License to Love: Holiday Box Set (Contemporary Romance)

by Kristen James

  Trent looked like he wanted to touch her, reach out to her. He didn’t, of course. Maybe she was being silly.

  “That’s fine,” he said. “Just in case someone is looking for you, it might be a good idea. And maybe you’ll remember now that you’re back in your hometown.”

  “Hometown?”

  He looked puzzled now. “Oh, I was going to ask you about that. Mol, you lived your whole life here.”

  Molly felt stunned and knew it showed. Why had her parents told her they moved around often? She had to blink back sudden tears.

  Looking up, Molly saw the concern on Trent’s face. She couldn’t miss how rugged and handsome he was, or how he made emotions swirl through her. She didn’t remember feeling attraction in the last four years. Her neighbor in Redding sure felt it for her and wasn’t shy about it. She just didn’t feel the same, and had tried to tell him she only wanted to be friends. She needed friends.

  “I searched all over for you.”

  Why would you do that? She didn’t respond, and was glad she didn’t when he continued.

  “We followed all kinds of empty leads.”

  She realized he was speaking as a police officer. All this time, she’d wondered why no one seemed to miss her.

  “We got coverage in the news, sent your pictures to police here and in Washington, California, and Idaho.”

  The conversation lagged. She didn’t want him to leave, though. “So who are you, Trent Williams?”

  “Me?” Trent studied her like she was somehow the answer to her own question. “I grew up here, too, on a farm a little ways out of town with my one sibling, Alicia. I grew up wanting to be a cop, and now I am. That’s about it.”

  She didn’t believe that. “I’ve noticed a few things about you.”

  He gave her a small, slow smile. “So tell me.”

  “The way you stand.” She pulled her body up straight, demonstrating, and started laughing without any unease at teasing him. It made him grin.

  “It’s not about being cocky, you know. I know what you’re thinking. But stand up and I’ll show you.”

  She rose, arms folded across her chest because she felt like she was under a microscope now that his attention was on her.

  “See?”

  “I don’t get it.”

  He gave her a nudge and caught her by the arm before she stumbled. He pointed down to her feet. “Put your feet out like this.” He nudged her again. “It’s about safety. Now pretend you have a gun under this arm and you don’t want me to get it.”

  “Can I run?”

  He didn’t smile or laugh, so she looked up at him, wondering what he was thinking. She had to look away so his eyes wouldn’t hypnotize her.

  “Put this foot back. It’s your gun leg.” He tapped her thigh. “Keep this side of your body turned away.”

  “So if I ever carry a gun, I’ll know how to keep it safe,” she said.

  “Well, now you know why cops stand the way they do.”

  She liked that smile of his. It felt so nice to be laughing and talking with someone like him. They sat again and he told her about Mark Stone, his friend and fellow cop, who was a few years older than him but single as well, so they hung out often and had things in common. He told her, “We’re the only single guys on the force in this one horse town, so we stick together.”

  There was a hint of loneliness in his voice that made her want to reach out to him. She didn’t feel so alone anymore with him sitting by her. This time, it was her that reached for his hand. Their gazes met and held until he cleared his throat.

  “I came here meaning to tell you something important.” His tone scared her, so she reminded herself she’d come to Ridge City to discover who she was. “The department is reopening the case now that you’re back. It’s strange anyway, but it’s even more complicated now that we know your parents died. This could possibly be a double murder.”

  The uneasiness she noticed when he had first arrived returned, and she had to say, “I don’t know why we left.” She didn’t add that it could be her fault. Or maybe she did something awful that forced them to leave. She felt in her heart it couldn’t be true, but she didn’t remember. One look at Trent’s eyes told her he didn’t know, either.

  “We don’t know much at this point, but I’d like to answer these questions for all of us.”

  Did he trust her? And could she trust him? Her words were about to gush out, when he said, “I’ll let you go to bed now, but I’ll come back tomorrow.”

  They rose in unison and slowly walked to the door.

  “Goodnight, Molly, and welcome home.”

  Chapter Two

  Molly couldn’t help the grin on her face as her brown and tan horse trotted beside Thunder, Trent’s charcoal colored stallion. They rode side by side at the edge of the pasture, next to the tree line. “I know how to do this. I still can’t believe it!”

  Trent had told her how much they used to ride together and she’d been intrigued. The experience felt new and yet familiar when she placed her foot and swung up on Galaxy like she’d been riding for years.

  She was too afraid to venture away from her parent’s home in California, but riding through the countryside took her mind off her problems and new worries that coming to Ridge City had brought. Sitting atop the horse, she felt free and happy, and she wondered, even hoped, the feeling was a memory of how she felt years ago when she rode.

  “This sure beats yesterday,” she said with a giggle and then realized her slip. “I mean, this is a lot more fun than visiting the police station.”

  She had been thinking about how nervous she was at first. Now Trent wore casual clothes and they laughed with ease.

  “Galaxy sure was happy to see you,” he said. “And you hopped up there before I showed you how, so you must remember some things.”

  He had noticed. Molly tingled with pride in herself. It felt so good knowing she could do something. She smiled at him. “Things like walking, riding a bike, and I guess riding a horse.”

