Unraveling Molly

by Tuesday Embers

  “You’re fine.” He let her use his arm as a crutch and moved her toward the couch.

  “Oh, really? You’re helping me walk? You don’t have to do that.”

  Liam ducked his head to whisper to her, “You should let me help you. I don’t often get to play the hero. This is crazy good for my ego.”

  “Well, anything I can do for your ego,” she teased.

  Liam took his time lowering her gingerly onto the couch, treating her as if it mattered how softly she hit the cushion. “I’m going to go change. Be right back.”

  “You can put your wet clothes in the tub. I’ll wash them in the morning, if you like,” Molly offered, embarrassed that the best thing she could think to repay him with was doing his laundry.

  Liam thanked her, and then disappeared into the bathroom to change, emerging a handful of minutes later. He called into the kitchen as he made his way back to Molly. “Nate?”

  A voice Molly would know anywhere answered back, sounding like he was looking in the fridge. “Yeah?”

  “Take the car and go pick up dinner, will you? Molly hurt her ankle, so she can’t wait on Kyle tonight.” Liam wore black sweats and a black fitted t-shirt that showed off his excellent physique. Molly could not understand how he could look so stunning in such simple attire. He looked as if he could have been the model for the loungewear outfit. She kept her chin down, feeling like a little kid. He’d been nice to her, and she was careful not to let her imagination run away with her, thinking it all meant more than a simple kind deed. It was nothing more than a doctor working off the clock, Molly told herself, trying to keep her nerves and the butterflies in her stomach under control.

  “Sure. Hey, Little Luco!” Nate poked his light brown head of hair around the corner and grinned at her. “You falling for my brother already? What are you doing with him? I’m closer to your age. Liam’s an old man! Plus, I smile more than once a year.”

  “What? I, um, I…” Molly stammered, her cheeks turning pink at being put on the spot right when she’d been thinking how well Liam’s pants fit him from behind.

  “I’m thirty-one,” Liam grumbled, moving the coffee table closer to Molly and propping her leg up on it.

  Nate slid his jacket over his shoulders, laughing at Molly’s blush and flustered headshaking. “Think long and hard, Moll. Liam’s gonna go bald long before I do. Sure, he’s got the glamorous career, but I’ve got the easy job. Dental assistant,” he declared, showing off his teeth that were every bit as perfect as Liam’s. “Did you miss me, kiddo? What’s it been, a year? Two? How have you lived without me this long?” Nate leaned over the back of the couch and planted a purposefully sloppy kiss on her cheek.

  Molly made a face as she wiped off the intrusive affection. It had been just over a year since Nate last visited Kyle. Nate had always teased her in school. Calling her cutesy names in front of her few friends and teasing her mercilessly when he knew it made her uncomfortable. He was one of the few friends Kyle had who wasn’t a complete jerk, though, so Molly had palled around with him a few times throughout the years.

  “Ah, there it is.” Nate pointed to her scowl and barked out a laugh in his only volume – loud. Nate had a smile always at the ready. He started poking her shoulder just to irk her, grinning his glee at being able to annoy her so easily. “Did Kyle tell you? I’m staying the week, which means I get you all to myself. Are you so excited? You don’t have to say anything; I know you’re jumping for joy on the inside. We can have movie nights, pillow fights, raid your panty drawer.” He stopped short. “Oh, that last one was my fantasy. I guess you can tag along for that, too. Just don’t be judging what I gravitate towards in your drawers. I’ve always had a thing for Grannie panties.”

  Molly did not answer, but cast him a baleful look, which Nate howled at.

  “There it is. Proof you missed me. I’ll take that as a very convincing ‘I love you, Nathanial. I’d follow you to the ends of the earth.’ So, that’s yes to you and me sharing a bed tonight, right?” He jerked his thumb to Liam, who sat on the couch next to her. “This one doesn’t share space well, so best stick with me.”

  Liam was watching the one-sided exchange dubiously, unsure what to make of the blatant flirt that Liam knew had absolutely no agenda to it. It was just Nate being Nate, as he always was. Liam wasn’t sure why it was bothering him this time.

