Accidental Love (12 page)

"This house is amazing. If I lived here, I'd never want to leave." Her eyes widened at the possible ways her statement could be taken. "I-I mean, it's a really nice place, not that I'd…"

"Relax, Rose, I knew what you meant," the tall executive said. "I don't like to leave here much myself. That's why everything is designed for my comfort, and Maria's of course." She reached over and shut the light off. "Well, that's it," she said as she wheeled Rose back into the kitchen.

"The rest of the place is either upstairs or downstairs and we're not going to venture there today."

"It's really a beautiful home, Ronnie."

"Thank you. I'm glad you like it," she replied, taking Rose's approval of her home far more seriously than she had taken anyone else's before. "So you up for that game of Trivial Pursuit or what?"

"Oh, that table in the dining room is too high for this chair," Rose said apologetically.

"No problem. You think one of the ones in the game room would be a better fit?"

The rest of the morning was spent in the game room where they completed four games of Trivial Pursuit, ending with a tie of two wins apiece. Then it was back to the office where they watched a marathon of Judge Judy tapes that Ronnie had stored up but had been too busy to watch. Tabitha kept them company, alternating between lying on the bed with Rose and jumping up on Ronnie's lap in the leather chair.

Shortly after lunch Rose took half a Percocet and lay down to take a nap, the morning activities taking their toll on her still healing legs. Ronnie pretended to work on the computer but in truth she was just waiting for the young woman to fall asleep. When she heard the soft, gentle snores, she stepped away from the computer desk and knelt down next to the bed. She watched the steady rise and fall of Rose's chest for a few minutes before tucking the blanket in around her and leaving the room, making certain the door was left ajar.

*********************

Rose shook her head groggily and opened her eyes. It was dark out but with the short days of winter, she could not tell if it was five o'clock or eight o'clock. A glance at the red numbers on the alarm told her it was quarter to six. Her bladder told her that it was time for something else altogether. She sighed at the thought of having to ask Ronnie yet again to help her with the task. Her eyes fell on the bedpan, sitting on the small table next to the bed. It was within arm's reach…perhaps…

Ronnie was chopping up mushrooms when she heard the blood-curdling scream. The knife hit the floor as she raced from the kitchen to the office as the screams continued.

"Oh God…ahhh…" Rose was still crying out in agonizing pain when Ronnie burst in. The young woman had managed to roll onto her side in an attempt to get the bedpan underneath herself but in the process her left leg dropped over the right one and twisted, sending intense waves of pain through her ankle. "Oh God it hurts!"

Ronnie wasted no time, grabbing the left foot and lifting the leg away from the right one trapped underneath it. She quickly got Rose positioned onto her back again. "What happened?"

"I…I just wanted…" Her words broke off into sobs as she cried helplessly.

"Okay now, okay." Ronnie scrambled up onto the bed and pulled Rose against her with one arm while reaching for the bottle of Percocet with the other. "I've got you, Rose…it's okay now." The cap to the bottle went flying under the force of her thumb. "Here now, take this."

Rose took the full pill into her mouth, followed by a few sips of water to get it down. Her sobs eased up slightly, but her arms remained wrapped firmly around Ronnie's neck. "What happened?"

"I…I had to go…and…and…"

"Why didn't you ask me? I left the door open so I could hear you." Whatever Rose tried to give for an answer was lost in her sobs, the only words Ronnie could make out were 'sorry' and

'bother'. "Okay…I've got you," she cooed. "I've got you, it's all right."

It was a good ten minutes before she got Rose calmed down enough to get the bedpan under her hips. "I think we'd better take you back to the hospital so they can make sure that the bones are still lined up."

"I didn't hit it that hard…"

"You don't know that, Rose. Even the slightest bit off and you'll have problems walking again, you know that."

"I don't want to go back," she said fearfully. "I'm sorry, please don't make me go back."

"Shh…I'm not making you go back. I just want to make sure you didn't do any damage, that's all." She pulled Rose close again. "I promise we'll only go to get your legs X-rayed and then we'll come back home."

