by Cassie Hart
‘Oh, I get ya. No, never been much for competition. I just like the way it makes me feel. Kind of at peace, like the world is a better place.’
Rose ate another bite of potato. Jena could have sworn she was only eating to avoid saying something unkind. Not that Jena could really blame her.
It had been a bad idea bringing him here. Even after all these years, Rose’s opinion held weight, and Jena couldn’t help but think there was something to that. Did Jena really want to be with Cade forever? He’d been fun, and he was kind to her, didn’t push her too hard.
Which meant that there wasn’t as much depth to their relationship as there could be, but it was safer that way. Wasn’t it? Her grandfather had left when her mother was just a kid, and after all these years of wondering whether her father was to blame for the fire – or her – it was no wonder she kept things shallow. She didn’t want to be let down too. She needed to be ….
Safe.
‘And what about you, Jena?’
She looked at Rose and then back at her plate. ‘I’m no farmer. Besides, I kind of thought this was the last place you wanted me.’
Silence.
Jena watched Rose as she chewed, the tension in her jaw the only sign that she was disturbed by Jena’s comment.
Say something, she willed her grandmother. Just say something. Anything. Show me you care.
Jena took another bite of meatloaf and swallowed, before glancing around the table. Cade was busy looking at the whorls and knots of the table. Will’s eyes were wide, his fingers clasping his knife and fork firmly, as if he’d suddenly realised that shit was about to get real, but Rose was passive.
She dabbed her lips with a paper towel and placed it on her plate.
‘I think I’ve had enough for the night. Will, could you help me back to my room?’
‘Of course, Rose.’ He flicked Jena an apologetic glance before getting up and pushing Rose’s wheelchair out of the room.
‘I can’t believe she just left like that,’ Cade said. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yeah, I am,’ she said, her eyes still on the space Rose had occupied. ‘She was always telling us not to be rude at the dinner table, and there I go, getting straight to the point. Being direct wasn’t something our family did, at least, not in front of company.’
‘Well she sure knows how to put a conversation to bed, doesn’t she?’ Cade nudged her shoulder with his and she had to laugh.
‘Come on, finish your dinner and we’ll clean up. Will cooked, so it’s only fair.’ Jena put her knife and fork together on her plate, reverting to the old habits from her childhood.
‘Actually, I think what’s fair is that you go and have a shower, and I clean up.’
‘What? What’s going on here?’ Jena raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t like him to help out in the kitchen. Maybe he could see how hard this was on her, though. She might as well make the most of it. ‘You’re the best, you know that?’ She kissed him on the cheek and stood up. ‘I’ll see you soon.’
Cade turned back to his meal and she left him to it. He could eat half his body weight before he got full, but it never seemed to turn into fat. Lucky bastard. She shook her head with a grin. But a decent bastard.
Her bastard.
Jena trudged up the stairs, the weight of the food in her stomach – the weight of Rose’s shut-down – making her weary.
She opened the bathroom door and turned on the tap for the shower. It was the same layout from when she was a kid, though they’d had it redone. It still looked almost new, but then, Jena guessed there hadn’t been many people using this over the years. She left it to warm up and ducked down to her bedroom to grab a towel and her PJs. She didn’t know which room Will was staying in, but she didn’t want to bump into him dressed only in a towel.
The air had filled with steam by the time she got back. She hung the towel on the hook and scrubbed her hand over the bathroom mirror. She could see a reflection of herself at age ten, staring back at her, pale face with freckles, dark hair and dark eyes, red rimmed from crying.
Rose had made her shower after the event, wash the smoke off her body and the feathers from her hair. It had been the last time she’d really looked at herself here, and she’d had no idea what life might deliver. No hope it would be anything good, that was for sure.
And what she had …. It was better than what it could have been. There were a thousand darker paths she could have walked down.
She wiped her hand across the mirror again, erasing that echo of herself, and stripped off before stepping under the stream of water and letting the past few days wash away from her. The hot water pelted her skin. There was no crying in this temperature, just scalding heat, searing through her emotions, burning everything away.
