Molly's Mr. Wrong

by Jeannie Watt

  Finn simply stared at his grandfather. “I don’t want to just show up if Molly doesn’t know I’m coming.” Not after the parking lot encounter.

  “She’ll get over it.”

  Finn knew from experience that when Mike was in one of these stern parental moods, he may as well do as he was told. It didn’t matter if he was thirteen or thirty. “If she kicks me out, you owe me a beer.”

  “If she kicks you out instead of thanking you for saving her garage from flooding...well, then I’ve read her all wrong.”

  Finn thought that was extremely possible as he shrugged into his raincoat, then dashed out the side door and through the deluge. Lola had called Chase on the intercom and he was in the process of loading the drain snake.

  “What’s going on?” he asked once they were both safely inside the vehicle.

  Finn wiped the rainwater off his face with one hand. “Rescue mission. I think you’re coming along so the lady of the house doesn’t do me harm.”

  “Why would she do that?” Chase asked in a mystified voice.

  “Just kidding.” He hoped. He wouldn’t know for certain until they got there.

  * * *

  THE RAIN CAME DOWN in buckets and the plumber was a no-show. Molly dialed his number for the ninth time after trying every other plumber number in the book. Nobody seemed to work on Saturday. Either that or they were all out dealing with other people’s emergencies.

  Molly tossed the phone onto the sofa and marched through the kitchen door into the garage and stood beside Georgina. Water was inching its way across the garage toward the kitchen and they pretty much had to act. Now.

  “Do you know anything about sandbags?” she asked, only half joking. They had to do something before the water hit the kitchen.

  “Mike’s on his way. He called a few minutes ago and I told him to come on over.”

  “Thank goodness.” The only reason she’d turned Mike down the first time he’d offered was because she had this thing about being beholden to people.

  Well...that and the fact that he was related to Finn.

  The teakettle whistled—emergencies in the Adamson house often called for strong tea—just as they heard a vehicle pull up in front of the house. Molly went to tend to the tea while Georgina went into the living room.

  “It’s not Mike,” Georgina called. “It’s Hot Guy.”

  Of course it was.

  Molly glanced down at her old comfy T-shirt and oversize work jeans with the paint on them that barely hung on her hips, then snapped off the burner under the kettle. She was at a disadvantage, but that was okay. She could deal. Besides, she had some things she wanted to say to Finn, and now he was here. Thank you, flood.

  “And he brought someone with him.”

  “Mike?”

  “Not Mike,” Georgina said. She gave a soft cough. “Definitely not Mike.”

  Molly couldn’t help herself. She went to the window and peered out over her sister’s shoulder. Finn and a guy who looked to be in his very early twenties strode up the walk and out of sight of the window as they climbed the porch steps. Georgina was on the way to the door before they knocked.

  “Hi,” she said, stepping back so that Finn and his friend could step inside. They were both bareheaded, their hair soaked, even though they’d only walked a few yards through the rain from the truck to the house. “Thanks for coming!”

  “Not a problem.” Finn smiled at Georgina. “This is Chase. He works with me.”

  “I’m Georgina,” she said, the dimple appearing next to her mouth. “That’s my sister, Molly.” Both Chase and Finn turned toward Molly, and while she understood Finn’s cool expression, she was a touch puzzled by the odd look Chase was giving her.

  Finn jerked his head in the direction of the garage. “If you would open the garage door, we’ll bring the snake in that way. So we won’t have to lug it through the house.”

  “Right.” Molly headed for the kitchen, where she hit the garage switch. Finn followed her, opening the door leading from the kitchen to the garage. He let out a low whistle, then looked over his shoulder at Molly.

  “If you had waited much longer, it would have been in the house.”

  There was a note of accusation in his voice, as if she should have called him earlier but hadn’t out of sheer stubbornness. Well, he hadn’t been on her call radar.

  “I phoned every plumber in the book. Nothing.” Molly cleared her throat. “I really appreciate you coming.” Totally true, even though she felt uncomfortable with it. He turned, cocked an eyebrow at her.

  “I bet.” His voice was low. Halfway ironic. An unexpected quiver of...something...traveled through her. Molly abruptly jerked her chin toward the water. “What can I do to help?”

  “Got it covered.” He glanced toward the living room. “Chase!”

  Chase came into the kitchen, the remnants of a smile still playing on his lips. From behind him Georgina lifted her eyes upward in a way that clearly conveyed her interest in the guy.

  Great. But young lust could wait until after the flood.

  “Whoa, shit,” the kid said when he saw the water. He glanced at Molly. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. This is a whoa-shit situation.” Molly stepped back to allow him to move past her. Georgina shrugged into the coat she carried in one hand and followed the guys outside. Molly stayed right where she was. In the kitchen with her thoughts. It wasn’t like she could do anything out in the cold and wet to help the situation, and she had no desire to be a cheerleader.

  A good twenty minutes later Chase and Finn tramped back into the kitchen, their jeans soaked from the knees down. “We got it,” Chase told Molly, a smile on his handsome face. He glanced over at Georgina, who smiled back at him.

