Chapter Fourteen
“You’re supposed to come back from vacation relaxed. At the very least, with a smile on your face. You, on the other hand, look like a bear that woke up in the middle of his hibernation.” Tony Dunn, Ryan’s co-foreman at Hudson Contracting, lifted an eyebrow and stared Ryan down.
Ryan stared back before he begrudgingly turned back to the drywall project he’d been working on all morning.
“Well then,” his buddy chuckled. “I guess someone didn’t get laid while he was gone.”
Clank! The mud trowel hit the floor, splattering goopy adhesive everywhere, as Ryan launched across the room and shoved his friend against the wall.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” he warned, nostrils flaring.
Tony held up his hands, eyes wide. “Whoa, man. Relax.”
How the hell was he supposed to do that? He’d left Rose in California three days ago. Hadn’t talked to her once since.
“The tables have turned, huh? Not that long ago, I was the one with my panties in a bundle over a woman.” Tony smirked.
Continuing to glower, Ryan let go of the other man’s shirt. It would feel amazing to put his fist into his buddy’s face right now for no other reason than release, but it would only be a temporary fix. It wouldn’t bring Rose back into his life.
“You were only gone a week. She must’ve made quite the impression.”
To say the least, but missing her wasn’t the only thing eating at him. “How’d it go at the Henry mansion earlier?”
Tony scoffed. “Friggin’ old man. Can’t make up his damn mind about anything. Wants us to go back in and completely redo the kitchen.”
“What? That was a hundred-thousand-dollar set-up.”
“Yep. But when you’re a senator and you have money to throw around, that doesn’t matter.”
What an idiot. If Ryan had a hundred-grand to burn, he sure as hell wouldn’t waste it on something so frivolous. He’d do something productive, like strike out on his own. Someplace other than River Bend.
“What’s that look for?” Tony stuck his hand on his hips, eyes narrowed.
Ryan lifted a shoulder. “Nothing. Just hoping five o’clock gets here sooner than later.”
His friend lifted his chin in a quick nod. “Does the boss know how miserable you are here?”
“What?” Ryan jerked back to his co-worker.
“Cut the crap, Croft. You’ve been sulking around here like a kid no one wants to play with for months. Is it the work or something else?”
Jesus, was he that transparent? “It’s not work. Not really.” He set the trowel in the tray, lifted his ball cap, and scratched a hand through his hair. “I’ve got a lot on my mind, that’s all.”
“And by a lot you mean this chick in Tahoe? I’m assuming that’s why you went out there.”
He gave a bittersweet laugh. “Actually, no. But you wouldn’t believe the crazy story, even if I told you.”
Tony lifted an eyebrow. “Try me.”
Ryan cast a tempted glance at his friend. “How much time do you have, man?”
Tony dropped down onto the mud bucket. “All the time you need.”
***
“Where’s your handsome friend, Rosebud?” Mrs. Swan frowned from her bed, where she’d been laid up with a bruised hip. Apparently she’d tried to chase John Roberts down and had had an unfortunate encounter with the end of Mrs. Harlow’s cane.
“You mean Ryan?” Rose took a seat next to the bed, forcing a smile. “He’s gone back home to Nebraska.”
“Well, that’s lousy.” The older woman shook her head. “He was supposed to look into making me a bigger bathroom.”
Rose laughed. “Seems to me the one you have is just fine.”
“Sure it’s fine. But it’d be better if it had one of those jetted tubs. I’m old, you know. Muscles ache that I didn’t even know I had.”
Ah. “I bet getting in and out of a tub like that would be a pain, though.”
“Not if I bring John along.” Mrs. Swan waggled her eyebrows. “I’d have someone to lend a hand then, wouldn’t I?”
Dear Lord. “I think co-bathing is against the rules here.”
“He had a bath with Jessie Harlow just last week.”
Well, that explained a lot, didn’t it? Rose cleared her throat, trying not to smile. “Would you like me to bring a game in here, Mrs. Swan? Or maybe we can watch some TV today instead?”
