By the fourth time she played the recording, she knew something was wrong. After years of dreaming about a job like this, she’d expected, even anticipated, her reaction would be one of overwhelming excitement and joy. She’d initially felt it during the first listen through. But then reality had set in, and everything that would occur if she took the job came crashing in around her.
She would have to leave Mule Hollow, which she’d known all along. She’d been prepared to leave it behind from the very beginning. Why then was this sense of mourning suddenly giving her second thoughts? Molly started pacing the living room.
She’d worked so hard for this. She wanted it with all of her heart. Sought it. And she would have it.
By the time she’d crawled into bed and turned off her lights, she’d thanked God for leading her and giving her the opportunity of a lifetime. All that was left before she flew out on Sunday was to tell Bob.
Why was it so hard? Just tell him!
She kept telling herself that as they wandered from pen to pen and he explained his reasons behind his bid on each bull, steer or heifer he chose from the masses. It was a lovely day and the auction wasn’t exactly what she’d expected. It was very impressive, extravagant actually, and she realized early on that Bob wasn’t just buying any cattle. He was purchasing top-quality stock to build a life on.
A life for the family he wanted.
By the time they were heading home, Molly didn’t care to talk anymore. Bob on the other hand took up the slack and was exposing more of his plans for his ranch. He seemed totally and completely unaware that she’d shut down. Molly realized it was because he was looking toward his future, his dream. The dream that was so far removed from hers, she was out of her element even thinking about it.
All was quiet when they pulled into the yard and Bob backed the trailer up to the pen where the new purchases would spend their first night on his property.
While he went to let them out of the trailer, Molly hurried to her car. Her heart was heavy, aching as it had been all day. With every mile they’d come closer to home, she had fought back tears. And all she wanted now was to get away.
“Molly,” Bob said, startling her as he tapped her on the shoulder. “Where are you going?”
She turned toward him. They were standing in the square of light cutting a path across the yard from the open double doors of the barn.
“I’m going home, Bob. I had a very nice day…” Coward!
“Molly, what’s wrong? You’ve been quiet all the way here. Talk to me.”
“No.” She swung away from him, unable to look in his eyes. But she owed it to him to be up-front. Slowly she turned around and met his solid gaze. “What am I doing here, Bob? What are we doing here?”
He took a step toward her, cupping his palm around the back of her neck and gently tugging her toward him. “I stopped asking that question halfway home, Molly. All I know is that we’re here. For reasons I can’t fully comprehend, we are here.”
He searched her eyes. Molly’s heart was beating uncontrollably and her throat felt as if it would explode with the effort of holding back the tears welling within it.
Bob wrapped her in his embrace and slowly lowered his lips to hers. His eyes met hers just before their lips touched and Molly thought her legs would buckle from the emotion warring in his beautiful eyes. In his powerful arms, his heart racing against hers, Molly thought she could stay in the moment for the rest of her life. And for an instant the world disappeared as he pulled her closer and deepened the kiss. His hand came up to cup her jaw as if she were a delicate flower and she sighed against his lips. It was such a gentle and sweet gesture and the kiss was so full of promise that it broke Molly. Suddenly she realized that this was the Miss Right kiss—the one she’d wanted but dared not hope for. With that thought a tear slipped down her cheek before she could stop it.
It was a heartfelt wish come true, but she knew now, nothing could ever really be between them. She could never be the woman of his dreams.
She could never be the traditional housewife and mother that he so fervently wanted. There were so many things against it. It would never work and she knew it.
Her heart was pounding and every fiber in her body was fighting her as she gently pushed against his shoulder breaking the kiss. “I have something to tell you. I’m leaving for New York the day after tomorrow. I—” She forced lightness into her heart that she didn’t feel. After all she was going after her dream, this was the best for both of them. “I have an interview with World View. It’s everything I’ve worked for. Everything I’ve dreamed of.”
