26. Colton
Chapter 26
Colton
“T hanks, Wyatt, for babysitting last night.” If he hadn’t made the offer, I don’t know if I would’ve ever gotten my head un-stuck from my ass and asked Molly on a date. “It made all the difference in the world.”
Wyatt laughed and folded his arms, staring at me with a shit-eating grin on his face. “I guess that meant last night was everything you hoped it would be?”
I nodded and looked away. “More than I hoped, actually.” After the fourth or maybe it was the fifth orgasm of the night, Molly had whispered I love you before she drifted to sleep with her cheek pressed to my chest.
“More? Well, hot damn!” Wyatt smacked his hands together like he was cheering at a rodeo event. “It’s about damn time. I was sure you were auditioning to become one of those sexless monks who look twenty even when they’re eighty years old.”
I rolled my eyes. “Funny.”
“Thanks, all the ladies think so.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “So what did you do? And I’m not talking about the cause of that obvious glow, or what prompts a woman to wake up at dawn to whip up a breakfast feast.”
My lips curled into a smile. Breakfast had been a welcome surprise. “Haven’t had a breakfast like that since I was a boy.”
Wyatt nodded, his gaze taking on a faraway look as he smiled. “Your mama was a magician in the kitchen, that’s for sure.” He shook his head, probably remembering her the way I did, a larger-than-life figure with thick red hair who wasn’t afraid to take a wooden spoon to a ranch hand no matter his size. “She would be happy to see the kitchen full like that again.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. The same thought had crossed my mind when I stood in the kitchen doorway and watched her dance around the same way Mama used to throughout my childhood. “I think I’m finally ready to move on with my life and be happy again.” Or maybe for the first time if I was being brutally honest with myself.
“Good to hear, man. You’re the marrying kind, Colton, and Molly seems to fit.”
I sighed. “Yeah, she does fit. But would it be stifling to expect her to stay here, out in the middle of nowhere at her age?”
“You’re still hung up on the age difference?”
I nodded and turned my attention to the oversized bottles of goat’s milk that we needed to move for pickup this week. The suppliers always showed up with their own packaging and took a few hours to transfer it and load it up, and if it was all ready when they arrived, I wouldn’t have to supervise. “It’s a pretty big obstacle, don’t you think?” She was damn near two decades younger than me. “She has her whole life ahead of her.”
“You’re right about one thing; it’s her life, and I’d say she’s more than capable of deciding how she wants to spend it.” He folded his arms and gave me a glare that would’ve deterred other men. “Give her a chance to make the choice.”
“Sara grew to hate it here. What if Molly does too?”
“Yeah, that’s always a possibility. What if she doesn’t? What if she loves it and wants to stay until she takes her last breath?”
My own breath caught in my throat at the visual that presented. She had whispered that she loved me as she fell asleep in my arms last night. I love you. It wasn’t just the sex; I was sure of that. Which meant I had to figure out what my next move would be.
“I can see that you’re almost there in your head. Let’s get these bottles loaded and back to the barn; we’ve got more fencing to fix up.”
“Yeah, let’s get to it.” The one thing I knew for sure was that I had to tell Molly that I loved her too, and then I would ask her to stay. Not just for Hunter, but for me too.