30. Mollie
CHAPTER 30
Mollie
SEX AND THE CITY
I never thought my seven-hundred-square-foot condo was small until Cash Rivers walked into it.
Standing inside the kitchen in his Wranglers and Lucchese boots, he looks like a giant. A very handsome, very scruffy giant who I’m struggling not to climb like a tree right now.
He sets down our bags and looks around. “This is nice, Mollie.”
“Thanks.” I watch his face as his gaze moves over the open space of the kitchen and living room. “It’s my cute little bachelorette pad.”
“It’s you.” His eyes meet mine and he grins. “I like it.”
The full feeling in my chest spills over. Of course Cash likes it. Of course he’s not intimidated or put off by it. He’s secure in who he is.
Makes me realize how insecure the other men in my life have been. Men like Palmer.
City lights are coming alive outside the windows. The summer haze has cleared, and while I can’t see any stars, the sky is wide open, dusky blue, edged with the pale orange of the sunset .
It’s a pretty view. Granted, it doesn’t compare with sunsets on the ranch. Few, if any, places do.
We went right to the office of Mom’s legal team when we arrived in Dallas earlier this afternoon. Cash sat beside me for all three hours it took to go through everything and sign the necessary documents. The team doesn’t typically work on Saturdays, but they made an exception for me.
I expected it to be more emotional than it was, but I kept my calm. By signing those documents, I basically acknowledged that I don’t need to be anywhere near the ranch in order to get my inheritance. If I wanted to, I’d never have to go back to Hartsville ever again.
The stipulation made all of this so much easier because it took that choice away from me. Now I have to decide what the future looks like. I don’t want to sell the ranch. I can’t imagine never seeing Patsy and Sally and John B and the Rivers boys again.
I can’t imagine Cash being anyone else’s foreman.
Lord, this man’s rubbed off on me. He’s possessive as hell, and now I am too.
What Mom will have to say about all this, I don’t know. She had an event tonight with some friends, so we’re meeting her tomorrow at our usual spot for lunch.
Mom was silent on the phone when I told her yesterday that Cash was coming with me to Dallas.
“Is he your boyfriend?” she asked at last.
“Yes. And I’d like you to meet him.” I waited for my stomach to hurt, the way it always did when Mom got that tone. The one that let me know she was disappointed.
Yes, I was so nervous, I shook. But my stomachache didn’t make an appearance.
“He’s a cowboy. From your father’s ranch,” Mom said.
“He’s our foreman, so he pretty much runs everything, yeah.”
“Oh.” More silence. “So what’s y’all’s plan, then? I imagine he doesn’t want to leave Hartsville. None of them do.”
I didn’t know how to answer that. I knew it would freak Mom out if I told her the truth—that Cash and I don’t know what our plans are yet, but that we’re in love and trying to figure out a way to make a life together.
“Let’s take this one step at a time,” I replied carefully. “Can you just promise to give him a chance? I know you don’t like cowboys?—”
“For good reason! I swear to God, Mollie, if I find out he’s trying to tie you down to that place?—”
“Cash isn’t like that. Trust me, okay? I’ve never let you down.”
Mom sighed. “I know, sweetheart. You have a good head on your shoulders. But I’d like to think I do, too, and then your dad showed up, and we all know what happened then. Cowboys are selfish. They’ll make you think they’re in love?—”
“Can you not talk about my dad like that?”
I could practically hear Mom blinking in surprise. “Goodness, Mollie, what’s gotten into you? You’re asking me to give this guy a chance, but I can already tell he’s worked a number on you.”
In bed, yes . And in life, too, I guess, in all the best ways.
“If you’re saying that he’s helped open my eyes, then yes, that’s true. But he’s not pulling a fast one on me. You’d realize that if you met him. Remember you promised you’d do better?”
“Fine,” Mom huffed. “I’ll meet him. I have to run. See y’all tomorrow.”
She’d hung up without saying goodbye. I haven’t heard from her since.
Looking up at Cash, I wonder what he’ll think of my mother. I told him my conversation with her didn’t go well, but I spared him the details. He wasn’t surprised. But he did admit to being nervous to meet her, which I thought was kinda cute.
“Should we christen my place or what?” I saunter across the kitchen and wrap my arms around his waist. “Your cabin’s practically a holy site by now. We have some catching up to do here in Dallas.”
Still grinning, he reaches down to grab my ass. “You do say God’s name a lot when you’re with me. ‘Oh, God, Cash.’ ‘God, that feels too good, Cash.’ ‘Oh my God, don’t stop.’” His hand moves to the small of my back. “I hope you weren’t plannin’ on sleeping much while we’re here.”
I reach around to grab his ass. It feels as firm and delicious as it looks. “I’ve never been so happy to be so sleep-deprived in my life.”
