Lily's Expecting by Susan Mallery

Author:Susan Mallery [Mallery, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488027758
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2006-08-15T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Neither she nor Jake had to work the next morning. Lily hadn’t slept much and had been awake since five, so it was easy for her to get up early and start breakfast. She’d just finished whipping eggs for French toast when he walked into the kitchen.

She looked at him and tried to smile, but their last very awkward conversation hung between them. He seemed to feel equally uncomfortable as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. The only sound was the faint ticking of the clock over the stove.

“I made breakfast.”

“I’m heading over to my mom’s.”

They spoke at the same time.

“You first,” she told him.

He shoved his hands into his jeans pocket. “I promised my mom I’d change the oil in her car.”

“This morning?”

He shrugged.

Lily nodded as if it didn’t matter. As if she didn’t mind him ducking out on her the first chance he got. If last night had gone the way she’d wanted, right now they would still be lying in bed together. But it hadn’t. Somehow everything had gone terribly wrong, and now she didn’t know what to say.

“I’m going to go check on the house later,” she said. “If you want to come.”

“I don’t know how long I’ll be.”

Right. Because changing a car’s oil took hours. She drew in a deep breath and tried to be calm.

“Will you be home for dinner?” she asked.

“You don’t have to cook for me.”

“I was cooking before the wedding,” she said as her temper began to slip. “Why would that change?”

“You don’t work for me, Lil. You don’t have to take care of that kind of thing.”

“I want to.”

She tried not to sound plaintive or pathetic. They were married—didn’t he want to spend time with her at all?

“Why does all this have to be different?” she asked. “Why can’t it be like it was?”

“It will be. We need time to adjust.”

To what? Nothing had changed. Or was she wrong in that? Had getting married changed the rules so much that neither of them knew what to do or how to act?

“I didn’t want to make things bad between us,” she said.

“You didn’t.”

But he spoke the words as he walked out of the kitchen and when the back door slammed behind him, she knew he was wrong.

She’d gained Jake as a husband but lost him as a friend. From her perspective it didn’t seem like much of a trade.

* * *

Lily showered and straightened up Jake’s house, then drove over to her place where she could check out the refinished floor. Various rooms were still roped off so the new finish could dry. Carpeting would come in next, then she was free to move back.

Yesterday Jake had talked about moving in with her. Was that still going to happen?

She put her hand on her stomach. “Whatever is going on with him, I’ll still be here for you,” she promised her baby. “We’re going to be a family.”

She crossed to the window in the living room. The sub flooring creaked as she walked.

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