Chapter Twenty-Four
My alarm wakes me up,and I silence it, wiping the sleep from my eyes as I sit up from the lumpy old couch in my dad’s living room. I look at my phone to see that it is 5 a.m. and congratulate myself for finally waking up on time. I slip on my shoes and grab my bag, taking care to be quiet before slipping through the front door. The rain is just a light sprinkle now as I slide into my truck and open my app to see that the storm system has passed, just like Molly said it would, and I shake my head. Of course, the storm would go and follow the General’s demands. Why wouldn’t it? I start up my truck and make my way to the dock. I need to check the plane and the boat to make sure I still have a home and a way to make a living before heading for Molly’s cottage.
Willow Cove doesn’t look too much worse for the wear, but there are a few trees down and a couple of power lines with them. King will most likely be at his bakery right now, making sure everything is alright, before moving onto his surf shop, so I’ll peek in on his shop before heading to the dock, just so he has a little peace of mind. I park my truck and make my way around the little building, checking the windows for any damage before heading back to the truck.
Coop: Just checked out the shop. It’s totally smashed dude. Sorry.
King: Nice try, I checked it earlier.
Coop: Crud. I thought I would save you a trip by checking on it on the way to the dock.
King: So, by “checking it” you mean you were trying to get me to freak out by telling me my shop was destroyed?
Coop: Yeah. About that… Sorry. I couldn’t resist screwing with you. It all looks totally fine. But I guess you already knew that.
Darn. I was hoping I could do something nice for King for a change, but he gets up so dang early. Go figure, he would already have made his way to the shop by now. What is that saying, “The early bird gets the worm” or something or another? Shoot. I don’t want the worm if I have to get up that early. Keep the worm. I’ll just buy my own dang worms.
King: I checked the boat and the plane. I don’t know what I’m looking for on the plane, but the boathouse looks fine.
Coop: Thanks Bro. (Oh, and I do know what a bra is BTW). I’ll go check the plane before I head to Molly’s.
King: Sure you do. Thanks for “checking” the shop for me. It was a nice thought.
Coop: Sure thing. Later.
King: Oh, tell Molly that Georgie says hi, and she can’t wait for you to tell her that you love her! ??
Coop: Hi Georgie. I’ll tell Molly hi for you. Tell your hubby he is a traitor. Bye you two.
The conversations between King and myself will never be private again. I will have to remember that if and when King ever asks me to keep a secret for him.
I start the truck and head for the docks, hoping the plane weathered the storm just as well as the boat. I glance at my watch and see that it is almost 5:30 now. I really need to hurry, or Molly is going to be pissed at me for being late again. I jump out of the truck when it reaches the dock and scan the outside of the plane. Not seeing any damage from the storm, I move for the boathouse and jump on board, heading for the bathroom. Why is it that in the last few days, the only thing I have done on this boat is take a shower?
I turn the sink on, and no water comes out of the spout. Dang it. The water line must have gotten disconnected during the storm. I don’t have time to check the line right now, so I will just have to forego a shower for today and head over to Molly’s. Maybe I can grab a shower at her place before we leave? I still have a backpack packed from the other day, so I head back to the truck and make my way to Molly’s.
This place got hita lot harder than the rest of the town, from what I have seen so far. I maneuver the truck around a downed tree and avoid a few more large branches in the parking lot before parking the truck. Molly isn’t outside, and fear grips my insides as I think about how I found her the last time she wasn’t outside and ready to go. My feet take me to her door, and I try to tamp down my panic as I raise my hand to knock.
A few moments later, Molly opens the door, and I take in her splotchy face and the dark circles under her eyes before moving closer. I bring my hand up to her forehead and relax as it touches her skin. She doesn’t have a fever, so why does she look like she hasn’t slept in days?
She blinks up at me, and a small smile touches her lips before it disappears, along with her touch as she backs away into the room. I step in to follow her as she spins around, gathering things from different places, as my eyes catch on something unusual next to her bed, propelling me forward. “Hey, I know what this is. I used to build these all the time as a kid.” I peek under the corner, and before I have a chance to lift the blanket all the way, Molly snakes in between the blanket and me, stopping my progress.
“Uh.. yeah. I… um… Maybe.. Sorta… Built it last night when I got a little scared.” I try not to laugh. She looks so vulnerable and tired, and there’s a possibility she might have also been crying.
“Want to show me your fort?” She cracks a smile and moves inside, motioning for me to follow her. She grabs something from the floor and sits down, hiding it behind her as I take my seat under the little tent-like structure. This may have fit two small children back in the day and with how small Molly is, I can see her fitting under here comfortably, but I’m not a small dude. I scoot closer to her, my legs brushing up against hers, and I am almost certain she can hear my heart racing at our close proximity to one another.
“So, you slept in here all night?” Molly fidgets with her bracelet before meeting my eyes.
“If you want to call it sleeping, then yeah.” She looks back down at her bracelet, and when she looks up again, I can see the tears in her eyes.
