Taking the Fall (33 page)

Mason shined his megawatt smile and answered as if this was a completely natural way to run a fundraiser. “A dollar a kiss and hopefully the elementary school will get a good jump on getting those new computers.”

Hunter raised his hand to his face, pinching the bridge of his nose trying not to laugh.

“Well, I think it is an excellent way to get people to be looser with their wallet,” Molly said smiling at the willing kissing panel, made up of six extremely attractive town firefighters, including Mason, Casey, and Jamie.

Molly missed the look Hunter gave his brother, but as usual, the Dennisons just couldn’t help themselves. “How about you, Molly? We will even give you a three-for-one deal?”

Molly smiled even through her deep crimson blush as she saw just how serious Mason was. But before she could respond, Hunter spoke up for her. “Better yet, here is ten dollars to leave my girl the hell alone,” Hunter warned playfully as he shoved bills into the donation box.

“Touchy, touchy,” Mason mumbled as Casey and Jamie oohed simultaneously.

“Does that mean me too, Dad?” Leah asked with open curiosity.

Molly watched as Hunter stared at his daughter and the blush of color now overtook his cheeks.

“For you, Dad is going to open his wallet up again!” Molly says, placing her hand on Leah’s shoulder, as they both looked at Hunter waiting for him to follow through.

Molly reveled in the fact that Leah leaned right into her embrace.

“A bunch of sharks my girls are,” Hunter said goodheartedly as he reached into his wallet once more.

“Oh you, our sweet Leah, are who we’ve been waiting for all day,” Mason said bringing both Leah and Sammy to the front of the line.

The firefighters gave Sammy and Leah some special attention as well as all kinds of promotional items and a t-shirt for each that said, “I kissed a Clearwater Falls Firefighter and I have the shirt to prove it.”

As the girls drank in the attention, Molly’s cell phone rang.

Molly excused herself and stepped away from the crowd. “Hello?”

“Hey Molly, so sorry to bother you, but we are in a fix.”

“No problem, what’s up?”

“I know with the restaurant you are probably crazy but we need someone to watch the boys for a bit later today?”

Calling your husband’s ex-wife to watch your kids must mean you are really in a pinch.

“Yeah, I closed the restaurant today and was just planning on a movie night at home so that shouldn’t be a problem,” looking to where Hunter stood engaging with his brothers and the girls, Molly found herself adding, “I may have an errand or two to do, but Jess will be home with the girls.”

“Girls? You know what, none of my business. Great! It is like you knew we would be in such a bind. Yes, as long as Jess will be around, that would be great. The boys love her. We shouldn’t be long, and this would really help us out.”

They continued making the arrangements and soon Molly was back at Hunter’s side.

“Everything all right?” he asked as he draped his arm around her, pulling her in close and placing a kiss on her temple.

“Yes.” She returned his embrace and started mapping out the small detour she would put in their day that would give her time alone with him, and hopefully, relieve her of a crippling need for an orgasm that she’s been walking around with since meeting Hunter.

Hunter and Molly continued through the streets hand in hand, stopping at this booth and that booth, encouraging the girls to taste, smell, and enjoy all the marvelous stops along the way. By the time they made it back to the end of the streets and to the restaurant, Molly couldn’t remember ever having such a wonderful time.

The girls enjoyed themselves endlessly, and the pride-filled feeling that gave her made the day even that much more amazing. The only thing that was missing was Jessica.

Both girls were begging to see Greg and his never-ending supply of chocolate milk, so Molly unlocked the front door, letting the girls in so they could seek out their bounty before locking the door once more.

Knowing the girls would be occupied long enough, Molly led Hunter as they walked around the corner heading to the stairs to her home, hoping to steal a moment or two of his undivided attention.

However, as she turned the corner leading to the drive, what she saw before her had her stopping dead in her tracks. There on the steps were Jess and Marc kissing—more like devouring each other—and Molly wasn’t happy with how freely Marc’s hands roamed over her daughter.

She just stared, unable to see past her daughter’s deliberate disobedience.

