Perfect Summer (34 page)

“Mother fucker.” The words tore out of her mouth before she could stop them. Vulgarity be damned, it felt good. She flipped the hair out of her eyes and looked around. The music had stopped, and every eye was on her.

“Finally. I’m so proud,” Inez yelled from behind Lilly.

Lilly made a point to stare directly ahead and not look at Davis as she dog paddled to the shallow end. Once she could stand, she noticed that she’d lost a pump during her swan dive. With her head held high, her brightest smile fixed on her lips, and all of the pretentiousness she could muster, Lilly smoothed down her skirt and her bodice and hobbled calmly through the shallow water to the gradual shoreline that led out. Once her feet hit dry land, she glanced at Inez, who was already making her way over.

Davis wrapped his arm around her. “Are you and the baby okay?” He put his hand on her baby bump. “Do we need to call your OB?”

Inez stepped in line on Lilly’s other side. “You’re pregnant?” Her voice had a tendency to carry, and Lilly was pretty sure that Inez’s cousins in Mexico had heard that. She eyed the bump. “That explains a lot.”

Now the whole world knew. “We’re fine.”

Lilly shook off Davis’s arm and then nodded to him. “Good to see you, Davis. I hope you’re enjoying the evening.” She put her hand on Inez’s arm. “Look, there are the Bakers. We must say hello.”

With all of the attitude and focus of a model working the runway, Lilly made her way to the Bakers. 
Stomp…slap…stomp…slap…stomp…slap
—she’d lost a shoe in the pool, and wearing only one made the going tough, and the two hundred pounds of wet dress she was dragging didn’t help either, but she kept her head held high and her shoulders back. Her mind was blissfully blank.

“We need to talk.” Davis shrugged out of his suit jacket and wrapped it around her.

It smelled like him. “No, we don’t.”

She sidestepped him, made a course correction, and stomp-slapped her way over to the Bakers.

“Yes, we do.” Without warning, Davis scooped her up Rhett Butler-style.

“Put me down.” She scissor kicked her legs, trying to gain her freedom. “Put me down.”

“No, ma’am.” His long legs ate up the pavement fast, and in a matter of seconds, they were at the valet stand. “Thanks for keeping it close.”

The same college-aged kid who’d taken her keys opened the passenger door of Davis’s truck. “When you said to watch for your sign, I didn’t think it would be quite that big.”

Davis dumped her in the seat. “Stay. If you run, I’ll just come after you. The folks back there have already had quite a show. Don’t give them act two.”

She didn’t give a damn about the party, but he was right. He was bigger and stronger, so running away wasn’t an option. He scooted around the hood, and the other valet opened his door. Davis dug in his front pocket, pulled out some bills, and tossed them at the kid.

He slammed the door and rammed the key in the ignition. “I need directions to your house.” He leaned over and touched a button under the radio. “Your seat should heat up pretty quickly.”

Indeed, heat did bloom from under her bottom. Heated seats—the country boy liked his creature comforts. “Inez. We can’t leave her.”

“She can drive your car home. The valet should have the keys.” Davis turned out of the country club and right onto Rough Hollow Boulevard. When he got to the stop sign, he turned left onto Highlands Boulevard. “What’s your address?”

Nausea rolled through her stomach as Baby Henry made his dislike of club soda known. “Pull over.”

“No. You’ll escape.”

“Pull over. Henry doesn’t like club soda.” Lilly clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Who’s Henry?”

“My son. I’m going to be sick.” The club soda threatened to erupt. “
Pull over
.”

Davis slammed on the brakes, and the truck squealed to a stop.

Lilly threw open the door and slithered out of the seat. She bent over and heaved up club soda and gummy bear bits. Gentle hands swept the hair back from her face and held it out of the way.

Once her stomach was empty and Junior was through protesting, Lilly snatched up the hem of her ruined dress and wiped her mouth.

“Oh, Lilly, darlin’, I’m so sorry.”

For what, exactly? Not wanting to marry her, getting her pregnant, kidnapping her, or was it a blanket apology because she’d just fertilized the grass with the contents of her stomach?

“It doesn’t matter.” Nothing mattered but her baby, and that Davis hadn’t wanted their son. “Let’s go.”

