Chapter 5
Dakota
I park down the road, the same way I've been doing since Molly and I started seeing one another. The only night I haven't parked down the road was last night, and that was because I drove my on-duty vehicle. If anyone had passed by, they would've assumed it was Levi.
Tonight though, I drive my own truck. Which is why I'm hoofing it to her house, holding the dessert I bought from The Café. It was apple pie night, and their apple pie is my absolute favorite.
As I walk up to the front door, it flies open, and she ushers me in with a smile on her face. "Hey, I was watching for you."
"Because you didn't want anyone to see me on your doorstep?" I ask, eyebrows raised as I toe off my shoes by the front door.
"No." She slips her arms around my waist. "Because I missed you. Which is crazy since I saw you last night, and again this afternoon. You're becoming a big part of my life, Dakota."
I put the apple pie on the table next to the door, and hug her tightly.
Tucking my chin down so that I can drop a kiss to her forehead, I hold her to me.
Back when she and I started sneaking around, it was sexy and hot because no one knew what we were doing.
But the more I've gotten to know Molly outside of her being my best friend's older sister, the more I realize just how attractive she really is.
That includes her brain, the way she cares about people, the job she does, the sarcastic comments, and the way she looks at me from across the room.
Everything about her turns me the fuck on. "You're a big part of mine too."
When the embrace comes to a natural end, she pulls away, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Are you hungry?"
"I'm starving, and I'm excited about having a home-cooked meal. I'm not too handy in the kitchen, and typically I have something that's cooked in the microwave or I pick it up on the way home."
"To be honest," she starts, giving me her back as she heads toward the kitchen. "I don't cook often for myself. Not nearly as much as I should, but when I'm craving something good, I make it. Let me guess, you go home?"
"Guilty as charged." I hold up my hands. "Nobody cooks like Mom, ya know?"
"Maybe I'll be able to at least hold a candle to her." Molly rolls her eyes good-naturedly.
"I'm sure I'm going to love whatever you make. Like I said, I'm normally a microwave person. You'd be surprised how limited those options are. Especially in this day and age. You can microwave almost anything, but that doesn't mean it's going to be good."
"No, I feel you on that. Sometimes I grab what I like to call a heat 'em up meal from the frozen section at the grocery and think this is going to be so good when I'm on-shift.
But then I open it and see how little food it actually is, and then I microwave it and I'm like, I should've just had popcorn. "
Rubbing my stomach, I tilt my head. "Sometimes popcorn just hits though. Put a bunch of butter and some garlic salt on it?"
She laughs, and it shows a little crinkle next to her eye. "You eat like a stoner, you know that right?"
"Apparently so do you," I throw back at her. "Anyway, what are we having for dinner tonight? Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I just got everything in the oven. Baked chicken and roasted vegetables. It's my favorite when I'm trying to impress someone, because I can cook it well.We're doing cornbread to go along with it in the cast iron if that's good with you."
My stomach growls, and I dip my knees. "Be careful Molly, I might have to lock you down for sure with this."
Her cheeks turn pink, and my chest warms because I did that to her. "It probably wouldn't be as hard as you think."
There's that string of awareness between us again as I stare at her.
Taking a step toward her, I reach out, using my palm to cup her cheek.
She closes her eyes and rubs against me like some sort of cat preparing to take a nap.
I can't help it, I lean in and brush my lips against hers.
She makes a little noise in the back of her throat, and I reach all the way around, flattening my hand on her neck and holding her into place as I thoroughly kiss her.
With us, it's easy for things to get out of hand, and the reason I'm over here right now is to stop that.
So the two of us can get to know each other differently than we do now.
It takes everything I have to pull away from her, but I do.
We stare at one another, and then she smiles, breaking the spell between the two of us.
"Let me make this cornbread."
I take a seat at her dining room table, but turn the chair around so that I'm straddling the back and rest my forearms atop it.
Swallowing roughly, I realize there's so much in this room that I've wanted for a long time, yet I've convinced myself I haven't.