Hunter raised his hand, placing it at the back of her neck to offer support in a physical way.

For the first time, she wanted to shrug him off.

Molly marched up to the young couple, being unnoticed until she was mere feet away and cleared her throat loudly.

Jess had the decency to look guilty while Marc looked cocky and unabashed. His dark hair was long and hung in his face and the two silver spider bite studs at the corner of the left side of his mouth reflected in the bright sun. The two leather studded wrist cuffs along with the faded black t-shirt, dark jeans, and black combat boots didn’t hinder his demeanor in Molly’s opinion, where his hand was still high on her daughter’s thigh even after Molly announced her presence was what had her seeing red.

“Marc, you should at least have the decency to be respectful and take your hands off my daughter when I’m in front of you.” Molly folded her arms over her chest as she steamed in place. “I’ve made it very clear to my daughter about my opinion of the two of you being together. She has bent every rule I have set down ever since you came into the picture—and yes, I can do the math. The fact that you are here shows me how well she listens. So I will make it clear, I don’t want you anywhere near her. She is fifteen years old, got it?”

“Mom!” Jess shrieked.

No, ‘I’m sorry, Ms. Jenson’ or ‘Look, Ms. Jenson’ instead, just a punk who had the audacity to smirk.

She could feel Hunter at her back, but she never moved her gaze from Marc. Molly and he stared at one another for several moments before he turned to Jess and said clearly, “See ya later, babe.” Then he stood to his full height of six feet and with his head held high, he strutted down the drive out to the main road.

Jess began going after him, but Molly caught her arm. “Upstairs now, young lady!”

Jess yanked her arm free, not caring that Hunter was there quietly observing. “What is wrong with you? Marc loves me! Why do you need to ruin everything?”

Molly’s patience was nowhere to be found, and this time she did shrug off his hand.

“Jessica, just stop! Enough with the melodramatics!” she shouted, taking a breath and lowering her voice but still remaining firm, “I raised you better than that. For such a smart girl, you sure aren’t acting like it. He doesn’t love you; he probably doesn’t even know what love is! To him, you are nothing but another notch in his belt buckle!”

Molly wanted to swallow the words back as soon as they left her mouth.

The shock and hurt on Jess’ beautiful face quickly turned to fury and hatred.

“I’d rather be a notch than a midlife redo making up for a pathetic existence!” Jess screamed as she stood her ground.

“Girls . . .” Hunter began.

But Molly turned on him. “This is between my daughter and me, Hunter!”

For as guilty as she felt for the cruel words she hurled at her daughter, she still needed to set her right. “Jessica, I have had enough with your condescending tone and belligerent behavior. I don’t need to justify my life to you. I am an adult.”

“Adult, yeah . . . you are also a doormat who just spreads her legs!” Jess hissed before running out toward the street and into the festival’s crowd.

Shocked at the malice, Molly’s body followed Jessica’s retreat. As she looked out on the merriment going on in the street, her face crumpled and tears appeared in her eyes. Hunter engulfed her in his arms, giving soothing caresses to her back as her tears soaked through his shirt.

When the worst had passed, Molly rubbed the arms wrapped tightly around his waist up and down his hips before leaning back so she could look at his concerned face.

“I’m sorry you had to witness that,” she stated before wiping her face with her hands.

“You have nothing to be sorry to me about. It happens.”

Molly laughed ironically. “Yeah, it happens every day lately.”

She tried to step away from him, but Hunter wouldn’t have it. He kept her in his embrace kissing her temple as he brushed her hair behind her ears.

Molly snuggled in closer to him, trying to let some of his strength seep into her weary bones.

Molly found peace listening to the steady strum of his heart beneath her ear. Constant and thriving. She couldn’t help but feel helpless and weak with the level of disgust her daughter had toward her.

“May I ask what you have against that particular young man?” Hunter whispered quietly.

Molly’s body shook with her inward huff before leaning back. Clearly, she must have heard him wrong.

