Kentucky's Best

Chapter 22

Rose and Anne was sitting in her favorite spot in the backyard talking about weather or not she should go home now or wait until after the baby was born. Rose really needed to make up her mind soon before it was to late and she could no longer travel. Rose was just about to stand so she could once again go to the bathroom when she suddenly hears. "Momma" cried out, spinning around she sees Steph leap from Harry's arms and run toward her. Falling to her knees, with tears instantly gushing down her face Rose catches the small child and holds her close.
"Oh God baby, I've missed you so much." Rose sobs into the child's shoulder.

"Momma I missed you too." Steph cries. "Why did you leave?"

Rose refused to look at Harry so she stands up carefully, with Steph in her arms, walks to her chair and sits back down. "I needed some time to myself, away from home. Gammy said I could come here with her, until I felt well enough to go home."

Harry listened to what Rose was telling his daughter, but he also heard what she wasn't saying and that hurt just as much, almost as much as her not acknowledging his presence. Not that he blames her, not after what he did.

"Momma?" Steph whispers.

"Yes?" Rose asks.

"How did you get fat so fast." Steph asks.

Rose smiles for the first time since they got there. "Oh Steph, I'm not really fat, I'm going to have a baby." Rose tells her.

The whole time Rose and Stephanie are talking Anne is watching Harry closely. She can tell he's not been sleeping, he looks the same as he did right after Steph was born. Looks like he wasn't eating well either, he's seems to have lost some weight. But she has to remember he brought this on himself for what he did to this beautiful, innocent girl.

"Is the baby going to be me brother or sister?" Steph asks.

Rose tries to swollow the knot in her throat and finally looks at Harry. "Yes, Steph, this baby will be your brother." Rose says, telling Harry the sex of their child, not breaking eye contact with him.

"Mom." Harry chokes out.

Nodding, Anne stands up and reaches for Stephanie. "Come on Steph, let's go get you some milk and cookies so Momma and Daddy can talk."

Harry walks over and sits in the chair his mom just vacated, he was quiet for a few seconds trying to figure out how he was going to correct this mess. Harry finally looks up. "We're having a son?" He asks in a whisper.

"Yes." Rose whispers back. "Just because I'm not at home doesn't mean I'm going to ignore my pre-natal care."

"I know, I just didn't know if you wanted know what the sex was or not." Harry says.

"I wasn't sure if I did or not, but after the first few pictures were taken that option was taken out of my hands." Rose smirks.

"What do you mean?" Harry asks with a frown.

Rose grabs her phone and brings up the pictures. "I've been debating for days now on weather to send these to you or not. The first one will show you, clearly, your son will be taking after you." Rose chuckles as she hands Harry her phone.

Taking Rose's phone, Harry looks down at the picture on the screen, at first he wasn't sure what he was looking at then his eyes widen. "Holy shit. When was this taken?" Harry asks.

"Uhm, 4 days ago, the others were taken 2 weeks ago." Rose tells him.

Harry nods as he looks through the rest of the pictures on Rose's phone, when he was done he handed the phone back to her. "Thank you for sharing those with me." Harry says.

"Harry, he's your son too. I'm not planning on keeping him away from you." Rose says with a shaky voice.

"What about you, are you planning on staying away from me?" Harry asks her.

"That would be kinda hard wouldn't it. Sharing a child, working together on occasion." Rose says.

"That's not what I mean, Rose." Harry says. "Rose please, I need you to come home. I'm so sorry. I don't know what the hell was wrong with me that day. I just had a really bad time at work, had to put down 2 family pets. I hate that part of my job, I don't know why I snapped the way I did." Harry cries, then falls to his knees in front of Rose, wrapping his arms around her waist and lays his head on her stomach. "God, I love you so much, please forgive me. My life is meaningless without you."

Just as Rose is about to say something, the baby gives her a particularly hard kick causing Harry's head to bounce on her stomach. Harry raises his head with widened eyes, looking at her. "Does that hurt?" He asks.

"What? Harry this isn't your first child." Rose says surprised by the question.

"I know but, Rhonda never let me touch her while she was pregnant. I never got to feel what it was like when Steph kicked." Harry says.

"No it doesn't hurt at all, it's just uncomfortable when he kicks my bladder and I have to pee." Rose grins.

Hay chuckles. "Can I?" He asks.

"Of course." Rose says, taking his hand places on her stomach where the baby was moving the most.

As Harry knelt there he looked at Rose in awe, after everything he did to her here she was letting him do things he never got to do the whole time Rhonda was pregnant with Stephanie, and Harry never did anything to her to cause her to act the way she did.

"Harry? How are my pets?" Rose asks with tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Rose they're fine. I've been taking care of them." Harry tells her. "I would never let anything happen to them. I think Kiki misses you though. He's not eating much, losing weight." Harry says.

"So have you." Rose says.

"Yeah, well my life disappeared." Harry whispers. "I've been slowly dying for these past 3 months." He adds causing tears to come to Rose's eyes.

"I'll go home." Rose whispers. "But, Harry this can't keep happening. I'm not Rhonda." She chokes out. "I don't deserve to be treated as if I'm the one who hurt you when I'm not."

Harry chokes on a sob and hugs Rose again, he kisses her stomach and says. "I know and I'll change I promise. Come on, it's starting to get chilly out here, let's go in." Harry says as he stands up, holding his hand out to help Rose up.

Rose let's Harry help her up, then they walk in the house side by side.