“Not yet.” His hand closed over her wrist. He stepped over the vomit and got down on one knee. With his other hand, he pulled a black velvet box out of his trouser pocket. “Marry me.”

Lilly crossed her arms and absently noticed they were on the corner of Highland and Lakeway Boulevards, his truck was still running, scenting the air with plumes of diesel, and a gray-haired couple in matching pink and blue madras were walking some sort of little, black yappy dog. Romantic, very romantic.

“No.” She didn’t want a pity proposal, and he didn’t want their son.

She shivered. It was getting chilly. She wanted to go home, build a huge fire in the fireplace, and stare into the flames until she forgot that today had ever happened.

He stood but kept his eyes on the ground.

“Take me home.” She hugged the coat tighter around her and shoved her hands into the pockets. Something crunched under the fingers of her left hand. She pulled it out. It was a small square of glossy paper with a grainy image. The ultrasound of their son.

Tears blurred her vision. He hadn’t wanted their baby, so what was this reminder of Baby Henry doing in his pocket? “Why do you have this?”

“I keep it with me always.” His voice cracked. “I scanned it into a PDF and printed out several copies. I have a framed one on my desk, one hanging in each of my exam rooms, and several at the house. My sisters have copies; so do my mother and grandmother. I’d have it printed in the local newspaper, but let’s face it, no one reads the newspaper anymore.”

“I don’t understand. You don’t want the baby.” Saying it out loud made the tears come faster.

His mouth dropped open, and it took a whole five seconds for him to recover. “Not want our son? Have you lost your mind?”

He looked absolutely shell-shocked. “I love him. I’ve wanted to be a dad for as long as I can remember. And I can prove it.” He opened the back passenger’s door and pulled out a gray Dillard’s sack. “On the way here, I had to stop off and buy this suit, and I found the tiniest pair of Levi’s jeans.” He held out the bag, and Lilly took it. “Look.”

She looked inside. A tiny pair of jeans and itty-bitty brown cowboy boots rested on top of a white receipt.

“The boots are for later. I’ve been reading, and babies really don’t need shoes until they’re learning to walk.”

“Oh.” She wiped at her cheeks with the backs of her hands.

He’d been reading up on babies and buying clothes for their son. That was more than she’d done. “Then why did you turn me down?”

“Because I’m an idiot.” He took her hands in his. “It was pride. I wanted you to love me as much as I love you. Now I don’t care. I love you enough for the both of us, and we have a baby coming.” His eyes lit up.

“I do love you. I told you.” How had he forgotten that part? He’d thrown it back in her face.

“I thought you were just saying that because…you know…you’re pregnant.”

Lilly realized that she’d been so self-centered. It was crystal clear. The tears came harder. She loved him, but she’d only told him in anger. “I wanted to marry you because I love you, but I wouldn’t let myself. Our age difference was a problem for me. I was so self-centered that I only cared about how my friends would see our relationship.” She shrugged. “Now, who cares?”

She needed to make this right. “I’d get down on one knee, but my toes are numb.”

She laced her fingers through his and slid their hands down to the bump of her belly. “Davis Jefferson, love of my life, will you marry us?”

Baby Henry chose that exact moment to kangaroo kick the hands pressing on him.

“Did you feel that?” Davis’s face turned to awe, and then a grin broke out. He fell to his knees, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pressed a kiss to her baby bump. “I want to get married today.”

Lilly looked down. “I love you.”

Davis looked up. “I love you.”

Baby Henry bounced around, sending up an urgent request for fries from McDonald’s.

“How about it? We could fly to Las Vegas and get married before midnight.” He stood, and something gooey slid down the knees of his pants.

“How about tomorrow? You have vomit running down your legs.” Lilly grinned.

“That’s probably for the best.” With his index finger, he yanked at the collar of his shirt. “This suit itches.”

A white Dillard’s tag fell out of the cuff of his left sleeve.

Lilly shook her head. “Tell me you weren’t planning on returning it.”

“The thought had crossed my mind.” He used the bag to wipe his legs.

“I’m surrounded by felons.” Lilly shivered. “I’d love to show you my house, but there’s someone I want you to meet first.”

Davis needed to meet Summer; it was past time.

