The Baby Mission

by Vivian Wood

  “What are you grateful for, then?” she asked over her shoulder.

  “You. I’m grateful I didn’t die. You know … back in Montana. I’m thankful that I’m here with you.”

  “I’m thankful, too,” she said. Lily snuggled deeper into the covers and into his arms.

  God, I’m really falling for her, he thought. Fast and hard.

  He felt his hardness jump against the heat of her thigh. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s shower.”

  She groaned. “Can’t we just stay here?”

  “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

  She turned to smile and let him pull her out of bed.

  The tiny, vintage clawfoot tub had a circular shower curtain that barely encompassed them both. The morning sun that poured through the white curtains hugged every curve of her body. Cade soaped her back and tried to memorize every freckle, every mole, every part of her. There was no telling when it would be the last time.

  Elijah still doesn’t know. And if Aiden was that pissed off, just imagine Elijah. As he looked at Lily, he knew it was worth it. If it came down to it, he’d give up the only friend he’d ever known, his virtual brother, for what they had. And what would that do to Lily and Elijah’s relationship?

  “My turn,” Lily said, and she turned to face him in the small space.

  Water trailed down her cheeks and pooled in her collarbone. Cade ran the soap across her breasts and watched the nipples harden at his touch.

  She took the soap and began to work his chest down to his stomach.

  “Someone’s been working out,” she said, and grinned up at him.

  “That was pretty much all I could do,” he said. “See the doctor and hit the gym.”

  “I’m not complaining,” she said. As Lily moved down, she grasped his length with her hands slippery with soap, and he gasped at her touch.

  “Turn around,” he said.

  “But I just got clean,” she teased.

  Cade gently turned her to the showerhead so the water rained down on her back. Lily grabbed the pipe that gurgled with the rushing water while he braced her hips. When she called out his name, it echoed throughout the bathroom.

  The steam from the shower, the water drops that rained down, it made it seem like it was their own world. He didn’t want it to ever end.

  He spilled himself into her as she pushed herself against him. As Cade released himself, Lily pulled open the shower curtain.

  “Too hot,” she said as she turned to face him. He rained his own flutter of kisses down on her as he stepped out of the shower and pulled a towel around his waist.

  Lily emerged from the bathroom as he sat on the edge of the bed and thumbed through his phone. Her short hair shot up in all directions as she ran a towel through it. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m starving,” he said. “What are you in the mood for?”

  “Pizza?” she asked. “Luis’s should be open by now.”

  He searched for the local pizza joint. “Yeah, they don’t deliver.”

  “That’s okay, we can do takeout. It’s worth it,” she said. Lily jumped onto the bed and crawled toward him. She peered over his shoulder at the menu. “Come on, I haven’t had pizza in forever.”

  Cade kissed her over his shoulder. “Whatever you want.”

  Lily pulled on his firehouse sweatshirt and a pair of jeans so faded there were parts in the hips and thighs that were nearly transparent.

  “I never knew those sweatshirts could look so sexy,” he said with a wink as they piled into his car.

  “I was kind of going for comfy. But if it doubles as sexy, that’s okay with me.” She slipped on the sunglasses and began to direct him toward the restaurant.

  “Smells good,” Cade said as he opened the door for her.

  The little mom and pop establishment was stuffed full of the aroma of freshly roasted tomatoes, crusts baking to the perfect thin crispness, and a variety of toppings getting grilled and fried.

  Cade took her hand as they got in line. Lily smiled up at him.

  “Extra red sauce,” she said. “That’s the secret.”

  “Look, either speak English or go somewhere where they can understand you!” Cade bristled at the sheer hatred in the voice. At the front of the line, the cashier leaned across the counter. The woman in line had thick black hair to her waist. She held out a piece of paper to him. Her arm visibly shook with fear. “No, I don’t want a freaking letter! Either tell me what you want, in English, or get out.”

