Page 31 of Tempting as Sin
“I told you so,” Bailey muttered from where she was standing beside Rafe.
“It’s not a porno store, actually,” Lily said, holding onto her composure. “Nothing so exciting. It’s a lingerie shop. We specialize in bra fittings, things like that.”
Ruby said, “Huh. I went to school with Hailey Daniels. Hailey Robinson, now. She was always a little out there. Always reading, and she had weird friends. Who knows where that led her. Kind of like Bailey.”
“Oh,” Lily said, “I wouldn’t say that Hailey’s out there. I know I couldn’t run the shop without her. And I’ve already noticed that Bailey has a curious mind. That’s a good thing, surely.”
“Yeah, well,” Ruby said, “maybe so and maybe not. Didn’t help her mom all that much. Curious’d herself right into prison, and right into every drug there is, too, her whole damn life. Curious’d herself right up to every loser guy she ever met. Curious’d her so much, it finally killed her.”
You could call it a startling remark. Beside Rafe, Bailey had gone still, but Ruby didn’t seem to notice. She just took another squinty-eyed look at Rafe. He should practice that look in the mirror. Very Western-sheriff. She went on, once she’d given him the message, “A little less curious and a little more minding your own business, that’s what I say. I mind my own business, and that’s what Bailey ought to be doing.”
Rafe would guess that Lily was biting her tongue hard. He knew he was, and he didn’t even know the “out-there” Hailey Robinson, matriarch of the porno store.
“I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter,” Lily said, standing up. Ruby just nodded, but something flickered in her eyes, and Rafe realized the bravado was partially a front. Lily would have seen that, too. She said, “We won’t keep you from your program anymore. I hope you’ll let Bailey visit. If you want to come up and check out my place, that’s fine, too, of course. Any time you want to drop by.”
“Of course she can visit,” Ruby said. “Why shouldn’t she? Just kick her out if she bugs you. She talks a lot, but other than that, she’s a good kid.”
Lily said, “All right, then. Thank you.” She stood up and turned to go, and Rafe thought,finally.Real life was one thing. This was something else. “Oh,” Lily said, turning back. “I almost forgot. Do you mind if Bailey rides her bike with me to Walmart?”
Ruby had already turned her show up. Now, she lowered the volume and said, “What?”
“We were going to ride our bikes to get dog food,” Lily said. “Is that all right?”
“Sure,” Ruby said. “I don’t care.”
It was a ways out to Walmart, all the way to the edge of town. Lily was glad for the time.
She’d had her moments, growing up, of feeling sorry for herself. She’d been crazy.
This must be the kind of thing Paige dealt with every day. Lives this marginal, and kids who’d never known anything else. She wanted to…hitsomebody. She wondered how Paige kept from doing it.
Right on cue, her phone rang. And because she could walk and chew gum at the same time these days, she pulled it out of her pocket and answered it. “Hey, sweetie. I was just thinking about you.”
“Uh-oh,” Paige said. “Did Rafe show up? Jace just told me he was heading up there ahead of schedule.Casually.I said you might have wanted some notice, and he said, ‘They seemed fine with each other in Aussie, at least towards the end.’ He’s an idiot.”
“Oh, no,” Lily said. “It’s fine. Yes, he showed up, and that’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be fine?”
“I don’t know,” Paige said. “You tell me.”
“Can’t talk now,” Lily said. “I’m riding my bike.”
“Are you kidding? Hang up. You have no idea how dangerous that is.”
Lily laughed, shoved the phone back in her overalls pocket, and thought,I was more than crazy. I was delusional.She hadn’t just had parents. She’d had atwin.
Plus, when Rafe had passed her and Bailey five minutes earlier, Chuck had still been barking.
She’d bet Rafe’s retreat, or whatever he called it, wasn’t going one bit the way he’d planned. She’d never been big on revenge before, but she found she could get on board with this.
Rafe said, “Good news. I think my ears have stopped ringing.” He and Lily each had a shopping cart. He tried to remember when he’d last been in this kind of store, and couldn’t. And he wasn’t minding a bit.
Bailey was sitting in the car with Chuck. In the shade, with the windows open halfway. “He’s scared,” the girl had said. “He might try to break out or something.” That gave Rafe a few minutes with Lily. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with them, but he’d think of something.
Just now, he was telling her, when she would have lugged a forty-pound bag of dog food into her cart, “Why do you think I’m here? Stop that.” He lifted it into his own cart, then said, “I’m getting another one for my place,” and did it. “In case you’re not home.”
“Put them in my cart,” she said. “I’m paying for this.”
“Do me a favor. Chuck’s a shared dog. That means we share this.”