Once she was thoroughly pink-skinned, she shut off the water and dried, slipping on her PJs and wrapping her hair in the towel. She peered out of the bathroom door, but the landing was clear and she scuttled to her room, closing the door behind her and exhaling in relief.
Jena crossed to the window, staring out at the approaching darkness. Autumn was well and truly here; clouds covered the darkening sky, and the wind had picked up, making the trees sway. A black and white bird took off from its roost and flew towards the house, then it dipped, diving straight for her window, only pulling up just before the glass to rest on the ledge and peer at her with one eye.
‘Shoo,’ she said, motioning with her hands to get the thing to go away. Her heart was pounding, only the knowledge that there was glass between them making this okay. She didn’t want to see it, though, didn’t want to think about it. When it didn’t budge, she closed the curtains and walked away.
Tap tap tap.
She froze.
Tap tap tap.
Jena spun on her heel and grabbed the curtain, yanking it open. There were two birds there now and she could see more in the distance, the white streaks on their bodies standing out against the dark sky. Her heart scrabbled in her chest, like a chick pecking free of its egg, something inside her desperate to get out.
Tap tap tap.
Both of them now, tapping.
No. She wasn’t going to deal with this. Not tonight.
She closed the curtains again and grabbed her phone, finding some music and putting her headphones on to block out the sound.
She hoped she’d be able to ignore that incessant tapping until she went to sleep.
CHAPTER NINE
WILL
The kitchen was cleaner than he’d have expected, what with Cade being responsible for it. Maybe he hadn’t given the guy enough credit, but the reality was that he came across as a bit of a dick, and Will had no idea what Jena saw in him – hell, she’d directed a few glares at Cade tonight, which made Will wonder if she was thinking the same thing.
Will was familiar with those looks; Rebecca had been a master of them before she’d dumped his ass.
And rightly so. He’d been so caught up in his need for the truth, in hunting down other people’s secrets, that he’d completely missed the fact she’d grown up and moved on to a normal life while he was stuck chasing ghosts and demons.
So, he didn’t have it in him to feel bad for Cade if Jena decided to give him the flick. He probably deserved it too.
Will opened the cupboard and pulled down Rose’s pills, sorting the ones she needed onto the tray along with a glass of water, and a gin and tonic. She wasn’t technically meant to be drinking, but there was no way he was going to deny her. Rose was dying, and she might as well enjoy the remainder of her life in the way she saw fit.
It was probably why she kept him on.
He grabbed the tray and carried it through to Rose’s room, nudging the door open with his butt and kicking it closed behind him before he placed the tray on the bedside table.
‘Come to inflict your torture on me again?’ Rose asked with a wry grin.
‘And I’ve brought your special drink to help it go down easier.’ He handed her the pill cup. ‘You know
I’m just doing my job.’
‘And I’m doing mine. No one ever said I had to make it easy on you,’ she said with a wink, though she tossed the pills back and reached for the glass of water. It took her a few seconds to get them all down; he could see how they caught in her throat, making Rose grimace.
This had never been the job of his dreams – but there was no money in ghost hunting, and a lack of ancient ruins to explore in New Zealand meant that his real interests were just a hobby – but he found it fascinating how people said all kinds of things in the lead up to their death. Here, in this role, he had the chance to hear something interesting. Something revealing. And in this particular case, he hoped it would be something about what had happened all those years ago on the night of the fire.
‘Okay, give me my gin and we’ll natter for a bit, and then you can disappear and let this old woman rest.’
He passed her the glass. For eighty-seven, Rose didn’t look too bad. Although the cancer was making her thin and frail, he could still see the beauty that shone from the photos dotted around the house.
‘Don’t tell me you don’t like our little talks,’ he said. ‘I know you do.’
‘I won’t admit it, though.’ She took a long pull of gin, coughing a little as it went down.