It was almost two in the morning by the time they returned from the emergency room. Ronnie was annoyed enough at the length of time it took for the ambulance to arrive, but she was even more angry at the hour and a half wait to get a return trip. The thought of purchasing a van just so she would not have to depend on others to help her get Rose around passed through her mind more than once. Much to their relief, nothing was moved out of place. Dinner ended up not being the elegant feast that she had planned but leftovers warmed up in the microwave due to the late hour.

Ronnie got Rose settled back into bed and gave her a stern warning about trying a stunt like that again before tucking her in. "I'll be right here on the couch if you need me," she said before shutting off the light and heading for the door.

"Ronnie?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

Those words brought the dark-haired woman back to the bedside. "I know you are, Hon, and I know it's gotta be hard for you, but please just ask for help next time, okay?"

"Okay." There was a pause. "Ronnie?"

"Yeah?"

"It's time."

********************

Ronnie drained the last of her cup of coffee and looked out the window at the morning sun bouncing off the freshly fallen snow. Behind her, Rose continued to sleep soundly, not at all disturbed by the executive's early morning activities on the computer. Ronnie set the empty cup down on the desk and sighed. Three hours pouring over statements and spreadsheets still failed to turn up anything amiss with Cartwright Real Estate. Contractors were paid, receipts were posted, everything looked like business as usual. So why did she feel so strongly that something was terribly wrong? She slumped back into her chair and picked up the report again. The answer had to be there. But instead of returning to the world of ledgers and entries, Ronnie's eyes drifted over to the bed, where the bright sun cast a glow around the sleeping form. "Just like sunshine," she whispered to herself.

Time began to tick by as she continued to silently study Rose. Her blue eyes started at the top, noting the soft honey colored hair that framed the cherubic face. Reddish brown eyebrows accented closed lids with naturally curly lashes. A petite, upturned nose rested just above the softest looking lips. Ronnie's gaze continued downward, past the oversized nightshirt and down to where the curves stopped. Her eyes remained riveted on the broken bones hidden by the casts, reminding her just why the beautiful young woman was there. With a mix of guilt and regret, Ronnie turned her chair back to face the desk and buried herself in her work.

The rustling of the bedcovers accompanied by a painful groan announced that the young woman was waking up. "Morning," Rose mumbled, trying to bring green eyes into focus.

"Almost afternoon, actually," Ronnie replied, putting down her work for a moment and turning to face her companion. "I don't have much to offer in the way of brunch but if you want, I'll run out and see if I can get some Chinese food."

"Ooh, that sounds wonderful." Rose's eyes lit up as if she were receiving the biggest Christmas present in the world. "I meant to thank you again for bringing that to the hospital."

"It doesn't take much to make you happy, does it?"

The young woman cocked her head from side to side in thought before answering. "No, not really. I never had much, so extras like take-out food were out of the question."

"How long have you been on your own, Rose?"

"Oh," she blushed. "You don't want to hear about me."

"Sure I do." Ronnie moved her chair closer and propped her stockinged feet on the edge of the bed. "Come on, it'll be like a slumber party."

"I don't know…"

"Come on, Sunshine," she cajoled, realizing she had used the pet name only after she had said it. She shifted and glanced at the window. "It's cold outside. I'll call for delivery and you can tell me all about Rose Grayson."

"There isn't really that much to tell. Certainly nothing particularly interesting."

"Let me decide that," Ronnie urged, her eyes pleading for the young woman to open up.

Rose looked down at the blanket for a moment, weighing her options and fears. She felt so safe, so cared for here. What if something she said made her new friend think differently of her?

But…there was nothing in Ronnie's eyes to suggest she would judge anything that was said. Maybe if she skimmed over the details….

"Well, like I said, there really isn't that much to tell. I was almost two years old when my parents died in a car accident. After that I lived with my grandmother until she got too sick to take care of me anymore." She shrugged her shoulders. "Then I lived in different places until I was old enough to be on my own. That's about it."

