He ended up leaving around eight-thirty. She had some prep work to do for a project she was doing with Max the following day, and she finished up with that before going to bed. Lying awake longer than usual with the sound of gentle rain falling outside, Lily thought again of what she and Corrinne had talked about concerning her need to let go of Marty before she could get involved with someone else.
She felt she had done that as much as she was able to at this point. Marty would forever hold a place in her heart, simply because he had been there for such a long time, but she felt ready to let someone new come in and make his own space there. Based on what she knew about Devin thus far, she didn’t imagine him having any trouble doing that.
They saw each other again the following Saturday. Devin took her out to dinner and then to the Oregon Symphony. She hadn’t been to a concert in forever, although she had been often in the past with her family. Devin went on a regular basis, she learned, and she knew she could definitely get used to going often with him.
During the week at school, they tried not to make their relationship obvious. If they passed one another in the hall or saw each other during lunch, they’d talk, but nothing more. He called her several times in the evenings, giving them the chance to talk on a more personal level.
“Are you busy tomorrow night?” he asked when she talked to him on Thursday evening.
“I think I might be going out with someone,” she teased. “But he hasn’t asked me yet, so I’m not sure.”
“How about if I come by about six, and if he hasn’t claimed you by then, you can settle for me.”
She laughed. “Somehow I don’t think any woman has ever considered you someone to settle for.”
“Do you like me, Lily? I mean, I know you’ve wanted to spend some time with me for two years, but now that you have, do you still want to?”
“Yes,” she replied. Taking a deep breath, she dared to ask him the same. “Do you like me, Devin, or are you only being nice to a swoony wallflower?”
He laughed softly. “I like you, Lily. Honestly you are the most refreshing woman I have dated in quite a long time. You are beautiful, and kind, and interesting, and fun, and definitely not a woman any man would have to settle for. If men were honest, most of them would say someone like you is way out of their league, and I consider myself fortunate to have your beautiful green eyes looking at me.”
She was glad they were talking on the phone. If they were sitting together here on this couch, she knew he would have followed that up with a kiss, and she wasn’t certain she was ready for that yet.
“Tomorrow night then?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Good night, Devin.”
“Good night, Lily.”
On Friday she felt positively giddy for the entire day. After talking with Devin the previous evening, she finally felt this could actually be happening. She was dating Devin Taylor, and he liked her! She had been waiting for this for two years, and now it was happening, and it was great.
She didn’t know how long it would last, but she intended to enjoy herself. Up until this point she hadn’t let her hopes soar too high, but now she felt that she couldn't contain them any longer. She had no reason to. And starting tonight she was going to give herself the freedom to fall in love with Devin Taylor.
Forget any concerns about being on the rebound. Forget being cautious and keeping Devin at arm’s length. God had brought Devin into her life at the right time, and she had to trust Him to keep her heart safe as she began to give Devin a part of it.
After recess she had trouble getting Max to come inside. Sometimes he simply decided he was going to follow his own agenda, and neither she nor his parents knew the secret of persuading him otherwise.
“No art today! Max go on the slide!” he demanded. Rather than forcing him to come inside and struggle to get him to do anything for the rest of the day as she sometimes had to do, she decided she would rather join him.
They played on the monkey bars and went down the slide. She used it as an opportunity to teach him some math, go over his spelling words verbally, and practice his conversational skills. So what if Max didn’t want to follow the rules for one day? She knew he would be more cooperative on Monday.
She often found Max teaching her a thing or two about life. For that extra thirty minutes she played with him on the playground, hearing his laughter and watching him learn in an unconventional manner, he reminded her to live outside the box. Life didn’t always follow set rules. Not everything could be explained or planned by logic and reasoning. Life was meant to be lived, not rehearsed to perfection.
She carried that carefree look at life into the evening, not trying to follow all the dating and relationship rules. If they had a good time tonight, it wasn’t going to be because she planned every detail and rehearsed every response. She gave herself the freedom to simply be herself, and unless she was way off-base, she got the feeling Devin liked her this way.
“Would it be unwise of me to ask you out two nights in a row?” he asked at her door at the end of the evening.
“Not if that’s what you want to do.”
He smiled and took her hand. “Oh, that’s definitely what I want to do,” he said. “Would you like to come over to my place and let me make you dinner?”
“You cook?”
“Emeril is my middle name.”
She laughed. “Well, as long as you don’t say Bam! too many times, I think that would be nice.”
He kissed her fingers as usual and gave them a light squeeze. “I’ll be counting the hours, Miss Sullivan. Bring your appetite.”
She felt her cheeks flush at the intimate tone in his voice.
Well, Mr. Taylor, I do believe you are wooing me. She didn’t voice her thoughts but told him good night. She had the feeling he would stand out here all night otherwise.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“You’re going over to his place?” Rose asked the following afternoon when Lily stopped by to raid her closet again.