The silver-haired lady scoffed. “I look forward to our Sunday games all week long. Get your sweet patootie down to the rec room and bring Johnny boy back with you.”
Oh boy. “You promise you’ll behave? I don’t want to be responsible for you bruising your other hip. Or worse.”
“You just worry about your love life, girly, and I’ll worry about mine. How’s that sound?”
Well, okay then. No holding back that smile. “In that case, I’ll be back.”
Five minutes later, she knocked on John’s door with a Monopoly game in hand. “Mr. Roberts, it’s Rosemary.”
“Come in, come in.” She found the man sitting at his table, a stack of photo albums in front of him. “I wasn’t sure you were coming today,” he greeted her without looking up, his focus hooked intently on an image in one of the binders.
“I stopped by Mrs. Swan first. She’s still confined to her bed, so…”
The old man chortled. “She’s a fiery one, that one.”
“I heard the same about Mrs. Harlow.”
“Oh, Jessie? She and I go way back. Before the missus and I met.”
Sounded like there was a story buried somewhere in that confession.
“Have a seat, doll face. Take a look at these with me.”
“Okay, but Mrs. Swan is waiting for us. She’s requested your presence, by the way.”
John glanced up with a smarmy grin as she pulled out the chair beside him. “It never hurts to make them wait a little. Surely you’ve done your fair share of that.”
Rose laughed softly and pulled the album closer. “Maybe a time or two.”
“That’s what I thought.” John pointed to a Polaroid print dated May 3, 1967. There wasn’t much to be seen other than two men standing in front of a big pile of dirt. “That mountain of soil came from what’s now the basement of the Sweetgrass Firehouse.”
“Really? Is one of these handsome young men you?”
“Red cap.” He tapped the photo with a finger. “So your friend didn’t stick around, huh?”
The walls she’d tried to keep in place since Ryan left latched tightly into place. “Nope. He had work to do at home.”
“Ah.” John nodded. “That’s too bad. I kinda liked the kid. Had a good head on his shoulders. Solid business instincts, too.”
Funny. Blake had said something similar. “Which was why he had to get back to River Bend. He’s a foreman for a contracting company there.”
“Foreman? That’s all?” John frowned. “A man with a quick wit like that should be running his own business.”
She got the impression Ryan wanted the same thing, though he’d never come out and said it. “Maybe someday.”
“Hmm.” John glanced out the window, looking thoughtfully at the snowflakes dancing in the air. “I think I’ll pass on Monopoly today, if you don’t mind.”
“Are you sure? Mrs. Swan is looking forward to seeing you.”
“That’s okay. It’s probably for the best I stop stringing her along anyway.” He sighed and flashed Rose a small grin. “My heart has belonged to Jessie since we were seventeen.”
“Really? What about Mrs. Roberts?”
John glanced tenderly to the picture of the two of them sitting beside his bed. “A lovely woman. An even better mother to our children. But Jessie was my first love. It took me seventy years to find her again and I’m sure as hell not letting go this time.”
Rose’s breath lodged tight in her chest. Would she and Ryan find each other again someday? Or had this past week been their one and only second chance?
“Ryan was my first love,” she admitted quietly and John covered her hand with his.
“He told me, doll face. That’s why I’m surprised you’re here today.”
A frown pinched her face. “Why do you say that?”
“I thought for sure you’d go after him.”
Wait…what? She blinked at John for a long moment. Should she have gone after Ryan? She’d tried so hard to be strong and make the most of the time they’d had. She hadn’t let herself entertain the what ifs.
What if she followed him back to River Bend?
What if she asked him for more than a long-distance fling?
What if she told him she still loved him as much as she ever had?
What if she… What if she’d asked him to stay?
“Oh, God.” She held her hand to her mouth as the ball of emotion in her throat broke free.
John’s pale eyes shined as his cool fingers closed around hers. “Don’t wait seventy years, Rosemary. You might find happiness and be content with the life you find, but why? Why settle for less than the true love you’ve already found?”
“Because my life is here and his is there,” she whispered.
“Then clearly one of you is lost.”