Rosemary's Double Delight (4 page)

“Feel better?” Wes asked as he took the glass of water Evan handed him for her.

She took it from him and said, “Much better.”

“That was bottled up from all these years, wasn’t it?” Wes asked, caressing her cheek as she nodded and drank the entire glass. Wes took her hand and said, “It’s been a while since you’ve been out to the house, and we’ve changed some things. Let me show you around.”

After she climbed from his lap, he led her to the rooms they used as a home office and library. Wes had always had been an avid reader.

Evan was more of a science fiction paperback kind of guy but there were shelves devoted to all their book collections lining every wall in

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the large room. A sofa, side table, overstuffed recliner, and reading lights filled the center of the room. A large, thick, blue and red area rug dominated the floor, in a swirling paisley pattern.

The office next door contained two large desks with hutches, laptops open at both stations. Pointing at the messy desk, she said,

“This is your desk.”

Grinning, he asked, “How did you know? Did you see your picture on it?”

She glanced back to the desk and saw the picture he referred to.

The framed photograph was taken at Bowie Lake when she was sixteen. Her curls were wild and wind-blown, and she was dressed in a periwinkle blue bikini. All these years, he’d had a picture of her sitting on his desk.

Ignoring the hitch in her chest, she said, “No, I didn’t. I saw the Darth Maul PEZ dispenser I gave you years ago. You still have it?”

“It’s a collector’s item now, but it’s precious for other reasons, too,” he replied, kissing her. If he kept saying things like that she was going to blubber some more.

Stepping over to Evan’s neat and tidy space, Rosemary saw something that nearly did make her bawl again. In freshman art class, their teacher had them experiment with plaster casting, and she’d cast her right hand for him, to use as a paperweight. She’d worried that he might think it was creepy, but Evan had loved it. It sat there, all these years later, atop a stack of orderly manila files. There were fingerprints all over it, like he’d actually used it on a daily basis.

“You and I weren’t the only ones holding on, I think,” Wes murmured. “Let me show you the rest.” Wes led her down the hall and showed her the bathroom, which had been redone, and the third bedroom, which they used for a game room and home theater.

Indicating an empty oak shelving unit with his hand, he said, “I added this especially for you, for your DVD collection.”

“Thank you,” she murmured, understanding what he was trying to communicate. There was room in their house for her.

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“We can have movie parties and entertain back here if you want to. The arcade games actually work.”

“You are too much, Wes Garner. This is wonderful,” she said, hugging him happily.

“The popcorn machine works, too. The sound quality on the theater system is unbelievable. We need to watch a movie together sometime soon so you can see how great it is. Our friend Sam installed it for us and did a top-notch job. He’s wired the rest of the house for theater entertainment as well as sound. He can come back after you get settled and put in whatever you want in the master bed and bath, kitchen, and your office.”

“
M
y office?” she asked incredulously.

“Sure. Why not? I figured you’d want a room for your own personal use. We can build whatever sort of furniture you’d like in it.

You can decorate it however you want.”

“Are you asking me to move in?”

“No. Yes. Evan needs to be here for that conversation,” Wes said a little lamely.

Rosemary grinned and said, “I’m not living in sin with you, Wes Garner. I haven’t held out all this time just to become your live-in girlfriend.”

Wes smiled down at her and kissed her, saying, “No one said that was what we wanted, now did they? Patience, princess. Come on.” He led her down to the end of the hallway.

He reached inside the darkened room and flipped on the light switch. The walls were painted in the same neutral taupe and the floors were the same medium-toned hardwood as the rest of the house. What stood out about this empty room was the hanging light fixture.

“I know you like Italian blown glass. I found this at an estate auction. I thought you’d like it. Baby, you’re gonna catch flies like that,” he chuckled, reaching out a finger to close her open jaw.

“Wow.”

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He grinned triumphantly. “I guess that means you like it?”

“I—I
love
it.” Hand-blown colored glass globes held the light bulbs. She saw magenta, light blue, orange, red, electric blue, bright green, yellow, and purple mixed with milky translucent glass and shaped in an artsy, random pattern. “This must’ve cost a mint, Wes!”

Rosemary was impressed that he remembered.

“Trust me. It was worth every cent to see the look on your face.

Come on, there’s more.”

“More?” she asked.

Wes turned to her and gave her that gorgeous smile she loved so much. “Much more.”

She followed him to the living room. Dark brown leather furniture was arranged around a coffee table in front of the stone fireplace.

There were framed prints of family members on the mantle and on the walls. She was in several of the photos and thought it was nice they’d held onto them. Passing into another hallway on the other side of the house, he led her down to the master bedroom suite.

Rosemary sighed when she entered, feasting her eyes. Wes had redone the walls in an oak plank paneling that matched the flooring.

There was another blue and red, patterned rug by the enormous bed, which was drop-dead gorgeous. The bed had tall posters and a framework with a filmy drape over it. The headboard and footboard were decoratively hand-carved with a swirling floral pattern.

Around the room were several other pieces of furniture: a dresser and mirror, a tall chest of drawers, a rocking chair, tall mirror on casters, and a tall lingerie chest. Rosemary crossed the room and pulled one drawer after another. They were all empty. She looked back at Wes, questions in her eyes. He smiled and led her past the large walk-in closet, into the bathroom.

Her jaw fell open again. They had redone the shower and floors with new tile and had put in a humungous bathtub to replace the standard tub that had been in there, if she recalled correctly. Standing
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in the bathroom, she looked at him then out at the bedroom door, feeling like something was off-kilter somewhere.

