Summer Rose (17 page)

Rose had been trying unsuccessfully to block out the events of the day by attempting to read a book when a knock sounded on her door. She glanced at the clock. Ten forty-eight. Who could possibly be at her door at this hour? Laying the book aside, she hurried to the head of the stairs.

“Who is it?”

“Hunter.”

For a moment, surprise rendered her silent. Hunter hadn’t been here since the night they’d had dinner and made—No, she refused to go there. Until this moment, she’d been able to shove that to the back of her mind, and was almost able to pretend it never happened. And with him standing outside her door asking for admittance, it was no time for her to walk down memory lane.

“Rose?”

She roused herself from her thoughts. “Ah, yes. I’m sorry. Come in.”

The door swung open and in the dim stair light she could see his disheveled state. His brown hair looked as if he’d been combing it with his fingers, and his shirt hung half out of the waistband of his trousers. Certainly not the well-groomed man she was used to seeing every day. As he got closer and stepped into the lamplight, worry lines that had seemingly appeared in the last few hours marked his face. Shadows of the day’s disappointments lingered in his eyes.

Rose understood his emotional state. Deep inside her matching shadows cloaked her heart. Had they done all they could to stop George? Could they have somehow prevented Davy from losing Sadie? The questions had tormented her for hours, and she was sure Hunter as well. Nevertheless, seeing him like this tore her apart. How she wished she could do something, anything to lessen his burden.

As he topped the stairs, she laid her hand on his arm. “Are you okay?” Stupid question. Of course he wasn’t okay.

“Yes.” Then he smiled wanly. “Actually, no, I’m not. I needed a friendly face and someone to talk to.”

She grabbed at the first thought that crossed her mind. With all that had gone on today, she hadn’t eaten, and her guess was Hunter hadn’t either. “Have you eaten?”

He shook his head.

“Neither have I. Have a seat, and I’ll fix us a sandwich.” She hurried off to the kitchen area and quickly threw together a couple of ham sandwiches and opened two cans of soda. She set them on a tray and then carried it back to the living room and set the tray on the coffee table in front of him.

Hunter stared at the food as if it were poison, but picked it up and took a bite, and then replaced it on the plate. “Nothing against your sandwich, but I’m not really very hungry.”

Truth be told, she didn’t much want the sandwich either. The food would have never passed the lump that had lodged in her throat ever since the trucks had driven off with all the animals, and she’d called Lydia to pick up Davy.

Rose put Davy in Lydia’s car, and with Davy’s cries for his beloved Sadie still echoing in her head, Rose had excused herself and hurried to her apartment where she’d finally allowed her unrestrained tears to fall. And now, though as equally depressed as Hunter, she forced herself to put on a brave front for him.

For a long time, she and Hunter just sat there in a thickening stillness, each engulfed in their own thoughts, neither wanting to put them into words.

Finally, Rose could stand the silence no longer. “Where’s Ken tonight?”

Pulled from his thoughts, Hunter stirred and looked blankly at her for a second. Then he blinked, as if her words had just registered in his brain. “Uh . . . he took Lydia to dinner. They went into Charleston somewhere, I think.”

“What about Davy?” The thought of the poor child having to spend any time with George after he’d ripped the boy’s heart out, brought Rose to high alert. “They didn’t leave him with his father did they?”

“No. Originally, Ken had planned on just him and Lydia going out. But after what happened today, he insisted they take Davy along.” Hunter’s lips curved into a weary smile. “I think my brother likes the boy as much as he likes his mom.”

Silence fell again.

Finally, Rose broached the subject they’d both been avoiding. “What do you plan to do to stop George?”

Hunter stood and walked to the window overlooking the entire compound. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

She stood and went to his side. “You said you came up here because you needed someone to talk to. If it’s not to talk, then why did you come here? What do you want, Hunter?”

Hunter turned slowly from the window. He looked into her beautiful eyes. The answer to her question hit him with all the force of a semi barreling brakeless down Hawks Mountain. He wanted
her
, and not just physically and not just now. He wanted her tomorrow, next week, next month, next year—forever—beside him to share his life, the ups and downs, the triumphs and the failures, the good and the bad.

