Kentucky's Best

Chapter 6

Harry wakes the next morning to someone banging on his door. Throwing the covers back he throws on a pair of sweats and goes to see who it is. Opening the door he comes face to face with a very pissed off Aunt Beth.
"What in the name in all that's holy did you do to Rose last night after I left you?" Beth starts right in at her nephew. "I swear I have never seen that girl so upset in all the years I've lived here as I just have."

"Wait, what the hell are you talking about." Harry asks as he backs away from Beth's assult.

"That poor girl came to our place early this morning to get Marty to help her with her dog, crying about seizers and some other things I didn't quite catch before they were both running out the door again. But what I did catch was her going off the deep end when Marty mentioned calling you to help out." Beth snaps at Harry. "Rose yelled that it would be a cold day in hell before she would let you anywhere around her or her pets, she said you could rot in hell first. And that child likes everyone. So I'm going to ask again Harry, what the fuck did you do to Rose?" Beth yells.

"I just let her know she's not the only person around who has lost someone they loved." Harry snaps. "I'm so fucking tired of hearing about the amazing Rose and all her hardships. How she lost her family. Well to damn bad, I lost my wife." Harry yells, then shuts up when his aunt slaps him.

"My God, Harry. How quickly you forget. Hell you were going to leave Rhonda, she was cheating on you. And here you stand trying to make her sound like a fucking saint." Beth yells. "I'm glad all you want to do is remember the good in your child's mom, but to hurt Rose the way you did in the process is uncalled for. Rose was 17, Harry, a minor, she was suddenly alone, no family to turn to. Rose had to figure out how she was going to live on her own the day she graduated from high school. You had a career, you didn't have to worry about where that next meal was coming from." Beth cries as she walks toward the door. "Oh, Marty told me to tell you to take the day off. He will take care of everything today." She adds as she slams the door shut.

Marty hugs the sobbing Rose. "I'm so sorry love, we did everything we could do."

"I know Marty, It's just he was there for me when I needed him." Rose cries.

"I know. Look, I need to go check on Whiskey Runs. Why don't you dry your eyes and come with me? Help me out today, I told Beth to tell Harry to stay home." Marty says.

Nodding, Rose walks toward her bathroom. "Yeah I'll do that. I'll be right out." Rose says. "I'll just ride with you if that's okay."

"That's fine with me, I'll enjoy the company." Marty says.

After spending the day working with Marty Rose was tired when he dropped her off at home, but she still had her animals to feed so before going to the house she went to the barn to do that. After lining up all the cats bowl and filling them up Rose did the same thing with multiple dog food bowls she then moves on to the horses and gets them all fed. Rose then feeds the goats, pigs and chickens. Once all that's done she heads to the house so she can shower and change. She just wants to relax, drink a ice cold beer and watch a movie.
As Rose rounds the corner of the house she sees Harry sitting on her front steps with a sigh she walks forward.
"What do you want?" Rose asks him as she walks past Harry toward the door.

"To talk." Harry says as he stands up.

Spinning on her heels, Rose looks up at Harry. "Tough, you had your chance to talk when you were here last night with your daughter, while we ate pizza. But you decided to yell at the attention seeker instead, well today I'm tired and depressed and don't feel like putting up with any more of your abusive mood swings." Rose snaps, then bursts into tears.

"Shit." Harry mutters out as he pulls Rose to him and hugs her close. "Look I'm sorry about last night. Will you give me a chance to explain?" He asks.

Rose just shrugs, pulls away and walks in the house, she points at the sofa then walks into the kitchen. Rose returns to the livingroom a few seconds later with 2 beers.
"I hope Genesis is okay. Marty got me hooked on this when I turned 21. He and Beth took me out its all he would allow me to drink, he said it's what they serve at home." Rose smirks.

Harry give her a smile. "Well Uncle Marty's right there, it is what we have at home, so it's fine with me." Harry says.

"So what do you want to talk about?" Rose asks.

"First, are you okay? Marty told me about Butch." Harry says.

"I'll live, it just might take time. He was my first rescue." Rose says looking at Harry. "Do you really want to hear this?" She asks. At his nod she continues. "When I heard about my parents wreck, I ran out of the gymnasium where I was supposed to be graduating, the wreck was right in front of the school almost so it didn't take me long to get there. The guy that hit my parents was drunk, it killed him, my parents and my 3 year old brother Tony. Butch was with the with the drunk. He was tied to they guys bumper, the asshole was dragging him. When I realized there was nothing I could do to help my family I helped him." Rose says. "I nursed him back to health, set up an exercise pool in my paddock until he could walk again." She sighs. "Butch has been by my side sence then, when he sleeps with me I don't dream. When he doesn't the nightmares always return." Rose says as tears roll down her cheeks. "I guess in a way helping Butch through his therapy was therapy to me to, it kept my mind off what had happened and focused on other things, after that I just started helping the vets around town. With the affinity I have with animals they thought I should be paid to help them keep the worse cases calm so they don't get kicked or killed." Rose shrugged. "I needed to eat and feed the my growing family so I took them up on the offer. Marty is my favorite though." She says finally and takes a sip of her beer.

Harry nods and takes a drink of his own beer. He just stares at Rose for a few seconds and sighs.