Love at Last (Finding Love Book 6)

by Delaney Cameron

  Her perpetually bored expression and ability to remain calm under even the most trying circumstances made her the perfect fit for a celebrity. She was almost ten years older than Rosemary and not afraid to use that seniority to her advantage whenever she thought it was necessary. Her greeting upon seeing her employer wasn’t without her usual caustic wit.

  “The hat and the glasses are a nice touch, but people usually come back from secret getaways looking better than they did when they left.”

  “It’s nice to see you, too, Willow.” The two made their way through the crowded corridor leading to the baggage claim area. “What’s the latest news on Norton?”

  “He’s still in intensive care, but things aren’t quite as bad as we thought. He’s got a perforated lung, two cracked ribs, a broken arm and a broken leg. Needless to say, he won’t be able to work for some time. Carl’s already looking into a replacement for the rehearsals coming up day after tomorrow.”

  “That sounds bad enough to me. How’s Maci holding up?”

  “Surprisingly well. Norton’s mother and her parents both got in late last night.”

  “I’d like to stop by the hospital before I head home.”

  Willow nodded. “I figured you would. Now that you’re back, can you tell me where you’ve been? Or is that still on a need-to-know basis?”

  “I intend to spend more time there, so it’s better that you don’t know.”

  Willow grinned. “I’m beginning to think the rumors of a new man in your life might be true.”

  “You’re assuming a lot on a little bit of evidence.”

  “Not really. I just know what to look for. By the way, you’ve got two radio interviews tomorrow and an appointment with the clothing designer for the Christmas show in December.”

  “So much for easing me back into things.”

  “The sooner you make an appearance the better. The news of Norton’s accident has been running since late last night so naturally the world wants to know where Sage is.”

  “What kind of questions can I expect?”

  “The due date for your baby. There’s speculation that you’re pregnant. It’ll die down once you start being seen in public in a black leather jumpsuit cut down to your belly button.”

  Rosemary laughed. “I’m not Lady Gaga, Willow.”

  “You have to admit; it would give the bloggers something different to talk about.”

  “I don’t need that kind of press.”

  When they arrived at the hospital, the visiting hours hadn’t yet started. Willow offered to go to the cafeteria and get coffee. When Rosemary walked into the waiting room, there was only one other person in there. The man’s perfunctory glance to see who’d come in turned into a longer one when their eyes met. Even with her disguise, there was no hiding from someone who knew her so well. Randall closed the People magazine he’d been reading and tossed it on the side table next to him.

  “Hello, Rosemary. How are you?”

  “As good as can be expected, I guess. How about you?”

  “I’m doing well. I came as soon as I heard the news about Norton. You don’t mind, do you?”

  She wasn’t sure whether it was fatigue from her flight or what, but the sight of the man who’d betrayed her in almost every way possible was more irritating than anything else. It was amazing what being around a real man could do for one’s perspective. “Considering that you’ve known Norton since he was eighteen, I’d be shocked if you didn’t come to see him.”

  “Which doesn’t answer my question.” He watched her step further into the room and sit down a few seats away. “I hear you’re doing the Opry Christmas show. Congratulations. I know that was something you always wanted.”

  “I hate that I’m going to be doing it without my drummer.”

  Randall nodded. “Maci and Norton’s parents were leaving when I got here. They said they’d be back later. When visiting hours start again, you can go in first.”

  “Thank you.”

  He shrugged. “It’s the least I can do. Carl mentioned you were on vacation. That must mean you’re working on a new album.”

  A faint smile crossed her face. “Yeah, I’ve been writing songs in between bouts of morning sickness.”

  “Is that the latest? I hadn’t heard that one. I just got back from a trip to England.”

  “Apparently my mother hasn’t heard it either. Was England a honeymoon trip?”

  He laughed uneasily. “Yes, but we haven’t made it public yet.”

  “So I’m the first to know? There’s an ironic twist no one saw coming considering I was the last one to know before.”

  “I guess I deserved that.”