“This is what I want.” He pulled her to him and kissed her quite thoroughly. Using the kiss, he tried to convey to her all that she meant to him, all the feelings he’d been holding back because he was still too hesitant to put them into words.

At first, Rose stood stiffly within his embrace. Then slowly she melted into him and clung like a morning glory to a trellis.

Just as suddenly, she pulled back.

Resting her forehead against his, she struggled for breath. “We have . . . to talk. I have to tell you about—”

Hunter shook his head and placed a finger over her lips. “Not . . . now.”

“But—”

“We’ll talk . . . later.” His breath too was coming in short, labored gasps, and his heavily beating heart felt like it would burst from his chest. “Later,” he whispered. Then he cupped her face in his hands and covered her mouth with his again.

He felt Rose hesitated for a fraction of a second, then her arms encircled his neck and her body leaned into his. He deepened the kiss, glorying in her eager response.

Holding Rose close and feeling the solidity of her against him gave birth to more than primal male urges in Hunter. It conjured up soul-soothing peace and a contentment he never seemed able to achieve when she wasn’t near. The problems facing him with George and the anguished cries of a little boy who had just had his best friend ripped away faded, drowned out by the thunder of his heart and his need for the woman in his arms.

The rising sun painted golden
patterns across the quilt on Rose’s bed. Beside her, Hunter snored softly. The afterglow of their magical night of lovemaking still encased her in a warm cocoon.

He’d held her all night as if even in sleep he couldn’t let her go. With her head on his solid shoulder and his body close to hers, she felt safe and secure for the first time in her life—like she belonged. She snuggled closer.

Rose truly loved this man and after last night, she was beginning to believe he loved her. But would it be enough? Could love overcome his resistance to having a family, especially one that came ready-made?

She rolled to her back, dislodging his arm. He moaned softly and threw it back over her middle. What she would give to stop time and spend the rest of her days right here, just like this. Oddly, the other two human beings she was responsible for were the very barriers standing between her and finding happiness with Hunter.

She slid her hand over her tummy, which had started to show a bit more in the last few weeks. Not enough to raise questions from anyone but Granny Jo’s sharp eyes, but enough to warn Rose that her secret wouldn’t be a secret for much longer.

“Morning.” Hunter’s sleepy voice came from beside her.

Propping herself up on her elbow, she smiled down at him. “Morning.”

He pushed himself up and kissed her. “What time is it?”

Over his shoulder, the digital clock’s red numbers flashed eight twenty-two. “Almost eight thirty. Good thing it’s Sunday, and the office is closed today.

Hunter chuckled low in his throat. The sound sent shivers up Rose’s spine. Hunter pushed himself up, repositioned the pillow behind his back and leaned against the headboard. Then he gathered Rose to his chest. “Since we don’t have to open the office, that gives us time to—”

Rose’s body began to respond to his nearness. Knowing what he was about to suggest and fighting everything in her to keep from giving in to the need growing inside her, she levered herself away. It was time to clear the air between them. Moving to the foot of the bed, she grabbed a pillow, pulled the quilt up to her armpits and leaned against the footboard facing him. Seeing him sitting there with the sheet low across his stomach was hard enough. Lying beside him would be torture.

“We need to talk.”

He frowned. “Sounds serious. What’s up?”

She swallowed hard and averted her gaze, then looked back at him. “I’ve been keeping something from you.”

“You’re married.”

She shook her head.

“You’re quitting.”

“Good heavens, no. I love my job, probably more than I’ve ever liked any job I’ve ever had.”

He grinned. “I’m glad to hear you say that. Because I love having you working for me.” He winked at her and then swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for his clothes. He pulled on his shorts, then his jeans and stood. “However, I’m afraid you’re either going to have to tell me what you’ve been hiding or give me some hints. I’ve run out of guesses.”

Rose pulled her legs up to her chest and clasped her arms around her knees. Taking a deep breath, she said it before she could chicken out. “I’m pregnant. With twins.”

