“Where’s mister Massey?”
“Died of a heart attack two months before she found me in the woods. We saved each other, she always tells me.”
“Does she know about your stalker? Everything that’s going on?”
Rose shook her head. “Not really. The night we found Andrew, I went to her house, seeking her comfort, I guess.” She paused. “Since taking this new job at Kline,she’s pushed that she’d like to see me ‘lay roots’ here. I think she enjoys me being close by. She wouldn’t tell me that, though, because she wouldn’t want me to feel obligated. But I know it, and that’s why I included her in my business proposal.” She looked at me. “Kline and Associates is a stepping stone to opening my own clinic one day.”
“With an equine therapy center.”
“Exactly. Working side by side with June every day, hopefully repaying her for everything she’s done for me. I’d offered to move in with her when I moved back to town, but she wouldn’t have it. Wants me to live my own life. Thinks she’d hamper that, I guess.”
“Serving breakfasts like that? You’d be the most popular bachelorette in town. Would’ve been, I should say.”
She looked over, smiled. “Would’ve been, huh?”
“That breakfast sealed the deal. You can thank the blueberry pancakes.”
“Note to self that I need to make you my own version of them.”
“Do they come with red high heels and matching thong?”
“No thong.”
“Dear Lord.”
Rose threw her head back with a laugh. “Okay, here we are. Future home of Kline and Associates Equine Therapy Center.”
I looked at the red stable through the rain, which had obviously been repainted, but it still needed a lot of work. I’d had to restrain myself from offering to back the project financially, mainly because there was no doubt both women would have been insulted.
After the tour, we loaded up and headed back to thehouse where June met us on the front porch with two to-go cups of coffee.
“Make sure my Rose doesn’t work too hard, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.” I took the coffee as Rose ran into the house for her purse. “Thank you for breakfast.”
“Pleasure’s mine.” June narrowed her eyes. “Keep her safe, you understand?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“I have a feeling I don’t, but Rose, she’s just… special. I’m her only family, and well, she’s mine. Never had kids of my own after I adopted her… funny thing is, I found out years later I couldn’t have had children even if I tried. Funny thing, life is, isn’t it?”
Sure was.
Her strong face softened. “When I found Rose in the woods, Isawher. Do you know what I mean? A strong, beautiful, tortured soul.” June paused, and I realized I was hanging onto her every word. “I see the same thing in you, Phoenix Steele. You need to accept that things change. We all change. Sure, we fight it, but sometimes we’re fighting changes that are good. And we’re fighting them simply because they’re new. Uncharted territory. You need to allow this new light inside of you to shine. The world’s not all bad, you know. It’s okay to be happy even when the world tells you that you’re not supposed to be. When Rose became mine, she showed me who I really was. She’s my daughter. I don’t want anything to happen to her.”
“She’s my everything.” I turned fully toward her. “And I take care of what’s mine, Ms. Massey.”
The corner of June’s lip curled. “That’s good. That’s very good.”
Rose stepped outside and stopped cold, looking back and forth between June and I.
“Everything okay?”
June winked. “Of course, dear. Go on, get to work so you can get home early and relax in time for the weekend.”
They kissed cheeks and as Rose crossed the porch, June reached into the house and plucked two ponchos from the coat rack.
“Here. Take these rain coats. Bad storms comin’ this afternoon.”
