Page 49 of Kiss From A Rose

She wiped tears and then gasped. "Y'allare Malou's friends?"

I grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. She said she'd make sure you had two rooms set aside for us." I pulled out my credit card, and she stared at it.

"I can't take your money," she whispered. "You're Malou's friends."

And your husband and son!

I put my card back in the wallet and slipped it into my slacks. I wasn't going to fight her on this. If she'd come back to me, to us, I'd never fight her on anything ever fucking again.

Jude came in then, and Rose's face broke into a smile.

"My baby." She walked to him; first, her steps hurried and then tentative as if she wasn't sure what the reception from Jude would be like.

He noticed it as I had, and I felt his pain. He opened his arms, and Rose threw herself into them. She hugged him hard, went on tiptoe, and planted several kisses all over his face. "My baby is here. Oh, Jude. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Merry Christmas, sweetheart."

Jude held her and rested his chin on her shoulder, looking at me with tears in his eyes.

Asshole, he didn't even need to apologize, and she was hugging him. If I tried to pull her into my arms, there was a good chance I'd lose said arms.

But I was happy to see them together and hoped very much that they could seal the rift between them; and that when Willow and Mike got here tomorrow; we could all get along and show Rose how important she was to us.

Rose stepped away and then turned to look at me. She swallowed.

"Merry Christmas, babe." I stepped toward her and saw her take a step back, sending an arrow through my heart.

"Gray," she breathed. Notmy darling Gray, just patheticGray.

I loved it when she called me her darling. Even when she left me a note, she called me her darling Gray. I lost that and her. I wanted so badly to make it right, but I didn't even know where to start. I didn't know how to say everything I wanted to say, how to apologize for hurting her the way I had, and make her believe that I'd never be that stupid again because this was the first time in four weeks that I was able to breathe without air sticking in my chest.

My Rose was in front of me.

She may hate my guts, but she washere, in front of me. I could smell her rose scent, and it gave me solace.

We followed Rose up a wooden staircase to the second floor of the bed and breakfast.

The air was cooler on this floor, filled with the faint, salty scent of the Atlantic. Rose led us down a hallway, past framed paintings of seascapes that seemed to bring the ocean right into the house, and stopped in front of a door at the end.

I had not expected a house this well-appointed. I saw my wife's touches everywhere. She'd decorated this house; I was certain of it. The gorgeous, serene art, the way everything was put together to generate comfort without being cluttered, the holiday decorations, all of it screamed of my Rose’s touch.

She did this in our home as well. Without her, the house I used to love seemed cold, and I hated being there. It wasn't just how my wife set the house up, I realized, it was Rose herself who added warmth to any home, even Angel's Rest Bed & Breakfast.

She opened a door where a sign said, Sandy Cove Room. "Jude, baby, this is your room."

"Sandy Cove?" he mused.

She chuckled. "Yes, I named all the rooms when Malou first made this a bed and breakfast. We call this Sandy Cove because you have a view of the sandy beach and the dunes from here."

Jude looked into the room and nodded appreciatively. "Thanks, Mama." He kissed her cheek, and I caught the look of desperation in his eyes.

"Why don't you take a shower and rest up? Dinner is in an hour, and…after, maybe we could talk?" Rose suggested affectionately.

This was who she was, loving and caring. She wasn't pouncing on Jude, telling him that his behavior was terrible and that he needed to shape up, not that there would be anything wrong with her doing that. She was well within her right to put him in his place for his past behavior. But that wasn't who Rose was. She was a gentle soul, one that I had trampled on.

She took me to a room at the other end of the hall after Jude went into his.

My door read, Sunrise Haven.

"This is your room," Rose said, her voice carrying a note of subtle warmth as she opened the door. "It's a corner room. You'll have the ocean on two sides."

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