“Good? That’s all you have to say?”
Mollie could have filled her friend in on the flowers Josh had brought, now sitting in the middle of her kitchen table, a bright and beautiful mix of yellow, pink and orange gerbera daisies and rosebuds. Or she could have told Amanda about the restaurant with its romantic ambiance and mouthwatering selections. Or she could have told her friend what she most wanted to hear—that Josh was smart, good-looking, funny... All in all, the perfect date.
So Mollie could only blame a caffeine deficiency for the first words to pop out of her mouth. “Lilah Fairchild’s back in town.”
After Mollie filled Amanda in on seeing the other woman at the restaurant, her friend said, “Wow, she made such a big deal about leaving Spring Forest after she and Zeke broke up, I never thought she’d come back. You don’t think she’ll try to rekindle something with Zeke, do you?”
Mollie shrugged even though Amanda couldn’t possibly see her. “She said some things along those lines.”
“Lilah always did have a way of getting under your skin.”
It wasn’t her own skin Mollie was worried about. And she didn’t care about what the other woman said. But as far as what Lilah had done...
“I can’t help worrying about Zeke. He was devastated when they broke up.” And then Mollie and Zeke had both been hit with a crushing blow only weeks later when the army delivered the news that Patrick had been killed.
“You know how you’re always telling Zeke that you’re a grown woman and that you can take care of yourself? Well, that works both ways, hon. Zeke’s a big boy. He doesn’t need you to protect him.”
Mollie’s hand tightened on the phone as she thought about just how far she had gone to protect Zeke. “But—”
“No buts!” Amanda interrupted. “And when I asked about last night, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Her earlier excitement had drained away, leaving behind disappointment and a slight tone of hurt.
Sitting on one of the kitchen chairs, Mollie filled her friend in on the parts of the date she figured Amanda actually wanted to hear. When she finished, Amanda practically crowed, “It sounds like the two of you hit it off!”
“Josh made it easy.” The date had certainly been more successful than many of her previous attempts. She hadn’t spent the entire dinner racking her brain for something to say, feeling so completely uncomfortable in her own skin, wishing she was at home curled up in front of the TV with her dogs.
“He’s a good listener and a great storyteller.” Summoning up a hint of teasing, Mollie added, “And he had plenty of secrets to spill about when you were a kid.”
“Oh, please, tell me the two of you had better things to talk about than me!”
At that, Mollie’s smile faded a bit. Somehow, she didn’t think talking with Josh about Zeke would qualify. Slumping against the back of the chair, Mollie swallowed a disheartened sigh. The most memorable part of a date should not be a conversation about her relationship with another man.
And yet she couldn’t help wondering. Had Josh picked up on some guy signal she wasn’t aware of? Something that said maybe Zeke did see her as more than a little sister?
The thought was almost enough to make Mollie foolishly hold on to hope... Only she’d been holding on to hope—and nothing else—for far too long.
It’s about time you got over that pathetic crush...
Unable to keep sitting, Mollie pushed back her chair, sending the dogs who were crowded around the table hoping for some nonexistent scraps, scrambling across the worn linoleum. “We talked about going on a second date and checking out some of the trails around town.”
“Oh, that sounds so romantic!”
It does? Mollie certainly hadn’t had romance in mind when she made the suggestion. She’d been more focused on coming up with a date where she would actually be able to dress herself and not require her friends’ assistance getting ready.
But Amanda sounded so excited...
“I guess it could be romantic,” she admitted, thinking of the last time she’d gone hiking. She hadn’t noticed one of her shoelaces had come untied and had tripped, landing in an inelegant heap of scraped palms and bloodied knees.
But then again, Zeke had insisted on carrying her back to her car, which was, without a doubt, the most romantic thing to ever happen to her. Closing her eyes, she could still feel the warmth of his soft cotton T-shirt beneath her hands. Still catch a hint of the soap he used combined with the scent of sun-warmed skin. Hear the familiar rumble of his voice as he teased her about her perfect ten dismount.
By the time he drove her back home, she’d been so achingly aware of him, so desperate to believe he felt something of the same desire she felt for him, she actually thought when he crossed the threshold of her house that he would carry her straight to the bedroom where they would finally, finally make love.
Instead, he’d headed for the bathroom where he set her down on the edge of the tub to clean her wounds and tape up her palms with cartoon bandages she’d bought for God knew what reason. When he was done, he patted her on the knee, just like he had when she’d wiped out on her roller skates in front of his house when she was ten.
Graceful as always, kiddo.
And Mollie had learned then that it was impossible to die of embarrassment, or disappointment...or heartbreak.
“Just think,” Amanda was saying, “if things work out between you and Josh, we might end up sisters!”
“Yeah, that would be great,” Mollie agreed faintly. She would love to have Amanda for a sister.
Too bad when Josh kissed her good-night, Mollie had felt as though she were kissing her brother.
* * *
Zeke raised his hand to knock on Mollie’s door, only to hesitate for a moment. He’d hardly slept the night before—uncomfortable with the way he’d left things with Mollie and with the idea of her being out on a date.