  While Trent smiled back, it wasn’t a sure smile as he searched her face. He seemed to shake himself and look away. Maybe, when she’d felt so comfortable about mounting the horse, he thought she remembered everything. If only she could.

  Molly looked down at Galaxy’s shaking tan mane as they rode. When she first saw the horses and how majestic they looked dancing around each other, she knew she loved to ride. Maybe she didn’t remember, but she felt it. The horse had whinnied and danced when Trent brought her from the pasture to see Molly.

  “Did I tell you that Alicia let you help name him?”

  “Really?” Molly looked forward to meeting his sister, sometime. That name still didn’t bring any emotion back except anxiety about meeting someone who had known her so well.

  She patted her horse and breathed in a deep breath of moist forest smell. She wore blue jeans and a pink sweater, enjoying the soft feel of it since warmer weather was on the way. Spring daffodils bloomed beside their trail. The trees were still wet from a recent rain, but everything was budding or starting to bloom. The sun shone through the leaves for parts of the day, and the wind wasn’t as cold as when she first arrived.

  “Yesterday and today went by so fast,” Molly mused out loud. “Everything went by so slow in California.”

  “Life here did, too.” He didn’t look at her so she couldn’t see the emotion in his eyes, but his soft tone sounded sad.

  Trent nodded to their right and they turned the horses to follow the trail, winding uphill through the pine and oak trees. He moved his horse ahead of hers on the path lined with ferns. Water drops fell out of the tree branches, landing on them and creating their own personal rain shower. Molly giggled.

  “It’s beautiful here,” she told Trent, knowing she didn’t need to. She could see how much he loved the land and his horses.

  “We spent half our childhoods out here in these woods.”

  “Was I a tomboy?”

  “No, but you didn�
�t mind getting dirty.” He got a gleam in his eyes, and she wanted to stare but needed to watch where she was going. He said, “I feel a little selfish, keeping you all to myself. Other people are going to be glad to see you. My sister Alicia has been waiting for you as much as me.”

  As much as me? The phrase caught her off guard, and he probably saw it when she turned to stare at him. She didn’t need a memory to know her eyes usually told everyone what she was feeling. His gaze searched her again, looking for the old Molly, she guessed, and she had to look away. Alicia would look at her and want to see her old friend as well. Could Molly give them that person? Could she face them knowing they so desperately wanted to find the person they knew? Again, she felt the urge to run back to California and just move on, pretending her old life hadn’t existed.

  No, she couldn’t live like that. She knew she couldn’t hide from Alicia and the other people she no doubt knew here, but she liked spending time alone with Trent too.

  She sighed. “I’ll have to see them at some point, and I did come here to remember things, didn’t I?”

  Trent watched his Molly as he led them through the forest, still blown away that she was back alive and healthy... and happy for the moment. Yet, so many questions and doubts stood between them. Why did she disappear? And why did she come back now? He wanted the truth, and he wanted Molly to get her memory back. If she remembered their time together from childhood, maybe all those moments would mean something. Right now they were just pictures in his head.

  He watched her sway with the horse and throw him a smile. Yeah, she was having fun, and they were making a new picture, a memory that both of them knew about. Still, the unknowns haunted him, even in the quiet, misty woods.

  He wanted everyone in the town to believe in him again, and Molly could do that for him if she knew what happened. A few people were still suspicious and blamed Trent for the Andersons’ disappearance. Things that big don’t happen in small towns and people needed someone to blame.

  She glanced his way and smiled. “I’m so glad we came out here.” She spoke softly, her eyes glowing with pleasure.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “It’s real nice riding with you again.” It felt right. It almost felt like they hadn’t lost the last four years. For a minute, he tried to pretend they hadn’t. But maybe he wouldn’t appreciate this so much then. As things stood, he had her back, in a way. A big way, but he needed to get to the bottom of this too.

  He’d spent the last four years searching for her and praying that one day she’d come back to him and clear up all the doubt. How could she without her memory? She had walked right by him without recognizing him. Talk about a heart breaking moment. Then, he heard her story and swore he’d find a way to bring her memory back. Or more importantly, bring her back to all of them.

  Mark Stone questioned Molly’s story and raised doubts at the precinct. That was his job, plus he was acting in Trent’s best interests by playing the devil’s advocate, but Trent still felt stabbed in the back. They’d traded a few angry words over the subject, so it was probably for the best that he was off the case, and work, for a while. Besides his two weeks of vacation time, he could also take personal time. His boss made that clear, if he needed it to deal with all this.

  Trent felt relieved to keep away from Mark for another reason: Mark had asked what Molly had said when Trent told her about their relationship. Thing was, he hadn’t. He couldn’t tell her about them now that he knew about the car accident that took her parents’ lives. If he revealed some of their relationship, she might realize he was a suspect in her parents’ case, just as she was. Her reappearance caused some of the old suspicions about him to come back to life. She needed a friend to trust right now, and the truth would scare her.

  “Look!” She whispered loudly, pointing at a spooked deer as it jaunted off.

