by Marie Force
“Tell me about it. It’s my favorite bedtime story.”
He drew her in closer to him, his arms around her, her head on his chest, and let his mind wander back in time to the first night they spent together.
Lincoln couldn’t believe what Molly had done for him—and for them—by asking her dad to marry them, even if it wasn’t yet entirely legal without the license they’d get the next day. It was enough for him, and apparently her parents, who stood at their front door and waved them off as they left in Molly’s car to go home to their barn.
“You actually heard him say he wouldn’t come after us with the rifle?” Linc asked as he drove them through town on roads that had become familiar to him over the last couple of months, during which Butler had begun to feel like home.
“He promised,” Molly said with a lighthearted laugh that made him smile.
“I appreciate you thinking of that detail ahead of time.”
“I wanted to change your memories of this day, to give you something else to think about other than what happened earlier.”
“You certainly succeeded. I’ll never forget what you did for me today, Mol. Not for the rest of my life.”
“I did it for both of us.” She looked over at him, flashing the saucy grin he loved so much. “Selfishly, I couldn’t wait until January for us to be married or to be able to sleep together every night.”
“Mmm, that’s the best part of being married, or so I’m told.”
“I guess we’ll find out.”
“Starting tonight.” Despite the trauma he’d endured at the hands of his father earlier, Molly had made it so that incident wasn’t the headline of their day. She’d stepped up to give him exactly what he hadn’t known he needed, and now they had the freedom to be together all the time. Nothing had ever made him happier—or more certain that he’d done the right thing when confronted with his father’s ultimatum—than that did.
Linc drove them over the one-lane covered bridge, took a right turn onto Hells Peak Road and pulled into their driveway a few minutes later. “Home sweet home,” he said of their ramshackle barn that would someday be a showplace his wife would be proud of. He was determined to give her everything, including a home unlike any other where they could raise a family and make a life.
October was chilly in the mountains, and they didn’t yet have heat in the barn. That was the next thing on their endless to-do list to make the barn habitable for the winter. “What do you think of a campfire at the tent?” he asked.
“I think that sounds perfect.”
“It’s going to be cold out there tonight, Mol.”
“No, it won’t.”
“They said on the radio it’s supposed to get down to the low forties.”
“We won’t be cold.”
The certainty in her words sent a shiver of anticipation down his back. They used the bathroom inside and headed out to their backyard campground, where Linc built a fire he hoped would help keep them warm during the night.
Molly had acquired extra blankets somewhere and had brought them with her to add to their bed.
“My wife is always thinking ahead, isn’t she?” Linc asked, loving the way the word wife sounded.
“She does her best to take good care of her husband.”
“She’s the best wife he’s ever had.”
As always, her laughter lit up her face and sent another shiver of delight through him. Knowing he had the rest of his life to spend with her, that he had her to lean on when the going got tough, made the rest of what had happened that day worth it, or so he told himself. He wasn’t under any illusions that the days to come would be all sunshine and roses, or that the breach with his family wouldn’t hurt forever. But having her to help him through the loss would make it bearable. At least he’d still get to see his siblings. He’d make sure of that.
“Where’s my husband?” Molly asked from inside the tent.
“Right here.”
“Your wife is lonely.”
“We can’t have that.” He tossed two more logs on the fire and went to find his wife, nearly swallowing his tongue when he saw she was already in bed, under the quilts, her hair loose around her bare shoulders as she held herself up on one elbow.
“What’s going on under there?” he asked, tipping his head for a better look at his beautiful wife.
“Come find out.”
“Don’t mind if I do.”
“Just in case you didn’t get the invitation, the dress code for this party is naked.”
Linc was definitely going to swallow his tongue before she was finished with him. “Good to know.” He pulled and tugged at clothes and buttons and zippers with gleeful haste that had his beloved laughing her ass off.
“Quit laughing at me.”
“Quit being funny.”
He couldn’t believe this was actually happening, that after months of longing, he was finally going to be naked in a bed with Molly Stillman. That was when it occurred to him that she was Molly Abbott now, his precious wife, the love of his life, and this was one of the most important moments he’d ever have with anyone. They’d come close the other night, but had held off, mostly because he felt she was still upset after telling him about Andrew. Tonight, he had to make it as perfect for her as she was for him, and he had to keep in mind that this act was tied to grief for her.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t always be the case, but her loss of Andrew was part of the equation tonight.
The cold air had him scooting quickly under the covers, where he encountered her warm, naked body. Groaning from the pleasure of her skin against his, he pulled her into his embrace. “This has to be what heaven feels like.”
“Mmm,” she said. “For sure.”
They fell into a deep, sensual kiss that had him dying for more, for everything, in a matter of seconds until he recalled that he’d given no thought at all to birth control since he hadn’t known this was going to happen tonight. “Uh, Mol?” He eased back from the best kiss he’d ever had, even with her.