Will leaned forward, reaching for the glass. ‘Did I make it too strong again?’
She pulled it towards her, not letting him take it. ‘No, just strong enough. This body isn’t what it used to be.’ She sighed, her shoulders relaxing as she took another drink, finishing it off before passing him the glass. ‘Did I ever tell you that I once had the interest of royalty? Oh, he fancied me, but he was far too pretty to be my type.’ Rose relaxed back into her cushions, her eyes drifting closed.
Will imagined it was true. She’d been gorgeous, much like Jena was now – though Jena had shadows that lingered in her gaze, whereas Rose hadn’t seemed to, in the photos he’d seen from her youth.
‘I think you told me about that before. What was your type, then? I didn’t see photos of your husband around the house.’
She opened her eyes, narrowing them on him, but their focus was slightly dulled by medication and alcohol. ‘We do not talk about him. He left. Good for nothing man,’ she huffed, glancing away. ‘Gone before the grandkids came along, thank goodness. Was bad enough having him around the kids. I didn’t look for him when he left.’ She shook her head, eyes narrowing in pain. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Will guessed the betrayal had hurt her, all the same. ‘Maybe I should have gone for the pretty boys; might have saved me some trouble.’
The way she pursed her lips made him think there was more to the story, but there was no point in trying to dig – he knew when Rose was done talking about something. It was there in the set of her shoulders and the way her eyes slid away from his.
‘So, what do you think of Cade?’ he asked, taking a seat in the chair beside her bed. He would normally have made himself a drink too, but he wanted to be clear-headed tonight with Jena in the house. Just in case she decided to press her point with Rose.
‘He’s not the right guy for her,’ Rose said, shaking her head, lips turning down in distaste. ‘I know we’re not close now, and that’s my fault, but anyone with half a brain can see it. He’s not right.’
Will had to laugh. ‘Was it because of the manual labour thing? The surfing?’
‘No, it’s because I could see the way he was eyeing up things in the china cabinet, as if each had a price tag on it and he was calculating how much he could make. It wouldn’t surprise me to find he’s already slipped a few things into his car boot. He might not have started up with Jena for a quick buck, but that’s how it’ll end.’
Will leaned back in his seat. He hadn’t picked up on any of that, but he had got a weird vibe off the guy, like he wasn’t quite as dedicated as he made out. But then, who was Will to judge, all things considered?
‘Okay, so you don’t like him. Got it. What about her?’
Rose turned to look him in the eye, her gaze sharpening. ‘She’s my granddaughter. What do you mean by that?’
Will swallowed, licked his dry lips, summoning the courage to speak. ‘I mean that you shut her down tonight as soon as she hinted that she might broach the topic. You just left. Is there something you don’t want to tell her?’
‘There are a lot of things I don’t want to tell her, but that’s really none of your business,’ Rose snapped. Then her shoulders sagged. ‘I shouldn’t have sent her away to begin with, but it seemed like the right thing to do. It doesn’t matter what I do now, it’s never going to be enough to make up for that. I had my reasons.’
‘You could tell her your reasons,’ Will said. You can tell me your reasons, he meant. ‘I bet it would go a long way to clearing up some of that ill-ease.’ He leaned forward and caught her gaze. ‘It’s why she’s here, right? You need to make peace before the end.’
Rose looked away. It wasn’t like her to back off, but clearly, he’d hit the nail on the head.
‘You know, my mother died when I was in my teens. It stuffed me up big time.’ He scratched behind his ear, giving Rose a second to turn back. She did. ‘Actually, she didn’t die so much as she was murdered. Things had been a bit fraught between us before that, and I never had the chance to talk it through with her, resolve the issues. Tell her I was sorry for making things difficult.’
‘What? You’ve never mentioned that before,’ Rose said, her brow pinching in surprise, concern. She looked at him for a moment as if deciding whether to pry or leave that wound scabbed over. Her voice was soft and thoughtful when she next spoke. ‘I know I have things to say to Jena, but I don’t know how to have that conversation without it destroying her.’
