Page 51 of Tempting as Sin
“Therapy,” he said.
“Are you just going to repeat everything I say? I’m kind of…” He could see her swallow, and he was still in those two places at once. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to kiss her. And he wanted to break something. “I’m kind of hanging it out here,” she said. “You know?”
“Why am I the choice?” he asked, hardening his stupid heart with a major effort. “Besides my spectacular body, of course. Let me guess. Because you can count on me to leave? And here I thought you didn’t believe everything you read.”
She shifted, then lifted her head and looked him in the eye. “Well, yes, that’s what I thought. You’ve been engaged once, and it didn’t work out. In fairly obvious fashion. And that’s as close as you’ve come. I thought—I’m desperately attracted to you, but lots of women are desperately attracted to you, right? You’re used to it. You’re kind about it, I’m sure.”
“You’re fooling yourself,” he said. “I’m not kind about it. I’m laughing about those girls. I sit around the pub with my mates and tell stories.”
“Now you’re mad,” she said. “I thought men liked it when you were upfront. I thought men—I thoughtyou—wanted it free and easy. I’m not twenty-two, but I’m still pretty good, and I’m right here. You wanted to kiss me yesterday. You wanted to do more than that.”
“I did,” he said. “But that was before I knew I was disposable.” Crikey. He sounded like a—all right. He sounded like a disappointed woman.
“I didn’t say disposable,” she said. “I said—”
“Temporary,” he said. “Yeah. Maybe not. Come on, Chuck. Time to go.”
At least thedogthought he was special.
Bailey had gotten to Lily’s shop at the right time, but nobody had shown up. Not Lily, and not the other lady. Not Clay, and not Chuck, either.
Lily had said she should pick up Chuck, right? He was supposed to be here.
She didn’tneedhim to be here. Not really. It was just that Chuck was good for keeping you company. Sometimes the boys were hanging out at the park, and she could play football with them for a while, but not always. Girls didn’t go to the park as much, and girls never let her play anyway. Plus, they did stupid things that weren’t even asport,like clapping your hands and slapping your legs. That looked sort of neat, but it wasn’t like shehadto do it or anything.
Like yesterday, Chuck had been good to have around after she’d gotten the library books. He’d lain down on the grass beside the tree with her, and he didn’t even stink since she and Lily had given him the bath. Bailey had rested her feet under his body, and he’d rolled over so she could scratch his belly while he’d wiggled around with his back on the grass and made grunting noises, because he loved being scratched so much. And when two girls from her class came by and laughed and said something to each other, Bailey didn’t even care. So what? Maybe next year, in fourth grade, when she wasn’t new, she’d have a hundred friends. And anyway, she had Chuck.
Finally, a car pulled up in front of the shop. Lily. Not Chuck, though.
“Hey,” Lily said. She climbed out of the car the way she did everything, as if she was on TV. She even moved her hands that extra-graceful way, like the girls on the game shows did when they were showing off the prizes. “Come on in. Rafe’s—Clay’s—he’s bringing Chuck down in a few minutes.” She opened the door with a key, then said, “Come on back,” and took Bailey into the back room, where she shoved two sandwiches into the fridge and said, “I made too many again.”
Oh. Bailey felt dumb for not realizing yesterday. Lily had brought extra on purpose, but she thought that would embarrass her. Like when you had free lunch, they never said you were on free lunch in front of everybody, even though everyone knew anyway, so it didn’t matter.
Lily had a grocery bag with her. That’s where she’d gotten the sandwiches. She pulled out something that looked like a sort of dark Rice Krispies Treat wrapped up in plastic and said, “I forgot I packed this. Do you want it? It’s what I eat when I don’t have time for breakfast, but I did have breakfast this morning. Are you hungry?”
Bailey took it, but she didn’t unwrap the plastic. Her stomach made a gurgling noise, and she was embarrassed, but Lily didn’t seem like she heard. Bailey asked, “What is it?”
“All sorts of good things,” Lily said. “Oats, dates, chocolate, almond butter, protein powder. Why, what do you like for breakfast?”
“Cereal,” Bailey said, unwrapping a corner of the bar thing and smelling it. It smelled OK. “At least I usually have cereal. If there’s milk. Or a peanut-butter sandwich sometimes.”
“Uh-huh,” Lily said. “This is pretty close, but a little better for you.” She pulled two cartons of eggs out of the bag next and put them on the table. “My chickens laid all these in the past three days. Pretty good, huh?” She opened a carton. “Brown and speckled. So much prettier than plain old white.”
“Do you cook lunch in here?” Bailey asked. “How? You don’t have a stove.” She nibbled a corner off the bar. It didn’t taste like a Rice Krispies Treat, but it was pretty good.
“No,” Lily said. “Those are for the food bank. I have too many for myself, so I figure I might as well donate them. I donate fruit and vegetables, too. Which reminds me—if you want to ride your bike up tomorrow after four, you could give me a hand again if you wanted. It’s my short day, and I can always use help in the garden. Chuck isn’t too useful. As a further bribe, the strawberries and apricots are starting to ripen, and as always, I planted too much of everything. You can take what you want.” She looked at her watch. “Twenty minutes until opening. Enough time to get started. Look what else. I thought of this yesterday. I sure hope you’ll be interested, because it sounded so fun.” She reached into the bag again and took out something wrapped in a plastic grocery sack and dumped it on the table.
A bunch of squares of cloth in different colors. There was one that looked like the sky at night, with stars. That was cool.
Lily pulled a paper packet out of the bag and said, “I found these patterns, and these fabric remnants, too. I thought you and Chuck might want to hang out here for a while this morning, and that you might want to learn to sew.”
She’d done one thing right today, anyway, Lily thought. It took a while, and someverycasual explanation, but Bailey was going to sew herself a new T-shirt and a pair of fleece shorts. Lily could set up the serger and do the bindings around the neck and arms, but Bailey was plenty old enough to cut out and sew the rest. Lily couldn’t look at those dusty, smelly, too-short jeans another moment. They hurt her heart.
When Hailey came in right in the midst of said explanation, Lily was half-afraid of what she’d say, but she didn’t offer any arguments. Instead, she told Bailey, “Lily should let me teach you instead, hon. I taught the 4-H sewing class for twelve years. I quit when my girls got too old, but maybe I shouldn’t have, because I get all excited just thinking about it. Those girls had blue ribbons out the wazoo, let me tell you.” She did a twirl like a fashion model in her sparkly slides and said, “Not to mention this little number, which is pretty special, if I do say so myself.”
“Did yousewthat?” Bailey asked, and Lily could see why. The deep-blue garment was hand-dyed silk with silk velvet pockets and a ruffled silk velvet collar. “How did you make the flower?”
Hailey touched the beading on the tiny pocket. “Fabulousness, that’s how,” she said, and Bailey laughed, the first absolutely unguarded moment that Lily had seen from her. She felt a pang that was surely jealousy, and set it aside. Hailey was good at making you feel special, that was all, and at making everything more fun. Exactly what Lily liked so much about her. As an employee, and as a person.