"How old were you when your grandmother got sick?"

"Ten."

"She was your only relative?"

"Yeah."

"You know this feels more like an interview than a conversation," Ronnie said, drawing a shy smile from the young woman. "Tell me a story about you. Tell me about something nice that happened to you when you were a child."

"Something nice that happened to me, eh?" Rose pondered the thought for a moment before coming up with a suitable tale. "All right, but first you call for that food you promised."

"Deal," she replied.

*******************

A few minutes later the food had been ordered and it was now time for Rose to tell her story.

"Okay, it was when I was six or seven. My grandmother came to me early one morning and told me that we were going someplace special. She packed us lunches and we took the bus for what seemed like hours. We had to switch buses a couple of times before we got there." Rose's eyes gleamed at the memory and her gaze was many years away from the office in Ronnie's house.

"She took me to the zoo. Not the little petting zoos that would come to the bazaars from time to time but a real zoo. There were so many animals…tigers, bears, seals…it was incredible. We spent the whole day there and ate lunch near the cage with the bear cubs." She placed her hand on the older woman's ankle and leaned in. "My grandmother told me not to feed them but when she wasn't looking I threw the rest of my sandwich into their pit."

"Sounds like a really nice day," Ronnie said.

"Oh, it was. It was one of those perfect days when it wasn't too hot or too windy or anything. Grandma even had a roll of dimes to put in the machines to get those pellets to feed the goats." Rose leaned back against her pillow and smiled at the ceiling. "I fell asleep on the way back so I don't remember much of that but I do remember how happy I was to be walking home with her from the bus stop."

"Sounds like she loved you very much."

"She did," the young woman replied. "Grandma always found ways to make our time together nice. After the chores were done, we'd always play Monopoly or cards or something." Rose's eyes misted and she blinked back the pain that came with the memory.

"My grandmothers were always scrapping with each other," Ronnie said, hoping that a tale of her own would help keep her friend from thinking of the sad times growing up. "They were both the typical mother-in-law. Grandma Cartwright never thought my mother was good enough and Grandmother Mitchell thought the same of my dad. You should have seen them at holidays."

"Did you always have a lot of people around on the holidays?"

"Yup, and always here, too--well, until I took over. Now the parties are held at Susan's house or at one of the cousin's places. But back then, we usually had thirty or forty people here for family get-togethers."

"Wow, it must have been chaos." Rose pressed the remote button for the heating unit built into the bed, hoping it would help ease the steadily growing ache in her legs.

"Chaos is a nice way of putting it. Tradition is a big thing in both families and of course what was a Cartwright tradition wasn't a Mitchell one. On some holidays there'd be fights ten minutes after everyone arrived."

"Fights?"

"Oh, not physical ones…usually," Ronnie grinned. "At Christmas usually it would start with what we were having for dinner then work its way up to how the tree was decorated."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, swear to God." She held her hand up in solemn oath. "Mother's family always waited until Christmas Eve to put the star on the top but Dad's side would put it up long before, when they put the tree up."

"That seems like a silly thing for people to get upset about, especially at a time when they should just be happy to see each other," Rose said, realizing perhaps Ronnie's family was not as perfect as she thought they were.

"Well, maybe it was because my family saw way too much of each other. They all worked for Cartwright Corp. in one form or another."

"You'd think that would make them closer."

"Sometimes they were too close," Ronnie replied. "It's like a soap opera at times. We all know what's going on in each other's lives all the time. There's no real privacy."

"I never thought it could be so difficult. I guess, not having a family, I didn't see the down side to having so many people around," Rose admitted.

"I never thought about how lonely it could be being an only child." The two women looked at each other thoughtfully as old ideas blended with newfound truths.

"When I was at Dartmouth," Ronnie began, "I loved the freedom being away from home gave me. No curfew, no disapproving looks. It felt so good not have to answer to anyone or worry about my image."

"I bet you were one of those who ended up spending all your time studying and getting good grades," the young woman ventured.