Chapter Thirty-Three
I wakeup to the smell of coconut and realize that Molly and I are wrapped up like two conjoined pretzels, and my face is buried in her hair. Best. Sleep. Ever. I hug her even closer, and she stretches her arms over her head before they settle around my neck. “Good morning, Sunshine,” I whisper, placing a light kiss to her cheek.
“Morning, Babe.” She sits up, her arms falling away, eyes wide.
“Molls. You okay? I didn’t mean to fall asleep right here. I was supposed to end up on the couch, but I totally zonked out. I’m so–.” My words are cut off as she throws her arms around my neck and falls on top of me, her mouth hovering over mine, her eyes bright, and her smile even brighter.
“That’s it! You are a total babe.” She smiles even wider, her eyes crinkling at the edges, and my heart picks up pace. This woman could touch me a million times, and I am pretty sure my heart would react the same way every single time.
“I’m a babe, eh?” I wink at her, and she laughs, the sound echoing in my ear.
“Yeah. It’s perfect. But you aren’t just a babe. You are my babe, and don’t you forget it.” She smooshes her nose against mine and gently places her mouth where it belongs.
I whisper, “I love it,” into her lips before I greedily take them in, pulling away to catch my breath and regain my self-control. I need to figure out how to marry this woman. Sooner rather than later. Because at this rate, I’m not sure I can ever sleep in my own bed again.
I sit up, the word marriage echoing in my head. My thoughts turn to King and Georgie, and I know I owe them an apology for ever thinking they were stupidly insane for getting married like they did. Yeah, they had known one another for years, but the heart knows what the heart knows. Something I hadn’t realized until the beautiful, infuriating woman sitting before me weaseled her way into my life.
She is just sitting there, smiling at me, and I can’t help but laugh. Her hair is literally a rat”s nest, sticking up in all directions. She had it in two pigtails last night, but her hair has a mind of its own. “Woah, that’s some hair, Molls.” Her cheeks turn pink as she takes out the little rubber bands holding the braids before unwinding the strands and fluffing them out, and it is now a crazy mass of curls cascading around her shoulders.
“I’m not sure if that looks any better.” She shrugs her shoulders. “But to be honest, yours is just as crazy.
I remove the elastic tie from my wrist and pull my hair up into a man bun. Molly’s eyes are hooded and are pooling with heat as I loop the tie around the hair, flexing my arm muscles with the movement. “You have no idea how attractive that is, Coop.” She starts to shuffle closer to me on her knees, but her demeanor suddenly falls as though she remembers something, and she changes her mind, scooting away from me toward the end of the bed.
“I… uh… I’ll be back.” She scurries away to the bathroom and shuts the door, and I hear the toilet flush and the sink turn on and off, but she doesn’t come out. Instead, I hear the toilet flush again, and the sink turn off and on again. The toilet flushes for a third time, and I start to worry, thinking maybe she is sick again from being in the sun so much while we were stranded on the island. I kick my legs out of bed, groaning as the pain from my calf shoots up my leg. I bend over, grabbing the crutches from the floor, and hop my way to the bathroom door.
“You okay in there, Sunshine?” I hear her voice falter as she answers, with a small sniffle at the end.
“Yeah. Just going pee and brushing my teeth. Not at the same time or anything.” She chuckles, but it doesn’t sound right. It sounds sad. “I just…,” She sniffs again, and it is then that I realize that she is crying.
“Open the door, Molls. Please.” I hear her footsteps approach the door, and the knob clicks as she unlocks it, but the door doesn’t open. I turn the handle and find her sitting on the toilet seat, her legs pulled up to her chest, her chin resting on her arms, and her face red and splotchy.
I hop over to where she is sitting and deliberate on how to crouch down to her level without popping the stitches in my leg. “I can’t… Molls. Can you come to the bed so I can sit next to you? I don’t think I can manage it in here with my leg the way it is.” I motion to the bandage, and she starts to cry harder.
