Free When In Rome...Find Yourself: A Sweet New Adult Romance by Lena Mae Hill

awaiting instruction.
    “Is that better?” Rory asked Theresa.
    Theresa nodded, cupping her hands over her mouth and breathing into them.
    Rory glanced at Ned. “I opened the ones upstairs, too,” he said.
    “Maybe it’s just a panic attack,” Rory said, slipping behind the couch to whisper to Ned. “She’s breathing into her hands. That’s good, right? She knows what to do. Has this happened before?”
    “Not while I’ve been around.”
    “Let’s give her a minute, and then if she’s not better, we’ll call the nearest hospital. Can you look it up on your phone? We probably shouldn’t tell her until it’s here. The idea of the hospital seemed to make it worse.”
    “Okay, cool,” Ned said, slipping his phone from his pocket.
    Rory went back to sit next to Theresa so she could signal Ned if he needed to call. Theresa’s breathing had slowed, though. Maybe the idea of leaving the house had set her off. Her son could have invited her over to his house, and she wanted to see him, but she didn’t want to leave the house, so she freaked out.
    “It’s going to be okay,” Rory said quietly. “You’re safe. You don’t have to anything you don’t want. We’ll just stay right here with you and make sure you’re okay. How does that sound?”
    Theresa nodded, her hands still cupped over her mouth, her eyes red above them. Ned’s thumb hovered over his phone, his eyes trained on Rory. She gave a slight shake of her head, and he slipped his phone back in his pocket. For a while, they waited. At last, Theresa’s eyes drifted shut, and a minute later, a soft snore escaped her lips.
    Rory slumped down, a new round of trembling gripping her body. When a second snore came from their sleeping host mother, Ned left the stairs and came to sit beside Rory, on the arm of the chair. “Dude.”
    “Yeah.”
    For a second, neither of them spoke. “So that’s never happened before?” she asked at last.
    “Not like that,” he said. “Not even close. I mean, sometimes she’s kind of…I’m not sure how to describe it. Manic. But it freaks me out, so I just leave her alone, and she’s always fine the next day.”
    Rory opened her mouth to scold him for leaving Theresa alone, but then she thought of her own anxiety, and how embarrassed she was when she acted like a nutcase in front of other people. And how often she wished they hadn’t been there to see her blushing and sweating and acting like a nervous wreck.
    “You were really good with her,” Ned said.
    “I have anxiety. I know what it’s like.”
    “Do you do that?”
    “I don’t have panic attacks.”
    “That’s good,” he said. “It looked pretty bad. Poor Theresa.” He smiled down at the sleeping woman with affection.
    “So what’s up with her son?”
    “I don’t know the whole story,” Ned said. “But her family hasn’t spoken to her in years. It’s just her. She says that’s why she likes to take on boarders. She has extra rooms, and she says we’re like her family. I don’t know what happened with her real family. I got the feeling it was something pretty bad, though.”
    “Bad like she murdered her daughter? Because I’m pretty sure she told me her daughter was dead. That would be a good reason to stop speaking to your mother.”
    Ned looked at Theresa again. “No way. That sweet old lady?”
    “Yeah, you’re right.” After a minute, though, Rory couldn’t help but add, “But maybe her son is dead, too, and that’s why it freaked her out so much when he called.”
    “Dude, you’re morbid,” Ned said, but he looked kind of impressed. “You think she killed her whole family?”
    “I’m sure she didn’t kill them all,” Rory said. “But everyone has a past. Everyone makes mistakes.”
    “That’s a pretty big mistake. Oops, I killed my kids…”
    “That explains why they’re haunting her, though. I mean, have you ever seen these people? And it just happens that they call when we’re out of the house?”
    “Are