No….. No. No. No. No. Please don’t cry, my brain shouts at her. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?But apparently my body knows what to do and is overriding my brain at the moment.
I reach up and pull her into my arms, and her body melts into mine as she sobs into my shirt. We just sit there as I hold her to me. Resting my cheek on her hair, I soak up the smell that is becoming my most favorite of them all. “It’s okay, Molly. You’re okay. I’m here.” I reassure her over and over again as her crying slows.
She pulls away, wiping the tears from her cheeks, “You are here, aren’t you?” She gets a funny look on her face, and she moves herself closer, her big brown eyes boring into mine, her perfect little nose centimeters from my own.
She is basically sitting on my lap now, but why is she just staring at me? How is she just staring at me? My senses are completely overwhelmed by this woman, and I am about to lose all self-control. But she is just staring at me like she doesn’t know what to do. Does she not know what to do? I move my hands to her face and slowly brush my thumbs over her cheeks. She blinks her eyes, and I track her tongue as it moves across her lips and close my eyes, breathing through the onslaught of attraction. I can feel her minty breath move across my lips, shaky and unsteady, like my own breathing. But I can’t kiss her, not yet. I pull away and watch as her face falls, so I continue to touch her, moving stray hairs out of her face and tucking them behind her ear, reassuring her without words that I want to touch her.
The words that leave her mouth are barely a whisper, but I hear them: “Don’t you want to kiss me, Coop?” Her eyebrows are raised in question, and she moves her face closer, closing her eyes and puckering her lips, as if waiting to receive her kiss. My resolve to wait is almost gone, so I need to say this quickly and hear her response.
“Open your eyes, Molly. Just for a second. Because I am going to kiss you, and I am going to kiss the heck out of you. But first, I need to know something.” She opens her eyes, and a smile stretches across her face, a giddy excitement coming over her as she finally moves her hands to my arms, slowly creeping their way further up, feeling along the muscles on my arms as she goes.
“Hmmm.. what’s that, Coop?” Her hands continue to trail up and interlock behind my neck, her thumbs tracing circles there as she moves her body even closer to mine.
I grumble deep in my throat, her fingers like sparks along my skin. “You are making this hard for me, woman.” She brushes a kiss to the side of my face, and it is all I can do to not turn my head and claim her lips with my own. I grasp her shoulders and tilt her away from me, so I can get some semblance of organization in my brain.
“Have you ever been kissed before? Because something tells me that you haven’t.” Molly unlocks her fingers from around my neck and pulls them to herself, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.
“No. I haven’t.” She looks down at the ground and hugs her arms to herself.
I pull her closer to me, trapping her hands between our bodies. “I already told you I was going to kiss you, Molly. I just wanted to know so I could make your first kiss the only kiss you ever remember.” And with that, my resolve breaks. My fingers trail into her hair at the base of her neck, and I pull her face to my own. Ever so gently, I press my lips to hers, letting her lips relax into my own, allowing her to learn as I move. She sighs at contact and frees her hands from between us, and they slowly make their way back to the base of my neck. Once there, she tugs me closer, her lips taking over as she explores my mouth with her own. How is this the first time this woman has kissed? I think to myself until she wipes any trace of thought away with a gentle tug to my upper lip with her teeth. The need to have her closer overwhelms me as the taste of her minty tongue glides over my lips. Time stands still as I give and she takes; she gives and I take, both of our mouths moving in a rhythm I never knew existed.
I move to stand, bringing her with me, remembering too little too late about the blanket fort we are inside of before it collapses, snuffing out the both of us. We are a tangled mess, and although I have Molly in my arms, her legs wrapped around my body, I can’t see her face because the blanket is wedged between our faces and draped over the both of us. I can’t let her go; otherwise, we will be separated, and right now, that is not something that I want. Molly grabs the blanket and pulls on it, electric shocks zapping us from the cheap material as it moves over our heads. We are finally free of the stupid thing, and as it drops to the floor, I take in what will probably be the best thing I have ever seen to date.
Molly’s hair is a staticky mess, but the laughter in her eyes, along with her swollen pink lips, is something I could spend the rest of my life watching. A sobering, scary thought that just about knocks the wind out of my sails as I lower her to the ground. She laughs as she reaches up on her tippy toes, brushing her fingers through my hair, causing some of the spark from before to re-ignite.
“We should probably head out if you want to get any work done today, and before I lose my willingness to leave this room.” Her adorable cheeks turn red, and I reach down, giving her one more mind-numbing kiss, before we grab our things and head for the door. I look back to where the blanket fort had been before we destroyed it and notice my shirt from the other day, laying on top of her pillow on the floor, directly behind where she had been sitting. I won’t say anything now, but I don’t mind keeping that little bit of knowledge for later. Also, while I am making a mental list of favorite things and secrets for another time, I want to remember to add blanket forts to that list. Blanket forts are now my new favorite thing, especially when they involve brown-eyed girls with strawberry lips that kiss the heck out of me instead of the other way around.