Bob blinked. His nostrils flared as he sucked in a deep breath. “I see,” he said, looking at his boots. “It’s a done deal?” His gaze met hers.
Molly shifted from one foot to the other. “Pretty much. One other candidate, but they said the odds were in my favor.”
He gave a curt nod, sucking in a deep breath. “It was inevitable, your dreams coming true. You deserve it.”
Molly smiled but didn’t feel it. He wasn’t even trying to hold her back. What had she expected? They had become close over the past few days…maybe not as close as she’d thought. If he was feeling the strain she was feeling, wouldn’t he at least try to hold her back? Or maybe he just understood better than she did that no matter how many kisses they shared, they were still worlds apart when it came to anything lasting that could connect them.
Why did that make her want to cry? “Well, I need to go,” she managed. “You’ll be okay?”
He nodded, blinking. “Yeah. Like I told you. It’s time for me to get back to my life.”
She took a step, toward her car. “Yes. You do need to do that.” She stopped backing up. “I had fun. This week.”
He nodded. “Me, too.”
She spun away and hurried inside her car.
“Molly.”
“Yes.” She looked back, a thrill of expectation slicing through the darkness in her heart.
“Good luck.”
“Oh.” What had she been expecting? “Yes, th-thank you.”
Chapter Eighteen
Adela patted the chair beside her. “Come. Sit with me before you go.”
Molly set her suitcase down on and eased into a wicker chair beside the matching one that Adela was sitting in on her front porch. Molly had been so overwhelmed at the shower that they hadn’t had a chance to talk.
“What scares you, Molly?”
Molly didn’t want to hear that question anymore—she didn’t really know the answer.
Adela laid a delicate hand on her arm. “I’ve been watching you and reading your articles since you moved here. You write about how wonderful Mule Hollow is and you write about all the successful weddings we’ve had, yet I sense there is a part of you that doesn’t believe.”
“Believe?”
Adela leaned her head slightly and her smile saddened. “You don’t believe…in…”
She studied Molly for the longest moment, and Molly felt as if the deepest secrets of her heart were being exposed. Her heart began pounding, and she felt her palms begin to sweat.
“…you don’t believe in happily ever after.”
Molly looked down at her hands, unable to see the truth reflected in Adela’s eyes. Unable to sit, she stood and started pacing. Storming to the end of the porch, she stared down Main Street, then she whirled around and stalked back to where Adela sat patiently, her hands folded in her lap. Her expression was one of patience.
Molly ran a hand through her hair then grabbed the chain at her neck. “I see the hope of happily ever after.” She let her hand drop and slap herself on the thigh. “But then I look around and I don’t know, Adela. Is it just something that really only a few lucky people actually achieve? I mean here in Mule Hollow there is a sense that love can survive. It’s one of the things that drew me here. But out there—” she let her hand fly out in an arch “—I don’t know. It’s like everything has to be perfect in order for love to make it throug
h all the garbage that the world throws at two people. I can’t even begin to figure out my folks’ problems. They just didn’t work. Whatever the great common denominator to a happy marriage was, they didn’t get it. It’s so easy for some people.” She was rambling, she knew it, but there was a lot to get out. It was as if now that she’d started talking about it, she couldn’t stop the flow. Everything wanted out.
“Molly, there is a common denominator. The Lord.”
“True. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, but I see Christian marriages fall apart every day, too. It’s not as easy for most people as it was for you. Or for Norma Sue or Esther Mae.”
“So you think my marriage was easy? Molly, most marriages take a lot of hard work and focus. I think that one of the reasons so many fall apart is that it is hard work. Even for people who love the Lord.”
Molly sank into the chair again, remembering all the harsh words she’d heard her parents yelling over the years.
“Molly.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She looked up from her hands to see Adela smiling.