  Rosemary laughed in agreement as she removed her hat and ran her fingers through her hair.

  “As a disguise, it’s not bad,” he observed. “Unless you want to cause a riot among the hospital staff and any visitors hanging around, you better plan on putting it back on.”

  This uncomfortable session ended with the opening of the door. Rosemary made an instinctive grab for the hat until she realized it wasn’t necessary. Willow’s expression never changed as she looked first at Rosemary and then at Randall.

  “Do you know how much I could get for a picture of the two of you sitting in a room together? I’d never have to work again.”

  “The sad part is, that’s probably true,” Rosemary said with a cynical twist to her lips as she tucked her hair inside the hat once more. “What took you so long?”

  “They ran out of coffee just as I got there. While I was waiting for them to make more, I walked into the gift shop and lost track of time.” Willow handed a tall cup to Rosemary and then sat down. “Where are all the doctors who look like the ones on Grey’s Anatomy?”

  “I’m sure they’re around somewhere.”

  At that point, the door opened again to let in a nurse who told them that visiting hours had begun. Rosemary put down the coffee she’d barely had time to taste and stood up. “Try not to get into an argument while I’m gone.”

  Willow sent Randall a contemptuous glance. “I can’t promise that it won’t happen. It depends on the level of provocation.”

  He laughed somewhat mockingly. “Your loyalty is admirable, Willow. I expected nothing less.”

  As Rosemary walked down the hall to Norton’s room, she wondered if Randall even understood what the word loyalty meant.

  * * * * *

  The distinctive sound of the air brakes on the school bus that stopped at the end of the street floated through Jase’s half-open window. As if on cue, Ambrose’s eyes opened and he yawned and stretched before leaving his spot on the bed to jump on the desk and place himself in a position that couldn’t be ignored.

  Jase’s worries that the cat would have trouble adjusting to the move from Rosemary’s house to the cottage had been a waste of time. After a meticulous inspection of his new home, Ambrose had curled up on the back of the couch and gone to sleep. Jase’s lecture about the absence of allegiance to the one who’d found him didn’t have much effect. In Ambrose’s mind, Rosemary and Jase were interchangeable. That couldn’t be taken as anything but a compliment.

  “You don’t believe in deviating from the schedule, do you? Don’t you realize that keeping to a certain timetable is the first step on the path to servitude? Before you know it, your entire life is dictated by the clock. Take it from me: you don’t have to eat at four-thirty every day, and you don’t have to sleep in the same place. Variety and spontaneity are the spice of life.”

  Ambrose listened to this long speech without blinking. Then he yawned again and pushed his head against Jase’s arm.

  “You can stop with the purring. I’m going to feed you. But it’s only because I’m ready for a break anyway. My characters aren’t cooperating today.”

  After taking care of his roommate, Jase grabbed his laptop and went to sit on the couch. Each day when he checked his emails, he hoped there would be one from Rosemary. This was a futile exercise given that
they decided it would be best not to contact each other. What had he been thinking when he agreed to that?

  At least fifty times a day, he found himself reaching for his phone because he wanted to tell her something. It had only been a week since she left. How was he going to do this for months? At roughly three-thirty a.m. when he’d stood in his kitchen eating a bowl of pink bubble gum ice cream (which he found to be quite tolerable), he came up with a possible compromise. It wasn’t the same as communicating with Rosemary, but browsing the official website and other social media outlets dedicated to Sage did allow him to stay somewhat connected with her.

  From those sources, he found out that she spent yesterday visiting a sick child in one of the Nashville hospitals. There were several pictures of the two of them laughing and talking like they’d known each other for years. Even more entertaining was the video of the two of them singing one of her songs. Jase couldn’t help smiling at the look on the boy’s face. It was pure happiness. He could understand the boy’s reaction. That’s how he felt when he was with Rosemary, too.