  “I’m surprised that’s the first one we’ve seen today.”

  He could tell she enjoyed the quietness as they rode the horses slowly through the forest. Pretending to get lost in the beauty around them, Trent thought back to when he and Molly were together. About a month before Molly disappeared, he’d proposed and she’d been waltzing around with a modest diamond on her ring finger. There weren’t many people in Ridge City who had a diamond on their wedding band, which made Molly even more proud.

  This new Molly wasn’t anything like the wild one he knew then. He couldn’t forget how she looked as she sashayed down the sidewalk, her hips swinging slowly under her nice pants. She looked polished, like a city girl. She seemed to have more money now than before. Maybe her parents had life insurance.

  Today she looked more like the old Molly, in blue jeans for riding and her hair damp from the misty air. Whether in jeans or slacks, she always looked good. She smiled when she caught him looking her way, but they still didn’t speak. They were on the back end of the path heading toward the stables, and he sadly realized the ride hadn’t triggered any memories for her. Unless she just hadn’t told him.

  She turned her light brown eyes on him. His body jumped, remembering her red lips on his, and how he tangled his fingers in that thick, dark hair. I can’t take this! He almost moaned and had to clear his throat to cover it. Next, he had to force his hands to loosen their grip on his reins. He shifted in the saddle, restless and tense with want for her. She sat so close but so far away at the same time.

  Her eyes looked troubled when she glanced over several times in a row. She must have felt his mood. He couldn’t fake a smile so they remained silent as they emerged from the woods and turned onto the pasture path, heading back.

  At the stables, he got the brushes and they cared for the horses together.

  “This seems natural, too,” she told him, then added, “But I don’t think…”

  “That you’re really remembering anything yet?”

  She made an angry sound then.

  “Mol, don’t rush it.”

  A sigh. “There’s so much to be frustrated about.”

  He knew it, but that didn’t change it. Not sure what to say, he led his horse to the gate and opened it for both horses to return to the field. They walked back to the truck and he reached an arm around her, hoping that would ease her tension.

  She looked down and he wanted to pull her into his arms, love away her sadness. When they reached her door, he held onto her a minute longer.

  “Thank you for today.” Her eyes looked a bit shiny as she looked up into his.

  “Hey, there’s plenty more for us.” He caught himself at the very last second before he leaned down to kiss her. Shaken that he slipped like that, he stepped away from her and opened the truck door.

  When he reached the main road, an older song came on that they used to sing together. Molly started humming and looked happier.

  “We can come back and ride any time,” he said, deciding he needed to enjoy their time together instead of brooding over what they’d lost. He’d headed back to her hotel since they hadn’t discussed any plans. What was the protocol for this? Act like they had just met, or whisk her away to his house, like he would have done four years ago?

  He settled on, “How about dinner?”

  “Dinner sounds great.”

  Grinning, he turned around and headed for a little diner by the bridge. “Does Sally’s sound good? Good country food.” He wanted to add how they used to eat there all the time, but he’d already decided to enjoy the evening and not push things.

  “Sure.”

  Sally, the owner, wasn’t there that night like she was sometimes, and he suddenly knew that was a good thing. She’d known Molly pretty well. Their waitress tonight had been hired about two years before, so she knew Trent but didn’t ask Molly any questions. People had to be talking though.

  Thankfully the two people who stopped simply said hi and welcomed Molly back. A group of college kids came in and were laughing pretty loud, so they had something to eavesdrop on and laugh about.

  He had always loved her smile and how much he
r entire face lit up. She looked at him now, laughing softly. Then tears came to her eyes.

  “I would have never guessed I’d find you here.”

  Her serious words sent his heart spinning. “You remember now?”

  Her smile fell, sending his hopes right after it. “No, I just meant I didn’t think I’d find anyone who would help me so much. I felt pretty alone, but you’re here.”

  He smiled warmly at her then but caught sight of a tall brunette walking through the diner behind Molly. He stiffened, realized he was holding his breath and forced himself to let it out. Molly looked worried and turned to glance behind her.

  It wasn’t Bev, thankfully, because she would throw a hissy fit right there if she saw them together. Molly watched him nervously now.

  “Sorry, I thought that was someone else.” To explain, he added, “I didn’t want you to face that yet.”

  He felt grateful she didn’t press for a further explanation. A few years ago she would have, but this was completely different. Like they were two different people, or maybe the same people starting over.

  She’d been studying him and said suddenly, “This does feel familiar.” He could see her searching and reaching for a history to match this feeling between them. “Maybe,” she added at last with a sigh.

  “But what were you thinking?”

  “Well, I don’t feel out of place here at all. Maybe there’s something there. But then why did I forget about it? Why was I in California? Now I’m not sure my parents told me the truth.”

  It seemed all her questions came crashing down on any hope of recovering her memory. He touched her hand on the table, wanting to reassure her but didn’t know what to say.

  After dinner, Trent had the same urge to stretch the evening out, but it was getting late and, in reality, she didn’t know him that well any more. He pulled up to the main door of her hotel and let the truck idle. Mol reached for his hand first, just a light touch to say goodbye.