  A small sob emitted from the girl in line and Lily tugged at his arm.

  All Cade could see was red. He assessed the cashier without trying. It would be easy to take him down. The stooped shoulders and arthritic hands made him an easy target.

  Why don’t you take a walk around the block?

  Dr. Hersh’s voice wormed its way into his brain. When you feel yourself getting angry, first consider the circumstances and then your options. I always like to remove myself from the situation, preferably to get outside and a little exercise, but that isn’t always feasible.

  Cade started to go through the options.

  Focus on a calming memory, place, or person that settles you. Elijah when they were twelve years old. After school in Elijah’s room where they could watch Hey, Arnold! until his dad got home and binge on Hot Pockets and Mountain Dew. He could feel the give of the bean bag chair beneath him and the softness of the throw blankets.

  His heart rate began to settle. The blood in his ears subsided. In front of him, he saw the ugly reality—a young Korean girl gestured to an aging, racist, hateful cashier.

  “She can’t speak anything!” an older woman in line yelled as she rushed up to the counter. “She’s deaf, you asshole!”

  “Oh my God,” Lily said. “What a jerk.”

  “Is your manager here?” the older woman demanded. “I want to talk to him right now.”

  “Come on,” Cade said. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Lily looked up at him in surprise, but didn’t ask any questions. Instead, she let him lead her out of the restaurant. As the door shut behind him, he heard the manager’s booming voice as he apologized and offered free pizzas to the young girl for the next month.

  “How about Thai instead?” Lily asked.

  He smiled as he looked down at her.

  This is what I need, he thought. And it’s what I want.

  Someone who could calm and soothe with just their presence. In Lily, he saw the non-judgment of Elijah echoed within her.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, he thought. Maybe Elijah might even be happy about this—at least, once he gets used to it.

  In a Thai restaurant up the block that he’d never noticed before, bells chimed as they entered. Lily pretended to shiver.

  “Every time I hear bells like that, I automatically want to welcome someone to the bakery and ask if they’d like to sample the Savarin.”

  Cade laughed. “If you’d like, you can ask me.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “I’d rather get some khao na pet to go and eat it in bed. With you,” she added with a wink.

  “That sounds like a plan.”

  The young woman took their order in halting English, and Lily slipped her hand into his.

  “Your first time here?” the hostess asked as she jotted down their order for the kitchen.

  “Yeah,” Cade said. “I don’t know how I missed it. We get Thai takeout at least once a week.”

  “You like, you come back,” she said with a smile. “Here, take this. Coupon for next time.”

  “Do you deliver?” Lily asked.

  “Yes, of course. If you live within five miles, delivery is free.”

  As the hostess rang them up, Lily pulled him down to her lips.

  “We’re sticking with delivery from now on,” she said. “I’m pretty sure we could have squeezed in another session with the time it’s taken us to go out and find sustenance.”

  “You seriously can’t ge
t enough, can you?” he asked with a laugh.

  Lily widened her eyes.

  “Don’t blame me,” she said. “You’re the one who basically lived in a gym the past few months. And you expect me to control myself?”

  She started to dig through the boxes as soon as they got into the car.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Looking for the mango pudding.” She stuck a white plastic spoon in her mouth and reached into the bottom of the bag.

  “Don’t tell me you’re a desserts first kind of person,” he said, and pretended to shake his head in disappointment.

  “Desserts always come first,” she said. “You’re lucky I’m here to teach you the right path.” When she found the little container, she dug into it and moaned in satisfaction. “Here, try.”

  He let her spoon the sweetness into his mouth as she stopped at a red light.

  26

  Lily

  “I’m out, Jean-Michel!” Lily called into the kitchen. She poked her head in and found him elbows-deep in fondant.

  He muttered into the concoction.

  “Ridiculous, these wedding requests for plastic ‘frosting’—oh, mon dieu!” he exclaimed when he saw her. “Where are you going? More important, what are you wearing?”

