I should move.
A good guy would slip out of this bed and let her be. But really, a good guy probably wouldn’t have let this happen at all.
I did not move.
The feeling like I finally had everything I’d ever wanted forced me to stay and look at her a little bit longer. Her face was shaped like a heart and I had the inescapable feeling that she may have just stolen mine. Looking at her like this, sleeping and peaceful, gave me an odd ache that made my heart beat faster the longer I stared.
Blinking to clear the remaining haze of sleep from my eyes, I reached out again to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Her cheek was soft beneath my fingertips, a sweet smile crossed her face as her eyelids fluttered open. “Garrett,” she murmured turning her face into my touch. “I knew I could help you sleep.”
I could roll away and not kiss her. I could get up and make coffee or tea. I could do so many other, smarter things right now but . . . this was everything. My whole world, the air in my lungs, the beat of my heart, every thought in my head centered around her at this moment and I didn’t want it to stop. She was so warm and soft pressed against me, so real, so perfect, and always, always, mine.
“Molly,” I murmured, tightening my arm around her waist as I shifted to my side to face her.
“Yes,” she whispered. Our past flowed into the present like a river while memories skipped over the surface like stones, each one a reason why this was always meant to happen.
With her hands in my hair, she pulled my head down to hers. Her sweet pink lips were an invitation I could no longer resist. But she pulled away before I could get a taste of her. “I don’t know how to do this with you, Garrett.”
“Do what?” I asked anyway, though I knew what she meant.
“Kiss you . . .” Her whispered breath on my skin urged me closer.
“Don’t you like this anticipation? It’s going to feel so good, Molly.” I brushed her hair back to cradle her beautiful face in my palm, dipping my head low to place a kiss on her forehead.
“It already feels too good to be true.” Her hand pressed against my chest above my heart. “You feel it too, don’t you?” Her eyes flitted to mine, wide and golden brown like amber in the sunlight. Her dark eyelashes fanned over her cheeks as her eyes drifted closed.
“Yes, I feel it.” My voice was hoarse, thick with emotion and barely leashed need, while my heart beneath her palm raced out of control.
She surged up and met my mouth with her own. Her lips, soft and full, parted beneath mine as her hands threaded into my hair and her tongue met mine for a soft, quick caress just once before she took it away with a moan.
I was so wrapped up in her I didn’t immediately recognize the sound of my front door opening and closing until I heard heels clicking over the hardwood floor, rapidly approaching the bedroom door.
This moment was over before it had a chance to really begin.
I broke the kiss with a groan and pulled away, throwing the covers back to stand up. My chest heaved as I watched her sit up to clutch the blanket to her neck. “Stay here. Someone is in the house.” She nodded once before I stepped out and shut the door behind myself.
Chapter 9
Molly
I fumbled around on the bedside table for my hearing aid, then stood up, looking around for something murdery to grab so I could assist. I’m not one of those horror-movie chicks who’s gonna hide out and let her, well, whatever Garrett was to me now—best? Boy? Because were we dating now? Whatever-friend—be chopped up by some serial killer or eaten by Bigfoot. And let’s not forget about the X-Files aliens lurking about. Locating a baseball bat in the corner, I snagged it and threw open the door.
What I saw made me want to dart back into his room and hide in the little bubble we’d created together overnight.
“Molly? What is she doing here, Garrett?” Garrett’s ex-fiancée stood, in all her freaking gorgeous strawberry blond glory, with her arms around his neck, in the middle of the living room. She was tall, thin, elegant, gorgeous—in other words, everything I was not. He fit with her in a way I would never be able to match.
She had broken his heart. The word around town was that she left a note on his kitchen counter while he slept. Obviously, I had never talked to him about it myself or mustered up the courage to ask Becky Lee if that’s what really happened. After she’d gone, her momma told everyone she just wasn’t ready to be a wife.
I hated her.
For no good reason, I had always hated her, like, at-first-sight, wanted-to-punch-her-face-off hatred.
Belatedly—as in, just now—I realized why.
Garrett had always been mine, even when he wasn’t. His engagement to her had meant there was no hope left for me.
So, it was never hatred.
It was pathetic, out-of-control jealousy instead.
The bat slipped from my hand to clatter to the floor as I dashed to the front door. My purse and keys sat on the table next to it. I grabbed them and ran out, slamming the door closed.
To my horror, I burst into tears. I almost never cried. I was so very good about nipping my feelings in the bud, burying them, or denying I even had feelings at all. But seeing her here, arms thrown around Garrett’s neck, his hands at her waist, hurt too much to contain it. With a rough swipe of my arm beneath my eyes, I wiped my tears, but it didn’t stop the flow. In my haste to slam the door shut, I dropped my keys. “Ugh! What the hell?” As I bent to retrieve them the door opened, and Garrett stepped outside. With a lurch, I hauled myself up, abandoning my keys to run off toward the forest, wincing as dried pine needles pricked at my bare feet.
“Molly, come back!” I stopped at the tree line. I had no plan. Was I going to run off into the forest like a crazy person? With no shoes and wearing nothing but Garrett’s big T-shirt and a pair of undies?
What was wrong with me?
The usual was wrong with me. All drama, no plans, reacting to stuff before I thought it through.
“I don’t want to.” I stood there facing the trees and probably a few ax-murderers, and maybe a rabid squirrel? If there were aliens out there, I wished they would just abduct me right now and get me the hell out of here.
“Come on, Coop. Please come back.” He called me Coop. Not cutie, not even Molly. Coop, just like when we were kids, just like when we were friends. Just like the last time I saw him in town with her. My body swiveled in place before my mind could force myself to run away from him. I needed to get my keys and I needed to get the hell out of here. I also did not need to be here for their joyous reunion. He bent to pick up my keys and stepped off the porch to head in my direction. “I’ll get rid of her. Let’s go back inside.”
“We both know this whole thing was a bad idea. This just proves it.”
His head jerked back in surprise. “What are you talking about? This? It’s nothing. She barged in. I didn’t invite her here. I didn’t even know she was back in town.”
“I know you love her. You were always with her, you were—”
His jaw clenched with frustration. “And you always had a boyfriend, didn’t you, Molly? She left me, remember? She is in the past, just like your Chrises. Don’t go.” He reached out as if to touch my face, but I backed out of his reach. “Please don’t cry, this is nothing to—”