“I can’t tell you why every marriage doesn’t work. There are too many variables, but if a couple puts God at the head of their household, and if a man and a woman love each other unselfishly, seeking God’s will first, then they can have a beautiful life together. And so much fun and joy. Believe me, there is enduring love out there. Life is much more when you can walk hand in hand with the one you love.”
Molly sighed. “Oh Adela, I’m so confused. After all these years I have the opportunity for the career that I’ve always wanted, or thought I wanted until I fell in love with Bob.” She loved Bob Jacobs.
The realization stunned her. It wasn’t as if it had blindsided her. It was more that it always had been there. Like the way Bob had shown her to ease into the saddle on her first horse ride, she’d eased into understanding that what she felt for Bob was love. “But there are so many things that make it impossible.” She spoke the words to Adela, but also to herself. Just because she acknowledged that she loved him didn’t suddenly make everything in her world right.
“Nonsense. Nothing is impossible. Two people just have to seek God and then work together to make it happen.”
Molly wasn’t so sure of that. “Can I ask you a personal question?”
Adela nodded, her blue eyes full of encouragement.
“What about you and Sam? I mean, I’ve been watching you and I know you love each other.”
Adela’s smile faltered and she looked down the road toward Sam’s Diner. “I’ve loved Sam always as my friend. He’s more dear to me than anyone on earth and he’s loved me always.” She paused thinking. “Molly, I’ll share this with you because maybe it will help you. Maybe that’s why God set this meeting up. Sam is a stubborn man. Full of pride and fear. I would marry him in a minute because I truly believe that God has blessed me with loving not once, but twice in my lifetime. But my Sam.” Her smile broadened. “My Sam, I think, fears that I could never love him like I loved Theo. Deep in his heart, he’s jealous of the love we shared. I think he’s afraid to have faith that our love can be as special.”
Molly couldn’t miss the sadness in Adela’s voice as her smile faded. Forgetting her own worries, she scooted to the edge of the chair and reached for Adela’s hand. Such a wise and loving woman.
“Have you spoken to him about this?”
The older woman squeezed her hand tightly. “No dear. I can’t fight Sam’s fight for him. He must work through his own faith and come to realize that God blessed us with each other. I pray that one day he will wake up and trust my love enough to ask me to marry him. But even if he never does, it doesn’t change my love. It is here for him. Patiently waiting.” She patted Molly’s hand. “Now, you should go. You don’t want to miss that plane.”
Glancing at her watch, Molly was surprised at how time had flown. It was true, if she was going to catch her flight she needed to get on the road now. Reaching out, she hugged Adela. “Thank you. I’ll see you when I get back.”
Picking up her suitcase, she placed it in the back seat, her heart feeling heavier than the case. Her dreams were on the verge of coming true and all she could think about was Bob.
“Adela,” she said, before closing her door. Adela smiled. She was standing on the steps, her hands folded together, watching Molly. “Pray for me.”
She nodded. “I am.”
Chapter Nineteen
Bob pulled his truck to a stop in front of Sam’s. It was nine o’clock in the morning and he’d decided he couldn’t take the solitude of his ranch any longer. Molly had only been gone for three days and it seemed like a lifetime. Now, sitting in front of the diner, he wasn’t sure why he’d come. It wasn’t just anyone’s company he sought. It was Molly’s and she wasn’t here.
And you might as well get used to it.
He yanked on the handle and shoved the door open, not feeling the pain in his ribs because it was overshadowed by the pain in his heart.
Walking through the heavy door and into the ancient diner, his mind in turmoil, he didn’t even realize he’d walked into the middle of a private moment until it was too late to disappear. Applegate was standing by the counter with his checkerboard tucked under his arm, while Stanley stood beside him holding their five-pound bag of sunflower seeds locked in the crook of his arm. Sam stood behind the counter with a scowl on his weathered face as he listened to what Applegate was saying. Bob hadn’t been thinking about fireworks when he made the stop, but he couldn’t very well back out the door now that he was there.
