Page 94 of Sexy as Sin
“That information is hardly off-putting at all, considering that Rafe’s my cousin,” Willow said, laughing at the same time she was smoothing her hand over the gorgeous silk, just to feel its lustrous sheen. Brett would love it. Innocent, and not. He’dloveit. Especially if she dropped it to the floor in front of those dark windows in exactly the way she’d imagined. By firelight.
She didn’t need any of it, no. But she wanted it.
“We won’t tell him,” Lily said. “Your secret, mine, and Brett’s. And Hailey’s, of course.” She sighed. “I’m soglad.He’s a wonderful man.”
“Not that you thought so at first,” Hailey put in.“Ithought so.Youthought he was pushy.”
“Well, hewaspushy,” Lily said, but she was laughing. “Always so smooth and polite, but so ruthless underneath. He intimidated me.”
“That’s what he said.” Willow probably shouldn’t have shared, but then, she tended to do heaps of things she shouldn’t. “That you were beautiful and sweet, and that he’d have run you over. Basically.”
Lily opened her mouth, but didn’t manage to say anything. Hailey, though, was laughing. “Well, he won’t runyouover, hon,” she told Willow, patting her on the arm. “Take that off and try this one. I amenjoyingthis. Brett Hunter, off the market at last. Isn’t that satisfying.”
Willow closed the velvet curtain and took the dressing gown off, then looked at the price tag and said, “Wait.” Then she looked at the price on the skimpy pair of undies, stuck her head around the curtain, and said,“Wait.”
Lily smiled her sunny smile. “Like Hailey said—Brett asked us to get you set up. We were supposed to be spontaneous and casual about it, but Hailey charged right in there. Of course, that’s why she’s so good at her job. Let her show you more nightgowns, pretty please. He wants to please you.”
“My fault,” Hailey said cheerfully. “How would you be spontaneous about saying—‘Hey, maybe Brett wants to buy you a new lingerie wardrobe! Let’s do it first and ask later!’ Better to just go on and tell you he does, if you ask me.”
Lily said, “Well, you did it, so here we are. Don’t worry, Willow. He’s good for it, it’s good for my business, you could say that he owes meandPaige, and it’s a treat to see how beautiful you look in everything. That purple is definitely your color, though the bronze is gorgeous, too, and the black’s just devastating. And this white one? You’re going to make him so happy.”
How did you argue with that? Lily might be sweet, and she might seem soft, but Willow was noticing a tough streak buried in there. A businesslike streak, too. She’d tried to keep track of the charges she was ringing up, but she still wasn’t any better at maths. The whole thing was making her lightheaded. She probably needed protein.
They didn’t have dinner in Brett’s immaculate house, but in Lily’s little cottage on the mountain instead, which had to be the coziest spot in the world, all pale pinks and greens and scaled-down furniture, like the playhouse you’d always dreamed of. It was hard to imagine Rafe here, except that Rafe seemed as contented as a man could possibly be, so it must work for him.
“How’s the new addition working out?” was Brett’s first question when they walked through the door. “Did Travis do right by you?”
“You must know he did,” Lily said with a smile. “I know you told him to prioritize it, as fast as they got it done. That was too sweet of you to insist on having your crew do it.”
“I didn’t want it messed up, that was all,” Brett said. “And fumes wouldn’t have been good for the baby. Besides, you needed to close off that loft bedroom,andput in the new room on top of the downstairs addition. I had a pretty good idea how it should be done, after figuring out Bailey’s room with you and seeing the place.”
“Yeah, right,” Lily said. “It had nothing to do with the goodness of your heart. Come see.”
She took them up the stairs, then opened the door on the left and led them into a nursery that defined “serene.” Walls painted a pale blue-gray, a white crib with a mobile of ocean creatures hanging over it, a white wicker rocker and ottoman with blue-striped cushions, and gauzy white curtains covering huge windows on two sides, overlooking the valley and the mountains beyond.
