Free Triple Shot by Ava Riley Page A

feel like I thought you were easy." The word sounded vile and felt
like a slap in the face to Susan. She’d heard the term used often when it came
to describing her, but she was far from it. There were few men she’d invited
over and fewer who shared her bed with her. "I only meant that I wanted to
spend more time with you. I guess I was being a little selfish. What with Cade
and Rowan tied up with their own lives, I guess I was looking for someone to
help me pass the time.”
    "Josiah, it's really okay. I don't
need an apology or an explanation. I was being a little oversensitive."
    "Yes, but-"
    "If I tell you I forgive you, will
you take me home? Honestly I'm exhausted and I really just want to crawl into
bed."
    Susan
was thankful when Josiah didn't utter another sound. She leaned against her
seat and let out a sigh as he put the car in reverse and eased out of the
parking space. When they reached her apartment building, Josiah started to exit
the car, but before he got too far, Susan stopped him and let him know she
could make the short trip alone. Susan silently laughed when his eyes widened
at her admission of being able to walk herself to the door. No doubt he wasn’t
one to just let a woman do such a thing, his mannerisms since she’d met him
told her as much, but all she wanted to do was to get inside as quickly as possible
without some drawn out conversation.

Chapter 11
     
     
    Susan should have been honest with
Josiah, and herself, for that matter. She actually did want Josiah to come in. She
really could use the company tonight instead of another night left to her own meditations
of how out of whack her life had become. She would have loved to be able to
just enjoy someone else's company without talk of jobs and sickness, the only conversation
her and her father had partaken in lately. Over the past six months, their conversations
would start off with him asking about her job, her shrugging off the question
knowing that he only used it as a prelude to the underlying issues at hand. The
issues that neither of them wanted to deal with: her mother’s memory loss, her
physical decline, and eventually her death. Susan knew there would come a time
when she would have to step up and take some of the burden of planning a
funeral and getting all of her mother's things in order from her father. Yet,
she did all she could to avoid those conversations in the meantime.
    As of recently, when her mother's body
looked less and less like the strong woman Susan remembered growing up, she'd
wanted to make excuses not to come over on the weekends. Her appearance at The Launchpad
last weekend had been an anomaly of late because by the time she finished up at
the nursing home, she'd been too exhausted both physically and emotionally. The
sad truth of the situation was that Susan knew her mother had no hope of
getting any better. No miracle awaited them around the corner, and no daily
prayer over her by the nursing home clergy would do anything to restore her
mother to her right mind or her youthful beauty. And because of that Susan found
herself wishing something no child should ever wish for their parent. She
wanted to get that phone call, the one she'd dreaded since the day her mother
had been diagnosed, from her father informing her that her mother had passed. The
sickness not only affected Susan, but she'd seen her father's own health
deteriorate as he fought to care for her mother in their home until she needed
the care he couldn't provide and admitted her to the Alzheimer ward at Long
Beach's Nursing Facility. That day had been more difficult than hearing of her
mother's sickness. Susan watched as her father’s once bright hazel eyes clouded
over while they shimmered with the anxiety and hurt of leaving his beloved
bride in the care of others. She'd placed her hand within her father's trembling
fingers, trying to stay strong for the man she'd not once seen cry during her
life. As sadness overtook him, she did the best she