  She laughed and looked down.

  “You don’t like it?” Decked out in tiny short shorts, a tight raglan shirt and baseball socks pulled up to her knees, even she’d been impressed that she’d managed to pull the look together.

  “Like, it is not a word for it. By the by, it is clear where you are going today.” He arched a brow at her and smirked.

  “Oh? And where’s that?”

  “In English, I don’t know. We say faire une partie de jambes en l’air.”

  “Yeah, I don’t know what that means. But I get what you’re implying.”

  “And I am not wrong?”

  “Anyway,” she said, “given that I’m not one hundred percent on what you said, I’ll just tell you maybe. But at the moment, I’m going to play kickball with Aiden.”

  Jean-Michel snorted. “You disappoint me. Lily, you are the only employee I talk to. Why you cannot, how you say, bring the gossip for me?”

  She laughed. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

  “What is this kickball? Football? Girls, they should not play the football.”

  “No, it’s not football. Or soccer, if that’s what you actually mean,” she said with a smile. “It’s like a game kids play at recess. But now there are intramural leagues so you can play for fun as adults.”

  Jean-Michel sniffed. “Americans, you never want to grow up. Okay, have fun with your ball kicking.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “See you tomorrow.”

  As Lily headed toward the parking lot, her phone vibrated with a text from Aiden.

  You on your way? You better not bail like the last 100 times! Everyone’s waiting for you!

  OMW, she replied and rolled her eyes.

  For years Aiden had begged her to play in his tournament. And for years she’d come up with excuses. But now that Cade had joined, there was some motivation to actually go.

  She pulled up to Riverfront Park and shielded her eyes to gaze up at the carousel as she jogged by. So many childhood summers had been spent at that carousel. One of her favorite pictures was of her and her mom and matching white horses with big brass poles that made it look like they were riding unicorns.

  Lily could see the teams in the distances, half of them with bright pink strips of cloth tied around their arms. As she jogged up to the spectator area, she spotted Elijah, Aiden, and Cade huddled together.

  Thank God, she thought. It seemed that Aiden and Cade had gotten over the tiff between them.

  The one I caused, she reminded herself with guilt.

  “Hey! Lily!”

  Renee bounded up to the small circle with a thermos in hand. Renee’s long golden legs shot out of her bright neon running shorts. One of the neon pink strips hugged her bicep tight.

  “Renee! Uh … what are you doing here?” Lily asked. She crouched down beside her brothers and stuck her phone into her backpack.

  Renee shrugged. “Aiden invited me.”

  “Aiden?”

  She looked down at her brother, but he wouldn’t make eye contact with her. Awkwardly, she hugged Renee and offered up smiles to everyone else. The last thing she wanted to think about was whether her best friend and brother were hooking up.

  When her eyes caught Cade’s, she blushed and looked down to hide the grin she couldn’t stop from spreading across her face.

  Last night in bed, she’d told Cade that he might be a firefighter, but she’d surely kick his ass at a recess game.

  “You sound really confident,” he’d laughed. “Especially for someone who considers baking their primary form of fitness.”

  “Hey!” she’d protested. “I’d like to see you carry a five-tier cake without wobbling.”

  “I stand corrected,” he said. “You’re super buff.”

  “Seriously, I bet my team will win tomorrow.”

  “Okay, okay!” he’d laughed. “I’m sure you will.”

  “Yeah, but I said I’d bet you.”

  “Oh, yeah?” he’d raised a brow as he turned toward her. “And what are you going to bet? Because if it’s cars, sorry, but no. I have way more to lose.”

  “Don’t be mean to Mariah!”

  “Mariah?”

  “Yeah, that’s the name of my car.”

  “My bad. I don’t want the diva mad at me. So then tell me. What are you going to bet?”

  “If my team doesn’t win, I’m willing to put a week of blowjobs on the table.”