“I didn’t want to move,” Lily said, “and, look, Travis has made it so I didn’t have to.You’vemade it that way, Brett. The half-bath was a perfect idea. Thank you.”
“We already have tons of clothes for Elijah,” Bailey said, opening a drawer of the white dresser and pulling out a blue cotton sleeper printed with jumping lambs. “We even have the diapers all unpacked, and wipes and everything. Lily says it’s better to get all done shopping early on, because you always think of something you need at the last minute, and plus, babies can come early. It’s super fun to fold everything up, because the clothes are really little, like for dolls, except I didn’t like playing with dolls very much when I was little. I think I’ll like babies better, because they’re real, and you have to be responsible. Rafe and I put the crib together ourselves. I read the directions and sorted the pieces all out, and he did the screwing-in parts.”
Willow had slipped her hand into Brett’s. He’d gone wooden again. Lily was looking at him a little anxiously, too. “It’s beautiful,” Willow said. “Are Jace and Paige as prepared as you are?”
Lily laughed. “Yes and no. Paige whined about shopping so much that I just bought double on the furniture and had one of everything shipped down to them. Except the clothes, of course, because—girl.”
“You bought tons of clothes for Taylor, too, though,” Bailey said.
“Shh,” Lily told her. “We’re being discreet about that, remember? I could have gotten a little carried away,” she told Willow. “It’s almost like having twins myself, and it was so much fun. Besides, Paige says clothes make her nervous. I don’t see how, but there you go.Gunsmakemenervous. I’d much rather think about clothes.”
“Discreet’s when you kind of lie,” Bailey explained to Willow, and everybody, even Brett, had to laugh, so that was better.
Willow had done her Moroccan soup for dinner, at Brett’s request, a salad, rye bread rolls, and a salted-caramel bread pudding for the sweet, with chunks of bittersweet chocolate melted in and a dollop of whipped cream flavored with vanilla bean to finish it off. Brett took the first bite and sighed, and she smiled and said, “It’s what I told you. The sin only happens when you take it that step too far. That’s how you go from ‘pudding’ to ‘magic.’”
“Wait until you taste her Boston cream pie,” Brett told Lily. “I need to get this leg healed and haul myself up on skis again so I can work some of this off before I lose all my appeal.”
“Not happening, mate,” Willow said, Lily smiled and looked absolutely satisfied, and Bailey said, “You’re really good at cooking, Willow. If you come to live in Montana, maybe you could teach me. Hailey taught me how to sew already, except I’m still getting better, because sewing’s complicated, except things like T-shirts, and Lily taught me how to garden and take care of animals. I only know how to weed and take pits out of cherries and things, though, because you can’t plant seeds until spring, and that’s still two months. Maybe I could learn how to cook instead. That would be cool, and it would be helpful,” she told Lily, “especially when Rafe’s not home, like now, and once Elijah gets born. I could take the school bus instead of going to the store after school. I bet I could make the whole dinner, if I knew how. I only know how to cook Hamburger Helper and macaroni and hot dogs and spaghetti,” she explained to Willow. “I thought that was a lot of things, but Lily says they’re not nutritious. So it would be helpful if I learned how to cook better. My grandma said you had to be helpful if you lived with people.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Lily said, and put her arm around her. “Maybe we could think about it a different way. That we’re all contributing, because we’re a family, the same way we take care of the animals together, and the same way you’re going to help take care of your brother. It would be great if you wanted to learn how to cook, but you’re nine. No need to take charge just yet.”
“She’ll probably let you coast until you’re twelve or so,” Brett said with a twinkle in his eye. “After that, though? Look out, Cinderella.” Lily looked surprised, like she wasn’t used to Brett joking, which was probably true. She laughed, though, and so did Bailey, and Willow thought yet again that Brett was right. Lily probablywasthe kindest woman in the world. Fortunately, Rafe had that gooey caramel center himself. He’d already rung tonight to talk to both LilyandBailey, and it was easy to imagine how much he was itching to be home. His shooting schedule ran until two weeks before the due date. Willow was positive that was making him more than nervous.
