Montana Creeds: Tyler by Linda Lael Miller Page A

house. Tess and her new friend, Eleanor, were sitting at the table, picking at the chicken breasts she’d broiled earlier, for their supper and Hal’s.
    Both the girls seemed stricken to silence, as though they’d never seen a woman in a dress before, but Hal found words. “That’s some getup,” he said. Was that a twinkle she saw lurking in his eyes? “I’m glad you took my advice and went with red.”
    â€œIt’s only dinner,” Lily said. Hadn’t people been telling her that all day?
    She wasn’t eloping with Tyler.
    They probably wouldn’t even kiss, since they were virtually strangers to each other.
    Hal laughed, shook his head.
    Had she said something funny? And if so, when?
    â€œMy mom has a name for shoes like that,” Eleanor said sagely. Eleanor, like Tess, was a miniature adult, disguised as a child. The old-fashioned name suited her perfectly, in fact.
    â€œThey’re straight out of Sex and the City, ” Tess observed.
    â€œTess Kenyon,” Lily challenged, “what do you know about Sex and the City? ”
    Being no dummy, Tess subsided. “Just that the older girls talk about it at school sometimes,” she said sweetly. “And that all the women in the TV show can run in really high heels.”
    â€œThat does it,” Lily said. “I’m blocking cable.”
    â€œI don’t have cable,” Hal put in. “So no worries.”
    â€œYou look beautiful, Mom,” Tess said, with such sincerity and even wonder that Lily forgot all about the things her daughter might have been watching on TV when she wasn’t around. “Like a princess.”
    â€œA princess in sexy shoes,” Eleanor said.
    Eleanor’s parents, Lily had learned over the course of the long, lazy, front-porch afternoon, were going through a bad divorce. It was important to show tolerance and understanding, but there were limits.
    â€œCan Eleanor spend the night?” Tess asked. “Her aunt said it was okay.”
    â€œIf it’s all right with your grandfather, yes,” Lily said. Then she turned her gaze to her dad. “No TV,” she added ominously. “Unless it’s Disney, or educational in some way.”
    Hal sighed, raised both hands, palms out, in a gesture of benign surrender. “I was planning on a game of cutthroat Monopoly. Is that curmudgeonly enough for you?”
    Lily gave him a look.
    â€œAre you driving, or is Tyler picking you up?” Tess asked Lily. From her tone, she might have been forty, not six.
    Lily’s cheeks felt hot again. She was a fool for even going on this dinner date at all, let alone not taking her rental car, but since she’d been in such a dither from the first encounter with Tyler, the day before yesterday, she hadn’t thought to suggest that they meet at the restaurant.
    Was she trying to get herself seduced?
    Did she want to let Tyler have his way with her, and to hell with the consequences?
    It was a possibility she didn’t dare examine too closely.
    â€œTyler is picking me up,” she finally answered.
    Eleanor and Tess high-fived each other.
    And before Lily could respond to that, the doorbell rang.
    Lily’s heart shimmied into her throat.
    There was still time to back out. She could pretend to be sick, maybe even persuade Hal to lie for her, though the chances of that were slim to none.
    But what kind of example would she be setting for Tess?
    Lily patted her hair, pinned up in a loose twist at the back of her head. Hal smiled, reading the gesture for what it was, and Tess and Eleanor raced for the front of the house, giggling when they nearly wedged themselves into the first doorway.
    Lily thought she was going to throw up.
    Maybe it wouldn’t be lying to say she was sick.
    The trouble was, no one would believe her. Not her dad, not the little girls who knew too much about sexy shoes, and certainly not Tyler.
    She’d just have to