“Oh my gosh. I’m so stupid. I didn’t even think about your poor leg, Coop. I’m sorry.” She lets her legs fall and pushes up to stand, grabbing my hand and leading me out of the bathroom to the edge of the bed. She settles herself and pulls her legs up to her body again, as the tears continue to fall.
I take her face in my hands and rub my thumbs across her cheeks. “You’re not stupid, Molls. But those rainclouds of yours sure are making it hard to see my beautiful sunshine.” She chuckles a watery laugh and shakes her head.
“How is this going to work, Coop? You and me? We come from two different worlds, and I don’t know how to make them collide. I have a life in Arcadia Bay and a job that I have been working toward for five years. And you… You have a job here in Willow Cove. Not to mention your dad. He needs you here. I… I just don’t know how to make this work.” Her voice breaks, and I pull her closer, cradling her head to my chest before bringing her face up so I can look her in the eyes once again.
“I’m not sure, Molly. I don’t have all of the answers, but I am going to do everything in my power to make this work. If that means I have to fly to you every single weekend, then that is what I will do. You couldn’t keep me away, even if you tried.” She dries her eyes, and we sit there for a little while, holding one another, before she pulls away.
“You would do that for me, Coop? You like me that much?” I shake my head, rolling my eyes at her as an idea sparks in my head.
I pull out the phone my dad let me borrow last night and call his landline, as Molly’s eyebrows pull down, a question on her face. “Hey, Dad, can you drive me and Molly back to my boat?” I hang up the phone, grab a change of clothes from the bag my dad gave Molly last night, and head for the bathroom. “Well, what are you waitin’ for, Sunshine? Get dressed. I’ve got something I want to show you.”
We both take turns in the bathroom getting dressed and fight over the sink as we brush our teeth, ending in a toothpaste war of sorts, before we hear a knock on the cottage door.
Wiping the toothpaste from our faces, I grab my crutches, and we race to answer it. Molly wins, pumping her fist in victory as she unlocks it, revealing my smiling dad.
“Hi, Mr. Heyes.” Molly sticks her hand out for a shake, but my dad has other plans and pulls her in for a hug.
“Hi, Molly.” He looks over at me and smiles. “You two ready to go, or do you want to finish wiping that toothpaste off your face?” He motions to Molly’s cheek, and she giggles, extracting herself from his arms and running back into the bathroom to wipe it from her face before running back to my side.
“Okay. I’m ready. Let’s go see whatever this thing is that you want to show me.” Dad looks at me, a question on his face, but I just shrug my shoulders before we all head to the car.
We pullup to the dock, and Molly opens her door and climbs out before opening my door and handing me the crutches from the back seat. I want to hold her hand, so I hobble with one crutch as we make our way to the boat, my dad hanging back at his car, that knowing look on his face that says, I know what you are up to, Son.
We enter the boat, and I open the door, leading her over to my favorite beach find ever. A fulgurite. A piece of glass formed when the most perfect conditions of beach sand and mineral composition came together to create something rare and fragile to fuse together as one.
“Oh my gosh, Coop. I’ve seen pictures of these before, but never in person. It’s beautiful, but why did you want to show me thi–?” She spins around to find me on one knee. The stupid plastic turtle ring from the jewelry store pinched between my fingers. It was all I could think of earlier, so I just sort of went with it. But, come to think of it, it’s perfect. The stupid ring was literally stuck to my finger-karma of what was to come, I guess. Molly is just staring at me, her eyes all watery again, her mouth hanging open in stunned silence.
“What do you get when you mix fire with sand, Molly? Glass. A beautiful yet fragile thing that can be treasured for years yet shattered in a moment. This is our moment. And what we do with it will determine the rest of our lives. So, before you say no, before you break my heart and shatter it into pieces, I want you to know that I love you. I thought I knew what love was, but I didn’t. Not until I met you.” A drop of something hits my leg, and it is only then that I realize that I have tears in my eyes.