  According to the upcoming events section, she would be singing the National Anthem at a professional football game the day after Thanksgiving. Along with some local appearances at several charity events in Nashville, she was scheduled to perform at a televised Christmas special at the Grand Ole Opry in December. The sheer magnitude of her popularity was difficult to wrap his head around. This was the woman who’d cooked dinner for him, driven him to a car show, and turned his heart inside out when she admitted that the time she spent with him had been the best week of her life.

  He clicked on a YouTube video taken from one of her concerts. In her Sage persona, she was stunningly beautiful, but almost unrecognizable. The salon-styled hair, heavy makeup, and designer clothes made her look like someone else. He was probably in the minority, but he preferred the ponytail and the bare feet.

  Toward the end of the concert, the lights dimmed and she sat on a stool in the center of the stage, her guitar hanging around her neck. When she started to sing the song about her father, Sage melted into the background and Rosemary emerged from the shadows.

  He was making more hazelnut coffee when Quinn strolled through the door. “I thought I better check on you. Since Rosemary left town, you’ve become more of a hermit than usual.”

  “Not really. You know how I get when I’m nearing the end of a book.”

  Ambrose sauntered out of Jase’s bedroom to inspect the newcomer to his kingdom.

  “I never thought I’d see you with a cat.”

  Jase laughed as he grabbed the can of whipped cream out of the refrigerator. “It’s one of those things we do for love.” He covered the surface of his coffee with the cream.

  “I know a little about those things. I got the name of the place where Kelly ordered the gingerbread brackets for her porch. It’s Stephen’s Awnings.”

  “I’ll call them tomorrow. Now that I’m not sporting a sling, I can start working on the list of things Rosemary didn’t get a chance to finish on her house.”

  “If you’ll be standing on a ladder, please wait until I’m around.”

  Jase made a dismissing gesture with his hand. “I fell off because of a bird, Quinn. I seriously doubt that’s going to happen again. I also won’t be working fifteen feet off the ground.” He hid a smile when Quinn crouched down to rub Ambrose’s head. His brother was such a pushover.

  “What are you doing besides replacing the gingerbread?”

  “Installing new blinds on the windows and repairing a hole in the laundry room wall. I’m also going to put up some shelving over the washer and dryer to hold detergent and so forth. That wasn’t on the list, but I noticed that it needs to be done. But the first thing I’m going to do is help Rosemary’s neighbor paint her kitchen.”

  “It sounds like you’ll be busy.

  “There’s no hurry. Rosemary won’t be back for a while.”

  “What is it with you and long distance relationships? First Shelby and now Rosemary.”

  “I don’t know, but I hope this one is the last.”

  * * * * *

  A layer of freshly fallen snow draped everything outside Rosemary’s window with a blanket of white. She’d known when she woke up in the middle of the night that it was snowing. There was a certain stillness in the air - an absence of sound - that was unmistakable.

  Today was Thanksgiving. Almost three weeks had passed since she left St. Marys. Through all of it - rehearsals, interviews, the welcome home party for Norton and the christening of his and Maci’s baby - she hadn’t stopped thinking about Jase. He was with her when she woke up in the morning, appeared in her thoughts whenever she wasn’t actively doing something else, and was the last thing she thought about before she went to sleep at night.

  There were times when it was all she could do not to call him because she wanted to hear his adorable Georgia twang and infectious laugh. Other times she felt his presence so closely that she found herself turning to see if he was actually there. More telling that everything else was the conviction growing within her that what she’d left behind was more important than anything she came back for. She remembered Jase’s words about taking hold of happiness when you have the chance. Was this her second chance for love?

  By the time she showered and arrived downstairs, her mother and Cedric were already in the spacious all-white kitchen. For the first time in recent memory, she wasn’t spending half the day trying to get to Kennesaw. Instead her family had made the trip to Nashville. This departure from normal was because Sage was part of the pregame activities for a football game being played tomorrow. The lure of being able to watch his favorite sport from a VIP box had been too much of a temptation for her travel-reluctant stepfather to pass up.