Lily smiled. “Don’t sound so shocked, little sis.” Remembering her commitment to always be a good example for Rose, she didn’t want to sound too flippant about this and sobered slightly. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Devin will behave himself. He teaches Sunday school, after all. I don’t think he can be planning to wheedle his way into anything. He hasn’t even kissed me yet.”
“Yet? You sound like you don’t want that to be the case much longer.”
Lily pulled a silky white blouse from her sister’s closet and tried it on. “Maybe I don’t,” she said with a laugh. “Is that so shocking?”
“All right, who are you, and what have you done with my sister?”
Lily buttoned the blouse and pulled her hair from under the collar. Standing back to survey the simple but somewhat dressy outfit, she felt satisfied. Tossing her sister a sideways glance, she found Rose smiling at her playfully.
“I guess God answered my prayer about not letting you mope too long over letting Marty go.”
Lily shrugged and began unbuttoning the blouse. “I still miss Marty, and he will always have a special place in my heart, but I know I need to make room for someone else sooner or later. Devin is willing to be that someone, so it might as well be now.”
Rose gave her a hug. “Well, I’m happy for you. I hope you have a great time tonight.”
Lily felt more nervous about going to Devin’s condo for dinner than any of the other dates they’d had, except maybe their first. Something in the way he had asked made her think he may be anxious to take their relationship to a new level.
When she had asked him to refrain from kissing her, she had said, “for awhile.” At the time she didn’t know how long that would be. Perhaps Devin thought he had waited long enough. She thought it would take longer for her to be ready for that, but she decided if he initiated something, she wasn’t going to stop him.
Even though they were going to his place for the evening, Devin came to pick her up anyway. He di
dn’t want her driving home alone too late. She thought that was sweet of him. The first thing she noticed about his condo was how clean and tastefully decorated it was. She wondered if he always kept it this way or if he had cleaned it up for her. When she saw his spice rack arranged alphabetically, she supposed he must be a neat freak like herself. One more thing we have in common.
Dinner was delicious. Devin didn’t just know how to cook, he knew how to cook. She knew she would easily pay twenty or thirty dollars to have something similar at an upscale restaurant. She learned that his dad used to be a chef, and he supposed that’s where he got the knack for it.
“He used to make all kinds of weird stuff when we were kids. Some of it was good, but other times Mom would sneak a snack to us after he went to bed. He usually worked the early shift at the restaurant. He always was in bed by eight o’clock.”
“Did you ever think of being a chef?”
“Not really. I enjoy it, but I don’t think I’d like to do it all the time.”
He said he had dessert, but she asked if they could save it for later. He agreed and invited her to come sit with him in the living room. He put on some soft jazz music, and they talked. They had so much in common. Their backgrounds, interests, and general views on life were similar. She could see herself spending time with him on a regular basis.
She noticed he had lots of classic novels, poetry collections, and history books on his rather large bookshelf when he left the room to get them some more coffee and a slice of cheesecake for them to share. She didn’t know why that commonality surprised her, but it did.
Her impression of Devin seemed to change every time they were together. He was definitely not the gorgeous but shallow guy she had sometimes pegged him to be. He had it where it counted too, and she found herself wanting to know more about him. Spotting a photo album on the shelf, she pulled it out and returned to the sofa to take a look.
“Is this you?” she asked when he returned and set the coffee and dessert on the table in front of them. The first page of the album had several older-looking shots of four children grouped together. She knew he had two older brothers and a younger sister.
“That’s me,” he said, sitting close enough to look over her shoulder as she scanned the photographs. He had been a heartbreaker even back then. He pointed out the other members of his family and one of his neighbor friends who appeared in several of the pictures.
“Our moms used to call us twins because we were always together, but she was actually a year older than me.”
“She?”
“Yeah,” he chuckled. “Sammy was a tomboy, always wore her hair up in that cap. She was mortified when she started getting the body of a girl in fifth grade.”
“Did you ever see her as a girl, I mean when you got older?”
He smiled. “Oh, yes. I did. She slugged me for trying to kiss her at her fourteenth birthday party. I never tried that again.”
Devin hadn’t told her anything about the previous women in his life, and she decided to ask. “Have you kissed a lot of girls since then?”
He laughed. “Not too many. A few more in college than I should have.”
She waited for him to elaborate on that, but he didn’t.
“And since then?”
“Just Tracy,” he said, sounding as if she had been someone special to him. “We were almost engaged, but it didn’t work out.”
Devin had draped his arm behind her, and she felt comfortable with the closeness. “She’s been the only one since college?”
“A few others here and there. No one serious.”
“What happened with Tracy?”
“She thought we were getting too serious too fast. I was twenty-four at the time, but she was younger than me. I don’t know. Maybe she was right, but it took me a long time to get over her.”
Devin reached for the cheesecake and offered her a bite. The sweet substance melted in her mouth, and she closed her eyes to savor the wonderful flavor. Her stomach still felt full from dinner, but she ate every bite he offered her anyway. When they finished off the last of it, Devin set the plate back on the table and leaned back, placing his arm around her once again.
