Black Rose

me.” She let out a half laugh, then tried to give him what he’d asked for. The truth. “The last night I spent with you?”
    She turned now, facing him fully with the open doors at her back. “It was beautiful, and meant so much in so many ways. The next day I thought of you, and when I came home from work, I was going to call you. There was a message from you on my machine.”
    “Roz, I have a standing date with Josh. My son—”
    “I know. It wasn’t that. God, don’t start worrying I’m one of those needy females who craves a man’s attention every minute of every day. It was the message after yours that set me off. It was about my membership at the country club, how I’d canceled it, and sent in some letter full of complaints and rude comments, and so on. Which, of course, I hadn’t done.”
    “Clerk.”
    “Undoubtedly. Easy enough to straighten out, really—No.” She shook her head. “Truth. It was irritating and embarrassing to straighten out. But either way it set me off. I was halfway out the bedroom door, blood in my eye, heading out to hunt him down like a sick dog when Hayley and the baby got in my way. She stopped me, for which I’m grateful. I don’t know what I might’ve done with my temper up like that.”
    “I bet it would’ve been worth the price of a ticket.”
    “I’d probably have landed in jail for assault at the very least. I was raging so much I scared that baby, made her cry. And said a particularly foul word in front of her that dealt with Bryce’s sexual activities should he have same with members of his own gender.”
    “Seeing Lily’s not quite a year old, I don’t imagine it made much of an impression.”
    “Regardless, I was nearly out of my mind with temper, and I got it under control, but it was simmering in there for a while. I wanted to cool down, all the way down. And I had to go meet with my lawyer, make a courtesy call at the club. Smooth everybody else’s feathers.”
    “Next time it might occur to you that I’d like a chance to smooth yours.”
    “I’m mean when I’m mad.”

    “Bet you are.”
    She sank into a chair.
    “Roz, you should go to the police with this.”
    “I did. One more embarrassment. And you don’t need to tell me I’ve nothing to be embarrassed about. I feel it, so there it is. Nothing much they can do, of course, but I’ve documented all the things I know about. If and when it can be proved he’s behind this, it’s fraud, and it may be considered stalking. If I can burn his ass, Mitch, you can bet the bank I’ll do just that.”
    He came over, crouched in front of her. “I’d like to help you light the match.”
    She laid a hand on his cheek. “I wasn’t brushing you off. I was thinking of you, of finding you and seeing if you’d spend the evening with me. Right before I walked into that nasty little waking nightmare.”
    “Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking of you, and wondering if you’d spend the evening with me. Do you want to get out of the house for a few hours?”
    “I don’t. I really don’t.”
    “Then we’ll stay in.”
    “I’d like to ask you for something.”
    “Ask.”
    “There’s a big, splashy affair coming up at the club. Formal dinner dance, the annual spring one. David was going to escort me. Even with what’s happening with us, I’d planned to stick to that because I didn’t like the idea of the talk and gossip that’ll start if I was to show up with you. But screw that. I’d like you to go with me.”
    “Formal, as in tux?”
    “I’m afraid so.”
    “I can manage it. We’re all right, you and me?”
    “We really seem to be, don’t we?”
    “You want to take a rest now?”
    “No, I don’t.” Content, she leaned forward to kiss both of his cheeks. “What I want is a long, hot bath. And I’d really like some company in the tub.”
    “That’s a hell of an invitation.” He got to his feet, drew her to hers. “Accepted. It may just be the perfect venue to tell you about my recent visit with Clarise Harper.”
    “Cousin Rissy? This I have to hear.”
    IT FELT LOVELY, it felt decadent, and exactly perfect to soak in a bubble bath in the deep old tub, with her back resting against Mitch’s chest.
    Not even the end of the workday, and here she was having a sexy bath, with a man, music, and candles.
    “Clarise gets meaner and leaner every blessed year,” Roz commented. “I swear if she ever dies—because I’m not sure she’ll agree to that