  Nate pulled the shoulder of his jacket down, rubbing his chest seductively and licking his lips at Molly. “Liam might bandage your feet, but I can suck on your toes. How does that sound?”

  Molly yanked the blanket off the back of the couch and pulled it over her head to discourage his antics. Nate had always been a ham around shy girls. His teasing only compounded her timidity. One day, she swore she would put him in his place, but every time she tried, the words failed her.

  Kyle walked into the living room, beer in hand. “You decide to run off into the sunset with Nate, yet?”

  Molly ignored Kyle’s question and removed the blanket from her face. Using sign language, she said to Kyle, Did you give Nate cash for the order?

  Kyle rolled his eyes. “You can talk, Molly. Just because the people you interpret for like you to communicate like that doesn’t mean everyone else does.”

  Cash? she repeated.

  Sighing dramatically, Kyle signed back that he was just going to do that. Of course, he had to go back to the other room to get it. He shoved a fistful of dollars into Nate’s hand. “Here’s her dowry. Now sweep her off her feet and take her into the sunset. You have my blessing.”

  She guessed it was supposed to be funny, her being traded off for thirty-five bucks, but it only weighted her shoulders more. She picked at a thread on the blanket and tried to pretend she did not feel Liam’s eyes boring into her.

  Chapter Five

  Couch Flirting

  Nate exited, leaving Kyle to eye the spare controller to his favorite video game forlornly. “You want to play, Liam?”

  “Sure.” Liam picked up the controller, readying himself while Kyle got situated. Since Kyle spent most of his time playing video games, Liam did not last long before his avatar was brutally slaughtered. He handed the controller to Molly, who took it with reluctance. In twenty seconds, she destroyed Kyle’s guy, depleting his hard-earned points and sending him into Game Over land.

  “What?” Kyle turned around, narrowing his eyes when he saw it was Molly holding the controller, and not Liam. “Not fair. She talks with her hands for a living. I don’t play video games with Molly anymore.”

  “You’re an interpreter?” Liam inquired, disregarding the golden child as if he was just another of his little brother’s pesky friends. “Where do you work?”

  Molly opened her mouth, but Kyle answered for her. “She’s contracted, so all over town. Mostly at the hospital and doctors’ offices. She freelances as a court interpreter. Sometimes she does telephone interpreting, too. Or she translates for the Asians. Speaks like, four languages or something.”

  “Thanks, Molly.” Liam made a face at Kyle, who was too busy resetting his character’s stats to notice. “Four languages? Seriously?”

  Molly waited a beat for Kyle to reply for her, but found she was given free rein to speak for herself for once. “Russian, Japanese, Spanish and French. Plus sign language. And Latin and Ancient Greek, of course. I mostly speak sign, though.”

  “Are you serious?” The last woman he’d gone out with had a high school diploma and insisted they not see a “boring movie” when he’d suggested taking her to a foreign film. They’d ended up skipping the movie altogether and heading back to his hotel room to make the most of the only desire they had in common. That had been the last time he’d been with a woman, and it was too long ago to think on with any sort of vibrant clarity. He’d never been out with a woman who spoke so many languages. He began to experience something while seated next to Molly that he hadn’t felt since junior high. Liam was nervous. “Wow. Color me inferior.”

  Molly rolled her
eyes with a bashful smile. “Yes, because the medical field is such a fallback career.” She waved her hand to excuse his compliment. “Once you learn Latin and Ancient Greek, everything else is easy. It all stems from that. People make it out to be harder than it is.”

  “How’d you get into that line of work?”

  Kyle belched before answering for Molly. “We got her when she was almost three or something, and she wouldn’t speak more than a word or two for years. My parents thought she was either mute or retarded, so she learned sign language.”

  “When you got her? You’re adopted?” Liam watched Molly nod as she picked at the blanket, all traces of the sweet woman who held him vanishing with every question Kyle answered for her. He saw her embarrassment, and wished Kyle would stay out of their conversation.

