by Rachel Hanna
“If what’s inside is all that matters, then why did you care what he looked like?” He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, obviously delighted with himself.
“Shut up, okay? I’ve had a seriously long week already.” She stood up and raked off what was left on her plate and put it in the dishwasher. Austin scooped another spoonful of roast into his mouth before doing the same.
Molly started putting the food away, searching through cabinets to find plastic storage containers. Of course, they had to be too high for her to reach. She stood there, on her tippy toes, trying her best to get them until Austin walked up behind her - too close for comfort - and grabbed three of them.
They worked like a team, him carrying the food from the table to the counter, her putting it into the containers. She left them on the counter to cool before putting them in the refrigerator.
“So was he everything you hoped he would be?” he finally asked as she was wiping down the table. He stood against the breakfast bar with his arms crossed, and she truly wanted to smack the smile off his unbelievably handsome face.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him yet.”
“What? You’ve been here for a few days and you haven’t made the attempt to see him?”
“I didn’t say that exactly…” she said, but she was interrupted by her phone ringing. Perfect distraction. She pulled it from her pocket without looking and said hello.
“Finally! Have you been avoiding my calls?” Olivia shrieked on other end.
“Of course not.” Total lie.
“Well, how’s it going? Your mom said you have a new job?”
“Yep, at a coffee shop,” Molly said as she continued wiping the table. Austin stared at her with an intensity that made her get chills.
“Okay… Well, what about Blake? Was he surprised to see you?” Olivia prodded.
“He was. Totally,” she said, trying not to say too much.
“And how is he?”
“Good…”
“Molly, you sound weird. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. I’m just really tired. Can we talk about this later? I promise I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Molly hung up the phone and went back to trying to avoid eye contact with Austin. He seemed really serious all of the sudden, like he could read her mind.
“He wasn’t real, was he?” he finally asked. She stopped and looked up at him.
“You’re kind of nosy. You realize that, right?”
“Yes, but answer my question.”
“It might just be a big misunderstanding, but the guy who lives at the address I had for him has lived there for a long time and doesn’t know Blake. Has never heard of him. But Blake told me he’s traveling right now…”
“Molly, you’ve been catfished.”
She knew the term, and hearing it made her cringe. She wasn’t a stupid woman, and there was no way she’d fallen for a scheme. No way.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Do you have his picture?”
“Yes, of course. It’s on my laptop upstairs.”
“Come on,” he said as he walked up the stairs with her not far behind.
“Um, you can’t go into my room,” she said as he pushed the door open and walked inside. What on Earth was wrong with this guy? He clearly didn’t understand personal boundaries.
Austin walked to her computer, which was sitting on her bed and opened it.
“What’s your password?” he asked. Molly snatched the computer from his hands.
“Do you have no sense of privacy and space? Get out of here.”
Austin looked at her, serious again. “Don’t you want to know the truth?”
Did she? She wasn’t sure anymore. Holding out hope that the love of her life was real was the only thing holding her together. Being all alone, thousands of miles from the only home she’d ever known was more than enough to bear.
But she needed to know.
“Yes. I want to know.”
“Then let me help you. We can figure this out, at least whether he’s real or not.” He held his hand out, motioning for the computer. Molly sat down on the bed across from him and typed in her password. She pulled up the pictures of Blake and turned the computer around. Austin smiled.
“He’s… preppy?”
“No, he’s not!” she said, unsure of why that would be a bad thing anyway. “He just has style.”
“Alrighty…” Austin said under his breath. She scooted behind him a bit, keeping a careful distance, as she watched him click around. He opened a page, dragged her image onto it and suddenly results started appearing below it.
“What does that mean?” she asked, unsure of what she was seeing. She had never been very good with computers, even though she should’ve been just because of her age. She could work her phone and tablet pretty well, but computers always reminded her of school and she avoided them as much as possible.
He turned a bit and looked at her. “I hate to tell you this.”
“What?”
“This guy isn’t Blake.” He actually did look pained when he told her, and if she wasn’t mistaken, he looked a little angry too. She wasn’t sure at who, but it was definitely there under the surface.
“And how could you possibly know that for sure?”
“See these results? Those are all pointing to a modeling site. When you click here, you can see this guy’s name is Jared Allred. Not Blake.”
She sat back on her knees and stared straight ahead, willing herself not to break down in front of Austin. She took in a deep, albeit ragged, breath and bit her bottom lip.
“I don’t understand…” she said softly. “Why would anyone do this…”
Austin closed the computer and pushed it away. He turned around and looked at her. “I’m sorry, Molly. Sometimes people are just mean. Sometimes, people just suck.”
He definitely had a way of cutting to the chase, and it made her wonder how he had become so jaded in his own life.
“Yeah, it’s why I like working with dogs,” she said without thinking. He smiled.
“I’m sorry. I really am, but better to know that it was all a fake so you can move on,” he said as he stood up and took a couple of steps toward the door. “Now, I saw banana pudding in the fridge. Wanna share it?”