“Yes?”
“We forgot something.”
“What?”
“Birth control.”
“We’re all set. I saw my doctor a month ago and got on the pill.”
“You… A month ago. Oh.”
“I had a feeling we might not make it until January, and correct me if I’m wrong, but we’re not exactly ready to have a baby.”
“You’re not wrong.”
“We don’t have a stall for him or her yet.”
“Very funny, and just so you know, our children will not sleep in stalls.” He kissed her again, with even more desire than he’d had a minute ago, before he’d known she was protected.
“Whoa,” she said, breathless after a kiss that went on for what seemed like hours. “I need to go on the pill more often.”
“Once is enough, and thank you for thinking of that. I’m glad one of us was making sure we didn’t get too much too soon.”
“You thought of it,” she said, caressing his face with a loving touch that made him crazy for more of her. “Maybe this time next year, we’ll be ready for a baby.” She’d told him she wanted to be a young mother so she could fully enjoy the experience—and then fully enjoy her grandchildren someday.
“That sounds about right. I want you so bad, Mol. More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my whole life.”
“More than the Beatles?”
He laughed. “They can’t hold a candle to you.”
“Wow, you must really love me.”
“I really, really love you.”
“Show me, Linc.”
He was more than happy to, taking his time to kiss her until she was squirming under him, pressing against him, asking him for more. Moving down, he kissed her breasts and ran his tongue over the tight tips of her nipples.
She grasped his hair and cried out from the pleasure, which only made him harder than he already was for her.
Keeping up the slow seduction, he ki
ssed her belly and her inner thighs, which quivered under his lips. “Are you cold?” he asked, his voice gruff with desire.
“Not even kinda.”
Encouraged by her enthusiasm, he settled between her legs and gave her his tongue in deep, sweeping strokes that had her straining to get closer. When he slid two fingers into her heat and sucked on her clit, she came with a cry that took him right to the edge of his own release. God, she was sweet and responsive and loving and sexy and beautiful and smart and everything he’d ever wanted in one perfect package.
He moved up so he could see her face when he entered her for the first time.
Her eyes flew open, and her lips parted in a look of wonder that touched the deepest part of him.
“How did I ever get so lucky to find you in this crazy, massive world?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll always be thankful we found each other.”
“Me too, love.” With his arms around her, he entered her fully, seared by the heat and the pleasure and desire for more. He already knew he’d never get enough of how it felt to make love to Molly. As he moved in her, he watched her carefully, looking for ghosts or grief, but he saw only the same bliss he felt. “Are you okay?” he asked, just to be certain.
“Mmm, so much better than okay.”
Her arms and legs encircled him, their bodies moving together like they’d been doing this forever. It shouldn’t surprise him that even in this most intimate of moments, he felt more at home with her than he ever had with anyone else. It’d been that way with her from the beginning, from that first night at the bus station in Gulfport, when she’d looked up at him with the most adorable, arresting, interesting face he’d ever seen. That moment, he now knew, had changed both their lives forever, just as this one would, too, along with all the moments still to come.
His love for her fired a passion that was all new to him, as well as a desire to make her happy in every way, including this one. They got carried away on a wave of pleasure so intense, it threatened to consume them, when a loud pop followed by a hiss had them stopping short to realize the air mattress had burst.
And then they were laughing. They laughed so hard, they almost forgot what they’d been doing when the mattress exploded.
Almost…
Linc pushed into her as he gazed down at her face, awash with laughter and tears and happiness. This was, without any doubt in his mind, the best moment of his life, a thought he decided to share with her.
“It is for me, too. It’ll take a lot to top this.”
“I bet we can top it a million times.”
“I’ll take that bet.”
“The mattress popping is still the best thing to ever happen,” Molly said when they stopped laughing the way they always did any time they revisited their first night together.
“The second best was having to buy another one at the store and your dad asking me why we needed two of them. I had to think fast and tell him it was because we needed one for inside and one for the tent when we went camping. He gave me the foulest look that day, and I knew he was dying to tell me to keep my filthy hands off his little girl.”
“His little girl loves your filthy hands and has the ten children to prove it.”
“Don’t tell him that. He still has the rifle.”
“You haven’t been afraid of him in a long time.”
“True, but it’s better if we don’t tell him too much, even after all this time.” He ran his fingers through her hair and thought back to that momentous day in which their lives together really began.
“Sometimes it’s hard to believe everything that happened in that one day,” she said.
“I know. The best and worst thing, all at once.”
“I’ve always been so sorry you were forced to choose.”
“You know, I’ve thought about that so much over the years.”
“You hardly ever said anything.”