  Kyle took a long swig of his beer before speaking again. “Yeah. Her parents died when she was two? Three? I don’t remember. And she came to live with us. Mom and Dad adopted her. Everyone just assumes we’re real siblings.”

  Taking in the woman’s quiet demeanor, Liam wondered what she would say if she was given the chance. She looked so small, her petite frame hunching in on itself as she tried to hide from the retelling of her tragic beginning.

  “It’s just as well,” Kyle said, handing Liam the second controller again. “Her parents were crazy, from what Mom and Dad tell us. Total nut jobs. Lucky she landed with us, and not foster care.”

  Liam leaned forward and smacked Kyle upside the back of his head. “What’s the matter with you? That’s her parents you’re talking about.”

  Molly’s mouth fell open again. No one had ever struck Kyle. He had never been spanked. She was the one who got smacked around. Kyle’s bad behavior was ignored, or blamed on Molly’s presence.

  Liam closed her mouth for her with a nod of solidarity. “How’s your ankle?” He looked down to her propped-up foot. “Oh, forgot the ice. See? I’m too comfortable sitting next to you. I’m forgetting basic things, here. I’ll be back.” He stood up, but took another look at her, as if wondering why he felt more at home with her than he had in ages.

  Molly discreetly picked up the controller Liam tossed aside and made quick work of slaughtering Kyle’s proudly rebuilt avatar. When Kyle protested, she merely smiled vindictively down at him. “Oh, now you’ve got a personality?” he teased, giving her the stink-eye. His brand new, top-of-the-line cell phone rang, and he answered with a smarmy smirk. Molly could tell he was talking to a woman with low standards, judging by how disgusting his flirting became. “Sure, Gina. Come on over. Miss your tits. Yeah, why not? Bring the whole gang. Nate’s back in town. He could use a little welcome home.”

  Inwardly, Molly groaned. Not Gina. Anyone but her. Gina Johnson and Kyle used to date, but she cheated on him a few times. This did not stop Kyle from still being in love with her, and drinking more heavily than usual when she came over. She was loud, obnoxious and had something “fascinating” to say about everything.

  When the whole crew was invited over, Molly usually hid in her room, locking herself inside so her bed would not be used as a mating spot for the ever-horny monkeys. Then in the morning, she was left to clean up the mess they always made.

  Liam came back with a bag of peas and wrapped it around the top of Molly’s ankle. “That should help with the swelling. You feeling any better?”

  Molly nodded just as Kyle chimed in. “Good luck getting an honest answer out of her. She broke her arm once when she was a kid. Didn’t fess up for two days.”

  Liam quirked his eyebrow at Molly. “That’s a pretty high pain threshold. Wish some of my players had that kind of holdout.” Liam sat down next to her, this time not leaving the obligatory cushion of space between them. He draped his arm casually around the couch behind her. His considerable muscle leant to more weight, which slid her toward him and right into his nook like two well-made puzzle pieces.

  Unsure if she should pull away or not, Molly merely held her breath and waited to see if she was crossing some kind of social norm. When Liam only moved further into the cuddle, Molly relaxed and leaned her head against his shoulder. It was firm, strong and radiated protection. After the evening she had, protection from the storm was a thing she gravitated to.

  “There you go,” Liam murmured quietly to her, basking in the glow of her presence. He’d been on edge for far too long; first with work being not all he’d hoped it would be, then his personal life feeling completely impersonal, and then with his mother taking a turn for the worst. Molly’s quiet demeanor calmed him, though he couldn’t put his finger on why. He only knew he had to be around her if he wanted to slow the pace of his world to something he could finally enjoy.

  The two watched Kyle play his game in silence, Liam’s arm falling down behind her back to draw her yet closer to his body heat. They were no longer wet, and relished the warm coziness the other provided. He picked up her hand to study the scrapes, fiddling with her fingers until he nonchalantly linked his through hers. He’d never been much for hand holding, but his fingers seemed to know the dance well. He couldn’t stop himself from trying to be near her, to connect himself to her in any way that she’d allow it.