“Did you knock out a wall?”

“Sort of. Do you like the tile and countertops?

“They’re beautiful. That big window is wonderful over the tub.”

“It’s a double window with a privacy shade inside. You press the switch to lower it,” he said, indicating the switch on the wall by the window.

“Wonderful. It looks like you renovated the suite, but it hasn’t been used. Where are you and Evan sleeping?”

“The bedrooms across the hall. The old master suite and second bedroom.”

“What?—Wait! You
added
on a whole new master suite? This is all new since the last time I was here.”

Wes nodded. “The master bedroom needed to be bigger anyway. I converted the small bedroom and old master suite into two bigger bedrooms with an adjoining bathroom. When Evan moved back home, he took the second bedroom and helped me finish the addition.”

Wes smiled when Evan slid his bulky arms around her waist. He nuzzled the back of her neck with his soul patch, sending pleasant shivers racing over her skin.

Rosemary looked at Wes and asked, “You did all this, for—”

“You, baby,” Evan murmured as she turned to him, smiling when she saw his dimples.

“You helped with all this?”

Evan replied, “I convinced myself I was just helping him fix his house the way
he
wanted it. But I knew deep down he was building it for you.”

With a light chuckle, Wes said, “Evan spent as much time in here working as I did. We built the furniture earlier this spring.”

Approaching the largest bed she’d ever seen, Rosemary said, “It’s all gorgeous. That bed is incredible. I really like the carvings.”

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Wes pointed at Evan.

Rosemary smiled at Evan. “You did the carving?” He nodded sheepishly.

She brushed his warm cheek with her lips, and he murmured,

“You can say it, Rosemary. I was a big dummy. I admit it. All I care about now is that you’re here and you like it. The steaks are done.”

Following them into the kitchen, she ran her hand over the smooth, brown and black marble countertops. She opened one cabinet after another, looking for plates and glasses.

“Well, one thing hasn’t changed,” she said, laughing.

“What?” Wes asked.

“The last time I visited, you’d just finished the house and hadn’t gotten settled yet. That was two years ago, and these kitchen cabinets are
still
a freaking organizational disaster! An egg beater in the cabinet with the plates. Why?”

Evan laughed as she squatted down, delving into a cabinet to see what else she might find.

Wes replied, “I can’t honestly say, honey. I’m a guy?”

From the interior of the cabinet, her voice sounded muffled as she spoke. “Smarty-pants. Well, now I know what my first priority is.

Look at all these nice organizers you installed. This kitchen is going to be awesome after I get done with it!”

Patting her rear, Wes said, “Let’s find what we need for now and sit down and eat.”

Rosemary brought three plates to the table then filled glasses with ice for tea. “What you’ve done around here is really something—it’s beautiful but…”

“What, Rosemary?” Evan asked, casting his gaze away from her.

Tension returned to his body language. She’d known him long enough to know he was bracing himself.

Wes looked at him and turned to Rosemary. “What is it, baby?”

“I’m not going to be your live-in girlfriend. Best you know that up front. I can hear my dad over the phone right now.” His unreasoning
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opinion didn’t mean shit to her, but she was determined to have her dream, which didn’t include a live-in arrangement. She could just imagine how he’d gloat. Then, of course, there was her mom. A totally different type of trouble, that woman would bend over backward to further piss her dad off. Vengeful harpy.

Wes and Evan both relaxed and chuckled a little. Wes spoke first,

“We didn’t expect you to move in with us, Rosemary. But if I’m investing in a house, it should be the way that we would
eventually
want it, right? I thought it was a good idea for you to know who the extra spaces were for but not because we want you to move in tomorrow. Shoot, crazy as things are right now, we wouldn’t have time to move you in, even if you were willing.”

“Whew! That’s a relief,” Rosemary said, feeling even more relieved as the guarded look left Evan’s face and his dimples returned.

She wasn’t the only one who needed time to trust again.

“Besides, we haven’t even proposed yet,” Evan bravely added.

Rosemary stopped chewing her steak and went quiet and still.

Wes rolled his eyes and looked like he wanted to plant his booted foot in Evan’s ass.

“Smooth, Evan.”

Rosemary quietly returned to chewing, her eyes bobbing back and forth between Wes and Evan, waiting to see what more would be said.

She took it as a good sign when Evan grinned and his eyes twinkled. “That wasn’t exactly how that was supposed to come out.

What I meant, Rosemary, is that you need time and we need time, to sort of…court, I guess.” Color swept over Evan’s cheeks as he continued. “We need to give this a chance to feel normal, being together again. What’s the matter? Were you waiting for us to start fighting?” Evan slid a heated palm over her forearm, raising chills that ran up her arm and down her back.

Rosemary swallowed finally and grinned. “I was waiting for the smackdown.”

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Wes laughed and replied, “Really? We haven’t had a fist fight in years, have we, Evan?”

Appreciating the levity, Rosemary looked from one to the other and said, “Look at it from my perspective. We’re going to have issues that need to be worked out. We were inseparable for years. We know each other better than some couples do before getting married, but in some ways, we’re strangers. Evan, you and I especially have a lot of time to make up for.”

Wes rubbed her shoulder. “And that’s where we are right now.

There’s no rush to make drastic changes in anyone’s status. We can move forward together, now. But we want you to know, with all that said, that pretty bedroom in there is already yours. You’re welcome to stay here with us anytime you want to. Bring a toothbrush and a bathrobe to keep here, or not. Start rearranging the kitchen tomorrow, or next year. Your options are all open as far as I’m concerned. I want to take one day at a time.”