Red Lily

a Trojan.” Roz took her hand, gave it a squeeze. “Who’d have thought?”

    “It didn’t end there, exactly. She tried to have me fired.”
    “That bitch.” Hayley’s face darkened. “What did she do?”
    “She went to Carrie, told her I was a woman of loose morals, how I’d had an affair with a married man, and that I’d stolen from her when she’d graciously taken me into her home. Said she felt it was her Christian duty to warn Carrie about me.”
    “I’ve always thought there were special front row seats in hell for Christians such as Clarissa,” Roz commented.
    “When Carrie called me into her office and told me she’d been there, what she’d said, I was sure I was going to be fired. Instead she asked me how I’d stood living with that horrible old crow. That’s what she called her. And the fact that I had told her I had a lot of patience and fortitude, which she thought were good qualities in an employee. Since I had them and had proven I was willing to work hard and learned fast, she was giving me a raise.”
    “I like Carrie,” Hayley decided. “I’d like to buy her a drink.”
    “T HERE ’ S NOTHING BETTER than a happy ending.” Unless, Hayley decided, it was sitting in the shade on the glider, sipping a cold drink while Lily played on the grass. And Harper swung beside her.
    “It’s always a happy ending when Cousin Clarissa gets the heave-ho. She used to terrorize me when I was a kid, whenever she came around. Before Mama booted her out.”
    “Know what Jane said she called your mama?”
    “No.” The relaxed expression on his face settled into cold stone. “What?”
    “A harlot.”
    “A . . .” The stone broke into a huge, rolling laugh thathad Lily clapping her hands. “A harlot. God, Mama would love that.”
    “She did. You really know her, don’t you? It was just such a good morning. Pushed all the bad stuff away awhile. Seeing somebody who’d discovered themselves the way Jane has, or is, I guess. The one time I met her before? She was practically invisible. Now’s she’s, well, she’s pretty hot.”
    “Yeah? How hot?”
    She laughed, elbowed him. “Never you mind. One cousin at a time.”
    “Exactly what kind of cousins are we anyway? I’ve never figured it out.”
    “I think your daddy and mine were third cousins, which makes us fifth. At least, I think. Maybe we’re fourth cousins once removed. It could be third cousins, twice removed. I can never get it just right in my head. And there’s half blood in there, too with my great-grandmother’s second marriage—”
    It was probably just as well he stopped her mouth with his. “Kissing cousins covers it,” he decided.
    “Works for me.” Because it did, she leaned in to take his mouth again.
    Lily interrupted with a few squawks and babbles, tugging on Harper’s legs until he hauled her up. Curling her arm around his neck, she pushed Hayley back.
    “Well, I guess that shows me.” Amused, Hayley leaned in again, and Lily pushed her back and wrapped tighter to Harper.
    “Girls are always fighting over me,” he said. “It’s a curse.”
    “I bet. That one you were with last New Year’s Eve looked like she could scratch and bite.”
    He smiled at Lily. “I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

    “Oh, yes, you do. The blonde with about a yard of hair and perfect Victoria’s Secret breasts.”
    “Yeah, the breasts are coming back to me.”
    “That’s a terrible thing to say!”
    “You started it. Amber,” he said with a chuckle as he lifted the baby high over his head to make her laugh.
    “Of course. She looked like an Amber.”
    “She’s a corporate lawyer.”
    “She is not.”
    “God’s truth.” He held up a hand like a man taking an oath. “Beautiful doesn’t have to mean bimbo, of which you are living proof.”
    “Good save. Were you serious—and forget that spilled out. I hate when women, or men for that matter, poke into past relationships.”
    “You showed me yours. Not serious. She didn’t want serious, neither did I. She’s focused on her career right now.”
    “You ever been serious?”
    “I’ve approached the parameter of serious a few times. Never crossed over into the zone.” He sat Lily between them, snugging her in so she could swing.
    Better leave it at that, Hayley told herself. Leave it comfortable with the three of them lazing on the glider with the bees humming in the hazy heat and the flowers bursting through it with bold summer