She turned her head and looked up at Clay, and he smiled at her as he stroked a strand of hair from her damp cheek. “I love you, Lily.”
“I love you, too. Thank you,” she whispered, embarrassed when her eyes misted with tears.
“You okay? Are you hurting?”
Lily sniffled and shook her head minutely. “No. I mean my ass is sore and I won’t be up for any marathon sex later tonight. What’s getting me is that I’m so happy with you and Del. I want it to work.”
“Tell us what you need. Talk to us so we know. I want it to work, too. I knew this would be good between us.”
“You just love being right,” she teased. She rested her head on his chest and he squeezed her tight. The happy pounding in her heart increased.
“Yeah, that’s what it is.”
Del returned a few minutes later, pulled the sheet up from the foot of the bed, grabbed the comforter, and threw it over them. He collapsed next to her and threw an arm around her hips and squeezed as he kissed her. “Feeling okay?”
“Don’t think I’m strange for saying this but I feel better, stronger than I’ve ever felt before. I remember when I came here in the fall, feeling so broken, so fragile. Remember, Clay?”
“Yes. You said you felt weak, like water just flowing through the cracks and washing away.”
Del stroked her back with the tips of his fingers, and she shuddered and giggled at the involuntary response. When she turned and settled between them, Del patted her tummy and said, “It’s ironic that you used that metaphor. It’s widely believed that water was the force that created the Grand Canyon.”
Clay nodded. “So you’re powerful after all. It just takes time.”
Sounding sleepy, Del said, “I think we should go see that new tattoo artist. I can’t remember his name.” That thought triggered a realization, and Lily beamed.
Clay asked, “What’s got you smiling so big all of a sudden?”
Lily stretched and groaned luxuriantly at the pull of sore muscles. “I forgot all about the tattoo. Making love with you in daylight with the curtains open, I forgot all about it.”
Clay leaned forward with a sappy grin and kissed her deeply, and Del squeezed her to him and did the same. She’d do whatever she had to, to keep her place in their lives.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Monday morning, Clay took Lily to the house in town to pick up clothing and her laptop. Now that the postholiday rush was over, she’d told him she planned to get back to her studies with a vengeance.
Clay was helping Lily load everything when his neighbor Bill Hooper called out to him, “Hey, Clay! You got a minute?”
Clay turned to him and grinned when Bill’s little girls ran out of the house, hot on their daddy’s heels. “Sure, Bill. What’s up?”
The tall man in his midforties nodded at Lily and greeted her then said, “I thought you should know there was someone skulking around your house Saturday night. I went outside and investigated and didn’t see anybody, but when I looked out a window once I went inside, I saw someone walking across your yard. He was big, broad shoulders and tall. He was wearing a white ball cap and what looked like coveralls, like what a mechanic might wear. He walked a short way down the street and got into an older white pickup truck.”
Clay noticed the panicked look in Lily’s eyes as she asked, “Did it have a black tool box?”
Bill nodded, looking discomfited at her expression. “When he passed under the streetlight at the corner, I could see a black tool box across the bed.”
Clay’s hands clenched into fists at the renewed threat to Lily but relaxed them when Bill’s eldest daughter, Trinity, grasped his hand.
“Mr. Cook, are you gonna buy more cookies from us? They’re gonna be in soon and we’re reeeeeeaally counting on ya!”
Clay squatted down to Trinity’s level and looked in her emerald-green eyes. There was no way he could turn the little saleswoman down, despite the amusement he saw painted on Lily’s face.
“Trinity, haven’t I always been there for ya?”
Trinity’s younger sister, three-year-old Angelica, went to Clay and hugged his neck. He could remember when she was a newborn, winning everyone’s hearts with her rosebud lips and pink cheeks.
“Mithter Cway wiw ahways buy tookies fwum us, Twinity! Cuz he likes ’em!” She spoke at the top of her lungs while her mouth was next to his ear, but that was okay. He’d do anything for those sweet little girls. He knew when Angelica was old enough to be a Brownie and then a Girl Scout he’d be buying from her as well. He stood up with Angelica in his arms, and she giggled at how high she went. Turning to Lily, she lisped, “Mith Wiwy! You wanna buy my sissies tookies, too?”