“Are you kidding me?” she asked.
“What?” he said, a look of confusion on his face as he leaned against the doorframe.
“I just lost the love of my life and you want me to eat pudding?” She stood up and crossed her arms. “Don’t you have a heart?”
Austin furrowed his eyebrows and then laughed. Molly didn’t see anything that was funny. “Don’t you think you’re being a bit dramatic? You didn’t lose the love of your life. You were catfished, and it sucks, but let’s be real here. How gullible do you have to be to believe a person you’ve never met? And you even agreed to marry this person who you haven’t seen, hugged, kissed…or, ya know…”
“Don’t… finish that sentence,” she growled through gritted teeth. “I guess we’re different people, Austin York. I believe in true love and the fairy tale, and apparently you believe in… what? Nothing?”
He went stone faced for a moment and jutted his chin forward. Definitely a defensive posture. And for a moment, she was scared. She didn’t know this guy at all really, and he was now in her bedroom. And she had potentially offended him. And they were alone in a house. And she was across the country from everyone she knew. Throw in a little horror music, and she was in every 80’s scary movie.
“I believe in myself,” he said before he turned and walked out without another word. She thought he was going for pudding, but instead she heard his door shut down the hall. He didn’t slam it, but instead shut it quietly which made her wonder what Austin York was running from in his own life.
Chapter 6
Austin sat on his bed and ran his fingers through his dark brown hair. There was no reason to let this woman shake him. She meant nothing to him. She was a nobody,
just some woman he was trying to help.
He didn’t care.
The only problem was - he did.
This had never happened to him before. Women were a dime a dozen, but developing feelings for them just didn’t happen. He didn’t allow it. There was no time for a relationship at this point in his life.
Trust was for sissies, and he wasn’t a sissy. He did the hard work. And he wasn’t dragging some emotion-filled broad along with him.
So why was she getting to him so bad right now? He reached for his cell phone and opened Facebook, trying to get his mind off of her.
She was adorable. Short, petite, girl next door. She was sassy, sarcastic and far too trusting.
To think that someone had taken such advantage of her… it bothered him. He couldn’t help it. Maybe it just made him a decent person. It meant nothing.
He scrolled through his newsfeed looking for a distraction. Oh look, another cute puppy video. And a cat video. And a wedding dance video.
He tossed his phone across the bed and laid back against his pillow. He had really wanted that banana pudding. Was it too late to sneak downstairs and have some?
Addison and Clay had come home a while ago, and they were in bed now. Maybe he could just have one bowl. Gosh, he loved banana pudding. He never got that kind of stuff as a kid, and the couple of times he’d had it were when Eddie’s grandmother had made it for him.
He threw on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt and slipped downstairs, being careful to make as little noise as possible. He didn’t want to wake the baby, and he didn’t want to get caught with his hand in the cookie jar, so to speak.
The only light on downstairs was a small lamp on the breakfast bar. He crept into the kitchen, being careful to avoid any squeaky floorboards along the way. He opened the refrigerator to reveal his prize - a huge clear glass bowl of banana pudding.
Only one scoop seemed to be missing, so he assumed Clay had already dipped into the snack himself after coming home from taking his baby girl to the doctor.
He filled a bowl with the dessert and decided to go outside to enjoy it. It was October and cool, but certainly not so cold that he couldn’t spend a few minutes sitting in the garden behind the house.
It was a beautiful full moon, and Clay had just installed some solar lights in a circle around the garden area. Being careful to close the door quietly behind him, Austin was really thankful that the B&B didn’t have an alarm system.
He sat down on one of the concrete benches and looked up at the bright moon. It made him feel small, but not in the way that his rough childhood had made him feel small. Looking at the moon, he always felt like he was a tiny speck in the huge universe around him and the opportunities to live the life he wanted were endless.
Just being in January Cove was a big deal to him. Being at the beach was something he could’ve only dreamed of as a kid. There were never any family vacations or long walks down the beach picking up seashells with his mother. In fact, the first time he’d seen the ocean in person was when he turned twenty-two and scraped up enough money cutting lawns to take a bus to the Gulf Coast.
He still struggled with things from his childhood. Trust issues. Being defensive. Fake arrogance. He knew that he was really still that scared kid under all the bravado, but he felt safer that way. Even at twenty-six, that scared kid controlled what he said and did every day of his life.
He took his first big bite of banana pudding, closed his eyes and savored it like it was his last meal on death row.
“Mmmmm,” he heard himself say out loud.
“Enjoying that, are you?”
Startled, he squinted his eyes and realized that Molly had been sitting on the bench across from him the whole time. She had her own bowl piled high with pudding. Thus the mystery of the missing scoop was solved.
She looked freaking adorable and sad at the same time. Wearing a fluffy pink bathrobe - God knew what she was wearing underneath, if anything - and fluffy slippers, she sat there with her puffy red eyes and massive mound of pudding.
