Page 71 of Irish Rose
“You would say the same when you came home with a black eye.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“It’s foolish to think either of us have forgotten. To have a future, it’s necessary to face the past.”
“What’s the point in this, Rosa?”
She did something she hadn’t done since they’d been children. Crossing to him, she touched a hand to his face. “She’s stronger than you think, my brother. And you, you aren’t nearly as tough.”
“I’m not ten anymore, Rosa.”
“No, but in some ways you were easier then.”
“I was never easy.”
“It was the life that wasn’t easy. You’ve changed that.”
“Maybe.”
“Your mother would be proud of you. She would,” Rosa insisted when he started to back away.
“She never had a chance.”
“No, but you do. And you gave one to me.”
He made a quick gesture of dismissal. “I gave you a job.”
“And the first decent home I’ve ever known,” Rosa added. “Before you go, answer one question. Why do you let me stay? The truth, Burke.”
He didn’t want to answer, but she’d always had a way of looking straight and waiting for as long as it took. Maybe he owed her the truth. Maybe he owed it to himself. “Because she cared about you. And so do I.”
She smiled, then went back to watering. “Your wife won’t wait as long for an answer. She’s impatient, like you.”
“Rosa, why do you stay?”
She fluffed the leaves of a fern. “Because I love you. So does your wife. If you don’t mind, I would like to pick some flowers for the sitting room.”
“Yeah, sure.” He left Rosa there, watering plants, and went back to Erin’s office. It was the first time he’d asked himself or allowed himself to ask why he’d permitted Rosa to stay. Why he’d provided her with a job in order that she could keep her pride. She was family. It was just that simple, and just that hard to accept. She’d been right, too, when she’d said that Erin wouldn’t wait so long for an answer.
He wanted Erin there, where they could sit down together. There where he could talk to her about his feelings. That would be a first, he admitted.
Restless, he began to push through the papers on her desk. She was a hell of a bookkeeper, he thought ruefully. Everything in neat little piles, all the figures in tidy rows. A man could hardly complain about having a conscientious wife. It certainly shouldn’t make him want to gather up all the books and papers and dump them in the trash.
It was the doctor bill that made him frown. All medical expenses from her stay in Kentucky should have been addressed to him. Yet this one was clearly marked to her. Annoyed, he picked it up with the intention of dealing with it himself. He wanted her to have no reminders. But the doctor’s address wasn’t in Kentucky; it was in Maryland. And the doctor was an obstetrician.
Obstetrician? Burke lowered himself very carefully in her chair. The words “pregnancy test” seemed to jump out at him. Pregnant? Erin was pregnant? That couldn’t be, because he would have known. She would have told him. Yet he had the paper in his hand. The paper stated “positive” clearly enough, and the test was dated almost a month earlier.
Erin was pregnant. And she hadn’t told him. What else hadn’t she told him? He sprang up again to push through the other papers as if he’d find the answers there. It was then he found her note, hastily scribbled.Burke, I’ve gone to the hospital. I don’t know how long it will take.
As he stared at the note, he felt all the blood drain out of his face.
“Oh, I don’t see how Dee can be so calm and patient!”
Paddy turned a page in the magazine he was pretending to read. “You can’t hurry babies into the world.”
“It seems to be taking forever.” Erin paced the waiting room again. “My palms are sweating, and she looked like she could take a walk in the park. It’s scary.”
“Having babies?” He chuckled a little and sneaked a peek at his watch while Erin wasn’t looking. “Dee’s an old hand at this.”