Hunter stopped in the process of buttoning his shirt. “What? But we only . . .”

Rose suddenly realized what he was thinking. “No. No. It’s not yours.” Trying very hard not to make judgments about the stricken look on his face, she hurried on. “I was . . . am a surrogate for Beth.” Quickly, she told him about Beth’s inability to conceive, and her decision to carry the babies for her friend.

When she’d told him everything, she waited for his reaction. But there was none. Through it all, Hunter had never said a word, nor had he moved. And now, he stood as still as if frozen in time.

Fear curled its cold hand around her heart.

For what seemed like an eternity, he continued to stare at her, his face unreadable. Then he snatched up his shoes and headed out of the room.

Just before he disappeared out the door, he glanced back at her. “I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”

When Hunter stumbled through his front door and collapsed on the couch, he was still reeling from Rose’s totally unexpected announcement.

Pregnant? With twins?

Why hadn’t he noticed? Surely her body had changed from the first day he’d met her and given away some clue that she was pregnant. That wasn’t something a woman could hide for long.

But to him she looked just as gorgeous as she had the day she’d walked into his office looking for a job. Then he recalled that day and how Rose had gagged, and he’d joked to himself that he wasn’t that bad looking. Looking back on it now, little things he’d passed off began coming back and making sense. The gagging had been what doctors oddly refer to as morning sickness, even though it can last all day. And she never drank alcohol or regular coffee, both no-no’s for a mother-to-be.

In his defense, however, none of that had really been enough to suggest pregnancy. She could have had a stomach virus that first day. As for the rest, in this age of vegetarians and elevated nutrition consciousness, it wasn’t all that unusual for people not to drink alcohol or to prefer decaf coffee, especially in the evening.

Once he got past mentally chastising himself for not noticing her condition, the full impact of it set in.

He loved Rose, but he didn’t want the added responsibility of two little lives to care for. He’d been there and he recalled all too vividly the restricted lifestyle he’d been forced into.

How had this happened? He’d been so careful to steer wide of relationships that could develop into more and that might include the responsibility of a family. Then he fell head over heels for a woman who came with a ready-made family. Twins, no less!

He shook his head. Between George and his antics and this new revelation from Rose, Hunter’s stress level had just jumped off the charts.

Rubbing his throbbing temples, he headed for his bedroom with the hope that a shower would help him sort everything out. Or, at the very least, help him find some answers.

When he emerged from the shower twenty minutes later, his mind was still reeling. He got dressed and thanked heavens that he didn’t have to go into the office and face Rose today. Grabbing his keys, he left the house, climbed in his truck and drove away with no idea of his destination except that it was away from here, away from Rose.

Rose steered her cantankerous car
up Lower Mountain Road and across the bridge spanning Bender’s Creek on a steady course toward Granny Jo Hawks’ house. After Hunter had walked out, she had spent almost an hour feeling sorry for herself and soaking several dozen tissues with useless tears. When she’d heard his truck drive out of the compound, she’d cried even harder.

By the time she got herself under control, her eyes were red and swollen. She’d run out of tears and decided she needed some good old-fashioned advice, and the one person who could provide that was Josephine Hawks. Cold compresses had reduced the swelling around her eyes, and a hot shower had revitalized her to the point that she felt somewhat human again. But the pain slicing through her heart would need more than compresses and a shower to ease it.

I can’t do it.

Those were Hunter’s final words before he walked out, and they had spoken volumes. No matter how he felt about her, the responsibility of a family was just not something he wanted in his life, and it seemed he was willing to do anything, including throwing away their relationship, to avoid it. Nothing she could say or do would change that. Even talking to Granny Jo wouldn’t change it.

She pulled the car to the side of the road and stopped. So why was she going to the woman’s house? Mainly because Granny was really the only friend she’d made in Carson. But why else was she on her way up the mountain? To cry on Granny’s shoulder? To see if she had some magical fix for this that would alter Hunter’s thinking?

Who was she kidding? There was no magical cure. No one could change how Hunter felt, not even the wise Granny Jo Hawks.

