Kentucky's Best

Chapter 15

Walking in the house, Rose motions for Anne and Gemma to sit down. "Would either of you like something to drink?" Rose asks politely.

"No, hun just sit down and take care of my grandbaby." Anne says. "If we want anything we can get it ourselves, if you don't mind."

"It's fine with me." Rose gives Anne small smile. "I guess you wasn't expecting this to happen when you came to visit for the first time."

Gemma snorts. "Nope, but Harry has always been full of surprises." She says.

Just then Harry walks through the door only to hear. "Momma Rose? Is that bad lady going to try and hurt me again?" Stephanie stutters out.

Rose hugs Steph to her more and buries her face in the child's beautiful curly hair. "Oh no baby. That bad lady can never hurt you again." Rose cries. "Tell you what. If it's okay with daddy you can sleep with us tonight. That way we can make sure nothing happens, okay?" Rose says. She and Harry has been sleeping together for weeks but they have yet to make love, she told Harry she wasn't ready yet and he told her he was fine with that.

Harry walks over and pick both Rose and Steph up and sits down so they were both in his lap. "Daddy, can I sleep with you and Momma Rose?" Steph asks.

"Of course you can, baby. You can sleep in there as long as you want." Harry says. "Now Steph daddy and Momma Rose has a job to do tomorrow, do you think you can stay here with Gammy and Aunty Gem until we get home?"

"Yes, daddy. It will be day time." Steph says. "As long as you and Momma Rose are home with me at night I'll be fine."

"Always." Harry and Rose say at the same time, hugging the child bringing tears to the eyes of Anne and Gemma. Harry then looks at his mom and sister. "How long are you 2 planning on staying?" He asks.

"We have a open ended ticket." Anne says. "We can stay as long as we want."

"Okay well you can stay here with us or at the house I'm renting in town." Harry says. "I never broke the lease when I moved in here so the house is sitting empty right now."

"How long have you 2 been living together?" Gemma asks her brother.

Harry smiles. "Sence Rose got out of the hospital a month ago. She needed someone to stay with her, Beth and Steph was here during the day, we was here at night and never went back home."

"So this is Rose's home?" Anne asks.

"Yes. I bought it about a week after my parents died." Rose says. "I needed a place large enough for all my babies I was adopting and when I found this place I decided it was perfect."

Gemma raised one eyebrow. "Babies?"

Harry laughs. "You'll see soon enough, I'm surprised Rascal and Babe hasn't made their nightly presence known yet."

"I'm surprised we aren't hearing a chorus of noises, we haven't fed them yet." Rose smiles.

"Damn you're right. Steph you want to help feed the pets?" Harry asks.

"Oh, yeah." Steph smiles and claps her hands. "I'm want to give Nikki a carrot."

"Okay, let's go." Rose says setting Steph on her feet so she could get off of Harry lap. "Anne you and Gemma want to meet my babies?"

"Come on Gammy, I'll show you the way." Steph says grabbing Anne's hand and pulls toward the back door.

After all the animals were fed and watered, Rose bathed Steph while Harry showed his mom and sister where the could sleep for the night. Once Steph was out of the tub Rose let her play quietly in the livingroom while the adults sat and talked. It wasn't even an hour later when Rose looks up and sees Steph nodding off. Standing up, she tells Harry she's going to put the child to bed.

"Rose is so good with Stephanie." Anne says. "And Stephanie loves her."

"Yeah, she does. It's weird, Steph was drawn to her the first time she saw her." Harry says. "Mom you should see what Rose can do with the animals we work with. It's amazing." He says, then goes on to tell her what happened at the zoo weeks ago and what they were going to do the next day.

Gemma looks at her brother. "Are you seriously sitting there telling us that tiny girl in there can tame any animal she comes in contact with by just humming a tune?" Gemma asks.

Harry chuckles. "That's what I'm saying." Harry says. "I've seen her work her magic to many time to doubt her now, excpecially when she helped keep my daughter safe with that wolf at the zoo the first time we took Steph. Within minutes Rose had that wild animal curled up in her lap like a lap dog, then he just got up and followed her back to his enclosure like a trained puppy." He laughs.

"How does she do that?" Anne asks Harry.

"I have no idea." Harry replies. "That's how she ended up in the hospital, she was working with this towns most difficult case. One of the new guys working there thought she was to small to do a man's job and went into the arena, jerked the horse away from her and he went crazy. Started kicking, spinning, bucking around. Rose was in the line of fire and was kicked in the head. The guy got fired and ran out of town by everyone here and Rose was flown to the hospital in Louisville." Harry tells his mom and sister.

Anne looks at Harry closely, she sees Rose walk back into the room. "You love her don't you?" Anne asks Harry.

Rose hears what Anne asks Harry and smiles, she walks around the chair he's sitting in and sits in his lap. Harry grins and wraps his arms around Rose's waist and pulls her closer to him. "More than anything in this world." Harry says as he kisses her cheek.

Rose looks at Harry's mom and sister. "Before you ask, yes I love him too. If I didn't I wouldn't have allowed him and Stephanie to move in here and sleep in my bed. Which I might add in a big thing for me, Harry tends to move around a lot and pull the covers." Rose giggles. "But at least he's a snuggler and I'm able to stay warm that way since he keep my bedroom like a damn freezer."

Harry laughs. "I don't like a warm bedroom. There's nothing worse than waking up sweating because it to warm." Harry says.

"Just like there's nothing worse than waking up freezing your ass off because your bed partner stole all the covers so he can stay warm in our ice cold bedroom." Rose laughs.

Gemma chuckles and looks at her mom. "You 2 do know you sound like an old married couple don't you?"

Rose lays her head on Harry's shoulder and chuckles. "Good." They both say at the same time. Harry then stands, keeping Rose in his arms. "We need to head to bed, we have a difficult case tomorrow. You guys can make yourselves at home, we'll see you in the morning." Harry says as he turns toward their room and a sleeping Steph. "Goodnight."

"Night." Anne and Gemma say at the same time.