Read Rose for Rose: Book Two in the Angels' Mirror Series for Free Online Page B

you?”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
    Four
    Portland, Oregon… August 11, 2002
     
    “Whatcha think you doin’, Andrea?”
    With a start, she dropped the gardening gloves in her hand and whirled around.
    Why was he here?
    Hadn’t he made it clear he didn’t want anything more to do with her? Not only her, but with their….
    No.
    She wouldn’t think about that right now, and she didn’t want him there, either.
    Not after everything he’d said last time they spoke. Or rather… Andrea had spoken, and he’d yelled loud enough for people to hear him three blocks away.
    “Arthur. You scared me!”
    She looked up into his taut, emotionless face. A queasiness came over her, and she wondered if she was going to puke again.
    “Yeah, so? What’s it you think you doin’? Must be som’bidy else’s. You foolin’ around on me, Andrea,” he asked slowly. “’Cause you know I ain’t can’t have no kids.”
    He systematically cracked the knuckles on his left hand, then the right, his eyes on hers the entire time he spoke.
    How can he even think I would…?
    How on earth could he really think I’d…?
    “Look, Arthur… you know I would never…”
    The man’s little brown eyes widened, and he compressed his full lips as he stepped even closer and glared down at her. Even his nose seemed to flatten.
    “How dare you! How dare you, after what happened with Morton! I let you into my heart again, after all you’ve done to me; I let myself trust you again, and this is what I get for thanks?”
    Andrea felt her pale skin going even paler.
    She carefully stepped out of the vegetable patch and onto the sidewalk before answering, trying to formulate a response.
    Why did he keep bringing up his brother? Especially when they’d both told him nothing ever happened between them?
    The man had been performing CPR on her because they were practicing for a play they’d been casted in, for goodness’ sake.
    How was that cheating?
    “I know you don’t want to believe me, Arthur, but Morton and I… there was never a Morton and…”
    “Don’t you lie to me! You and hims both been lyin’ to me, sayin’ you never done nothin’ behin’ ma back, but I knows you did. I knows you did. He fin’lly a’mitted it when I sat down wit’ him las’ weeken’.” The rancor in Arthur’s eyes grew intense.
    Why would Morton say she had been his… that they had? What on earth was happening?
    “Let’s get somewheres quiet, Andrea. You Mamma don’ need t’ lissin in on no drama, and neither do you neighbors.”
    She noticed he’d balled his fists; they were clenched, then unclenched. He looked like he wanted to sock her!
    She did her best to keep to keep a calm, even voice as she replied.
    “I can’t just up and…”
    Hastily throwing his hands up into the air, Arthur said, “Fine, den. Meet me at Uncle Dabney’s in a hour. Think you c’ man’ge dat, Princess?”
    Finally understanding that she couldn’t keep making excuses to stay away from him, she nodded. So long as she was careful, what could it hurt? Uncle Dabney almost never left home, and his house mate, Ken, was a pretty decent guy.
    Surely if things got out of hand, they’d take her side, wouldn’t they? Or hadn’t Arthur told them anything about what was happening between them these days?
    A queasy feeling came over her even as she said her next words. “Fine. Give me…” She wrestled for a moment with her glove so she could see the little blue watch on her arm. Two eleven.
    “I can be there about… three thirty. That okay with you?”
    “Yeah. And hey…” he paused. “Dis be private. I don’ want nob’dy nosin’ ‘round listenin’ to the conv’sation, so… be discreet, huh? For once?”
     
     
     
    “Arthur? Are you home,” Andrea hesitantly called after knocking on the door a fourth time.
    This house of Dabney’s, while beautiful, had always unsettled her a little.
    She wasn’t sure