by Liz Isaacson
“Molly, I was listening.” He gave up the fight. “Landon wanted the Friesian. That’s why I bought it.” He slipped his hand into hers. “So come talk to the breeder with me, all right? We’ll take that horse from zero to hero in no time—together.”
She went with him, but her words marched through his mind like soldiers. She hadn’t denied his suggestion that she still didn’t trust anyone wearing a cowboy hat. His stomach writhed even more so than it did when he had to talk to a breeder.
Chapter Ten
Molly kept her arms clenched tight across her chest during the meeting with the breeder, though Emmett did conduct himself with power and kindness at the same time. She grudgingly admitted that the Friesian would be a great barrel racing horse, and he seemed sweet too.
As Emmett settled up, she wandered over the horse and felt all her muscles relax. Horses held a special place in her heart, and she reached up and let him smell her before running her hand down his nose. “Hey.” She looked into one of his eyes and smiled. Maybe Emmett had made a good choice with this horse, but he still hadn’t listened to her.
His semi-accusation that she still didn’t trust cowboys rang in her ears. Maybe she didn’t. She wasn’t sure.
“You ready?” Emmett joined her and let the horse sniff him too. He lifted the rope around the horse’s neck and added, “I’m starving.”
Molly turned, still somewhat surprised by Emmett’s good looks, the way he smelled like brown sugar and leather and fresh air, the easy smile he graced her with. “I could eat lunch.” Her voice may have conducted more air than sound, and her resolve came roaring back. She straightened and coughed. “I mean, sure. It is lunchtime.”
“We can leave him in the holding pen behind the stables. We’ll come get ‘im on the way out.” Emmett clicked his tongue and tugged on the rope, bringing the Friesian with him so simply. Molly marveled at him, a wave of forgiveness washing over her.
Can I trust him? she wondered without consciously sending the words up as a prayer. Her step lightened and so did her heart as she followed Emmett.
“Look,” she said when she caught him. “I’m sorry about earlier.”
“No problem.”
But it was a problem. “Maybe—I don’t know. Maybe I’m still working on the trust part.” She sighed. “I don’t think I am, though. I trust you, Emmett.”
He glanced down at her. “Am I the only man wearing a cowboy hat that you trust?”
“No,” she said quickly. “I trust Landon too.”
Three steps passed before Emmett started laughing, and relief produced a laugh from Molly too. He slipped his hand into hers, the earlier tension gone now. “I’m sorry too. I should’ve told you which horse I wanted.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “Didn’t think of it.”
Molly scoffed. “Let’s just say I believe that.” She stepped in front of him. “In the future, can you think of stuff like that? I mean, if we’re gonna work together, I would think of you and you would think of me. Right?”
Emmett edged closed to her, the shade created from his cowboy hat falling over her face. “I think about you all the time, Molly.” His hand landed on her hip, causing her to suck in a heated breath.
“Professionally,” she said.
Emmett gave her a crooked grin. “All right.”
She tipped up on her toes and kissed him quick. “All right then.”
“It’s so hot,” Molly complained a couple of weeks later, wiping the sweat from her forehead as she collapsed into a chair in the shade. Tess passed her a water bottle that Molly applied directly to her face. “I don’t even like parades.” She glared through her sunglasses to the empty street beyond.
She’d come down to the Fourth of July parade because Megan said it was what everyone did. But it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet and at least ninety degrees. On a day off, she preferred air conditioning and lounging on the couch while she watched movies, not sitting in a tiny patch of shade while various community floats went by.
Emmett handed her a package of licorice and said, “It’s an hour, sweetheart. Think about the pool party.”
Molly nodded, though the pool party and barbeque at the homestead also brought a measure of anxiety she couldn’t swallow away. Probably because she’d have to wear a swimming suit—something she hadn’t done in a long time—and hang out with all the families at Brush Creek Ranch.