Quickly, she put the car in drive and did a U-turn and then headed back down the mountain. As she drove, she thought about how much Beth and her husband had wanted these children. If only Hunter could want them even a fraction as much. If only she could talk to her friend. Beth always knew what to do, always had the solution to any problem they’d faced.

Then an idea struck her. She could go to Beth’s old house and maybe just being there would help her sort through her dilemma. Rose racked her brain to recall the name of the road Beth had lived on. Shawnee. Shantee. Santee Ridge. The first house on the right on Santee Ridge Road. Rose had seen that road sign on her way up the mountain.

She slowed the car and started methodically reading every sign she passed until she found Santee Ridge Road. She swung the car onto the side road and craned her neck searching for the first house.

Then it appeared. A ghostly shell of what had once been a home. She pulled into the driveway and stared at the dilapidated building before her. The rusted mailbox nearly buried in tall weeds held one letter, an
L
.
L
for Lawrence. Could this be the house Beth had talked about late at night, recounting stories of a happy, wonderful childhood?

If so, where was the picket fence, the yellow roses, the tire swing hanging from the maple tree? Time would have definitely taken a toll on an uninhabited house, but there should have been some trace of the things Beth had described to her. A bit of rotted rope hanging from the tree limb. A remnant of the picket fence. The dried-up stub of a neglected rose bush. Something. But there was nothing. Rose felt as though she’d taken a hard blow to the stomach.

All those stories Beth had told her late at night in whispered confidence. All the dreams they’d dreamed together about Beth getting married and coming back here to raise a family in that happy home where she’d grown up. All so much smoke. Rose leaned back against the car seat, unable to understand any of this.

“Why, Beth? Why did you tell me all that if it wasn’t true?” The words emerged like the plaintive cry of a wounded animal.

If Hunter had broken her heart, Beth’s manufactured, idyllic life had crushed it. Beth’s house of cards, an elaborate charade to protect a little girl from a past she couldn’t face, came tumbling down around Rose now. There had never been the perfect life in Carson that Beth had described to Rose. Not then and not now. Not for Beth and not for Rose.

Tears welled in Rose’s eyes, but she angrily blinked them away, determined not to waste one more bit of emotion on either Beth or Hunter. They were just one more disappointment added to the parade of disappointments that dotted her life, one more betrayal. She never should have come here. She never should have come to Carson.

Nothing remained for her here. Nothing. Now, it was just her and her babies.

Backing the car out of the driveway, she traveled back down the mountain. Thanks to not having to pay rent, she’d been able to get her car fixed so it was reliable and still stash away enough money to get a small apartment in Charleston and survive for a few weeks while she looked for work.

She laid her hand on her rounded tummy. The best thing she could do for all of them would be to leave Carson behind and begin a new life.

Rose had just thrown
the last of her belongings into her car when she heard a vehicle approaching. Taking a deep breath and muttering a quick prayer that it wasn’t Hunter, she turned. Lydia’s car pulled up beside her.

Davy’s mom got out and handed her a large, white envelope. “For you.”

She took it and glanced from it to Lydia. “What’s this?”

Lydia smiled. “Open it.”

Rose slid her finger beneath the flap and pulled out the single, slick sheet inside. Her breath caught in her throat. Staring back at her from the color, glossy print was her and Hunter huddled together, laughing. Hunter had his arm slung casually around her shoulders. Rose knew exactly when the photo had been taken. They’d been watching Rosebud chase George up the tree.

“Thanks.” To her horror, emotion clogged her voice. Though she’d been sure her already bruised heart couldn’t hurt anymore, it did. She quickly cleared her throat. “This is very nice of you.”

Lydia laughed. “Well, after seeing the two of you together, I figured you’d like it.”

“Yes . . . uh . . . I’ll just tuck it away for now and get it framed later.” She slipped the photo back into the envelope and then dropped it through the window onto the passenger seat of the car. “How’s Davy?”

“Better, but not himself. It helped that the man from the wolf preservation place called this morning to tell him that Sadie got there safely, and that they’d turned her loose to run with a pack that they thought she’d acclimate to.”

“That was nice of him. He didn’t have to do that.”