He was just looking out for her, the same way he always had, so he didn’t understand why she’d be so upset with him. And he did want her to go out, to find someone special to share her life with other than her dogs, so he wasn’t sure why he’d been so upset with her. Shaking off the disquiet, he took a deep breath of the cool morning air and rapped on the door.
Mollie answered only a few seconds later. “Hey, Zeke. What are you doing here?”
Even though her expression was more than a little wary, Zeke exhaled in a huge sigh of relief. Gone was the fancy hair and makeup. Instead, her face was scrubbed clean, her skin highlighted only by a natural glow and the dusting of copper-colored freckles across her cheeks. Her hair was pulled back in a curly ponytail, and she was wearing a pair of pink pajamas decorated with black poodles.
He started to smile at the sight. He didn’t think he’d ever seen Mollie in pajamas before. She’d always been an early riser... The bottom fell out of his stomach as he suddenly realized an obvious reason why she may have slept in.
“I, uh—” Zeke swallowed hard. “I’m, um, not interrupting anything, am I?”
Mollie shrugged a slender shoulder. “I was just having breakfast.”
In bed? With Josh Sylvester?
Some of his thoughts must have shown on his face, because Mollie’s eyes widened. “Oh, my—” Reaching out, she socked him in the shoulder just like she’d done when she was a kid. “It was a first date, Zeke!”
“I know but—” She’d looked so gorgeous the night before. What man wouldn’t have wanted to take her to bed?
“But what?” she demanded as she stalked away, leaving him with little choice but to follow her into the cozy comfort of her living room.
The small space was decorated with an eclectic and colorful mix of secondhand furniture Mollie had discovered at consignment shops and thrift stores throughout North Carolina. He’d taken more than a few trips across the state with her to haul her trash-to-tre
asure finds back to her house.
Of course, if she and Josh hit it off, Mollie wouldn’t need him for that anymore.
“Oh, that’s right!” She stopped in the middle of the room and turned to face him. She threw her hands up into the air before planting her fists on her slender hips. “You know me so well! You must have realized I was out for some kind of wild affair!”
Wild affair.
The words kept bouncing off his stunned brain in more and more dangerous combinations. Mollie...affair. Mollie...wild.
Truth was, she looked a little wild right then. With her red hair ablaze from the morning sunlight streaming through the lace-curtained windows. With aquamarine sparks flying from her eyes. With her chest heaving beneath the black cotton tank top.
But he didn’t think of Mollie that way. He couldn’t. Zeke still remembered how Patrick had warned off all the guys in Spring Forest before he left for basic training, telling them to stay away from his little sister. Zeke had laughed about it at the time. After all, Mollie had been a kid.
Zeke wasn’t laughing now. And Mollie was all grown-up.
Her pajamas might not have been the sexy silk negligees he’d seen in the storefront window, yet that hardly mattered. Her thin cotton tank top outlined the feminine shape of her breasts. The drawstring bottoms she wore had slipped down on one side to reveal the hollow curve of her hip. And even without the added benefit of makeup, her lips were a rosy pink that Zeke was suddenly dying to feel against his.
Mollie McFadden was all woman. He wasn’t sure how he’d turned a blind eye for all of these years, but now he couldn’t bring himself to look away.
“Is that why you came over this morning? To see if my dinner date lasted until breakfast?” she demanded.
“No, I—” he started, with no idea where he was going. It was a feeling he hated. Zeke always wanted to have a plan in place and a backup plan, just in case.
Mollie crossed her arms, waiting for him to say something—anything—but the move only lowered the lace-trimmed edge of her tank ever so slightly to reveal even more of the delicate swell of creamy flesh, and Zeke’s tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth.
He dragged his attention away and struggled to suck in a deep breath, only to have the air knocked right out of him as his gaze locked onto one of the pictures on Mollie’s mantel.
Patrick, in full dress uniform, stared back at him from inside a silver frame.
In most of the pictures, Patrick was smiling out from behind the glass, a hint of laughter in his blue eyes. That was the Patrick Zeke tried to remember. The friend he’d had from the day the two of them met in the second grade.
But in the graduation photo, Patrick was not smiling. His serious expression revealed the hard work and sacrifice that had been required to don that uniform. That was Patrick McFadden, sergeant first class, the soldier who had given his life defending his country and who had given Zeke one task.
Look out for my kid sister.
Zeke couldn’t do that if he let himself get too close. Friendship was one thing, but to cross a line into something more than that—he couldn’t let that happen.
Seeing Patrick’s photo was a stark reminder for Zeke to focus on the reason he’d stopped by Mollie’s house. And it had nothing to do with finding out how her date had gone with Josh Sylvester. Nothing at all.
“Look, I didn’t come here to talk about your date. I was talking with Matt Fielding the other day about Bobby Doyle.” At Mollie’s questioning glance, he added, “He owns the auto-body shop where Matt’s working.”
“Oh, I think Claire might have mentioned him. He’s a former soldier, too, isn’t he?”
“He is. Along with their love of cars, Matt and Bobby also have their years of service in common.” After filling Mollie in on their conversation, he said, “Bobby isn’t ready to admit he needs help, but I’ve seen how service dogs have helped some of the other vets at the center.”