She glanced at Emmett, wondering if he felt out of place among all the couples, the kids, the families. He’d been living on the ranch for eight years, so maybe not. Molly, though, was still finding her footing in the community up the canyon, and it felt like the slope was becoming more and more slippery every day she worked with Emmett, held Emmett’s hand, kissed Emmett.
She was falling for him, and she couldn’t even stop herself.
Every minute of the parade felt insufferable, and Molly worried more and more over her disinterest in children. She hadn’t told Emmett about it. Hadn’t ever really told anyone. He drove them back up the canyon and kissed her like he was falling for her too and said, “I’d invite you in, but…Tigress.”
Molly smiled at him, a warm oozy smile brought on by his embrace. The past seven weeks at Brush Creek had been astronomically better than anything she could’ve even hoped for. She backed up and said, “I gotta change anyway.”
“See you in a few minutes,” he said, and Molly turned toward the cabin going up next to Emmett’s. The foundation had been dug and poured and nothing more. At this rate, it would be next summer before she could move out of the basement.
She watched Emmett step onto his porch and enter his house and had the wild thought that if she married Emmett, she wouldn’t need that new cabin at all.
Her throat was already dry and scratchy, but now it felt like she’d swallowed sand. A whole beach full of sand.
The sound of a truck engine broke her thoughts and she went back to the homestead as Walker and Tess pulled into the driveway next to their cabin.
The blessed air conditioning had Molly closing her eyes, sighing, and leaning against the closed front door. It smelled like baked beans and browned beef, and her stomach roared. She’d given Megan money for groceries as her donation to the potluck picnic shaping up in the backyard. She opened her eyes and found Megan carrying a tray out to the patio, and picked up several bags of chips from the counter and followed.
“Thanks, Molly.” Megan gave her a genuine smile, and Molly touched her elbow to get her to stop from returning to the house for more food.
“Can I ask you a question?” Molly glanced around. The girls played on the swing set in the yard, and Landon and their son couldn’t be seen.
Megan sensed something, because she paused and said, “Sure.”
“Have you always—?” She swallowed, the words stuck behind a giant lump in her throat. “Wanted—wanted kids?” Her gaze flew to the twin girls swinging, one of them singing a song over and over again.
Megan blinked, the usual reaction Molly got. She backed up a step. “It’s okay.” She shook her head. “Never mind.” She started toward the house, itching to bring out something tasty and cold. Her eyes landed on the watermelon just as Landon emerged from the hallway carrying his son.
“Molly, wait.” Megan caught her just as she stepped through the door.
“No, really,” Molly said, giving Megan a desperate look. The last thing she needed was Landon knowing and blabbing to Emmett. “It’s okay.” Molly helped get everything outside, then she escaped to the basement just as Justin and Renee showed up with their toddler.
So far from the party, Molly couldn’t hear the laughter of children or the popping of soda cans, the chatter of husbands and wives or the crying of a baby. Her heart pounded like she’d been running, or like she was standing in the arena, waiting to find out if she’d won another rodeo.
She didn’t go into the bedroom to change into her swim gear. She wasn’t sure how much time passed before her phone
went off, and when she ignored that, someone came downstairs. The footsteps indicated that it was a man, and Molly turned toward the door she’d closed, expecting Emmett to come through.
He knocked first, said, “Molly, can I come in there?”
She didn’t really see what choice she had. He knew she was here, and Megan had no doubt tipped him off already. Molly got up and went to the door, twisting the knob and letting the door settle open.
Emmett stood there wearing clothes she’d never seen him in—a pair of blue floral swim trunks and a gray tank top. She’d seen him in T-shirts, his muscles bulging, but this was a whole new ballgame.
She turned away. “Hey.” Back to the couch, she sank down and put her head in her hands, her breath leaking from her lungs in a long hiss.
Emmett joined her, slower and with deliberate movements. “You didn’t come up to the picnic. We’ve already started, and you’re going to miss my famous potato salad.” He settled back into the couch. “Or you would’ve, if I hadn’t saved you some.” He nudged her with her elbow, and she smiled at his thoughtfulness. She’d been asking him to make her a sample of his potato salad ever since he’d bragged about it last week.