  Molly was swimming on a cloud of delirium. Liam DiNatali was holding her hand and purposefully put his arm around her. The only time this sort of thing happened was when one of Kyle’s friends was drunk, or was just using her to make a joke. There it was, Liam’s hand entwined with hers, resting on his lap. She could not smell alcohol on his breath or sense any hint of him using her to make the room laugh. He was kind, and she craved his warmth after such a cold day.

  Leaning up to speak quietly to him, Molly said, “What kind of medicine do you practice?”

  Liam’s thumb traced her side at a slow pace that relaxed them both. “When I’m not sweeping beautiful women off their feet in the rain? Sports medicine. I’m contracted for the college and minor league football teams in the state. I’m on the road a lot.”

  “Do you like it?”

  Liam considered the question. “You know? No one’s ever asked me that before. It’s alright. I like being on the sidelines and working out with professional athletes, but the travel season is brutal. Miss the feel of a real bed. Miss actual food. Kinda lost its glitter after the first couple months. It’s not a bad job, though. It’s paying down my epic student loans, so I can’t complain.”

  She reached for the very little she knew about him. “Do you still play football? I remember you played in high school.”

  The dimple in his left cheek gave way to a tease. “Now how would you know something like that? How old are you, anyway?”

  Molly’s gaze focused in on their fingers. “Everyone knows who you are. We went to the same high school, Liam. I graduated same year as your brother. I’m not totally oblivious.”

  He shook his head, giving her side a light tickle. “I wouldn’t guess you are. I knew you were Kyle’s sister, but for some reason I thought you were much younger.”

  “She is,” Kyle piped in, speaking for Molly. “She’s two years younger than I am, but she was skipped up two grades, so we graduated together.”

  Molly watched Liam do the math in his head and come to the conclusion that she was twenty-five. She waited for him to pull away, but he did not. “So you must be really smart,” Liam commented.

  Molly shrugged in response. “Smart enough to get by.”

  Kyle chimed in again, as if it was he and Liam having the conversation. “She’s five points below genius.”

  “Really smart” was a label Molly reserved for actual geniuses, but she said nothing to this. It was the point in the conversation people usually shied away from her. She braced herself for the distance, preparing herself to just be grateful for the good time she’d had being tucked into his side.

  Liam scratched his cheek with the hand that was still holding hers, brushing her knuckles against his stubble. “That’s a change from the women I’m usually around. No offense to cheerleaders, but they’re rea
lly not my type.”

  “Didn’t you date the head cheerleader in high school?” Molly questioned.

  Liam shifted uncomfortably. “I did. But that was years ago. I’m not that guy anymore.”

  Molly rested her cheek to his chest, sighing with sheer delirium when he traced the outline of her face with his thumb. “I don’t remember you being a bad guy.”

  “Ah, but there’s a difference between not being a bad guy and becoming a good man.”

  “Which one are you now?” Her eyelashes fluttered shut, and seconds later, she felt his thumb gently touching the tips of them, feathering the follicles back and forth. It was intimate in a way she was unprepared for, and the simple touch moved her further from writing this all off as him just being a nice guy and taking pity on her in her hour of need.

  “I’m not sure anymore,” he said in a husky breath. “You’re making things all confusing. This is the most…” He moved his thumb to her mouth, tipping her face up to his, and inching closer to her parted lips. He knew it was far too soon to kiss her, but something about her mouth called out to him, though her voice was mousy and quiet. She lulled him into feeling things he’d tried to create with casual flings on the road, and had never been able to.

  Nate flung open the front door, announcing that the storm was still in full swing as Molly broke from her dreamy state. He was drenched and stayed on the mat until Kyle relieved him of the Chinese food so he could remove his sopping sneakers. “So, newsflash, but it’s still drizzling a bit outside. I think we’ve graduated from dogs and cats to raining full-on dinosaurs.”

  “Thanks for going out, Nate,” Liam said by way of a greeting, not willing to remove himself or Molly from the couch.

  “Not a problem. Did you miss me real bad, Molly Llama?” Nate walked over to the two and shook his head like a dog, raining precipitation down on them. His perma-grin in place, Nate planted a loud smooch on Molly’s now wet cheek, laughing at her grimace.