She and Sophia had discussed what a small town doctor should look like. Rose voted for comfort, while Sophia had explained that it was possible to have style with comfort. She'd also told Rose that her white lab coats were all going to be tailored to fit her body, rather than looking shapeless.
Rose was smiling as she remembered that, thinking how all that tailoring wouldn't matter a bit when some kid threw up on her.
She put away the material and glanced into the mirror again. She had her hair in its long braid, and she was barefoot showing off coral-colored toenails from the pedicure Sophia had insisted they stop and do earlier in the day. Rose had chosen that color to match a coral maxi dress that was gathered under the bust line and then fell full to the floor. The dress had spaghetti straps, and Rose thought it was sinfully comfortable. The bodice had an eyelet lace covering over the solid material. She found the dangling coral earrings Maggie had insisted she buy to go with the dress and put them on.
The knock on the front door had her running to answer it. She peeked responsibly through the peep hole in the door, then opened it to see Ben standing there looking scrumptious as usual. He had a bag in one hand that he set down just inside the door and then took her in his arms. As he swirled her into the room, she used a foot to shut the door, just barely hearing Mel's chuckle outside.
"I missed you," he murmured into her ear.
"The last hour took forever to go by," she said.
He kissed along her jawline until he got to her mouth. The kiss was like jumping into a warm pool of water, soothing, comforting, and felt like it could go on forever.
Finally, he said, "I want you."
"I want you, too," she said, a bit breathlessly. "What's in the bag?"
"Huh?"
"By the door?"
"Oh, yeah, that's food. We need to put it in the fridge."
She kissed him again, and then said, "Okay. Let's do that first."
Holding hands they took the bag into the kitchen, and put the containers into the fridge, along with a bottle of wine.
Then they stood staring at each other, brown eyes to blue, smiles on their faces. All of a sudden he reached for her and grabbed her close to him as she let out a squeal of surprise.
He laughed, and then said in a deeper voice than usual, "Much as I love the dress, let's get naked."
She laughed then, and they managed somehow to walk to the bedroom while arm in arm and stopping to kiss every few feet.
The setting sun put a golden glow over everything in the bedroom as it spilled through the curtains.
As he wrapped her in his arms, she asked, "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Later. All I want us to focus on is you and me, together, in this bed."
"That, I can definitely do," she said, as he pulled her against his bare chest.
* * * *
Much later, after getting dressed again, they spread the food they'd heated up on the coffee table in the living room. Rose had found big square floor pillows in a closet and they sat on those. Ben had brought Chinese food from the town next door, and they had boxes opened and were piling food on plates.
"I do love Kung Pao chicken, so that was an excellent choice," Rose said.
"Where's the—ah, there it is, Cashew Chicken," Ben said, a smile lighting up his face.
She thought he looked a bit like a kid in that moment and she loved him even more.
Love. She loved him. It hit her then, what she'd been thinking. She really did love him! Impossible as that seemed, so soon after first meeting, she loved him. Her chopsticks clattered to the table's surface.
"Hey, Rose, you okay?"
"Uh...sure! Sure, I just...remembered something."
"You look pretty pale. Take a bite of food. I'm going to pour the wine."
She slowly picked up her eating utensils and wondered how she was going to eat with all those butterflies zooming around in her stomach. She took the glass of wine Ben handed her and drank a very large gulp of it.
"Whoa there. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm...yes, yes, I'm okay. Does it seem to you like we've known each other longer than we actually have?"
"Now that you say it, yes, it does. Sitting here like this, eating Chinese, feels like we've done this before. Of course, we did have Chinese food at Anna and Sam's the other night. However, when I'm with you, it's like I've known you forever."
"Right, exactly. Me too."
They both took bites of food. Rose sat there wondering how he felt about her. He seemed to care for her—a lot. But did he love her? And wouldn't he have said so, if he did?
"I have to tell you something, Rose."
Her heart felt like it gave one big thump and then sat waiting.
"There's a rumor going around that Suzanne was my fiancée. I wanted to tell you before you heard it. Just to reassure you that we were never that serious, ever. She's evidently trying to portray herself as the poor, jilted lover. I can't believe the nerve of the woman."
Rose began to breathe again, thoroughly disappointed. Suzanne. Again. At least he'd waited until after they made love to bring her up. She stopped then, and realized she was being silly. Of course he would bring up something like this about Suzanne. It was a new development, and not one that boded well at all.
"I can't believe she thinks she can get away with it, just going around and saying you were engaged," Rose said and took a bite of chicken.
"Nothing she's done has ever made sense to me," he said.
They ate in silence for a few minutes, until Rose put too much hot mustard sauce on her egg roll.
"Whew! That mustard got to me," she said, waving a hand in front of her face. "Totally cleared out my sinuses."
After she'd recovered, she drank some wine, and then said, "Where are you from, Ben? Originally, I mean."
"I moved around a lot growing up. My father was in the military, the Army, and we spent time all over the country. As soon as I left home, I was determined to find a place and stay put. I've done that in L.A., although it's not the homiest place to live."
"Would you ever consider leaving there? Living somewhere else?"
