Page 61 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
The man let out an annoyedharrumphas he motioned for Emery to enter the cozy apartment, which felt stifling beneath the weight of the man’s negative energy. “What kind of cockamamie scheme are you up to now, Mother?”
Rose grumbled as she wheeled herself into the living room. She waved a dismissive hand in his direction. “Don’t mind him. My son is brilliant, but he failed in the bedside-manner department.”
Emery’s stomach clenched at the man’s disapproving glare. The way his hair was slicked back, exposing a sharp widow’s peak, made him look even more daunting. She forced a smile and turned her attention to Rose. “Would you like to reschedule our yoga session for after your visit?” For the life of her, Emery couldn’t imagine wanting to spend a second with this poor excuse of a man.
“Yoga? Good grief, Mother. How much are you paying this woman? What kind of nonsense—”
“I’ll have you know,” Emery interrupted, not about to let some guy with a stick up his butt disrespect her. “Many types of injuries that physicians have written off as untreatable have been healed through yoga, without medication or expensive medical treatments. A person’s emotional state, and the ability to free themselves from the medicated confines that too much of society has embraced, has led to many incredible healings.” She was shaking, but she stood pin straight, refusing to back down on her principles.
The man scoffed. “People like you are the reason so many patients end up with more trouble—”
Rose held up a hand, silencing him. In that moment, Emery saw the power struggle between mother and son. Rose pointed to the door, her gray-blue eyes locked on her son. “I believe it’s time for you to go.”
His gaze never left Rose’s. “I’ll send Chloe a list of approved live-in caregivers for you to interview.”
“Save your energy. I’ll have no part of live-in care.” She motioned toward the door again. “Now please go. I’m sure you have more pressing things to attend to than my exercises.”
Without another glance Emery’s way, the man left, taking his cancerous aura with him. The loud sigh that rushed from her lungs brought a laugh from Rose.
“I’m sorry. That was rude of me,” Emery said, setting her bag and supplies down beside the couch.
“He’s my son, and I love him, but that man makes me crave scotch too early in the morning.” She shook her head, her snow-white waves moving with the motion. “He wasn’t always that way, but when he took over the business, he became…well,” she said thoughtfully. “He became someone other than the person I raised.” She waved her hand again and said, “Let’s get this show on the road. I’m good and ready to make some progress.”
“You’ve just answered my first question about how hard you’re willing to work.” Relieved to have moved on to a different subject, Emery walked behind Rose’s chair and began kneading her shoulders. “How about we loosen up some of these muscles while you tell me about your lifestyle and how it’s changed over the years.”
“You want to talk? Shouldn’t we be doing some downward dog or something?”
Emery laughed. “You’ve done some research.”
“I’m good at that online research. But you have to be careful with your search words. Why, my friends and I searched Dick’s—you know, the sporting goods store? Mag wanted to order a yoga mat when she heard you were coming. The results were quite eye-opening.”
She glanced up at Emery, who had stopped kneading her shoulders to try to keep a snort from following her laughter. “Maybe you should leave the research to me.”
“And miss out on all those hotties?”
Oh my! Rose was a live wire. Circling back to her question, Emery said, “We will get to yoga, but right now I’d like to get to know more about you. And these muscles could use a little extra attention.”
Rose smiled. “I like the sound of that.” Her muscles tightened again and she added, “If my son has his way, I’ll never have to do anything myself again.”
“Sometimes family members feel a sense of inadequacy when they can’t help, or even a sense of despair.”
“Perhaps,” Rose said thoughtfully. She was quiet for a moment, as if she were mulling over what Emery had said. “Let’s see. How has my lifestyle changed? Well, I was always active. I ran around after my three children, volunteered, gardened, danced. Oh, how I loved to dance. But you don’t want to know about that.”
“I would love to hear about that, and any other activities you’ve enjoyed and would like to get back to.” She began massaging Rose’s arm, gently working her way down to her fingers, checking the range of motion in her shoulder, elbow, and wrist, while Rose painted a picture of a happy family life, including dancing, family vacations, and picnics with her children. Emery wondered how such a close-knit family could have resulted in the man she’d seen treating his mother so harshly.
“There was a time when my husband loved to dance. And, of course, as we got older, real life took over, and we did those things without my husband because he had to work.” Rose paused, twisting her wedding band with a pained expression.
Emery turned her attention to Rose’s other arm, soaking in every word she shared, and also, the way she reacted to certain touches and shifted in her wheelchair, indicating painful positions. This getting-to-know-you period was the most telling with new clients. As they talked, she noticed Rose moving her fingers a little more easily. Those signs gave Emery hope for what she could achieve. Yoga had turned into a trend, and people were capitalizing on it every way they could—goat yoga, cat yoga. Heaven only knew what would be next. While she enjoyed teaching classes, regardless of the reasons people attended, it was these one-on-one sessions that allowed for deeper relationships, which in turn allowed her to help her clients on a different level, filling her with joy.
“You must have enjoyed those things with him after he retired,” Emery said.
Rose’s pained expression returned, and a cynical laugh fell from her lips. “I thought I would, too, but it seems the early years were our best. By the time our children had lives of their own, my husband and I were virtual strangers. It was a shame, but there was not a lot of love left in my husband by the time we lost him unexpectedly to a heart attack. After he passed, as much as I missed him, it was a relief, to be honest. It has taken me years to admit that, but he was not a happy man. That was more than a decade ago, when we should have been looking at our golden years together after all his hard work. Anyway, I continued gardening and seeing friends, but his death took a toll on our family, and other parts of my life became more difficult. My daughter went through a bout of depression for a while, and my youngest son didn’t deal with his grief at all. He just swept it under the carpet and moved on. And my eldest, the son you met. Theangryone,” she said with a small smile that could only be forged by the mother of someone so bitter. “He buried himself in work at the expense of his own family. When you watch your children suffer, it takes a toll on you. Little aches and pains became more noticeable at that point.”
“That’s not surprising. Emotional heartache can lead to all sorts of health issues. We’ll work on ways to alleviate stress so you’re not so knotted up from it.”
“Oh, there’s a bit more,” Rose explained. “Several years after I lost my husband, something I never imagined happened.” She twirled her ring again, and a genuine smile lifted her lips. “I fell in love for a second time. This time, with a good man, my Leon,” she said warmly. “He was good to me, kind, and affectionate. Always made me his first priority. I thought the universe had given him to me as a gift, that’s how wonderful he was. The kind of wonderful I couldn’t turn away from.”
“That’s lucky, to find love twice in your lifetime.” Emery was still hoping to get lucky enough to find it once and hold on to it. Her blossoming feelings for Dean made her wonder if they were heading in that direction. Her stomach fluttered with the thought. She pushed those warm feelings aside and focused on Rose.
