"The world is a rose, smell it and pass it to your friends."
-Persian Proverb- 

It was nothing more than a show now. Her heart wasn’t in it; never had been. She couldn’t ignore what had happened on the island, and apparently, neither could he.

Miss Parker stood with her hands on her hips and looked slowly around her living room and dining area.

Roses everywhere.

Yellow…

Red…

Pink…

She walked over to the arrangement of red ones sitting on the coffee table and grabbed the note that was peeking out from the top of them.

Missed you in Dallas, it read.

“Of course you did,” Miss Parker sneered, because, apparently, while she, Broots and Sydney were off in hot-as-hell Texas, he was here, arranging a few hundred roses in her home…her air-conditioned home.

Dropping the small card to the table, she walked into her bedroom and began undressing. It wasn’t as hot in Delaware as it had been in Texas, but it was still muggy and nasty out. She donned a robe and pinned her hair up while her bath was running and went into the kitchen for something cool to drink. A glass of wine sounded nice. She poured one and as she passed through her bedroom, she grabbed the cordless and made her way into the bathroom.

She hadn’t been relaxing in the water ten minutes before the phone rang. She knew it would. “What?” she sighed into the receiver, eyes closed.

“Did you get the roses I sent you?” came the deep voice on the other end of the line.

“All twenty dozen of them,” she quipped.

“Mm…more like twenty-five dozen.” She could hear the humor in his voice.

“Well, I’m glad you think this is funny, Jarod. If anyone stops by I’ll have hell of a lot of explaining to do.”

“I’m sure you’ll be able to cover if anyone comes around snooping, but I doubt you’ll have anything to worry about,” he said.

“And why is that?” she asked before taking a sip of her wine.

“Well, lets just say that Mr. Lyle is busy trying to keep the FBI out of his hair for some recent activities he’s been involved in and Mr. Raines…has he ever been to your house anyway?” Jarod asked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he all of a sudden decided to. Not a day goes by where that ghoul doesn’t get weirder and weirder,” she shuddered. “Speaking of the devil, he wasn’t very happy to learn that we’d been fooled…”

-----

“….into going on a wild goose chase…again,” Miss Parker said from the other end of the line.

Jarod sighed as he looked around his latest lair, located not too far from Blue Cove. While Miss Parker, Sydney and Broots were in Dallas, he had snuck into her house, still dressed from his latest pretend as a flower delivery man. He took his time looking around and situating each arrangement of flowers carefully. She had gotten a new rug for the living room. Once the flowers had been put in place, he went into the kitchen in search of something to eat and shook his as he found nothing but a bottle of wine, once green grapes, now brown from sitting so long, and a container of leftover takeout food.

After they had gotten back from Carthis, she had told him that nothing changed.

“You run, I chase…” she had said.

Business as usual.

But it wasn’t.

Somewhere along the way, things had changed between them.

He smiled as he remembered the moment it had happened.

He sat in one of his many converted warehouses, typing away on his laptop when he heard the sound of cars coming to a screeching halt outside. Hurrying to the window, he stealthily pushed aside one of the curtains to see three of the unmistakable black town cars the Centre was so fond of using. Broots and Sydney were climbing out of one, but he didn’t see his beautiful huntress anywhere in sight. That was a dangerous thing.

Running back to his computer, he slammed the lid down and stuffed it and a few other things into a black duffle bag. He started to run for the door, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Miss Parker standing there, leaning against the frame as if she hadn’t a care in the world.

Neither said anything.

The building was six stories high and there wasn’t a working elevator. It would take the others a few minutes to reach them and if he could just make it past her, he would be free once again.

Not a minute went by where he didn’t think about what had almost happened in Ocee’s cottage. It was the closest he had been to her since he was a little boy and he didn’t think he would ever forget that moment, the way her naked body looked through the changing screen, the way she smelled as they sat in front of the fireplace, like the Chanel she always wore and the cold rain they had both been drenched by earlier that night. And as their lips moved closer together, hers slightly parted, he could smell the sweetness of her breath from the honey Ocee had used in the tea…

Jarod was very aware of the fact that Miss Parker was a dangerous woman and that his very life could be at stake, but he could never help but take the time to admire how exquisite she was. She was dressed immaculately, as usual, in a black skirt that showed off gorgeous legs, a long, flowing jacket to match, a light purple shirt underneath and, of course, sexy stilettos. He watched the muscles in one of her lean thighs flex as she pushed away from the doorframe, making her way slowly around the room. The door was now free and he thought about just making a run for it. She didn’t have her gun out, but he knew it would only take her a second to have it aimed and ready. Instead, he slowly followed her with his eyes.

“I’ll give you…ten seconds,” she said.

Jarod kept his eyes from widening too much and then gave her a brilliant smile. He ran out the door, grabbing his leather jacket on the way, and didn’t look back.

“Why do you continue to stay there?” Jarod asked her over the phone. “There’s nothing left for you there and Raines has made it clear that you’re expendable.” He had half a mind to just kidnap her and take her as far away from the Centre as possible.

“I’ll deal with Raines,” was all she said.

“But Parker…” he began.

“Jarod,” she warned. It was a conversation he tried to have many times, but she would never let him. She’d obviously had some sort of epiphany since their time on the Isle, but he didn’t understand why she continued to let herself be tortured by that place. “So, Jarod, what exactly are the roses for?” she asked, changing the subject. He decided to indulge her.

“Just beautiful flowers for a beautiful woman,” he told her. The line was quiet and he sighed. They were on much better terms these days, but he could tell that she was still holding back. It took him nearly six years to get her to have a civil conversation with him and he knew better than to go too fast with her. She had but to say the word and he would gladly continue what they had started on Carthis. She had to know how he felt with all of the gifts he had been sending her. Candy, flowers. The man in the gift shop said he couldn’t go wrong with candy and flowers, but Parker barely acknowledged that he gave her these things. Once, he had even sent her an entire case full of banana Laffy Taffy when he discovered it. He liked sharing his new discoveries and these days, Parker was always the first person he wanted to share them with. He was ecstatic at having his friend back, even if they were taking baby steps.

“Time for me to run, Parker,” he said looking at his watch. He had been working on his phone manners. Parker told him that if they were going to be affable toward each other then the least he could do was learn how to say a proper goodbye on the phone rather than just hanging up in her ear. “Oh, and by the way, leftover sweet and sour chicken is delicious.”

“Oh, you son of a…” was all he heard before hanging up.

-----

“…bitch,” Parker muttered as she stared at the phone. It was going to be her dinner, but the little rat had eaten it.

Finishing her bath, she stood from the cooling water and exited the tub, dried off and re-donned her robe. Once her hair and body were dry and she was dressed, she pattered around her house wondering what the hell she was going to do with all of the roses. Retrieving her glass of wine from the bathroom, she settled in the living room in front of the television. She really wanted to kick Jarod’s ass for eating her dinner and she didn’t feel like ordering anything else. Going into the kitchen, she yanked open one of the cabinets and reached into a container for a hand full of Laffy Taffy.

“Bastard,” she mumbled as she tore into one of the wrappers and shoved the candy into her mouth. She plopped down onto the couch and read the jokes that were on the wrapper. The first one asked: Q: Why don’t oysters give to charity? A: Because there shellfish. Miss Parker rolled her eyes and read the next one. Q: How do crazy people go through the forest? A: They take the psycho path. She looked to see where the joke was sent in from and saw that it said Jarod C. from Blue Cove, Delaware. Balling the wrapper up, she tossed it onto the table, finished her glass of wine and fell asleep watching television.