She stared at his too-handsome face and with his expectant look of an answer, she suddenly felt like he didn’t agree with her. “Um, how about the fact that he is a punk. Excuse me for thinking my daughter can do a hell of a lot better than some delinquent!” Molly spouted before taking several steps away from him.

Hunter raised his hands in surrender before asking from the same distance, “I just trying to figure out if it was a case of any guy and your daughter or if it was this particular guy.”

She looked unconvinced at him that he would pose such a question to her.

“Did you not see him? He is too old for her and obviously a bad influence.”

Hunter let out a deep breath and with his hands now in his pockets, he jingled the change that was there. The sound had Molly’s spine tingling.

“I’m not taking sides, Molly. I’m just trying to come around to your way of thinking. I didn’t know if there was something in particular about Marc that had you against them being together.”

Molly crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive reaction, and she didn’t care. “Well, in a few years when Leah starts bringing trash home, you can tell me how open minded you are.”

Hunter smiled, slowly walking toward her, and tried not to show any reaction to her moving further away from him.

“I’m not the enemy here. Maybe they are in love. Every riffraff deserves a good girl to turn him around.”

Did he seriously not witness the egotistic that played out by the boy he seems so hell bent on defending?

“Sorry if I don’t appreciate you playing devil’s advocate.” Molly spoke easily showing her disappointment for him not taking her side. “She’s fifteen and doesn’t know anything about love, and I’m positive he doesn’t know how to spell the word, let alone what it means.”

Now he crossed his arms. “Don’t you think that is a heavy statement considering the company you have been keeping?”

She looked at him and wondered what he was seeing that she wasn’t. She didn’t want her fight with Jess to ruin their time together or the perfection of their day so far, but she couldn’t rid the feeling that he was somehow judging her.

Is she being too hard on Jess or is he trying to blind her to her gut feeling?

Breaking the distance that separated them, he reached her and smiled when she didn’t pull away.

“I don’t mean to add to your pain right now. I just want to ensure you aren’t misguided in a reason to keep them apart if it is nothing more than a misconception.”

She knew he was trying to get her to see this from all angles, but the truth was that it stung that he wasn’t seeing this how she was.

Sammy and Leah chose that moment to come out and greet them, milk mustaches and all.

Molly tried to brush off her feeling to ensure the rest of their day wasn’t tainted. They all climbed the stairs and began the ever-important decision of which pizza place to order from.

Jess came in shortly after, ignoring everyone she passed. She went straight to her room and closed the door.

Hunter looked at Molly and she just smiled and continued with their board game before the delivery guy rang the doorbell.

Just as Molly and Hunter were getting ready to sit down, the doorbell rang once more.

Hunter answered it and John and Peter came running past, followed by Tracey and Bob.

Molly watched, as Bob looked first surprised then accusingly at Hunter before turning and locking gazes with Molly. Tracey and Hunter, who were unaware of the undertone, made small talk.

Tracey gave quick instructions, stating they wouldn’t be too long and thanking them. When they went to leave, Bob didn’t even say goodbye to the boys or adults, just turned and walked out the door. Tracey looked confused but said goodbye to her sons and to Molly and Hunter before following her husband out the door.

When they were alone once more in the kitchen, Hunter raised an eyebrow at her in silent question.

“Did I fail to mention we would have the boys for a few hours?”

Hunter shook his head slightly and got out a couple more plates as he started plating slices of pizza.

After pizza had been consumed and the four youngest were happily watching a Disney movie in the living room, Hunter stepped behind Molly who was at the sink finishing up the dishes, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her back against his front.

“Well, I better run home and get a change of clothes for Leah and me for our sleepover tonight,” he whispered into her ear as he began nibbling on her neck.

Molly shut the water off and rolled her neck back on his shoulder. And suddenly, it occurred to her that there was the opening for a few moments of privacy for them.

She turned in his embrace, kissed him firmly on the lips before holding her finger up to his face and pulling out of his embrace.

He looked at her in question but let her go.

She walked down the hall and knocked on Jess’ door, not expecting her to answer. Molly opened her door and found Jess on her phone lying on her bed.