“—Just because I called you on the fact that you’re being ignorant is no call for you to run us outta here,” Applegate said, his frown drooping like a hound dog’s.
“That’s right. We were just doin’ what friends do,” Stanley agreed. “We watch Dr. Phil you know.”
“And Oprah,” snapped Applegate.
“Friends are supposed to tell the truth,” Stanley continued.
Sam didn’t look too convinced. Bob wanted to go, but his interest got the better of him and he took a step away from the door. After all, he’d do anything to not think about Molly.
“Bob,” Sam grumbled. “Come on in here. Applegate and Stanley were just about to leave and quit disruptin’ my business.”
He looked pointedly at them.
“We weren’t goin’ anywhere,” Applegate said, and to prove it, he walked over to his table and slapped his checkerboard down, then whirled around and went back to the counter. “This here’s an inter-ven-chin.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Stanley said. Following Applegate’s lead he walked over and plopped the sunflowers down beside the checkerboard, sending a couple of dozen shooting out of the top and skidding across the floor.
“An inter-what?” Sam snapped, snatching up the coffeepot and making Applegate take a step back. Bob thought that was a smart idea seeing how Sam looked like he might toss it on him.
“An intervention,” Applegate said, thrusting his bony chest out. “You know the thang friends do when their friend ain’t usin’ the brain God gave ’im and needs his friends to think for him.”
Sam growled. “If the two of you think I’ll ever need yer kind to do any thinkin’ fer me then you’re both crazier than Art Holboney was the day he tried to get Norma Sue to marry him so’s she could fix his tractors!”
“Hey, no need to get mean,” Stanley yapped. “Art Holboney was dumber than dirt.”
“Exactly,” Sam snapped back, never losing a beat.
Bob stepped close, his orthopedic boot and his cowboy boot beating an uneven rhythm on the wood floor as he crossed the room in the sudden silence. “Look fellas, I don’t know what’s going on between the three of you, but this is no way to handle it.” Why had he come to town? Why hadn’t he stayed on his ranch? Town was getting wackier by the day. “Would anyone like to let me in on what’s come between all of you?” He looked from one to the other, but they’d clammed up.
“Y
ou want some coffee?” Sam asked, lifting a cup from its rack and pouring before Bob said yes.
“It’s not ours to tell,” Applegate said. With the wind now out of his sails, he sounded deflated. “We’re just going to sit over here and play our checker game and show our support.”
Sam glared at Applegate, who lifted his hands in a no-contest palms-out gesture. “That comes straight out of the Good Book, so don’t you be giving me that look no more.”
“We’ll be right over here if you need to talk,” Stanley said, and followed Applegate to the table by the window.
“By the way,” Applegate said, turning back. “This matchmaking thang has been hard on me and Stanley. And other than showing support fer Sam, we figure we’re gonna let the womenfolk take care of things like this from here on out. So Bob, we’ll be bringing back yer mailbox this afternoon. We figured to try and get you and Molly some alone time…you know the TV shows talk about the need fer quality time, so’s we figure the best way of givin’ you and Molly that time—you know, so you both could come to yer senses—was to make sure them other women couldn’t find ya. Seein’ how some folks was giving out yer address and all. But we’re done. If’n you and Sam are gonna both play dumb, then Stanley and me figure we can’t do you no good.” That said, he heaved a sigh and sat down at the table, effectively shutting everything out but his game.
Bob was stunned. App and Stan stealing his mailbox? Matchmaking? This town was getting weirder by the minute.
“They’ve lost what few marbles God gave ’em in the first place,” Sam grunted.
Bob put what they’d said to him out of his mind and turned back to Sam. He wasn’t clear on what had happened between the three older men, but he had to agree with Sam on that assumption. Sliding onto a stool, he took a sip of his coffee, hoping it would clear his mind.
“Well, son.” Sam cleared his throat and studied the floor before looking at him. “You’re the last person I expected to see here.”
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