Single Mom Seeks... (5 page)

It was a good thing she looked cute when she pouted, because she pouted a lot and whined. The whining got really old, but the cute pout often saved Lily from getting too irritated.

“Cannot!” Ginny said, standing in the open refrigerator and blocking her sister’s view of all the goodies inside.

“Can, too!” Brittany folded her arms and glared at her sister.

“What is it that Brittany cannot do?” Lily asked, giving her oldest daughter a look that used to have the power to silence her instantly, but was quickly losing that magical effect.

“She cannot have a horse for her birthday! She doesn’t get a present like that!” Ginny said.

A horse?

Lily gaped at her baby girl, tears filling her eyes now as she tried to turn on the charm and get her way.

“Oh, honey,” Lily said. “A horse?”

Brittany nodded hopefully. “Mattie Wright got a horse, and a special outfit to wear to ride it and riding lessons for her birthday!”

“Mattie Wright’s father owns half the county,” Lily said. “Including a farm on the edge of town where Mattie’s horse can live. We don’t have a place where a horse could live. We just have the backyard.”

“He could live there,” Brittany said.

“Honey, it’s just not big enough for a horse.”

“We could get a little horse,” Brittany reasoned. “A baby horse. He wouldn’t need much room.”

Ginny started laughing at that. “A baby horse? You are so silly. A baby horse grows up into a big horse, Britt. Everybody knows that.”

Brittany glared at her and started to cry.

Jake jumped in then, trying to help. “You know, Brittany, horses are really big. They can be kind of scary. One of my brothers was on a horse once, and he fell off and the horse stepped on him and broke his nose.”

Brittany looked highly skeptical. “Did he really?”

Jake nodded. “Maybe it would be better to wait until you’re bigger to have a horse.”

Jake looked to Lily to see if that was a mistake or not. To imply she might get a horse later.

Lily nodded. Anything that got her daughter off the horse thing for now was okay with her.

“Isn’t there anything else you’d like for your birthday?” Jake tried.

“Well.” Brittany sighed, like it was quite a lot to ask, that she give up on the horse and go to her second choice. But she liked Jake and gave him an answer. “I thought about…a tree house.”

Her eyes lit up once again, a new dream replacing the horse just that quickly.

Lily frowned once again. “A tree house?”

“Yeah,” Brittany said, like it sounded like the greatest thing in the world.

“Oh. Great.”

“Do you know anything about building tree houses?” Jake asked three nights later as they wolfed down take-out Chinese food for dinner.

Nick made a face. “You want a tree house?”

“No!” Jake looked disgusted. “Lily’s daughter, the littlest one, Brittany, does. It’s her birthday next week. I heard her talking to Lily about it when I was over there helping her with the wallpaper.”

“Oh.”

Lily.

Stay away from Lily.

Nick might need a flashing neon sign.

“So, do you know anything about ’em?” Jake asked.

“Not really. I mean, we had one when your mother and I were growing up, but it wasn’t much more than a platform in a tree and a ladder to reach it.”

“You think I could build one?” Jake said between shoveling a huge mouthful of curry chicken into his mouth.

“Have you ever built anything?”

“Not really.”

“Then I don’t think you should start with something in a tree. That’s something you want to get right, especially if little girls are going to climb up there and play in it.”

“That’s what Lily said,” Jake mumbled, mouth still half-full. “That she wasn’t sure if she trusted herself to do it and have it be safe for Brittany. I mean, Lily knows how to do lots of stuff. She’s fixing up her house all by herself and everything, but I guess the tree thing is different.”

“Yeah,” Nick said, thinking,
Stay away, stay away, stay away.

If he could quit thinking about her neck, that would be even better.

“So, could you do it?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Jake,” Nick said, trying to think of what he could use as an excuse, other than the fact that he’d decided Lily was hot and that he was getting really lonely fast.

“Why not?” The kid dumped the last of what Nick had thought was an impressive pile of chicken and rice onto his plate and resumed eating at a rapid pace.

Nick frowned.

“Did you want some of this?” Jake asked, holding out his plate.

“No. I’m good. Go ahead.”

Gotta order more food next time,
Nick told himself.

More food.

And stay away from Lily.

He could do those things.

“So…I don’t get it. Why is it a bad idea?” Jake asked.

“I just…have a lot to do,” Nick said. “We’re barely settled in here, and I have things to take care of.”

Best Nick could come up with.

He wondered if the kid could see straight through him and knew Nick was just trying to avoid Lily and why, but Jake just gave him an odd look.

