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A loud stomp sounded on the other side of the door as she fitted her key into the lock, and Rosalie sighed.
Autumn’s pet rabbit had been left home alone for a while, and he obviously wasn’t happy. He was a funny little thing with a great big attitude, and he wouldn’t appreciate being left in the dark either.
“I’m coming,” she said as another thump filled the neighborhood silence. Autumn had gotten him the day after James had moved out, and she’d named him The USS Thumper. For a while there, she’d insisted everyone use his whole name.
Thankfully, she’d calmed a little bit since the divorce, and Rosalie could just use Thumper now. She hated thinking about the way Autumn had named him the way the Navy names ships, because her daddy worked on a ship.
Well, he used to at least.
Rosalie finally got the door open and she stepped up and over the gate secured in the doorway directly next to the door. If that gate wasn’t there, Thumper would be long gone in the night.
“I’m home,” she said to him, her fingers sliding up the wall to the switch. The living room flooded with light, and Thumper stomped his foot as if to sayit’s about time.
“Let’s get you fed,” Rosalie said, dropping her purse on the couch as she walked behind it. She kicked off her shoes near the island and set about making up a bowl of veggies for Thumper.
Exhaustion filled her, and her mind wandered. She usually thought about the sales she’d made tonight, and she might even log them all in the financial software she’d purchased last year when she’d finally gotten her company off the ground.
But tonight, she could only think about one thing. Not a thing, a person.
Lee Cooper.
* * *
The following day,Rosalie worked a little bit in the morning. She did get her receipts put into the computer. She brought in her demo boxes and sorted through them to make sure they were right and ready for next time.
She weeded through her emails and answered the ones she needed to.
Then she set about cleaning her house and straightening Autumn’s bedroom. She wouldn’t be back until Sunday evening, but Rosalie wanted to have a small Valentine’s Day celebration with her then. So she decorated the girl’s room with hearts and more hearts, all cut free-hand from pink, red, white, and purple paper.
Her daughter loved puzzles and word games, and Rosalie put letters on some of the hearts. Autumn would need to pull them all down and figure out the word, then she’d be able to find a basket from Cupid in that location in the house.
Rosalie put together the basket, which was complete with a stuffed teddy bear, chocolates, her favorite sour candy, and a card.
She hid it in the laundry room closet, right beside the cleaning pods and closed the door.
She tried to keep herself busy whenever Autumn wasn’t home, but it was harder than she’d anticipated. She almost felt like a robot, completing tasks and moving through the motions without any feeling attached.
Her therapist would likely want to dissect that for the next several weeks, should Rosalie decided to divulge such a thing at her next appointment.
Thumper stomped from somewhere in the house, and Rosalie sighed. She’s just started to boil some eggs to make into egg salad, which she fully intended to eat between two slices of white bread, when the front door opened.
“Mommy!” Autumn cried, and it took her a moment to struggle over the gate. Thumper came hippity-hopping from wherever he’d been angrily stomping in the house, and Rosalie smiled at her daughter.
Her insides quivered, because James wasn’t supposed to bring her back until Sunday. It was Friday at noon.
“Hey, baby.” She scooped her daughter into a hug and lifted her right up off the floor. “What are you doin’ here?”
“Daddy has to go somewhere,” she said, her child-like voice so innocent and so high-pitched.
Rosalie set Autumn on her feet. “Is he outside?” She didn’t have a ramp for him to get his wheelchair up and into the house. He’d had his brothers come get his things and move him out, and then they’d carried him down the steps to his chair.
He’d never let her do that for him, and Rosalie hated this small, insignificant feeling inside her. She’d been willing to build the ramp. Move to a new house that didn’t have so many steps. Help him any way she could.
He hadn’t wanted her to. He didn’t wantheranymore.
Her heart cracked along one of the seams that had already healed, but it only went a little way.
“Yes,” Autumn said, bending to pick up Thumper.
