slow, think it all the way through.”
    “Sure. Or we can say screw that and I can come to your room later tonight.”
    “I . . . I want to say yes. I’m thinking yes,” she said on a rush. “Yes is screaming inside my head and I don’t know why yes isn’t coming out of my mouth. It’s exactly what I want.”
    “But.” He nodded. “It’s okay. We should give it a little time. Be sure.”
    “Be sure,” she repeated, and hurried to pick up Lily’s things. “I need to go, or I’ll forget about a little time andbeing sure, because, man, you sure can kiss. And I need to get Lily ready for bed. I don’t want to mess things up, Harper. I so don’t