“It’s just that the poor kid’s had a tough year, you know?” Jake said. “Her father moving out on them. And it’s her birthday. She wanted a horse, but Lily said that was impossible, and the next thing she wanted was a tree house, and…I don’t know. I just don’t want her to be sad on her birthday. She’s a little bitty kid, and she lost her dad, and…I just wanted to try to help.”

Jake was practically in tears by the end of it, and Nick had a feeling they were talking about more than Lily’s daughter feeling bad because her father moved out.

He had a feeling they were talking at least in part about Jake losing both a mother and a father and feeling pretty lousy about it and wishing there was something that would make him feel better.

If Nick knew what it was, he’d give it to the kid in a heartbeat.

A horse, a tree house…not on Jake’s list, Nick was sure.

But it was sweet that the kid was thinking of Lily’s little girl and what she’d lost and wanting to try to make it better.

He was a good kid.

A really good kid with a good heart.

Nick looked at him for a long time. Should he pat the kid on the back? Or do one of those manly, nonhug kind of things that men did, like hit him on the shoulder or something. Or did this call for an all-out hug?

Nick wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t sure about anything, so he just said the first thing he thought of.

“That’s nice of you, Jake. To want to help her like that. Your mother would be proud of you.”

Jake’s head came up at that. “You think?”

“I know she would.”

“So you’ll help me help Lily with the tree house?” Jake asked, cornering him but good.

“We’ll work something out,” Nick said.

Maybe he could help without actually being there.

Help from a distance of some kind.

Or maybe Lily could leave, and he and Jake could build the thing, with Lily and her neck nowhere near them as they did it.

That was it.

Or something like that.

He just had to be strong.

Don’t start anything.

And stay away from Luscious Lily.

“S
o, big weekend alone, huh?” Marcy said suggestively over the phone to Lily, who was repacking for her girls’ stay with their father. “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing, really,” Lily said, wondering how her youngest expected to make it through the weekend with no socks, no underwear, no pajamas and three hair bows and a half a dozen toys.
Honestly.

Lily dug into the sock and underwear drawer, grabbing a handful of both for Brittany.

“Lily, you can’t just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to get out and meet it sometimes,” Marcy claimed.

“I may meet my hairstylist and get my hair done,” she said.

Best she could do.

Marcy sighed heavily, as if Lily’s life was such a chore that Marcy had to manage.

“I like getting my hair done!” Lily said.

Truly, she did.

It was nice and quiet in the salon, and she loved having someone else fuss over her hair. Just getting it washed felt good, and that little bit of scalp massage, and then having someone run their fingers through her hair….

It was Lily’s turn to sigh in anticipation.

“There. What was that?” Marcy asked.

“That was me, thinking about getting my hair done. I really do like it.”

“Is your hairdresser by any chance straight and male?”

Lily laughed, getting down on her hands and knees to look under the bed for Brittany’s other shoe. “I wish!”

Having a cute, straight, single man fussing with her hair sounded really, really good.

She closed her eyes, seeing herself in the chair at the salon, practically purring with happiness, saw
him
smiling appreciatively at her in the salon mirror, felt big, strong, capable hands running through her hair….

Lily sighed once again, maybe groaned a bit.

Her imaginary hair-guy leaned down, lifting a handful of her hair to his face to smell it, then let his warm mouth settle against her neck. She watched in the mirror and then realized…

It was Nick.

“Ahhh!” Lily cried, coming out of her little stupor in the blink of an eye.

“Oh, wow. You must have a cute, straight hairdresser!” Marcy cried.

“I do not!” Lily insisted.

She had a cute—and she felt certain—straight neighbor who’d nearly nibbled on her neck to keep another woman away from him, and she’d been having wicked, wildly distracting thoughts about him ever since.

That was all.

“If you don’t tell me everything right this minute—”

“Gotta go,” Lily interrupted. “I hear Richard’s car in the driveway.”

“Spit on him for me,” Marcy said. “Bye.”

Lily got off the phone, grabbed the girls’ bags and hurried downstairs, hating this whole exchange-of-the-children ritual. She tried to be civil, tried not to be nervous or mad or sad or anything, tried to be as neutral in her emotions and her speech as could be, and yet it was just so awkward and so hard.

To think that she and Richard would ever be shuffling their girls back and forth this way, disrupting their lives, changing everything, was still unbelievable.

The girls were in the family room playing on the computer. Lily yelled to them that their father had arrived as she carried their bags downstairs to the front door. She wanted to hand them over quickly, smiling somehow as she did it, and then hide in her house for a while, trying not to think of how quiet it was, how odd, how sad.