Summer preheated the oven, grabbed the shortening, brown sugar, flour, salt, soda, and chocolate chips from the pantry, and then set her armload on the kitchen island. She brushed back a few tendrils of hair that had escaped her ponytail. She’d spent the last seven hours packing, moving, and unpacking Mario’s family. The fact that Mario’s family’s possessions had only taken two not-so-cramped loads in the back of Summer’s truck was just plain sad. When they’d unloaded everything, the guesthouse had still been glaringly empty.

Horrified, Clint had excused himself and come back five minutes later holding a white leather couch cushion with a tiny, and still fresh, ketchup stain on the bottom. He’d told them that he was about to haul it off to Goodwill, but if they were interested, it would really help him out if they’d take if off his hands. Clint had a heart of gold, and she knew that helping others was addictive.

Summer had offered up the daybed in her attic and an old coffee table that had belonged to her grandmother. She’d texted her mother, who promised a bedroom suite, linens, and towels, all of which she’d dashed out to buy and then wash a couple of times so she could pretend they were used. Her mother had definitely turned over a new leaf. Right now, Summer was prepared to take life one leaf at a time until she’d made up her mind on whether her mother had turned over enough new ones to change her family tree.

Clint’s friend Devon showed up with a dining table and six chairs. Devon’s mother, with whom he still lived, brought pots and pans and spent most of the afternoon calling the wives of all of her son’s teammates. Every single person had something to give, and pretty soon, Mario had a houseful of furniture. Tomorrow they were having a housewarming barbeque and furniture-drop-off party.

Summer smiled as the memory of today tugged on her heartstrings. Clint had not only helped one of her students, but he’d given Mario a new life. One small act of kindness had snowballed into an avalanche of love. She hoped that Clint kept it up. Having the burden of a family living two hundred feet from his back door sounded like a good idea now…but what about next year and the next and the next? She nodded. He’d come through because he’d made a promise and he really cared. Tears burned the inside of her nose and sat heavily on her chest. Kindness shouldn’t take her by surprise, but it did, especially kindness directed toward people she cared about.

Clint’s damp and warm-from-the-shower arms came around her from behind. The knot of the towel around his hips mashed into her lower back. “Why the tears?”

“Thanks for what you did for Mario. Everything. I mean it.” She batted away the streaks running down her face. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me; I’ve cried more in the last week than I have in my entire life.”

“You’ve already thanked me…several times. My favorite was in the truck on the way here. I’ll never be able to drive by that Walgreens without smiling.” He kissed the back of her neck. “That gets me thinking. I bet you’ve never done it in the back seat of a car. It’s a time-honored high school tradition that I’d hate for you to miss.”

“I’m not in high school anymore.”

“Babe, you’re there five days a week. That counts.” He brushed her ponytail out of the way and kissed his way to her hairline. “We could crawl in the back seat, and I’ll do my best to get to second base. The trick is, you have to try and resist me.”

“You are irresistible.” Summer rolled her eyes.

He nipped at her earlobe. “We all have our crosses to bear. Back to the back seat. You, me, and second base. How about it?”

“While it sounds like a lot of fun, I should point out one very important flaw in your plan.” Summer reached around and patted his towel-clad bottom. “Neither one of us owns a car with a back seat.”

“Does a Prius have one?” Clint kissed his way to her ear.

“Yes.”

“Pick out your Prius color because I’m buying you one tomorrow.”

He was sweet, and it was a nice thought, but taking a gift that big from him wasn’t right. “I’d love to, but I can’t.” She patted his butt again. “I like you for you, and not your Prius-buying potential. You’ve already spent way too much money on me as it is. Bono—the stylist, not the singer—must have cost you a fortune.”

“I can afford it.”

“Not the issue.” Summer swallowed a couple of times. If she took his expensive gifts, she’d be just another in a long line of thankful yet forgettable girlfriends. Years from now when he looked back on their relationship, she wanted him to remember her as Summer and not that blonde for whom he’d bought a car. “My mother has several cars, all with back seats. Now that I don’t completely hate her guts, I’ll ask to borrow her car. We could defile a new back seat every evening next week.”

The idea was very appealing…and naughty. Clint was teaching her to embrace her inner slut.

“You are a genius.” His hands slid up her belly and cupped her breasts. “For now, I’d like to volunteer to become the human bra. Good support is very important.”