“No, he didn’t, and he told me before he talked to Davy that he’d like me to bring Davy up there so he could see how the animals were treated. Maybe even see Sadie if she’s around.” She leaned her hip against the fender as though settling in for a long chat.

Rose only half heard her. She was too busy hoping Lydia would leave so she could get out of here before Hunter came back. But she felt compelled to comment. “That would be great for Davy. Put his mind at ease.”

“I’m not sure anything is going to do that. He really misses that animal. He didn’t eat breakfast this morning, which is unlike him.” She pushed herself away from the car and rested her hand on the door handle. “Well, I have to get home. I’m cooking supper for Ken tonight.” She flushed a faint pink.

Rose glanced nervously down the driveway. She wanted to wish Lydia luck with Ken, but she didn’t say anything because it might signal Lydia that she wanted to lengthen their conversation. Besides, talking about someone else’s happy relationship when she had no hope for one herself wasn’t what Rose wanted right now.

“Well, you two have fun. Tell Davy hi for me.”

Lydia seemed to take the hint that the conversation was over. She nodded, then threw Rose a questioning look. “You okay?”

Rose forced a smile. “Never better.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” She took the car’s door handle from Lydia and opened it for her. “Now, get out of here. You’ve got a meal to cook for a special guy.”

Lydia cast one more skeptical look Rose’s way, then got in, started the car, waved and drove away.

Rose watched her go, envy growing inside her like a debilitating virus. What she wouldn’t give to have what Lydia had.

Hunter sat in Terri’s Tearoom
doodling random circles on a napkin with the tip of his finger and staring blankly out the window at Main Street. It had been two days since he’d come home and found Rose’s car gone. Assuming she’d needed some space to think, he’d shrugged it off and went to bed. But when she hadn’t returned by the next morning or that afternoon, he knew in his heart that she was gone for good.

Since then he hadn’t been any good to himself or his business. He’d fed and watered the animals and treated the dogs and cats in his care, but he hadn’t answered the phone. The red light on the answering machine had been blinking for two days, and he had no desire to hear any of the messages. However, he’d listened to them, just in case one message might be from Rose. But none of them had been, and those were the only ones he’d want to hear.

He sighed, crumpled the napkin and looked out the window.

Oblivious to the pain of the man staring out the people passing by the window, life went on as usual on Main Street. Sam Watkins hurried down the street, stopping periodically to hand bundles of mail to the store owners. Bill Keeler was hanging a Buy One, Get One Free sign in the market window. Reverend Thomas had just inserted an
s
in the sign on the church lawn announcing his topic for Sunday’s sermon, “Moving Mountains.” Bessie Wright busied herself pulling weeds out of the petunias in the town square. Several kids stood outside Bart Lawson’s bicycle shop eyeing the newest bike parked out front.

None of them knew that Hunter’s heart was breaking. None of them realized that he’d stupidly chased away the one woman in the world that he’d ever loved. And more than likely, none of them cared. They had their own lives, their own problems.

He sipped his lukewarm coffee and rearranged the crumbs on his plate that were left from a cheese Danish he hadn’t tasted, but had eaten anyway.

He had no idea where Rose had gone, and even if he did, how could he repair the damage he’d done by walking out on her without explanation? How did he explain that her news about her pregnancy had been too much for him to handle on top of everything else that had gone on that day?

“Where have you been?”

Hunter looked up to see his brother Ken standing beside the table. The grim expression on his brother’s face told Hunter he was not happy with him. Ken slipped into the chair across from him, rested his folded arms on the table and leaned forward.

“I’ve been calling you for two days.”

Hunter had heard Ken’s messages, but dismissed them along with the rest. “I haven’t been answering the phone.”

“No kidding?” Ken’s sarcastic reply held barely controlled irritation. “What’s going on, Bro? Talk to me.”

Feeling like a jerk, but needing someone to talk to more than needing to protect his ego, Hunter told Ken everything from his love for Rose to his exit after her announcement about the twins. “I really messed up.”

“Yes, you did.”

“You could at least argue with me.” He gave Ken a weary smile.