Turning to look into his face, she felt herself holding her breath. She hadn’t thought about Marty all evening, but the look on Devin’s face at that moment reminded her of when Marty had kissed her the night he had first declared his feelings. Devin began to lean toward her, but she lifted her hand to place her fingers over his lips.
“Too soon?” he asked, taking her fingers and kissing them briefly instead.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I would have let you, but I was thinking about Marty, and I don’t want to be thinking about him the first time you kiss me like that.”
He smiled gently. “I can wait. I want it to be the right moment for both of us.”
She stayed long enough to watch a movie with him, and there were a few moments he could have kissed her and she wouldn’t have been thinking about Marty, but he kept his lips to himself. When he drove her home and walked her to the door, she felt the need to apologize again for having Marty on her mind occasionally tonight. She knew she wouldn’t like it if Devin had been thinking of someone else.
“I understand, Lily. I’m in no rush. You need some time, and I’m willing to give you that. When it’s right, it will happen.”
“I know,” she said. “Good night, Devin. Dinner was wonderful.”
“Just a little something I threw together,” he said, leaning to kiss her on the cheek. “I’m glad you liked it.”
She opened the door and stepped inside. He turned away and descended the stairs. Feeling Meow rub against her leg and let out a “welcome home” mew, she closed the door and stood there for a moment. Other than her thoughts about Marty interrupting things, her night had been perfect, and she sighed with contentment.
Going to the kitchen to get a glass of water, she saw some messages waiting on her phone. Checking them, she heard her mother’s voice first:
“Hi, Lily. This is Mom. I haven’t talked to you this week and thought I’d call to see how you’re doing. I guess Marty has gone back to Kenya by now. Did you get a chance to tell him good-bye before he left? Too bad he couldn’t have had more time here. Anyway, give me a call whenever. You’re welcome to come over for lunch tomorrow if you don’t have other plans. Love you.”
The second message was from Josie, asking if she might be available to baby-sit for her one evening later in the week and also saying she had something she wanted to talk to her about, but she didn’t say what. Lily knew she would be seeing her at church in the morning, so she didn’t try to call her back this late.
Both Mark and Josie were at church in the morning, and she sat beside them during class and during the worship service. They were planning to go ice skating with Tommy that afternoon and invited her to come along. She thought that sounded fun and went to the mall with them, eating lunch at the food court first and then spending about an hour teaching Tommy how to skate the proper way.
“You’re good, Lily,” he said, watching her skate backwards while she held his arms out to the side and kept coaxing him to glide rather than walk on the ice.
“I took lessons when I was your age,” she said. “I even won some trophies.”
His blue eyes grew large. “Were you in the Olympics?”
She laughed. “No, I wasn’t that good. I skated at rinks like this one and went to local competitions.”
Mark came to take her place, and she took a break with Josie. They watched Mark and Tommy for a few minutes and then Josie asked her about baby-sitting on Thursday and the other thing she had mentioned wanting to talk to her about.
“Mark and I are going to visit his family in two weeks. We’re flying down on Friday before Spring Break and staying at his parents’ house over the weekend. Mark has to be back to work on Monday, but I got a few extra days off to go visit my sister in Tahoe while I’m down there.”
“Natalie?”
Josie nodded. “She usually comes up here that week, but I’ve never gotten the chance to see where she lives and thought it might be nice to go visit her for a change since I’m going to be down there anyway.”
“That sounds like fun,” Lily said, wondering if Josie wanted her to watch Tommy while she was gone.
“Anyway,” Josie went on. “I was wondering if you might like to go?”
“To California?”
“If you want to. Since Mark can’t stay the whole week, I thought it might be nice to have someone to travel up to Tahoe with and back to Portland. If you can’t, it’s fine. I only wanted to ask if you might be interested.”
“Do you need to know right now?”
“No. I think Mark is going to be getting the tickets later this week. You can let me know.”
“Okay,” she said, wondering if Josie and Mark were trying to get her and Peter together again now that Marty was gone. But Josie knew about Devin, so she didn’t think so.
“Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we’re not going to be seeing Peter while we’re there. He lives about an hour away, and he’ll be working that weekend. Mark’s planning to stop by on his way back to the airport on Sunday to spend a couple of hours with him then.”
Lily didn’t understand why that information disappointed her. Ten seconds ago she was considering not going because of the possibility of seeing him, and now she felt like she might say no because she wouldn’t be.
That makes no sense. What is the matter with me?
Lily got around to calling her mom later that afternoon before she left for youth group. She had never shared what went on between herself and Marty. She decided now that the decision had been made, she would go ahead and tell her. Her mom sounded a bit hurt she had been kept in the dark.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want you to know about it. I needed to make the decision on my own. I didn’t need ten different people telling me what to do.”
Lily Fields (Garden of Love 1) Page 12
