Hit & Run by Freya Barker

Author:Freya Barker [Barker, Freya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Seasoned Romance, strong women, Romance, Suspense, Investigator, Security, mature characters
ISBN: 9781988733401
Goodreads: 46810500
Publisher: Freya Barker
Published: 2019-09-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

JAKE

Rosie’s mother can’t verbalize her feelings, but the fury in her eyes speaks loud and clear.

“Hillary helped me find you a great place, Mom. Your room will have a view of the beautiful garden. They even have a pond with ducks, and a small bench where you can sit and feed them, when you get better.”

Rosie seems oblivious to her mother’s anger as she goes on to describe the nursing home she’s apparently decided on. Mrs. Perkins is mildly sedated, but clearly not to the point where she doesn’t feel any emotions at all.

“We’ll bring a few of your things there, so when you move in, you’ll feel right at home.” She gets up and grabs her purse, bending down to kiss her mother’s cheek, but she twists her head away and looks pointedly out the window. Rosie straightens and with a sad smile steps back from the bed. “Hillary said she’d come by and see you tonight when she’s done her shift, and I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Tough visit,” I mumble as we walk out of the hospital. Rosie shrugs her shoulders

“I guess,” she says as she gets in my truck. “Before this happened, she was pleasant and mostly couldn’t remember who I was, she only got angry or agitated with me when she did remember. Now she doesn’t seem to remember anything, but is constantly agitated. I’m not sure which is worse, although I guess it doesn’t really matter; watching your parents decline really hammers home your own mortality.”

I have nothing to say to that, I’ve been face-to-face with the reality of my limited time here many times before, but I don’t tell her that, I just reach out and squeeze her hand.

“What about you?” she asks, turning to face me as I pull out into the street. “Are your parents still alive?”

The question surprises me, but I guess this is all part of starting something. Building a relationship. I’m not used to sharing, but I understand the need for it.

“They’re dead. I barely remember them.” I realize my response has come across as a little curt, when I sense Rosie stiffen in the seat beside me.

“I’m sorry,” she whispers, and I turn to look at her, but she keeps her eyes firmly on the road ahead.

“Why are you sorry?”

She flicks a sideways glance at me before focusing forward, lightly shaking her head. “It’s just one of those things, you know? For the last twenty years, since my father died, I’ve all but forgotten I had loving parents for the first twenty. A bit shameful when you’re reminded there are people like you who never even had that.”

“But when you grow up without them, you also don’t know what you’re missing,” I counter, sliding my hand between her clenched ones in her lap, twining my fingers with hers. “It wasn’t as bad as you may think. At sixteen I ended up with the Mazurs. They gave me a taste of family life and left me with two brothers.”

“Dimas?”

“And Yanis,” I add.

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