Page 107 of Tempting as Sin
“She’s really bossy,” Bailey piped up. “She tells Martin what to do all the time, when he’s there.”
“True,” Martin said. “Also, honey, a teeny little bug in your ear, because it’s really all about me. You’re a fabulous buyer. Great selection. Nothing over-the-top pricey, nothing too trendy or sleazy. I’m very, very good at mail-order, as we know, and I’d love to run the admin side of a business. Not the creative side, alas. We all have our strengths. But we could do such a gorgeous catalog and website. Narrow focus, customer-centric. Oh, the research.”
“We, eh,” Rafe said, full-on amusement on his face now.
“You know I’m underemployed,” Martin said. “I can arrange your schedule and meet with your bookkeeper in my sleep. Also—delegation.I’dabsolutelyloveto be a boss. Especially if it involved frequent trips to Sinful to check up on things.” A teasing glance at Ezra that wasn’t teasing at all.
Bailey was looking worried, Lily saw. That wouldn’t do. “And my perfect life has Bailey in it,” she said firmly. “Bailey and her pony. My perfect life has Bailey in it forever.”
Rafe sighed. “Now you’ve done it. You’ve said the f-word.”
“That’s not the f-word,” Bailey said, but she wasn’t looking worried anymore.
“It’s the hard one for Lily,” Rafe informed her. “And it may be the hard one for you. It’s hard to believe in forever when you’ve had too many endings. But maybe all those endings just brought you both here, did you think of that? It’s all in how you look at it. I’m the unluckiest bloke in the world, or I’m the luckiest. I tend to go with ‘luckiest.’ So far, so good, anyway. I’ve helped keep the girls I love safe from a grizzly. How much luckier can you get?”
“Maybe luckier,” Lily said. “Or not. Depending.”
Rafe had started out looking a little nervous, then increasingly confident. Now, he was back to “nervous” again. That was nothing to howshefelt. “Tell me,” he said. She looked around, and he made an impatient gesture and said, “I don’t care. I need to know now.” He tried to laugh, but didn’t seem able to. “Tell me now.”
Rafe couldn’t believe it. If this was what he thought it was… He couldn’t believe it.
He was always cool. Always calm. The Drama-Free Zone. Except now.
Lily said, “I called Paige this morning. She and Jace are having a baby. Isn’t that exciting?”
“Oh,” Rafe said. “Her twin, and my brother,” he told the others, in case anybody didn’t know. Well, Jo probably didn’t, although if it didn’t have to do with horses, she probably didn’t care, either. He tried not to be disappointed.That’s madness, mate,he told himself.It’s been, what? Five weeks? Less?He couldn’t quite get himself to “not disappointed,” though.
Never mind. He had enough to be going on with. He’d already had more answer out of Lily, more certainty, than he could have hoped for. The rest, he’d work on. If he kept on being lucky—and he intended to—he’d have a lifetime to do it.
“And then I realized,” Lily said, and he focused on her again, “that there was a reason I didn’t already know she was pregnant, that I hadn’t already felt it. Because it just felt like me. Even more than usual.” She shook her head and tried to explain to Jo. “We’re identical twins. We feel the same, even though we’re not the same. We feel each other, I guess.”
“You realized,” Rafe prompted. Bugger Jo.
“I thought,” she told him, “that I’d just…check. So when I went to the store this morning, I got the kit, and I checked.” Her color was rising, and she was talking faster. “I was going to tell you later today. I wasn’t at all sure what you’d think. I wasn’t going to tell you in front of everybody, because I need to know what youdothink. But I’m going to say this. I want this baby. I’m having this baby. Bailey’s going to be a wonderful big sister, and if you’re not ready to be a dad, I’ll…I’ll…” She tried to go on, but nothing happened for a minute. “I’ll be so sorry,” she finally said. “My heart will break. But I’ll live with my broken heart, and I’ll love with it. I’ll love Bailey, and I’ll love whoever this is, and I’ll love you, too. I’ll keep on loving you. I don’t think I can stop. The only thing I can’t live with is a lie. Please, Rafe.” Her eyes were shining, her mouth trembling. “Don’t tell me a lie.”
“Sweetheart.” He took a step closer. “We’re going to have a baby?” He laughed, and then he didn’t. He looked away, at the garden, at everything Lily had planted and tended, at everything she loved, and then he looked back at her. “Really?”
“Yes. That’s what seems to be happening.” Her cheeks were all the way pink now, and she lowered her voice and said, “When I came back from Australia, and, ah…the, ah, shower. And Paige and I usually have the same cycle, which is why I didn’t guess, maybe. But, yes. I am. Barely, but it counts. I am.”
It probably didn’t make sense to anybody else, which was fine. It made sense to him. “No,” he said.“Weare. Bloody hell. Crikey. I’m gobsmacked.” Nobody else had said a thing, and he said, “You lot don’t need to hang about anymore. Except Bailey.” He told Jo, “A bit of a change of plan. Take them back, will you? I’ll let you know when the stable’s built. You’ve got, ah, the check. We’re good. Feed. Boarding. All that. Martin will handle it. And you,” he told Lily, “stay here. Or—wait. Should you be out here in the heat?”
She was laughing. “Rafe, I’m fine. I’m wonderful.”
“Oh. Then stay here. One minute. All right, maybe five. Bloody hell. I need to go to my place.” He started to leave, then came back, took her in his arms, kissed her as thoroughly as he could possibly manage, so she’d know he meant it, and said, “I’m gobsmacked. I love you. Wait for me.” Then he got in his car and took off.
It wasn’t five minutes, but it wasn’t ten, either, before he got back. Jo was still putting Starlight back in the horse box, in any case, though the other two horses were inside, but Martin and Ezra were gone. Good.
“Don’t mind me,” Jo said, continuing to walk the horse up the ramp. “I don’t like people. I like horses. Less complicated. I have a client in an hour, and all three of these to take care of. Damnedest way I ever saw to waste a morning. Why don’t you just go on and say it, stop all this pussyfooting around?”
“That’s the plan,” Rafe said, then ignored her. He told Bailey, “You can stay, if you like.”
“No, thanks,” she said. “Chuck’s barking, and you’re just going to kiss Lily some more.”
She headed inside, and Lily said, “Bailey, wait,” then went to her, knelt right there on the driveway, put her hands on the girl’s shoulders, and said, “Whatever happens, you’re staying with me. Unless you want to go home to your grandma, or she wants you to, and even then—when she gets sick again, you’re staying with me. Got it?”
“Yeah,” Bailey said. “I have to, I guess. Because of the pony.”
Lily laughed and hugged her close. “That’s right. Because of the pony, and Chuck, and the goats, and Rafe, and sewing, and Hailey, and everything. You’re staying with me.” She waited until Bailey had walked up the steps to the porch and gone inside, then said to Rafe, “We should sit on the porch swing, at least. Don’t you think?”