She made it outside, bags in hand, to find Richard standing on the driveway surveying the place like he was trying to figure out what it was worth at the moment, then looking uneasy as he saw her.

He pulled out his phone, checked it or at least pretended to, probably just trying to avoid talking to her, and then got a funny look on his face. Lily tried to remember what the admittedly handsome face had looked like when he’d so coldly told her he was walking out on her and the girls and had the nerve to think she shouldn’t have been surprised or particularly upset. To remember that pretty packages didn’t necessarily hold good things or good men inside of them, and that she didn’t ever want to be fooled in that way again. That attraction could fizzle out and disappear so quickly, and a woman might be surprised at how little was left.

And then before she got too mad, she tried to just get the exchange over with.

“The girls are on their way,” Lily said, talking too fast. “I double-checked their bags. They should have everything they need, including some cold medicine, in case Ginny’s nose is stuffed up tonight. Don’t worry. It’s the grape-flavored kind. She likes it and won’t give you a hard time about taking it. Dosage information is on the bottle. She weighs forty-six pounds—”

“Lily, wait—”

“Brittany’s pillow, the one she won’t sleep without, is in the bag. Please make sure it comes back with her on Sunday—”

“Lily, I’m trying to tell you—”

“And try not to load them up on sugar when you do the birthday thing with Brittany. A piece of cake at a restaurant is plenty—”

“Lily, I can’t take them this weekend,” he said.

She stopped talking at that, mouth hanging open, annoyance building inside of her like mercury rising in a thermometer on a scorching hot day. “What do you mean, you can’t take them?”

“I mean, I can’t. Something came up.”

“Richard, it’s Brittany’s birthday!”

“Not until next Thursday. I’ll come by then. Or the day before.”

“You said you were going to take her to the zoo this weekend for her birthday. She’s been looking forward to it for two weeks.”

He didn’t even have the grace to look embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I have a job to do.”

“And you have a daughter who’s turning seven!” she said, glaring at him.

Jake was home, standing in the kitchen with the door wide-open, staring outside, when Nick came downstairs to see if there were any leftovers from the previous night’s dinner that had survived this long.

“Hey,” Nick asked, grabbing a glass and hoping there was something to drink, too. “What’s going on?”

Everything simply disappeared around Jake the human disposal unit.

“Lily’s ex is giving her a hard time,” Jake said, still standing there.

Nick turned around and went to stand behind the boy, staring at Lily on her driveway with a guy in a really expensive suit who was up in her face about something.

They weren’t yelling, so Nick couldn’t hear what was going on, but he didn’t like how close the guy was or the look on his face.

“You sure it’s the ex?” Nick asked.

“Yeah. He was supposed to take the girls this weekend, but he’s backing out,” Jake said, then looked like Nick might have thought he was doing something wrong. “I was walking home when he showed up, and I just wanted to make sure Lily was okay.”

“Good for you,” Nick told him, putting a hand on the kid’s shoulder. “A man should always look out for a woman. Some of them won’t ever thank you for it, because they think they’re invincible, but they’re not. And some men are just asses. This guy looks like one of ’em. What else did you hear?”

“He doesn’t even want to go in and tell the girls himself that he’s backing out on their weekend. He wants Lily to do it for him,” Jake said.

Which meant Nick had a choice.

Stay away from Luscious Lily.

Stop wondering why that fool of a man would ever have left her, and stop being mad that he’d apparently decided to walk out on their kids this way, too.

Or go do something about it.

Nick definitely tended to be the kind of man who’d do something about it when anyone was doing something he didn’t like to a woman.

And surely teaching her ex some manners was one thing he could do without getting distracted by how much he wanted to nuzzle Lily’s delectable neck.

Surely there was no danger here.

Still, he knew it was better to keep his distance, and Lily struck him as an immensely capable woman. She might not thank him for interfering. She might not even want him to know she was fighting with her ex about something like this.

“Let’s give it a minute. See how this plays out,” Nick said.

“Why? The guy’s a real jerk,” Jake said, still staring.

Now he had a scrawny, little finger that he was shaking in Lily’s face, and then it looked like he was poking her in the shoulder with it, trying to get her to back away from him.

Nick saw red.

“You’re right. We’re not going to stand here and let him get away with that,” Nick said. “Come on. Go to Lily’s house. Get her girls and ask them to come outside.”

Jake hesitated. “You’re sure.”

“Oh, yeah. This jerk can explain things to them himself, if he has the nerve,” Nick said.

“But—”

“Go on. I’m right behind you. I’ll handle him.”