"I can't imagine leaving after all these years. Plus, the movie business is there."
"Not entirely. You said your next movie will be in New Zealand. How long will you be staying there?"
"A few months."
"It seems like you still end up living in other places."
"I guess that's true. I never really thought about it."
Rose decided not to press the issue of where he lived at that point. Who knew if they would end up together, anyway?
"How about you?" he asked.
"I lived in New York and then later, Philadelphia. But now my whole family has ended up here in Sully Point. I have to confess that I'm seriously thinking about staying here."
He frowned. "I thought with modeling you'd have to be living in New York."
"Uh, about that..."
Her phone rang. She quickly picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Rose, it's Beth. I wanted to be sure you were there because I'm on my way with the salad bowl. I'll be there in two minutes."
"Okay, Beth. Bye."
Rose set the phone back down. "Looks like we'll have company."
"Just Beth or is William with her?"
"I have no idea."
There was a knock on the door.
"Wow, that was fast. I'll get it," Rose said and jumped up to go to the door.
She threw the door open and discovered Suzanne standing there with a smile on her face.
Chapter 7
"Suzanne!" Ben said as he scrambled up off the floor and came quickly to stand by Rose, who stood stunned in the doorway. "How did you—why are you here?"
Ben was scanning the parking lot wondering just where Mel and Owen had disappeared to, and thinking he didn't know what to say to Suzanne.
"I followed you today," Suzanne said, still smiling. "I saw you come up here."
Now Ben saw Mel and Owen running across the parking lot toward the stairs.
"You need to leave, Suzanne. There is no reason for you to be here," Ben said.
"I thought you'd at least have the good manners to invite me in," she said, with a pouting look on her face, but a twinkle in her eye. "Who is this woman?"
"This is Rose Carter. I'm with her now, Suzanne. You need to leave."
Suzanne's face went still and there was suddenly no expression on her face. Ben felt an internal shiver at how her face was transformed.
"You're supposed to be with me, Ben," she said in a low voice.
"We broke up Suzanne, a long time ago. I don't want you following me around. I want you to go home."
"But I was lonely without you. We were supposed to get married."
"No, we were not! Let me be very clear with you—we were never engaged to be married. Not ever. I broke up with you and that ended everything between us. I'm with Rose now."
"Excuse me, sir," Mel said as he stood behind Suzanne. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes, Suzanne here needs to leave. I've asked her to leave a couple of times."
"Miss, if you could come down the stairs with me..."
Suzanne's eyes narrowed and she peered at Rose. "What are these, bodyguards? I will leave when I'm damned good and ready and not before."
"Miss, you've been asked nicely to leave the premises. We'd hate to have to call the police."
"Damn you, Ben! Why are you doing this? You know you love me like I love you. I've always loved you. Tell me you love me!"
Her voice had risen as she spoke.
"Suzanne, either leave now, this minute, or we're calling the police," Ben said firmly.
"I won't leave until you say that you love me!" Suzanne shouted.
Mel dialed his phone and Ben heard him talking to the sheriff, telling him that Suzanne wouldn't leave. Owen had come up the stairs at the sound of the shouting.
"No! Get away from me!" she yelled when she saw Owen behind her. She lashed out and slapped his arm with her hand.
"That's it, lady," Owen said. "Do you really want to be charged with assault?"
Suzanne turned back around and glared at Rose. "This is your fault. You're stealing my man. Well, you won't get away with it! I'll stop you! I will!" She began to cry.
Then she heard the sirens. She pushed by Owen and Mel and started running down the stairs. They could hear her sobbing as she ran. At the bottom of the stairs she turned back and looked up at all of them standing there. Then she ran across the parking lot and was gone.
The sheriff's car pulled into the lot within a minute later, but she was nowhere in sight.
"I need to sit down and I need a stiff drink," Rose muttered next to him.
Ben looked at her and said, "I'm so sorry."
"It's not your fault, Ben. I'll leave you to talk to the sheriff." She turned and went back into the living room.
Ben looked after her for a moment and then headed down the stairs to talk to the sheriff.
* * * *
Rose went over to the cart against the wall that served as a bar. She poured two fingers of scotch over ice and sipped it. The heat of the drink warmed her body and took away the chill that had come over her while in Suzanne's presence. The look in the woman's eyes at the end—Rose had seen looks like that before in the E.R. and it was almost always as a prelude to violence.
She'd been so startled at seeing Suzanne on her doorstep that she hadn't known what to say. In her short time in Sully Point, Rose had already let her guard down and relaxed from how she normally went through life. To be confronted by danger, suddenly, had thrown her.
A knock on the door made her whirl around and give a little scream. The door opened and Beth walked in, carrying a very large plastic bowl with a lid. Rose felt her shoulders slump with relief at the sight of her sister.
"Rose, you look like you've seen a ghost. What's going on around here? I saw the police talking to Ben and some other men downstairs."
Beth set the bowl down on the table and walked over to give Rose a hug.
"Come on, sit down and tell me about it. And what on earth are you drinking?"
"Scotch," Rose said. "The good stuff." She sat next to Beth on the sofa. "Suzanne came by. The men down there are bodyguards. Suzanne is nuts. I just froze, Beth. I couldn't think how to handle the situation."