  “I videoed it,” Georgina said, holding up her phone, “so we can do it ourselves if we need to later.”

  “Good thinking.” She glanced casually up at Finn. “I made coffee and we have hot water for tea. You guys have got to be cold.” And Finn probably wanted to get out of those wet jeans. She understood that, but she did want to talk to him and had no idea if she’d get another chance.

  “We should get back to the store,” Finn said as Chase headed out to load the snake in the truck.

  Georgina put her hands on her hips and cocked her head at Finn. “Have a cup of coffee. It’ll warm you up.”

  Molly had a feeling that Finn knew as well as she did that Georgina wasn’t so much concerned about warming their rescuers as keeping them around a little longer. He met her gaze, then gave a quick nod. “Thanks.”

  The furnace came on then, filling the kitchen with a blast of warmth—the house seemed to have only two temperatures, almost too cold and almost too hot—making Molly suddenly feel overly warm, but she had a mission and she was going to accomplish it. She went to the cupboard for cups while Georgina found a bag of Oreos.

  Georgina poured two cups and took them into the living room, leaving Molly to follow with Finn. Only she and Finn didn’t follow.

  “I want to talk to you,” she said as soon as her sister was out of hearing range.

  Chase came in the front door then, but didn’t come close to making it into the kitchen. He saw Georgina and the coffee and took an instant detour.

  Finn ignored the coffee and leaned back against the counter. “If this is about school, this isn’t the place.”

  “Where is the place?”

  “There isn’t one.”

  Molly jammed her hands in the back pockets of her loose pants, shifting them down a half inch or so, exposing skin below her shortish T-shirt. Finn’s eyes followed the motion and she assumed he couldn’t help himself. He was a guy, after all, and while she might not be his usual type of woman, she was a woman.

  “You haven’t dropped my class yet.�
��

  “Haven’t had time.”

  “Don’t drop it.” She couldn’t read the expression that crossed his face, so she forged on. “You looked up dyslexia, didn’t you?”

  “I did.”

  “What do you think?”

  “That this is none of your business.”

  Unfortunately, he had a point. It wasn’t her business—except for the part where she felt guilty about driving him away from a class that could have helped him. So...maybe the full truth was in order.

  “I feel bad about what happened.”

  “Guess you’ll have to live with that.” He spoke matter-of-factly, rather than bitterly, which gave her the impetus to move forward, both mentally and physically. She took a step toward him, lowering her voice as she said, “I’m sorry I called you chicken. I was trying to keep you from quitting.”

  “What made you think that would work?”

  “Gut instinct, I guess.”

  He gave her a long, appraising look and Molly did her best not to swallow drily. He was so damned good-looking and this was not the time to be noticing that. “That kind of stuff works on a playground.”

  “I’ve found it works elsewhere, too.”

  “Have you?”

  Molly crossed her arms over her chest. Mistake, because the hem of her shirt rose higher and Finn’s gaze again dropped lower, his eyes widening when he saw that Molly wore navel jewelry. Somehow she managed to keep from tugging her shirt down, but it was perhaps one of the most difficult things she’d done in the past week or so.

  “If you take the class, I can help you work on organization. Adjust assignments.”

  Finn tore his eyes away from the simple bar that adorned her midsection. “Isn’t that cheating?”

  “Differentiating.”

  “Will I know what I’m supposed to know when I get done with the class? Or will you just pass me along?”

  Molly ignored the jab. “You’ll have more skills than when you started.”

  “That might be handy.”

  “What degree are you considering?”

  “Why does that matter?”

  “Some degrees take more than basic English.”

  “Degrees I will probably avoid.”

  The sound of laughter filtered in from the living room and Molly took a step back. When had she gotten so close?

  “Continue in the class,” she said in a low voice.

  Finn dropped his gaze, toward the floor this time, instead of to her belly button, a deep frown drawing his dark eyebrows together, and Molly found herself thinking, Come on. Don’t be such a guy about this.

  When he finally raised his gaze, she saw a glimmer of determination there. Yes.

  “You want me to continue in the class to soothe your conscience.”

  “I can also help you.”

  “And soothe your conscience.”

  “Come on, Finn. I don’t have all that much to feel guilty about.” He raised an eyebrow and she said, “I feel bad, but I was doing my job. I’m not losing sleep.”

  “We’re in the same boat.”

  Now it was her turn to frown. “Meaning...?”

  “I feel the need to soothe my conscience, too.”

  Molly’s heartbeat stuttered. He couldn’t mean...

  The look on his face told her he did. But she waited for him to say the actual words before beginning her protest.

  “I want a chance to make up for the shitty homecoming date.”

  “No, you don’t.” The words blurted out instantly.

  “Yes. I do.”

  The furnace blasted on and Molly stepped over to the thermostat and turned it off. There was more than enough heat in the kitchen, thank you very much. When she turned back to Finn, she expected to see a challenging smirk on his face. There wasn’t one.

  “You’re serious.”

  “Totally.”