  “And if you win?” he asked. “Go on, you have my attention now. Literally, see?” He’d taken her hand and brought it over the sheets to his hardness.

  “Don’t get cocky already,” she’d said. “If I win, the same. A full week of going down on me.”

  “You act like either of these bets have losers. Or that it wouldn’t happen anyway.”

  “You might be right,” she said with a grin. “But this still makes it more fun.”

  “Hey, so when is the field ours?” Renee asked. Her lilting voice broke into Lily’s reminiscing about last night.

  “Um, they should have been done ten minutes ago,” Elijah said. “So I’m guessing any minute.”

  Lily squatted down between Elijah and Renee. It took everything she had in her not to let her eyes linger on Cade. Aiden already knew—or at least he knew there was something between her and Cade.

  But how much did he know? Maybe he thought it was just a fling.

  When Cade stood up and headed toward the restroom building, she watched him out of the corner of her eye.

  “I, uh, should go fill up my water bottle before we start—”

  “Me too, I’ll go with you,” Renee stood up to join her, but she shooed her back down.

  “It’s okay, I’ll fill yours, too,” she said.

  Renee gave her an odd look. “Well, okay. Since you’re so insistent on it. I won’t say no to being indulged.”

  Lily trotted toward the small brick building. As soon as she turned the corner, she found Cade leaned up against the building. He pounced on her the second he saw her. Lily let out a squeal and dropped both bottles.

  Cade pinned her against the wall and kissed her deeply. She felt the roughness of the brick tug at her clothes. He moved from her lips to her jawline and started to bite gently at her neck. Lily let out a moan and felt the familiar heat spread between her thighs.

  “What, you can’t even make it through one game?” Cade pulled away from her and they both turned to see Aiden. His face was bright red. The anger made his jaw twitch.

  “Aiden—” she started, but he held up a hand.

  “Are you two so stupid that you’d do this in public? Where anyone could catch you—like Elijah?”

  “Hey—” Cade began, but Aiden just shook his head.

>   “We’re about to start. You know, if you two would like to join us.”

  As Aiden stormed off, Lily looked up at Cade. She saw her thoughts reflected in his eyes even before she spoke.

  “We’re going to eventually have to tell Elijah,” she said. “It’s not fair, Aiden keeping this to himself.”

  Cade let out a short laugh. “I don’t think he’s having any trouble letting out some steam. You know, considering the beating he gave me.”

  “Actually, I think you’re kind of lucky,” she said. “Aiden’s one thing, but Elijah … I mean, he’s been your best friend forever. And they’re both protective over me, but Elijah is definitely the worse of the two.”

  “Yeah,” Cade said quietly. “You’re right, I know.”

  “I mean, what if it was Elijah that caught us just now?”

  Cade chewed at his lip. “I can’t even imagine.”

  “Let’s just … we need to figure out a plan. A plan to tell Elijah so we can stop all this sneaking around.”

  “Yeah, but I have to admit, I’m kind of going to miss that.”

  “Miss what?”

  “The sneaking around part,” he said. Cade slapped her butt lightly. “You have to admit, it’s kind of a turn-on.”

  “Well, I certainly hope that’s not the only thing that turns you on,” she said. “You still have a bet to lose.”

  “We’ll see about that.”

  “You go on first,” she said, and gestured toward the field. “I actually do have to fill up these bottles if our flimsy excuse to get away is going to be even halfway believable.”

  She watched Cade jog up toward the field as she held Renee’s bottle below the fountain. With each step he made away from her, she could almost feel the happy little bubble they’d built around themselves start to burst.

  Lily followed a few minutes later. Up the hill, she could see her team with bright pink armbands start to warm up as the earlier group dispersed.

  The last thing I want to do right now is play a stupid game of kickball.

  She joined her team and watched as Aiden offered a shoulder to Renee so she could balance during a stretch. He raised a brow at her and dared her silently to say something. Lily tossed the bottle toward Renee.