Red Lily

relationship with Dory, or anyone else, past or present, then ask. But don’t come tearing into me with accusations.”
    “I saw—”
    “Maybe you saw what you were ready to see. That’s on you, Hayley. Now I’ve got work. If you’ve got any more to say about this, then say it after hours.”
    He strode off toward the pond, leaving her no choice, as she saw it, but to storm away in the opposite direction.
    “T HEN HE HAD the nerve, the nerve to snap at me and act like I was in the wrong.” Hayley paced back and forth on Stella’s front porch while Lily raced over the lawn after Parker. “Acting like I’ve got a dirty mind or that I’m some crazy jealous witch because I have a reasonable and legitimate complaint about him slobbering all over another woman. And in front of my face.”
    “Before you said she was slobbering over him.”
    “It was mutual slobbering. And when I walked in on them, after seeing all this going on through the door, he acts like it’s nothing. He doesn’t even have the grace to look embarrassed or nervous.”
    “So you said.” Twice, Stella thought, but she understood the nature of female friendship and didn’t mention the repetition. “Sweetie, we’ve both known Harper for some timenow. Don’t you think he would’ve looked embarrassed if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t?”
    “I guess I just don’t mean enough to him for it to embarrass him.”
    “Now stop. That’s not true.”
    “It feels true.” Hayley slumped to the steps. “It feels awful.”
    “I know.” Sitting beside her, Stella wrapped her arm around her shoulders. “I know it does. I’m so sorry you were hurt.”
    “He doesn’t even care.”
    “Yes, he does. Maybe what you saw hit you wrong because of the way you feel about him.”
    “Stella, he kissed her.”
    “He’s kissed me, too.”
    “It’s not the same.”
    “If you hadn’t met me before, and you saw him kiss me, what would you think?”
    “Before or after I mentally ripped your lungs out through your nose?”
    “Ouch. I’m not saying it didn’t look bad, but that you might have, possibly, misinterpreted. I’m saying that because I know Harper, and because of his reaction.”
    “You’re saying I overreacted.”
    “I’m saying, if I were you, I’d want to find out for sure.”
    “He slept with her. Okay, okay,” she muttered when Stella stared at her. “Before, and before is before, blah blah. But she was so pretty. She had a great body, and those dark, exotic eyes. And this sheen, you know, this polish. Oh, hell.”
    “You’re going to go talk to him.”
    “I guess.”
    “Want me to keep Lily while you do?”
    “No.” Hayley let out a long sigh. “She needs her suppersoon, and besides, if I take her with me we’re not as likely to yell at each other.”
    “All right. You can call me if you want, let me know how it goes. Or you can just come back over. I’ll break out the Ben and Jerry’s.”
    “Way I’m feeling, I’ll need a full quart.”
    S HE HAD L ILY ’ S hand in hers when she knocked on the door of the carriage house. He hadn’t been long out of the shower, she noted when he answered. His hair was still damp. But if the grim set of his face was any barometer, it hadn’t cooled him off.
    “I’d like to talk to you.” She said it briskly. “If you have the time.”
    He simply bent down to pick up Lily who’d already wrapped her arms around his leg. He turned, without a word for Hayley, and carried the baby back toward the kitchen. “Hey, pretty girl. Look what we got here.”
    One-handed, he opened a cupboard, took out a couple of plastic bowls, then rooted through a drawer for a big plastic spoon. He set them, and Lily, on the floor where she immediately went to town banging.
    “Want a drink?” he said to Hayley.
    “No, no, I don’t. I want to ask you—”
    “I’m having a beer. You want any milk or juice for Lily?”
    “I didn’t bring her sippy cup.”
    “I have one.”
    “Oh.” The fact that he did threw her off, made her heart start to melt. “She could have a little juice. You have to dilute it.”
    “I’ve seen the routine.” He fixed the juice, handed it to Lily, then got out a beer. “So?” He took a long gulp.
    “I wanted to ask—No, I wanted to say that I know wehaven’t made any sort of commitment to each other. But sleeping with someone is a form of commitment to me, enough of one that it’s insulting to see the person I’m sleeping with