Chapter 13 #2
“How did I ever get so lucky to find you in this crazy, massive world?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll always be thankful we found each other.”
“Me too, love.” With his arms around her, he entered her fully, seared by the heat and the pleasure and desire for more.
He already knew he’d never get enough of how it felt to make love to Molly.
As he moved in her, he watched her carefully, looking for ghosts or grief, but he saw only the same bliss he felt.
“Are you okay?” he asked, just to be certain.
“Mmm, so much better than okay.”
Her arms and legs encircled him, their bodies moving together like they’d been doing this forever.
It shouldn’t surprise him that even in this most intimate of moments, he felt more at home with her than he ever had with anyone else.
It’d been that way with her from the beginning, from that first night at the bus station in Gulfport, when she’d looked up at him with the most adorable, arresting, interesting face he’d ever seen.
That moment, he now knew, had changed both their lives forever, just as this one would, too, along with all the moments still to come.
His love for her fired a passion that was all new to him, as well as a desire to make her happy in every way, including this one.
They got carried away on a wave of pleasure so intense, it threatened to consume them, when a loud pop followed by a hiss had them stopping short to realize the air mattress had burst.
And then they were laughing. They laughed so hard, they almost forgot what they’d been doing when the mattress exploded.
Almost…
Linc pushed into her as he gazed down at her face, awash with laughter and tears and happiness. This was, without any doubt in his mind, the best moment of his life, a thought he decided to share with her.
“It is for me, too. It’ll take a lot to top this.”
“I bet we can top it a million times.”
“I’ll take that bet.”
“The mattress popping is still the best thing to ever happen,” Molly said when they stopped laughing the way they always did any time they revisited their first night together.
“The second best was having to buy another one at the store and your dad asking me why we needed two of them. I had to think fast and tell him it was because we needed one for inside and one for the tent when we went camping. He gave me the foulest look that day, and I knew he was dying to tell me to keep my filthy hands off his little girl.”
“His little girl loves your filthy hands and has the ten children to prove it.”
“Don’t tell him that. He still has the rifle.”
“You haven’t been afraid of him in a long time.”
“True, but it’s better if we don’t tell him too much, even after all this time.” He ran his fingers through her hair and thought back to that momentous day in which their lives together really began.
“Sometimes it’s hard to believe everything that happened in that one day,” she said.
“I know. The best and worst thing, all at once.”
“I’ve always been so sorry you were forced to choose.”
“You know, I’ve thought about that so much over the years.”
“You hardly ever said anything.”
“Eh, it’s not like it was weighing me down on a daily basis or anything like that.
After the first year or so, when I realized I wasn’t going to hear from my mom or Char or the boys, I only thought about it in passing, like on holidays.
I’d wonder what they were doing that day, or on one of their birthdays.
But it occurred to me, after a while, that even if I hadn’t met you, my father and I were headed for a falling-out, because I didn’t want to work for his company. ”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
“I’m pretty sure it would’ve happened anyway.
The problem I had before I met you was I didn’t have a viable alternative that made sense to me, which meant I’d end up settling for the default, whether that’s what I wanted or not.
Once I met you and heard about your family’s business and saw it for myself, I had found something that interested me.
In a way, meeting you only accelerated the inevitable.
The only regret I’ve ever had about any of it was that you were there to see it and that he treated you the way he did.
I hate that that was the only interaction you’ve ever had with my family. ”
“It isn’t really. I feel like I know them through the stories you’ve shared, like how you and your brothers would sail in the summers off the Jersey Shore, and the time you spent there with your grandparents, how your sister was your buddy growing up, how you suffered over the loss of Hunter.
I’ve also heard you speak so lovingly of your mother at various times.
My view of them isn’t one-dimensional, Linc.
If you loved them, I know there’s more to them than what I saw that day. ”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I’m glad to know that’s not the only point of reference you have. Can I make a confession that might sound so silly?”
“Of course.”
“When I talked to Charlotte today, she said something that keeps running around in my mind.”
“What’s that?”
“She said that even if I don’t go there to see my father, she hoped we can stay in touch going forward.”
Molly’s brows furrowed as she considered that. “Do you think that’s the best idea? I mean, where’s she been all this time?”
“I’ve decided I don’t care where she’s been or what he said to make her and my brothers afraid to find me or keep in touch with me.
I just don’t care. I want her back. I want my brothers back.
I want them to know you and the kids, and I want to know their families.
I don’t care why they stayed away. I know in my heart it wasn’t their choice, so what does it matter? ”
“I hear what you’re saying, and I understand why you feel the way you do. It’s just that, well…”
“What, honey? You know I want your opinion.”
“They knew where you were, Linc. Charlotte knew exactly where to find you when she needed to reach you today. Surely they weren’t so under your father’s thumb as fully grown adults that they couldn’t have reached out before now.”
“You’re right,” he said with a sigh, “and I’m sure they had their reasons for not getting in touch. All I’m saying is I don’t care anymore why they didn’t.”
“Will you understand if I’m not so quick to forgive and forget?”
“Of course.”
“I want to hear why they stayed away before I decide anything.”
“Fair enough.”
“You ought to get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day, and the day after will be, too.”
The day after tomorrow, he would see his family again for the first time in forty years.
His emotions were a mixed-up kettle of highs and lows, of memories, despair and hope.
Among the many emotions, it was the hope that burned the brightest. More than anything, he hoped his father’s dying request might reunite him with the siblings he’d loved and missed for such a long time.