The House of Roses Read Free

jerk.
    “ For me?” she asked, noticing the flowers.
    “ Yes,” he said softly.
    “ What's the occasion?” she asked with a smile that didn't meet her eyes.
    “ I'm hoping you'll forgive me for being such a jerk,” he said, reaching for words.
    “ Were you a jerk?” she asked, this time without the smile.
    “ Not yet,” he replied, and he heard her sigh.
    “ Parting gift?” she asked, and again he was amazed by her intuition.
    “ Yeah.”
    “ It's okay, I guess I saw it coming,” she said, her voice calm but flat.
    “ It's not you.”
    “ I know that,” she replied, and this time they both smiled. “You wanna talk about it?” she asked, and he was amazed by her kindness. At that moment he felt awful for wishing she were someone else. She was terrific just as she was.
    “ You don't have to,” he said.
    “ I don't have anything else planned,” she offered. “There's a great pub about a block from here. They specialize in comfort food.”
    “ Am I overdressed?” Colin asked. He looked at the pinstriped shirt and dark slacks he wore. He'd come directly from the hospital with no intent on visiting a pub. He'd planned the night in his head. He'd tell her, she'd be hurt, he'd walk away. The pub never entered his mind.
    “ You look terrific,” Lorry said, smiling at him. “The young, handsome doctor who's in love with someone else,” she said.
    “ I'm sorry,” Colin said.
    “ Me, too,” Lorry replied, sadly. “Seriously, you look good, but if you're going to play with your tie all night, take it off.”
    “ Was I doing that?” he asked, as he loosened his tie and threw it on the front seat.
    “ Yeah.”
    “ Better?” he asked, and she nodded.
    He couldn't even remember dressing himself that morning, as the plan to tell Lorry the truth was hatching in his mind. He'd looked at his face as he shaved, and he'd checked to make sure he didn't have anything dangling from places it shouldn't, like obscure matter hanging from a nostril. He'd checked his appearance in the hallway mirror before walking out the door of his condo. Was he handsome, as Lorry said?   He wasn't sure. He'd miraculously stopped growing at six and a half feet tall in his nineteenth year, his body suited for basketball, but his coordination more suited to a bench on the sideline. His dark hair was tastefully cut, his dark green eyes troubled, and his body fit from jogging. His skin was still tan, but it was fading, as was the sun, as the world around him prepared for the dismal winter ahead.
    “ You coming, Doc?” Lorry said. She had walked a few steps ahead of him as he'd been lost in thought.
    “ Coming,” he said. She smiled, and he forced one for her. She'd forgiven him already, this wonderful woman with whose heart he'd gambled. One day he hoped to forgive himself, not just for what he'd done to her, but for what he'd done to Caitlin, the woman Lorry Andrews couldn't be.
     
    ***
     
    Caitlin gripped the door handle in the back of the taxi to keep from screaming. The taxi driver looked more panicked than she did, and she could only imagine the horrors he had endured at the hands of her mother. Surely her screams would do nothing to calm his obviously frazzled nerves.
    Rita fidgeted beside her, alternately watching the road, the scenery, and her daughter.
    “ You hanging in there, sweetie?” Rita asked, and Caitlin tried to force a smile that didn't come. She really wanted to punch her, and only when she thought of the impact of her fist against her mother's face did her smile finally come.
    “ Excited?” Rita asked.
    “ Just thinking,” Caitlin said through clenched teeth as another contraction grabbed her.
    “ Are we nearly there?” Rita asked for the hundredth time.
    “ Mom, stop, you're driving the poor man nuts,” Caitlin said, and she saw the driver smile at her in the rear view mirror with a look of genuine gratitude.
    “ I do not want my grandchildren born in a taxi,” Rita growled.
    “ Mom,