With pleasure, Nick decided.

With great pleasure.

Lily didn’t see Nick or Jake until Jake walked past her and went in her kitchen door. She was starting to ask him where he was going when Nick walked up to her side and slid an arm ever so casually across her shoulder, like he belonged there, like he greeted her this way every day.

“Hey, Lily. Everything okay?” Nick asked, dropping a light kiss on her temple.

And then it was like he just took up too much space or sucked up all the air or something, because Richard backed up three steps. His stupid finger disappeared altogether, too quickly for Lily to reach out and snap it off, which she’d wanted to do ever since he stuck it in her shoulder to make a point. And then as she watched, it was like Richard just shrank or something, looking smaller and more pathetic every second.

Lily was so happy with the way Richard backed off, she forgot all about needing to take care of this herself and wanting to both scream or maybe throw something at Richard’s four thousand dollars’ worth of dental work or his perfect suit.

She remembered that everything had been up to her for so long and that no one had helped her with anything in months, and that she was tired and frustrated and exhausted and decided she could have reached up and kissed Nick Malone right then and there on the driveway and enjoyed it very much.

Enjoyed Richard’s reaction to it, too, she thought.

But Lily resisted, settling for letting herself lean into Nick’s side, like she did it every day, and smile as she said, “Just a little difference of opinion between me and Richard. He says he won’t be able to take the girls for the weekend, and here they are all packed and ready to go.”

“Oh,” Nick said, like he belonged in this discussion, too. “Must be something really important to keep a man from being able to see his daughters. Especially this weekend.”

Richard finally came out of his stupor and stopped staring at Nick and how cozy he seemed to be with Lily, and said, “Who are you exactly?”

“Nick Malone, Lily’s new neighbor.” He called himself a neighbor, but the hold he had on her said something else entirely.

Richard frowned and looked confused. “You didn’t tell me you were seeing someone, Lily.”

“Well, I didn’t know you still cared, Richard,” Lily said as sweetly as she could, finding a smile easy to come by in that instant, leaning against a truly gorgeous man who made her ex look as insignificant as a fussy, pouty, scrawny boy.

Richard looked even more confused then, like he couldn’t quite believe another man was attracted to Lily? Or that this particular man was?

Lily really wished she had something to throw on that suit then.

The door opened behind them, the girls walking out, and Nick let her go and moved a step away. Brittany gave her father a big hug and a pretty smile, but Ginny hung back, still cautious around him since he’d moved out.

Brittany started talking about a trip to the zoo, something Richard had promised them, and Lily wanted to strangle her ex, who looked like he wanted to strangle either Jake or Nick. She realized Nick had made sure Richard at least had to face them before disappearing on them. Either way, it was going to hurt, that he wasn’t going to keep his promise to them, and Lily wasn’t sure how she felt about Nick deciding to make Richard do the telling.

She started to jump in and try to explain, but Nick’s hand settled against the small of her back. He leaned over and whispered, “He should at least have to face what he’s doing to them, Lily.”

And then Richard finally started a fumbling explanation.

Lily fumed quietly.

So he really could turn them down to their faces.

That rat!

She hadn’t been sure he would be able to, but he did.

Ginny looked like she wasn’t surprised and glared at her father, but Brittany started to protest.

“You promised!” she said, tears filling her pretty eyes.

Richard tried again to explain, then looked at Lily pleadingly.

Now he wanted her help?

The weasel!

But it was Nick who jumped in and saved the day.

“Lily,” he said, but looked at poor Brittany. “Maybe it’s better that the girls are here this weekend. I mean, I know you wanted it to be a surprise, but it is going to be Brittany’s present, and this way, she can design it herself and even help us build it, if she wants. It’ll be fun.”

“What?” Brittany asked, eyes still watery, but perking up at the word
present.

“You’re building my daughter a present?” Richard asked.

Now she was
his
daughter.

That was great, Lily thought. Just great.

Richard didn’t even remember what his own daughter wanted, Lily suspected, though she had told him, but Nick apparently knew.

“Yeah. We’ll make a weekend of it,” Nick said, like he couldn’t wait to get started. “We’ll need to come up with a design tonight and head to the home builder’s store for supplies, and we’ll start building first thing in the morning. What do you say, Brittany?”

“You and Jake are gonna build me a tree house?” she asked, sniffling and drying her tears.

“That’s the plan. It was going to be a surprise, but maybe its better this way. Since you’re going to be here,” Nick said, shooting a look at Richard that had him squirming, “you can tell us exactly what you want and pick out paint colors and everything.”