He leans down to kiss my mouth. I melt my hips into his, my body rising on a familiar tide of arousal. I reach out to tug his shirt out of his jeans, but Cash grabs my wrist.
“Isn’t Wheeler comin’ over?”
“Oh. Yeah. Wow. You’re right, she’ll be here”—I glance at the clock on the stove—“any minute. Sorry, you distracted me.”
I turn back to Cash to see him smirk. “And I ain’t even wearin’ my hat.”
I’m still smiling when I open the door for Wheeler ten minutes later.
“You’re back !” she cries before pulling me in for a hug. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I’m so happy to see you! Look how tan you are! You look…happy, friend.”
I’ve obviously told my best friend about Cash. Maybe that’s why I blush so furiously—I assume she’s hinting at the fact that I look good because I’m getting laid.
Really, why not accept the compliment? I am getting laid, and I am happy.
Really fucking happy.
“I’ve missed you,” I say. “Gorgeous dress, as always. ”
Wheeler steps back and kicks up her foot, her dress falling back to reveal a pair of metallic-turquoise boots that are the cornerstone of our next collection.
I gasp. “Oh my God, they’re here!”
“First pair off the assembly line,” she says proudly. “Aren’t they the tits?”
“I think I like you already.” Cash emerges from the bedroom and holds out his hand. “Wheeler, I’m Cash. Pleasure.”
Wheeler’s eyes bulge as they move up, up, up. She’s petite, barely five feet tall, and Cash towers over her.
She literally stares as she absently takes his hand. “Hey. Hi. Cash. Ha. Hello. Mollie told me about you, but…”
“Wheeler,” I warn.
She turns her wide eyes to me. “What? You could’ve prepared me a little more. There are cowboys, and then there are cowboys .”
“She’s right,” Cash says solemnly. “I’m the second kind.”
I want to slap him and kiss him at the same time.
“Since when are you so cocky?” I ask, knowing full well what his answer will be.
One side of his mouth hitches up. “Since forever.”
“Oh, my.” Wheeler puts her free hand on her chest. “I am so glad you came to visit us in Dallas, Cash.”
“So you and Mollie go way back.” Cash reaches for the huge tote bag she’s got slung over her shoulder. “I’m dyin’ to know what she was like in high school. She was a troublemaker, wasn’t she?”
Wheeler is still staring as she lets him take her bag. “Good guess. She was feral.”
“No, I wasn’t!”
Wheeler leans in to whisper conspiratorially in Cash’s ear, “She worked hard, but she played harder. I certainly wasn’t the one who set our dorm room on fire. ”
“That was an accident.” I follow them into the kitchen. “I still think someone else turned my straightener back on.”
“It was a cigarette,” Wheeler says. “It would’ve burned down the whole building if I didn’t think to grab the fire extinguisher.”
“Thank God Mollie has you,” Cash says.
Wheeler smiles up at him. “Right? Lucky bitch.”
She turns her head to give me a look over her shoulder. Holy fuck , she mouths.
My face hurts from smiling so hard. My heart flutters as I watch the man I love and my best friend in the world lovingly talk shit about me as they get to know one another.
Despite being in a new place with someone he doesn’t know, Cash is completely at ease. He’s charming. Funny. A good listener. He asks intelligent questions and thoughtfully answers the questions Wheeler asks him about the ranch. My heart flutters when he brags about my cowgirl skills.
The only alcohol I have in the condo is a bottle of the Opus One wine. I open it and pour us each a generous glass, marveling at how much life has changed since I opened the last bottle of this stuff with Palmer.
I’m in the same condo. Opening the same bottle of wine. But everything else is different. Not only does the man I’m with want to stay, but I want him to stay, too, and I’d be crushed if he left.
The loneliness I’m only realizing now that I felt after Palmer would leave, the quiet, has been replaced by the happy chatter of dear friends and the anticipation of a night of really, really great sex.
“Love your boots, Wheeler,” Cash is saying as I hand him his wine. “From the new collection, right?”
Wheeler eyes me over her glass. She keeps doing that—giving me these looks, a small smile on her lips.
“You’re up-to-date on your Bellamy Brooks, I see.” Wheeler turns back to Cash. “If we made men’s boots, you’d be first on the list to model them.”
“Would I have to take off my shirt?”
“Yes.”
“Count me in.” He grabs my leg when I try to sit in the chair next to his. Without another word, he guides me onto his lap and puts his hand on my thigh. “Y’all have some real talent. The boots you make are beautiful.”
Wheeler grins. “Coming from a cowboy, that’s high praise. I have a few more pairs from our new collection in that bag.” She nods at her tote on the counter. “Want to see?”
“Wheeler!” I jump up. “You should’ve said something.”
She sips her wine before getting to her feet. “Excuse me for wanting to get to know your boyfriend first.”
Cash chuckles. “Thank you kindly.”