For years I've been a bachelor, and I told anyone who asked that was my choice.
The truth is, I was worried that I would never have it.
"Why are you watching me so hard?" She sounds irritated, but a satisfied smile spreads across her face.
"Because I've never been in this kind of situation before," I admit, scratching the back of my head in a bit of embarrassment.
"What do you mean?"
This is the moment when I decide how much I want to share with her.
If I want her to know exactly how much she seems to have gotten under my skin these last few months.
I've been scared of a lot in my life, but the scariest thing I can think of right now is not being honest with her. "I don't do relationships."
"Oh you don't?" She raises her eyebrows, facing me with her hands on her hips. "It seems like what we've had going on the last few months has been a relationship, even though both of us said that wasn't what we were looking for."
Tilting my head to the side, I meet her gaze.
"I mean sometimes things change. The question is, has it between us?
" She makes a noise, but doesn't answer, so I continue.
"Although everyone thinks I'm this cocky guy, I really have a lot of self-doubt.
It comes from my dyslexia," I admit softly.
"For so long, before I was diagnosed, I felt stupid, and I hid a lot of what I felt. "
She's mixing something up in a bowl, before pouring it in the cast iron, and sticking it in the oven.
"I hate that for you, Dakota. And against my better judgement, I agree with you.
This started out as fun, and it was a little secret we had to ourselves.
I liked being with you and my brother, and knowing that Levi had not one clue what we were doing behind closed doors.
But I've been thinking about it more often. "
"And what are you thinking?" My heart pounds as I wait to hear what she's going to say.
It's not as if the two of us haven't been friends for most of our lives, but I've been learning over the past few months that I knew her on the surface level.
I absolutely did not know the amazing woman underneath, and what I'm terrified of is that she won't want to continue what we've been doing.
She inhales deeply, slowly letting it out. "I really hope that I'm not fucking this up, Kota."
"Trust me," I push out of my tight throat. "I'm thinking the same thing, more than likely."
That seems to give her the push she needs, because she grips the counter and leans forward. "I want to have the relationship with you, and I don't necessarily want to keep it a secret anymore. But at the same time, I'm not ready to tell everyone."
"You're saying you want to tell everyone at some point, though?" I ask, needing to verify what she's actually saying. "Just not right now?"
"Exactly. I just want to make sure this is going to work out." She purses her lips. "As soon as we tell people we're together, they're going to have questions, and this relationship won't be just ours anymore."
She's right about all of it, and against my better judgment, I'm completely honest with her. "I thought you were going to say that you were embarrassed to be with me, and wouldn't want to tell anyone."
"No." She shakes her head, eyebrows coming together. "Not since I've started developing real feelings for you. Has someone hurt you like that before?"
This isn't something I talk about. It happened when I was a teenager, but if we're laying everything out, she has to know.
"Yeah, my first serious girlfriend in high school.
I got a really bad grade on a paper. It was a bad day for me when I wrote that paper.
I was more tired than usual and it was hard for me to use all my tools with my dyslexia.
She made a much better grade than me," I chuckle.
"When she saw my paper, she couldn't believe how bad the grade was, and she made a comment about how I had to try really hard to make a grade that low.
She broke up with me the next day, saying she couldn't be seen around people who weren't as smart as her.
" I rub at the couple days of stubble on my chin.
"I could read between the lines. She thought I was a dumbass. "
"Dakota," she says, her voice full of understanding, and an underlying tone of pity.
"You're not a dumbass. You're one of the smartest people I know, and you're innovative too.
Remember when I was trying to build that shelving unit and a piece was missing?
You fixed it where I wouldn't even need that piece. "
"That's nice, Molly, but you don't have to give me more credit than I deserve. I'm sure most other people would've figured it out, too."
"No." She shakes her head. "I don't like you doing that to yourself. You're not allowed to talk down about yourself like that. Not about someone I care about."
My chest tightens. "Okay, I'll stop talking about myself like that if you come over here and give me a kiss."