“Eh, it’s not like it was weighing me down on a daily basis or anything like that. After the first year or so, when I realized I wasn’t going to hear from my mom or Char or the boys, I only thought about it in passing, like on holidays. I’d wonder what they were doing that day, or on one of their birthdays. But it occurred to me, after a while, that even if I hadn’t met you, my father and I were headed for a falling-out, because I didn’t want to work for his company.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“I’m pretty sure it would’ve happened anyway. The problem I had before I met you was I didn’t have a viable alternative that made sense to me, which meant I’d end up settling for the default, whether that’s what I wanted or not. Once I met you and heard about your family’s business and saw it for myself, I had found something that interested me. In a way, meeting you only accelerated the inevitable. The only regret I’ve ever had about any of it was that you were there to see it and that he treated you the way he did. I hate that that was the only interaction you’ve ever had with my family.”
“It isn’t really. I feel like I know them through the stories you’ve shared, like how you and your brothers would sail in the summers off the Jersey Shore, and the time you spent there with your grandparents, how your sister was your buddy growing up, how you suffered over the loss of Hunter. I’ve also heard you speak so lovingly of your mother at various times. My view of them isn’t one-dimensional, Linc. If you loved them, I know there’s more to them than what I saw that day.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I’m glad to know that’s not the only point of reference you have. Can I make a confession that might sound so silly?”
“Of course.”
“When I talked to Charlotte today, she said something that keeps running around in my mind.”
“What’s that?”
“She said that even if I don’t go there to see my father, she hoped we can stay in touch going forward.”
Molly’s brows furrowed as she considered that. “Do you think that’s the best idea? I mean, where’s she been all this time?”
“I’ve decided I don’t care where she’s been or what he said to make her and my brothers afraid to find me or keep in touch with me. I just don’t care. I want her back. I want my brothers back. I want them to know you and the kids, and I want to know their families. I don’t care why they stayed away. I know in my heart it wasn’t their choice, so what does it matter?”
“I hear what you’re saying, and I understand why you feel the way you do. It’s just that, well…”
“What, honey? You know I want your opinion.”
“They knew where you were, Linc. Charlotte knew exactly where to find you when she needed to reach you today. Surely they weren’t so under your father’s thumb as fully grown adults that they couldn’t have reached out before now.”
“You’re right,” he said with a sigh, “and I’m sure they had their reasons for not getting in touch. All I’m saying is I don’t care anymore why they didn’t.”
“Will you understand if I’m not so quick to forgive and forget?”
“Of course.”
“I want to hear why they stayed away before I decide anything.”
“Fair enough.”
“You ought to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day, and the day after will be, too.”
The day after tomorrow, he would see his family again for the first time in forty years. His emotions were a mixed-up kettle of highs and lows, of memories, despair and hope. Among the many emotions, it was the hope that burned the brightest. More than anything, he hoped his father’s dying request might reunite him with the siblings he’d loved and missed for such a long time.
Chapter Fourteen
“I love the past. There are parts of the
past I hate, of course.”
—Paul McCartney
Linc slept fitfully, dreaming of people he’d known as a boy, like his grandparents, his late brother Hunter, his other brothers and sister, his mother, aunts, uncles and cousins, all of whom
had been lost to him in the family meltdown. He dreamed of Molly and their children, not as they were now, but as they’d been as little ones, running around and raising hell inside the barn they’d called home.
And then he was alone, walking on a mountain trail, looking for the others but not able to find them. He, who was always surrounded by a gaggle of people, wasn’t sure how to be alone and didn’t like the feeling.
He called out for Molly, for the kids…
Molly’s voice cut through the roar of the wind, calling his name.
He opened his eyes to murky predawn darkness.
“You were dreaming,” she said.
“Couldn’t find you.”
She snuggled up to him. “I’m right here, and it’s still early. Try to go back to sleep.”
Linc stared up at the ceiling, thinking about the journey into the past he would undertake later that day, and knew he’d never go back to sleep. He left Molly to rest for a while longer and got up to shower, shave, get dressed and pack an overnight bag for the trip. He was the first one to arrive at the office and was enjoying a cup of coffee and perusing the most outstanding sales reports he’d ever seen when the clock in the reception area chimed six o’clock.
Determined not to lose this entire day to the drama circulating around him, he dove into the monthly profit and loss statement that Hunter meticulously prepared and had started a list of questions for his CFO son by the time daylight began to creep through the blinds.
His stomach growled, and he decided to run across the street to get breakfast at the diner before it got busy. When he crossed Elm Street and entered the diner, he wasn’t surprised to find his daughter-in-law Megan already there. Even eight months pregnant, she was never late for her morning shift, even when she’d suffered from morning sickness earlier in her pregnancy.
“Morning,” she said, giving him a wary look. “What’re you doing here so early?”
“Couldn’t sleep, so I came in to get something done before we leave.” Since it was just the two of them, he sat at the counter.