She turned toward him, her brief joy fading. “Emmett, do you want kids?”
His face blanked and his eyes flew between hers, trying to find the answer she wanted. She didn’t know what to give him so he’d say something.
“I don’t know,” he said, his voice cautious. “Haven’t really thought about it.”
“Ever?”
He shook his head, his dark eyes almost wild with panic now. “I mean, I was in the rodeo, and I knew I didn’t want a family then, and then I came here, and I’ve never—” He swallowed hard and relaxed. “Remember how you’re the first woman to enter my cabin, ever?”
“Remember how I’ve only been inside once because of your cat?” Molly grinned though her stomach still quaked.
He chuckled. “Yeah.” He sobered and took her hand in his. “So what’s this really about?”
Her first instinct was to blow this off, make something up, move on. But something whispered to her to be upfront with him. “I don’t want children. I never have.”
Chapter Eleven
Emmett didn’t know how to respond to Molly. She seemed nervous yet also hopeful, and while he’d honestly never thought about having children, that didn’t mean he was opposed to kids. He liked Walker and Tess’s boys, and he’d been known to carry one of the twins on his shoulders when they went hiking.
“Can you not have kids?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I think I can. I’ve just never wanted them. I’m an only child, you know? And I never liked babysitting, and I barely know what to do with kids, and—”
“All right,” Emmett said, lifting his arm and tucking her into his side. “I honestly don’t care.” And he knew he’d spoken true as soon as the words left his mouth. “You don’t want children? That’s fine with me.”
“Really?” She peered at him like she didn’t believe.
“Sweetheart, I gave up making plans for my life when my mom walked out. I’m just livin’ day to day.”
She snuggled into his side, and while Megan’s baked beans and Tess’s chocolate cake called to him, he stayed in the moment, with Molly, until she said she was ready to go join the party.
July passed with waves of heat and hours of work with the horses. Emmett had let Molly name the Friesian, and with his rich brown coat and proud features, she’d named him Double Chocolate Latte.
Emmett hated it, but in a show of working together, he’d smiled and started calling the horse Chocolate for short. Molly used all three names every time, and Emmett had learned to ignore her as the weeks passed.
The cabin next to his got walls, and a roof, and designer wood to mimic the log cabin feel. He loathed the weekends when Blake would start hammering before dawn, stop during the heat of the day, and work as late as the sun would allow, and not only because Emmett got woken up before he’d like.
As the days wore on, Emmett realized why the cabin made him cringe every time he looked at it. He didn’t want Molly moving in next door. He wanted Molly to move in, period.
He’d started asking around town if someone would like to adopt a calico tabby cat. He’d kept everything quiet, so he hadn’t found anyone yet. And he wasn’t sure what he’d tell Molly even if he did.
Giving away the cat he loved seemed like it would take their relationship from “hey, I like you and we’re great together,” to “I’m thinking about marrying you.” Serious.
And Emmett wasn’t sure he was ready for serious. Molly spent a lot of time with the other ranch wives, leaving Emmett to seek out Grant on the evenings she was having a movie night, or a chocolate party, or a ladies’ picnic in the park.
On one such evening, Emmett stomped away from the horse barn after having brushed down all three horses and cleaned up after everyone else. Molly had left two hours earlier so she could get down to the salon and get her hair done before she and Tess were meeting some friends at the bakery. What they were doing there, Emmett didn’t know. The bakery closed at noon.
He left the homestead side of the lane and crossed to Cabin Row, frustrated by Blake standing outside the cabin wearing his tool belt. He’d been looking forward to an evening with ice cream, Tigress, and air conditioning. No hammering, no power tools, no noise, no conversation.
He lifted his hand in a wave, and Blake came over. “Hey, so what are you doin’ tonight?”
“Nothing.”