Destroying her …. Will’s mind buzzed at those words. It seemed like Rose had even bigger secrets than he’d imagined. He schooled his features, turning his curiosity into concern. ‘Hey, no need to worry about that tonight. They’ve gone to bed, and you need your sleep too.’
‘Oh Will, I got a good one with you, didn’t I? You’re not as nosy as the nurses at the hospital, and you don’t get in my way too much.’ She patted his hand.
He laughed. ‘I love that you’re so straight up, Rose. And I’m here for as long as you want me.’
‘Has Jena put the hard word on you yet, about getting out of here?’
He raised an eyebrow, impressed that she could have seen that coming, and nodded. ‘She did suggest I could disappear whenever I wanted. She’s capable enough.’
‘Capable, but not a proper carer, and without you here to keep tabs on her for me she might stumble into things she’s not ready for. She was always a curious one, poking her nose into things that were better left alone. I have a feeling nothing has changed in that regard.’
‘I guess we’ll find out.’ Will picked up her empty glass and patted her hand as he stood. ‘Let me know if you need anything; you’ve got your buzzer.’
‘You don’t have to say that every night,’ she said with a groan.
‘Actually, I do. Part of the job description.’ He winked and then left the room, pulling the door closed behind him.
He waited in the hallway, but there wasn’t a sound in the house. Which was odd – now that the population had doubled, he’d have expected the noise to as well. He put the glass in the sink and headed upstairs, a weird energy vibrating through him.
Rose was close to spilling her secrets, he could feel it, and Jena was the key to unravelling everything. He’d puzzled over this mystery for so many years, but having met these women now, he couldn’t help but wonder what the cost of the truth might be.
Who would wear the fallout? Would Rose and Jena still be speaking by the end of their second day together, or would the old woman use her illness to avoid conversation entirely?
He hoped, for both their sakes, that they could find a way to set aside their past and be together for whatever time Rose had left.
He wished he could do the same
with his mother.
CHAPTER TEN
JENA
It was a grey, dreary day, which kind of fitted Jena’s mood. Cade had tossed half the blankets off in the night and was still snoring, totally dead to the world.
And that was fine.
Probably better than fine.
She wanted to talk to Rose, and after last night she knew without a doubt that it was better to do it without Cade in the room.
She pulled on jeans and an old long-sleeved tee before putting her hair into a bun; she could brush it later. And then she was out the door and down the stairs, missing the creaky boards and hoping that Will was nowhere in sight.
Jena got lucky. The kitchen was empty, and when she paused outside the lounge there were no voices. She opened the door and stuck her head in. ‘Rose?’
The old woman was sleeping, blankets tucked right up to her chin. Jena paused and then entered the room, closing and locking the door behind her. She cleared her throat, but that didn’t wake Rose so she drew the curtains open and took a seat in the armchair beside the bed.
The faint smell of aftershave clung to the fabric, making her think that Will spent time sitting here. What did they talk about, these two people with nothing in common other than a working arrangement? He didn’t strike her as the kind of guy to take up this line of work, but then, she didn’t know him. Didn’t want to know him, either; just wanted him out of here so that she could do what she needed to.
Find out the truth.
She let out a sigh, her gaze settling on Rose. Time hadn’t really changed her that much. Sure, the wrinkles were deeper, her skin softer, more fragile, but there was still that same structure to her face, even if her nose and cheekbones were sharper, more prominent. She’d gone past that softness of old age, and into the pointed end of life.
Rose’s eyes fluttered open. She sniffed and tried to pull herself up. Jena moved to help, shifting the pillows until Rose was comfortable. Then she sat back down and caught Rose’s gaze.
‘How are you really?’ Jena asked. ‘I got the abbreviated version from Pat and David, and Will’s kind of skirting around the issue as though you should be the one to tell me. So, what’s happening? Are you actually dying or are you going to get through this?’
