Page 63 of Tempting as Sin
“You sure can,” Lily said. Clay was behind her, but Bailey didn’t look at him. She wasn’t sure yet what was going on. Lily said, “He wants to be petted. The cone confuses him. He keeps bumping into things.”
“Does it hurt him?” Bailey asked. She scratched Chuck behind the ears, and he flopped down and rolled over. When she scratched his belly, he started kicking with his back leg in the way that always looked funny, like he was trying to scratch himself, and she felt better.
“No,” Lily said. “It’s so he doesn’t lick his incisions, where he’s stitched up, because that would keep them from healing. He needs to wear it today and tomorrow, and then we can take it off, if everything looks good.”
“Did they cut his balls off?” Bailey asked. “It looks like they’re still there.”
Clay made a sort of choking sound and said, “Yeah. They did. He may be a little, ah, swollen just now. Hard to tell what’s missing.”
“My mom’s old boyfriend Ray said he’d never cut a dog’s balls off,” Bailey said. “Dogs who have their balls cut off won’t fight.”
“Some people would say that’s a good thing,” Clay said.
He was Lily’s boyfriend now. Bailey could tell. Probably Lily wouldn’t want Bailey to come here very much anymore. When you got a boyfriend, you didn’t want kids around. That was OK. Bailey didn’t have to come, as long as she could still take Chuck. It was OK.
Lily said, “I need to leave for the shop pretty soon. You’ll get your new clothes dirty doing my gardening, but you’ll have clean ones to change into.”
Bailey had made another pair of shorts yesterday, dark blue this time, and a yellow T-shirt. They’d been easier to do, even though Hailey had still sewed the special parts on the neck and the sleeves. She’d said that they could do another shirt next week, and she’d show Bailey and she could do that one herself, because she was talented. “Talented” was usually for girl things like gymnastics and ballet, but Hailey said you could be talented at sewing, too.
Lily said, “At least, you’ll have clean clothes if that’s your laundry in those bags.” She was wearing a long skirt today, sort of silky and flouncy, and high heels like always. Lily always wore different clothes, and she always looked like a popular girl, but she didn’t talk like it, not in that mean way, like everybody knew the joke except you.
“Yeah,” Bailey said. She picked up the two plastic bags she’d hung over her handlebars.
“Come on,” Lily said. “I’ll show you how the washer works.”
“I know how,” Bailey said. “I do it for my grandma.”
Lily stopped. “You do?”
“Uh…yeah.” Bailey wished Clay would say something. He was making her nervous. His eyes were that shiny color again. He was definitely Lily’s boyfriend now. “But she has to drive me in the car to the Laundromat and then come back at the end, and she doesn’t like to go out that many times. Because of her disease. If she walks too many steps, she coughs a lot.” She knew her clothes didn’t smell good. They smelled like cigarettes and sort of like Chuck used to, not like detergent. Chanel Parker had pinched her nose shut every time when Bailey was in her reading group, and said, “P.U. Something stinks.” And most of the girls had laughed.
She told Lily, “I don’t have any quarters, though. You need quarters for laundry.”
Lily dropped down beside her. Bailey thought she was going to hug her, and she stayed still and pulled her arms close to her body. But all Lily did, after a second, was pet Chuck and say, “You don’t need quarters. My washing machine is free. This looks like it’ll all fit in one load. Come on.” She stood up. “Let’s go get that started. My machine could be different from the Laundromat’s, you never know. Rafe’s—Clay’s going to stay around today some, too, and do some yard work for me, since he has a day off. He can switch the load to the dryer when it’s done, since it’s up too high for you to reach.”
Bailey stood up and backed off a step. “That’s OK. I don’t need him to.” She was supposed to stay with Chuck. It was supposed to just be her andChuck.She wasn’t sure what to do.
Clay was still standing away from Lily. He finally said something, and his voice was really calm, like the guys on the news on TV. “I have an idea,” he told Lily. “I have some things I need to do at the cabin. Why don’t we have Bailey take the morning shift, in the garden and with Chuck? You can leave after lunch, Bailey, and I’ll come by this afternoon, feed Chuck, and take over the dog-sitting. As for the dryer, all we need to do is move a stepstool up there, and you can reach it yourself.”
“Perfect idea,” Lily said, in a too-cheerful voice like a social worker, and Bailey wanted to run again, except she couldn’t, because of Chuck. “Come down the hill when you’re done, Bailey. I have a secret plan for the two of us this afternoon. We’re sneaking away for half an hour.”
Something was weird. Bailey took another step back. Lily said, “Well, not asecretplan. I’m getting my hair trimmed by my friend Rhonda, and I thought you might want to get yours done, too.”
Bailey looked at her for minute, trying to figure it out, and Lily said, “Or I’ll just get mine done, if you’d rather not, and you can hang out with Hailey.”
“OK,” Bailey said. She liked Hailey. She was like her friend Crystal’s great-grandma. Crystal had been her friend in Arizona, and her great-grandma was like on a TV show. Kind of fat, like Bailey’s grandma, but jolly, and her hair was white and puffy, like cotton balls. She had glasses on a chain around her neck with beads like Hailey, too. Lily was nice, but she was fancy. Hailey was more normal.
Clay said, “I’ll take off, then.” He bent down near Bailey, and she stood still, but he just thumped Chuck on the shoulder and said, “Hang in there, buddy.” Then he put an arm around Lily, kissed her on the cheek, said, “Consider your lawn mowed,” and left.
Twenty minutes later, Lily punched buttons, then pulled out of the driveway and headed down the hill as she listened to the phone ring.
Three rings, and Rafe’s voice over the speakers. “Hey.”
One word, and half her tension left her. Nobody did “calm” like Rafe. “Was that as bad as I thought?” she asked him.
“Yeah,” Rafe said. “I think it was. Poor kid. Good thing her grandma’s got her, I’d say. She’s tough, though, and you’ve got enough heart for two. It’ll work out.”
“Will it?” Lily asked. “I’m so…sobothered.It was like she picked up on the sexuality, and she shut down. Isn’t that what I was seeing? And you were wonderful.” She was tearing up again. Great. She pressed two fingers under an eye to push the tears back and said, “Your mother must be an amazing woman.”