“My fiancée, Erin, is hosting this pie tasting at the bakery, and all the women will be gone. Landon’s grilling, and Walker’s bringing board games for the kids and cards for us. Rumor is Megan made salsa and artichoke dip before she left.”
Emmett did like Megan’s artichoke dip…. “I’m not really in the mood to hang out,” he said.
Blake’s eyebrows went up. “No? Does it bother you that Molly’s gone all the time?” He exhaled and didn’t wait for Emmett to answer. “Because it kind of annoys me. If Erin wants to make pie, I’d eat it.” He clapped his hands together, sending dust flying into the sunny air. “She says I work too much and don’t have time for pie.”
Emmett paused, hearing something in Blake’s voice. “Well, you do work a lot,” he said. “You run the whole farm, and then you do tons of construction on the side. Isn’t that how you met Erin in the first place? Fixin’ up the bakery?”
Blake nodded. “If Landon didn’t pay me so well, I’d tell him to get someone else to finish these cabins.”
“Kind of a waste if you ask me,” Emmett said.
“What do you mean?”
Emmett wasn’t sure what he meant, so he just shook his head. “They meetin’ at the homestead?”
“In twenty minutes.”
Emmett nodded, and said, “I have to shower. I might come over.”
“Better than being alone,” Blake called after him, but Emmett wasn’t so sure. He called Molly before he showered, but she didn’t answer. He texted a couple of times after he showered, and it wasn’t time for her little shindig to start yet, so he expected a response. He didn’t get one. He flipped his phone over and over as he sat on the bed, glad when Tigress jumped up next to him and meowed, rubbing against his arm.
“Hey, girl.” He stroked the cat while he tried to figure out if his device had gone on the fritz. It seemed to be working fine. So why hadn’t she answered?
He thumbed out another message and stared at it before hitting send. He didn’t want to bother her, and his heart seized when he realized how many times he’d contacted her without a response.
Her silence was her answer, and it was loud and clear. He suddenly didn’t want to be alone with his cat and Molly’s cold shoulder, so he got himself over to Landon’s, where the lights were cheery and the food delicious. He loaded up with cookies and milk and went to find the other single man on the ranch—Grant Ford.
The man had black sideburns
that went almost all the way to his chin, and they made Emmett smile every time. “Hey.”
Grant gave him an easy smile, the way he always did. “Horses behaving?”
“As much as the cows probably are.”
“Which means they’re not.”
Emmett dunked his cookie into his milk and chuckled, everything in him starting to loosen. He’d taken one bite when Grant said, “So I started dating a teacher down in town,” with a fair bit of swagger.
The glass of milk Emmett held slipped in his fingers. “You did?” he asked around a mouthful of cookie and milk.
Grant nodded, seemingly pleased with himself. “It’s new. Maybe a couple of weeks.”
“Great,” Emmett said. “Great.” But it didn’t feel great to Emmett. It felt like Grant was going to fall in love with this teacher and leave Emmett the only one at the ranch without anyone to come home to.
He set his cookies aside and checked his phone. Nothing from Molly.
Emmett saddled Chocolate the following morning and tethered Beauty to the Friesian before taking them down the dirt road and out through the fields. Molly hadn’t called, not even when she’d gotten in last night. Not even when he’d texted to ask her if they should train Chocolate that morning or go riding.
The radio silence suffocated him, and he’d made his own decision. He didn’t like being left out of the conversation, and he’d realized how hurt she’d been when they’d gone to Cheyenne.
He glanced back the way he’d come, but the homestead and Cabin Row were distant dots on the horizon. The stream was merely a trickle now, but the horses still managed to find something to drink. Emmett sat on the bank, with the sun on his back and his thoughts as far and wide as the horizon.
He wasn’t even sure what was going on with Molly, because she hadn’t called or texted. He sighed; he really wanted to stop thinking about her. Three months ago, he’d come out here and been happy and peaceful. He hadn’t wanted for anything then. Hadn’t even considered that something was missing in his life.