“That’s a great idea, Zeke,” Mollie said, compassion softening her features. “But service dogs require specialized training and—”
“The waitlists are long,” he filled in. “So I’ve learned. But I’ve also seen how much Sparkle and Hank have helped Matt, and neither of those dogs have had any training beyond basic obedience. I’m hoping that if you could help me find the right dog for Bobby, that it would—well, at least give him a four-legged friend to talk to since he isn’t ready to talk to anyone else.”
Let it go, Zeke... I’ll talk when I’m ready.
Zeke had let it go. He’d let Patrick go back to his unit, back on patrol. He’d let his friend go straight to his death.
Guilt and loss and regret festered in the dark void his friend had left behind, and Zeke wouldn’t—couldn’t—give up until he did everything he could to help Bobby. It was too late for Patrick but not for Bobby and the other soldiers in the support group. His fingers clenched, but instead of closing into an empty fist, they dug into warm, soft fur. Startled, he glanced down. He hadn’t even noticed that Charlie, the yellow Lab, had settled by his side, her tail swishing across the hardwood floors.
“I think I just may know the perfect dog,” Mollie said softly.
Zeke looked up in surprise even as he continued to pet the dog leaning so patiently, so steadfastly against his leg. “Charlie? But what about Chief? I thought the two of them belonged together.”
Even though Mollie’s lips lifted, Zeke didn’t know if he’d ever seen a smile so sad. “Sometimes you just have to move on to someone new.”
Move on... Zeke wasn’t sure why the finality of that had his heart starting to pound. She was still talking about the dogs, wasn’t she?
Even if she were, Zeke knew last night had the power to change things at a time when he wanted everything to stay the same. His friendship with Mollie was a last, fragile connection to Patrick. As tough as it had been losing Patrick, Zeke couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose Mollie, too.
“Mollie, about last night...” He took a step closer. “Seeing you...well, it took me by surprise.”
Her arms lowered, and she ran her tongue over her lower lip. “It did?”
Her gaze softened as she stared up at him. Had he taken another step closer or had she? Zeke wasn’t sure but suddenly they stood toe-to-toe. All the freckles she’d tried to hide the night before were scattered like pixie dust over her cheeks, and he had the crazy thought that if he brushed a thumb over her skin he might somehow capture some of that magic for himself...
“It made me realize—”
“Realize what, Zeke?” she whispered.
“That Josh Sylvester is—”
Wrong for you. Completely, utterly, unfailingly wrong for you.
Only he couldn’t say that. He had no right to say that. Not when friendship was all he could offer. Not when Mollie deserved so much more.
“...a lucky guy.”
Mollie’s jaw dropped and then snapped shut as she took the sudden step back that Zeke hadn’t been able to take himself.
“I just want you to be happy, Mollie.”
“Right. Happy.”
Was it his imagination or did she sound anything but happy?
Mollie turned away for a moment to pet Charlie, who at some point had abandoned him to take Mollie’s side over his. Straightening, she met his gaze with a bright smile. “Now all we need to do is plan that double date!”
Chapter Seven
Mollie wasn’t sure how she made it out of the living room. Mumbling an excuse about needing to get dressed, she’d practically sprinted down the hall to the solitude of her bedroom. The comfort of her ruffled canopy bed beckoned, and she wanted nothing more than to throw herself onto the white chenille bedspread and give in to the tears burning at the back of her throat.
Josh is a lucky guy.
And she was the world’s biggest idiot.
<
br /> Mollie yanked at a drawer so hard she was surprised she didn’t pull the thing right out of the dresser. Honestly, how many times was she going to fool herself into thinking Zeke felt something more than friendship for her before she finally got a clue?
Wasn’t...going...to...happen.
And she needed to get over it. To move on. Her eyes burned as she stripped off her pajamas and tossed them into the hamper. She purposely grabbed her oldest and grubbiest Best Friends T-shirt and ragged denim jeans. No need to dress up since Lucky Josh wasn’t around to see her.
She tightened her lopsided ponytail and slipped her feet into her favorite pair of tennis shoes before heading back out to find Zeke. She didn’t have her dogs’ uncanny aptitude for sensing someone new in their space. Instead, she followed the sound of laughter and play growls to find Zeke on the floor with all three dogs crowded around him.
He flashed her a crooked grin as he glanced up at her and had to duck to avoid taking a tail right in his face. Though she longed to hold on to her anger as a shield, she’d never been able to stay mad at Zeke. He climbed to his feet, but not before giving each dog a final pat. The hounds, including Chief, crowded around him, still eager for attention.
Mollie knew exactly how they felt.
Gesturing to the rescue dog, Zeke said, “I can’t believe how far he’s come already.”
“Unfortunately, a lot of dogs don’t do well in a shelter environment. Dogs like a quieter home with set routines and time to spend with their own people.”
“You’ve done an amazing job with him.”
Mollie shook her head. “Really I had little to do with it. It was all Chief and Charlie.” And it would be hard to separate the two, but she’d meant what she said earlier.
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