I flick on the overhead lights and Wheeler sets the boots out, one at a time, on my kitchen counter. There’s a pair of short chestnut-brown ones with star-shaped metallic-gold cutouts that are breathtaking. Another knee-high pair is ivory, embroidered with pastel pink and orange flowers.
The mid-calf pairs, though, are my favorite. They’re like the ones Wheeler is wearing, only in different colors: silver, dark gray, lavender. Each pair is slightly different. The silver is metallic with classic Western embroidery that’s so subtle, it’s barely noticeable. The gray is python print with a rounded toe and Long Live Cowgirls sewn onto the shaft in candy-apple red.
The lavender boots steal the show, though. We named them The Madonna for a reason, and that reason is they absolutely rock. They’re metallic, and the embroidery is done in dark shades of magenta and purple, which really pop against the lavender.
Picking up the boots, I marvel at how girlie and ridiculous and perfect they are.
“How’d I know you’d pick those up first?” Cash rises with a small grunt and saunters over to the kitchen. “Pretty. Just like you.”
“You know, you don’t have to lay it on so thick.” I lean my head against his shoulder. “You’re getting laid tonight regardless of how much you compliment me.”
“Is that a subtle hint for me to chug this wine?” Wheeler holds up her glass.
Cash laughs. “Stay. And I mean it, Mollie. This is incredible work.”
“Y’all are so cute, it’s almost sick.” Wheeler takes a long sip of her wine. “But, yeah, this collection is fire.”
I set down the lavender boots. “Should I add these to the closet?”
“The closet?” Cash asks.
Wheeler wags her eyebrows. “You haven’t told him about the closet?”
“Now I need to see the closet.” Cash’s lips twitch.
Can you get a headache from smiling so much? I’m about to find out.
“Fine. I’ll show you the closet.”
I head toward the front door but hang a quick left. There’s a single door tucked into a little nook back here. I open it and turn on the lights, then step aside to let Wheeler and Cash through.
“It’s technically a second bedroom,” I explain. “But we have enough boots to make it a closet-slash-unofficial-office-space.”
He lets out a whistle when he takes in rack upon rack of neatly organized cowboy boots that line three walls. “That’s a lot of boots, ladies.”
“There’s a copy of every pair we’ve ever made.” Wheeler bends down to drop the pair she’s holding on to the floor. “Plus some extras that didn’t make the cut. Obviously, we warehouse most of our product when we’re about to launch a collection. But this is a place to get creative.” She motions to the corkboards that line the fourth wall. “We don’t have a real office yet, so this is our spot to brainstorm.”
“It helps seeing all the boots we’ve done,” I add. “That way, we can riff on old designs without repeating them verbatim.”
Cash looks at me, eyes twinkling. “Color me impressed. This is awesome.”
“You’re awesome.” Wheeler nudges him with her elbow. “But that’s beside the point. Where are we gonna put this new collection?” She twists her lips as she surveys the room.
We don’t have much space in here. In fact, there’s not a single empty spot on the boot racks.
“We’ll get a real office.” I reach over to adjust a stray bit of thread on a corkboard. “We can afford it now, I guess.”
“Yeah.” Cash is looking around the room. “You could do that…”
“Or?” Wheeler turns her attention to him. “You sound like you have an idea.”
“I might.” His eyes catch on mine before flicking back to the boots. “Sounds like y’all need more of a studio than an office. Because that’s what y’all seem to enjoy most, right? The design part of all this?”
My heart flutters. Fuck this guy for paying such close attention to…well, everything.
“You’re good,” Wheeler says.
Cash laughs. “Something to consider—that’s all.”
That’s all. You only stole my heart, and now you’re stealing my friend’s, too.
I still don’t know how Cash and I are going to make this work.
But I’m relatively certain I’ll die on this hill. Because I don’t think I’ll be able to let this man go.
I practically fling myself at him the second Wheeler leaves. Chuckling, Cash stumbles backward, curling his arms around me as I suck on his neck .
“What’s this about?”
“Thank you.”
He presses his erection against me and reaches for the zipper at the back of my dress. “For what?”
“Loving my people.”
“You love ’em, so I love ’em too.” Cash pulls back to meet my eyes. “I’m only takin’ notes from you, honey. You love my people well. So well, I think they’re startin’ to like you more than they like me.”
I furrow my brow. “Of course they like me more. You’re a grumpy asshole.”
He leans in to nip at the corner of my lips. “That fuckin’ mouth.”
“It’s a problem.” I reach between us and cup his dick through his jeans. “What are you gonna do about it?”
“Oh, honey.” His hands find my shoulders. He pushes me down. “I got some ideas.”
Laughing, I sink to my knees as Cash rips open his zipper. “What kind of ideas?”
“Ideas that keep that sassy mouth busy. Open, honey.”
“Only for you.”
“That’s right.” His eyes go hazy when I reach up to pull his dick out of his pants. “Only me.”