  “Good morning, everyone,” she said, walking over to the stove to give her mother a hug and then joining Cedric at the bay window of the breakfast nook.

  “Rosemary, after breakfast let’s have a snowball fight. There are all kinds of trees and bushes for us to hide behind.”

  “That’s a great idea. I haven’t had a snowball fight with anyone in years.” She turned to look at her mother. “I made the cornbread for the stuffing last night so all we have to do is sauté the onions and celery.”

  “So you still know how to cook?”

  Into Rosemary’s mind came the meal she’d made for Jase. He hadn’t found anything wrong with her cooking. “That’s not something you forget, Mom. And it’s not like I never do anything for myself. My housekeeper isn’t here seven days a week. Willow and I have been on our own since Monday when Lavina left to visit her family in Wyoming.”

  “Who’s Willow?” Cedric asked.

  “She’s my assistant. You’ll meet her later.”

  “Is she eating with us?”

  “No. She’s at her brother’s house today, but she’ll be back here tonight. She’s going with us to the game tomorrow.”

  Cedric turned back to the window. “I wish it snowed like this where we live.”

  “It does sometimes, but not every year.”

  “If Mom and Dad come outside with us, we could have girls against the boys.”

  “I think I’ll pass,” her stepfather said from the doorway. “When I checked the temperature on my phone, it was twenty-five with a wind chill of eighteen. My thin Georgia blood can’t handle that.” Martin bent to kiss Rosemary’s mother on the cheek.

  “What’s his blood got to do with it?” Cedric asked Rosemary.

  “He means that he isn’t used to cold weather.”

  Martin walked over to the table and poured himself a glass of orange juice. “Cedric, did you tell Rosemary what her friend from St. Marys sent you?”

  Surprise held Rosemary silent. There was only one friend in St. Marys.

  Cedric grabbed her hand excitedly. “Rosemary, you won’t believe this. Day before yesterday when we got home from the mall there was a box sitting by the front door, and it was addressed to me. There was a not
e inside from your friend Jase. He said that he heard I like to read comics. Underneath the note was a huge pile of comic books. Two of them were signed by Stan Lee.”

  Jase’s kindness to Cedric overwhelmed her. Rosemary felt something warm wrap around her heart. Jase had no way of knowing that his gesture meant as much to her as it did to Cedric. “I’m going to expose my ignorance here, but who’s Stan Lee?”

  Her brother’s jaw dropped. “You don’t know who Stan Lee is?”

  “I don’t read comics.”

  “Or go to superhero movies, apparently,” added Martin, laughing.

  “Rosemary, Stan Lee created Spiderman, Hulk, and Thor,” Cedric told her with the air of one scolding a backward child.

  “Oh, okay. I do know who Spiderman and Hulk are.”

  “Is Jase your boyfriend?”

  Rosemary put her hands on her hips. “Where did that come from?”

  “I just thought it would be cool if he was.”

  It would be hard to disagree with that. She tapped him playfully on the head. “Why? So you can get more comics?”

  “That would be nice, but mostly so I’d have someone to talk to about comics.”

  “You two can talk about comics and Jase later,” her mother said as she cracked eggs into a bowl. “Make yourself useful, Cedric, and help Rosemary set the table.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Once breakfast was over and the turkey was in the oven, Rosemary and Cedric put on heavy coats, boots and gloves and ventured outside to have their snowball fight. Luckily it was the sticky kind of snow that worked well for this type of activity. Two of Rosemary’s security detail joined in to make it more interesting. They seemed to enjoy getting to pelt their boss with snowballs.

  The numbing of their fingers and toes finally drove Rosemary and Cedric back inside the house. She made hot chocolate to warm them up. Cedric took his into the living room to watch the Macy’s parade with his father. Rosemary stayed in the kitchen to see what she could do to help with dinner. Knowing her mother, she would be more of a spectator than an actual participant. Jeannie Sanders was one of those people who preferred to work alone. She liked things done a certain way and wasn’t good at delegating. Rosemary had learned long ago not to buck the system.