“You scared the crap out of me!” he whispered loudly. She stayed where she was.
“Sorry. I thought I’d get some alone time out here.” She took a bite and stared at her bowl.
The quiet of the night was broken by the sound of crickets and the low roar of the ocean in the distance. Originally, he’d thought the quiet life would be hard to adjust to, especially since he’d spent all of his years listening to honking horns, police sirens and the occasional gunfire.
But he was starting to love January Cove. There was just something about it that made him feel at home.
“Listen, Molly…”
“Please, Austin, I can’t take much more tonight. I’ve cried so much that I think I might have warped the floors of my room, so can you just… not talk?”
Why was this so painful to watch? She was a stranger, he kept telling himself. But he had this nagging feeling that she needed a hug. He wasn’t about to attempt that, but maybe she’d let him sit next to her quietly.
He slowly walked toward her and sat down next to her. She didn’t move or look at him, and he made sure to leave a good foot of space between them. She smelled like lavender.
“You were right,” he said, surprising himself. He wasn’t one to admit he was ever wrong.
“About what?” she asked softly, still staring straight ahead.
“I don’t believe in anything.”
“What about God?” she asked.
“I don’t know what I believe about God. I wasn’t exactly raised with any kind of faith.”
“But you’re a man now, so can’t you choose what you believe?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“So, do you believe there’s a God?” she pressed.
“Why did you start with the hardest question first?” he asked with a laugh before sitting his now empty bowl on the other side of him.
“I know how you like to cut to the chase,” she said, cracking a little smile as she cut her eyes at him.
“Good point. Okay, yes, I believe there’s a God. I’ve seen too many miracles in my life.”
“Really? I’d love to see some miracles.”
“So what about you? Do you believe in God?”
“Of course.”
“You say that like it’s a foregone conclusion.”
“For me it is. I’ve always believed. I have to. I want to believe in miracles.” Her voice was crackly from crying, and he felt bad suddenly. Maybe she’d been crying about how he’d acted. But then he remembered that she was probably crying over the loss of what she believed was her one true love.
“I’m sorry I made fun of your situation.”
“I accept your apology,” she said quietly. She was silent for a moment and then finally spoke again. “I guess I was naive. I just wanted to be wanted, for once.”
Her honesty made his heart hurt. What had this girl gone through?
“Somebody will want you, Molly. You’re young and beautiful.” Ugh. He had to shut up now.
She turned and looked at him with a slight smile. “See? That was very nice. You have the ability to be nice, Austin.”
He laughed. “Doubtful. I think I’m just high on banana pudding.”
They sat silently for another couple of minutes. “I want to know who did this to me. I need to know who caused me to take leave of my senses and even move across the country. I don’t even know where to start…”
“I do.” What was he doing now? It was like his mouth had been overtaken by aliens. He didn’t have time for this right now!
“You do?”
“Yeah. I think we start with the address you have.”
“But I already went there. The guy had never heard of Blake.”
“Because Blake doesn’t exist. But maybe he’s rented his house before or something. We can start there.”
“We?”
“Look, you’re alone in January Cove. I’m alone in January Cove. Two stranded t
ourists. I’ll help you as long as you promise me two things.”
She smiled. “What?”
“Number one, you don’t poison my coffee.”
“Hmmm…. Plans for tomorrow are scratched now. Okay, fine. What’s number two?”
“Number two is that you,” he said, leaning closer to her face so that their noses were almost touching, “don’t take so much of the banana pudding next time.”
And even though she laughed, it was a nervous laugh, and that told him just what he needed to know. Molly James was attracted to him, and he had to be careful. This was no time to make the biggest mistake of his life.
Molly shut the door to her room and leaned against it. Oh no. Austin was flirting with her. She just knew it. And he wasn’t her type. He wasn’t the one for her. At. All.
She’d thought he was about to kiss her, and the sad part was she might’ve let him.
Maybe she needed medication because her brain wasn’t wired properly. She’d followed a cyber ghost across the country to marry him - a total stranger. She’d left her family and friends and pretty much all career prospects to become a cashier at a coffee house. And now, she was tempted to kiss another stranger who seemed to have his own set of emotional problems and a slight addiction to banana pudding.
Oh, this wasn’t good.
Austin stood at the job site watching his workers clear the land for Ballard’s new restaurant, but his mind was elsewhere. He couldn’t stop thinking about Molly and finding the jerk who had made her cry like that.
Last night had been scary and amazing at the same time. Scary because he was feeling things he’d never felt, and he wanted those feelings to just go away. But he also felt amazing at the same time because he could help her. He knew he could.
But what would helping her accomplish? Make her fall for him next? Is that what he wanted?
“Dude, are you listening to me?” one of his workers, Jerry, said from in front of him. Austin was standing there, clipboard in hand, staring blankly at a mound of dirt.
“Huh? Oh, sorry, man… I was thinking about something.”
“A woman, huh?”
“Of course not!” Austin said as he turned toward the temporary trailer he had sitting at the site.