Beth rubbed her hand on Rose's arm soothingly. "Why should you know how to handle this?"
"I'm a doctor! I handled disturbed individuals back at the hospital."
"But did they follow you home? I think having her show up like that had to be scary."
"Yes, it was. She's completely deluded, thinking Ben loves her. And now she knows about me. Before she left she said she'd stop me, whatever that means."
"Rose, you have to super careful, you hear me? Why don't they lock her up?"
"If she'd hung around another couple of minutes the police could have arrested her today because she wouldn't leave when we asked. But then she took off."
"Maybe a restraining order..."
"Beth, do you really think that would help?"
"Probably not."
They sat quietly, Rose sipping her drink. She couldn't decide if she was angry with herself for her reaction, scared of Suzanne and what she might do, or afraid something might happen to Ben. Maybe it was a mix of all three, she decided.
"What were you doing, having dinner?" Beth asked.
"Yeah, it was delicious, too. Want some?"
"Think it has gone cold?"
"Maybe. But we could nuke it."
"I can't believe you still call microwaving 'nuking' something. I remember when you called it that when you were a teenager. Mom didn't know what you meant when said you were going to nuke something."
"Well, let's heat some up and you can eat."
"No, no, I should go and let you and Ben get back to your evening."
"What about the salad for the barbecue, any special instructions?"
"Only to make even more salad than we'd originally planned. When are you going shopping for ingredients?"
"I thought I'd go in the morning, if I can drag Ben along with me."
"Drag me where?" Ben asked as he came back inside the apartment.
Rose turned to smile at him. "Everything settled out there?"
"Yes, as much as it can be. The police will be keeping an eye out for her. Evidently she came here when Leo and Kevin had gone to supper, leaving Mel and Owen here to watch over us. But Mel and Owen were in the process of doing a thorough search of the parking area together and they didn't see her sneak in and up the stairs. Believe me, they are berating themselves. It might have been a deadly mistake."
"I know. I opened the door thinking it was you knocking, Beth. And there she was. If she'd had a weapon she could have hurt me right then and there."
"You guys need to leave!" Beth said, standing up. "You can't just wait around here for her to hurt one or both of you."
"And then what?" Ben asked. "How long do we stay away? The police can't charge her with anything yet."
"They can't? That's crazy!"
"Beth, we have to face this, not run from it," Rose said.
"Promise me, both of you, that you'll keep the guards with you all the time."
"I promise. Believe me, I have no intention of going anywhere without them," Rose said.
"And same goes for me," Ben said. He sat down in the brocade chair and looked over at Rose. "I was going to pour some wine, but what are you having?"
"The Glenmorangie," she answered.
His eyebrows rose, but he grinned and said, "I could use some of that."
Beth shook her head. "You two seem really calm for what just happened."
"We're not that calm. But Ben's an actor and I'm a..."
"That's right, Beth. I've seen models smile even when they were sick as a dog," Ben said.
Beth coughed, and Rose glared at her.
"Uh, yeah, som
ething stuck in my throat for a sec," Beth said. "I'm off. You guys try and have a nice night. Don't forget to buy extra salad stuff in the morning."
Rose got up and walked with Beth to the door while Ben mixed his drink.
"Thanks for not giving it away, Beth," Rose said softly as she opened the door. "I'm going to tell him, I just have to find the right time."
"You know it's beyond silly, especially now, with all this."
"I know, I know. I'll tell him."
They hugged and Beth left. Rose returned to the sofa and then looked at Ben. "Do you want more Chinese?"
"I could eat some more, yeah. But let's nuke it first," he said looking at the boxes of food.
"What did you say?" Rose asked in a wondering voice.
"What?"
"Did you say to nuke it?"
"Oh yeah, that's what I call microwaving—"
"I know! That's what I've always called it, too."
He laughed. "Great minds and all that."
They gathered up the food and took it into the kitchen. While they warmed it, they talked about their parents. His were living in Montana. It turned out his father had always wanted a ranch, and after he got out of the service, had purchased one there.
"Sure, they're proud of me, but it's awkward. My father and I weren't all that close, and he hated it when I got into acting. Now here I am, making it as an actor, and he never once apologized for the things he said about my career choice. I was always more in tune with my mother. She was a nurse, well, she still is. She works part-time now with hospice care."
"That's a tough field."
"Yes, but she seems to love it."
They moved the food back to the coffee table and sat on the floor cushions again. Rose had turned on some music that played softly in the background. She lit three fat candles and placed them on the table, and then she turned out the lights.
"That's better," Ben said. "Your hair in the candlelight is ethereal, all gold and roses.
"My mother saw my strawberry blonde hair on my fuzzy baby head the first day and decided to name me Rose."
"It's a fitting name for you. You always seem to have roses in your cheeks, too."
"Thank you," she said and popped a bite of steamed dumpling into her mouth. She wasn't used to hearing compliments on her looks. Oh sure, she thought, maybe from a drunk about to pass out, but not usually.
Love Imagines (Sully Point, Book 6) Page 12