  “Then it would have to be after semester, because I can’t go out with a student.”

  “Not even an old friend?”

  “We were never friends.”

  “We might have been if I’d known about the belly ring.”

  Oh, thank goodness. They were back on solid ground. This Finn she could deal with. “That date is ancient history. You don’t have anything to make up for.”

  “Here’s the deal. I’ll stay in English and you’ll let me make up for that lousy night.”

  Molly opened her mouth to argue, then thought better of it. If she said yes, she had a good three months to get out of allowing him to make up for anything.

  “You drive a hard bargain.”

  “So do you.”

  She held his gaze as if afraid that looking away would give him time to think up another twist on the deal. “I agree,” she finally said. “If you show up for the next class.”

  “I’ll be there.” Another burst of laughter came from the direction of the living room and Finn fought a weary smile. “We need to get back to the store.”

  “I need to pay you.”

  “We’ll bill you,” he said in such a matter-of-fact tone that Molly believed him. He pushed off the counter, leaving his full cup of coffee sitting next to Molly’s full cup of coffee, and said, “Come on, Chase. We gotta get going before Mike calls looking for us.”

  Oh, yeah. He needed to go.

  And Molly felt as if she needed a shot of whiskey. Straight up.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  BILL HER.

  Finn shook his head as he walked head down through the rain to the truck. Oh yeah, Mike would love that. His nerves were still humming a little as he got into the truck. Chase had been all stony-faced when they’d walked out into the rain, but Finn glanced over at him and caught a sappy smile playing on the kid’s face. Molly’s cute little sister had had an effect.

  Chase noticed Finn looking at him and his expression went double serious. He cleared his throat, then stared out through the rainy windshield. Finn shifted his full attention back to the road. No sense giving the kid shit if Chase could turn around and give it back.

  Molly had a belly ring.

  What other secrets was she hiding?

  And why had she made such an effort to talk him back into class? She said that it wasn’t guilt, but he didn’t know if he believed her. It wasn’t as if she were comfortable around him. He made her edgy, but she was starting to make him feel edgy, too.

  And when had he started to find glasses so sexy?

  He smiled as he thought of her reaction to the date do-over, then remembered Chase and blanked out his expression. The offer had been pure knee-jerk response on his part, an attempt to get the upper hand in a situation where Molly had the definite advantage.

  He didn’t want to go back to English. Hated feeling stupid, but he’d said he’d try again and he would. That didn’t mean he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted by the teacher...or for him to distract her.

  Thanks to the coffee, which he hadn’t touched, they’d get back to the store later than he’d hoped, but he doubted there’d be too many customers on a soggy day like this.

  Chase was once again smiling to himself as he watched the road and Finn half wondered if that was the outcome Mike had anticipated when he insisted that Chase accompany him on the snake mission. Was his grandfather trying his hand at matchmaking after the deal with Jolie and Dylan falling for each other at the feed store?

  If so...well, he’d have to watch himself, and definitely never let him know about the informal deal he and Molly had hammered out in her kitchen. Yes, he’d step out of his comfort zone and try to improve his writing skills—for a while anyway—but she was going to step out of hers, too.

  “Everything go okay?” Mike looked up from his computer as Finn came into th
e office ten minutes later, carrying his dripping wet coat.

  “We got the drain unplugged.” He wasn’t going to say a word about the way that Chase and Georgina had hit it off.

  “We should have taken care of matters the first time,” Mike said.

  “She didn’t want us to, and it isn’t like you can force a drain-snaking on someone.”

  “We could have sneaked over after dark.”

  Mike had changed. As the store had become busier and more vibrant, so had he. It was as if he were ten years younger than he’d been when Finn had been deployed. And now he was suggesting late-night plumbing raids.

  Mike logged into the computer and started scrolling through his email as Finn hung up his coat next to the heater. It’d taken a bit to get his uncle to embrace the computer age, but once he’d gotten the hang of it, there was no turning back.

  “Son of a bitch.”

  Mike rarely cursed, so the muttered words stopped Finn in his tracks. When he looked back at his uncle, Mike was shaking his head grimly.

  “What?”

  “I have a date.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “No.”

  “No?” Finn moved around behind Mike to see the screen, where there was a forwarded message from his friend Cal—the one Mike and Karl had put on the matchmaking site. The message was from a woman who’d agreed to a time and place for their first date. Only the date wasn’t with Cal. It was with Mike.

  “He pretended to be me and set this whole thing up.”

  Finn did his best not to laugh, because Mike was obviously upset. “Well...” he said slowly “...you’ve got to kind of admire his strategy.”

  Mike grunted and then shook his head. “This won’t do.”

  Finn didn’t bother mentioning that Mike had brought this upon himself. He figured that Mike was well aware of that. “I gotta get going.” His grandfather needed privacy as he came to terms with this unexpected turn of events.

  Mike waved at him, still staring at the monitor. Finn headed out the door, almost bumping into Lola, who was sweeping dried mud near the side exit.

  “What’s up?” she asked, motioning toward the office with her broom.