Tiger Lily - May Dawson Page 0,47

man.”

He started to say something that was either going to be sweet or sarcastic; there was no middle ground with him.

I pulled the fleece blanket from beside me on the couch over my legs, and something fell out of it.

Both of our eyes fell to that object on the floor at the same time.

An enormous satin pair of panties.

He lunged for it abruptly. As understanding dawned, I pressed my hands over my eyes.

“Oh my god, those are Lasagna’s, aren’t they?” I asked. “You and she—on this couch—”

I abruptly scrambled off the couch.

“I’m seventy-five, not dead!” He tried to stuff the underwear in his pocket, but they were too big, so he ended up holding them behind his back.

“You defiled the couch!”

“You defiled my washing machine!”

I stared him down across the living room.

“You knew?” I asked finally.

He nodded. “For one thing, Lily, I’ve got a Ring doorbell now. I saw you two creeping across my porch half-naked, thinking you were being stealthy. I decided I didn’t want to know anything about—all that—” He waved his hand in the air.

“A wise choice.”

“I got a call from my friend the police chief the next day,” he added.

I groaned. “Okay, good job, you successfully distracted me from my distress at your couch antics. How does anyone lose a pair of panties that big, anyway? There’s a reason humans coined the phrase granny panties, huh?”

He shrugged. “We were busy.”

“Why can’t I meet Lasagna?”

“I didn’t want to add to your post breakup angst. You can meet her.”

“There is no angst,” I scoffed.

He let out a laugh. “Right now, you’ve got more angst than a whole season of Grey’s Anatomy.”

He used to watch that show with me, but he always complained about it. “Don’t you ever wonder what happened after season five?”

That was when I stopped watching.

He gave me a look that was just as guilty as he was when we found the panties.

“You kept watching it out with me,” I said. “Wow. So many secrets and betrayals revealed tonight.”

“Lily, really,” he asked. “Are you all right? With the…news…about your inner cat?”

I stumbled for the right answer. “I feel… foolish. Ridiculous. But I’ll get over it.”

Really, cats of all types are awesome.

“And now I don’t have to worry about Carol Baskins or Joe,” I added with a shrug. “So there’s that.”

I might not be exactly okay right now, but I had a feeling I would be.

I was back in Silver Springs where I was loved—even when I was ridiculous or foolish.

And that was a powerful thing.

25

Mondays were always rough, but this one was especially so.

Things felt tense between Blake and me after our conversation in his truck. Archer had tried to rescue us both, but it didn’t change that we’d had to be rescued. We might not have finished our argument, but we hadn’t made up either.

And things felt so good between Archer and me, and between Dylan and me. I didn’t want things to be strained for Blake and I.

I might not be exactly who I thought I was, but maybe I could have a happy ending anyway.

We worked late into the afternoon on Roberta. We were supposed to be doing a complete overhaul of the brakes, but everything that could possibly go wrong, went awry.

“Go ahead without us,” Blake said, waving the guys off at the end of the day. “Lily and I will get a bite to eat later.”

I gave him a side eye as Dylan and Archer locked up the rest of the shop.

“What?” he asked me without looking up, as if Blake could read my mind.

“I went out on a date with each of you,” I said. “Dylan took me to the springs, and Archer took me to karaoke and you—you took me to move. And now is this date number two? Working overtime? You’re just going to keep having us spend time together in the most miserable—”

“I’m not miserable with you,” he said mildly.

I pulled a face. “That’s not fair.”

“I guess not fair’s going around.”

“You are impossible.” I propped my hands on my hips.

“You know what’s impossible,” Blake said, his temper flaring to the surface for the first time. His eyes blazed, and I knew he had a whole lot to say, but he paused there, as if he was struggling to contain himself.

And maybe I should’ve been intimidated, but even though I knew some people would take him that way, with his spreading shoulders and his muscular body and his heated eyes, he didn’t scare me. Brad had backed away