man, and Ivory Peaks wasn’t that big.
Technically, Molly didn’t live in Ivory Peaks anymore, but plenty of people knew her story who did.
“Thirty hours,” he said. “I drove it in three days.”
“Wow,” she said, stepping out of her sweat pants and leaving them in a puddle on the floor. She wasn’t the neatest housekeeper, and if she hurried, she wouldn’t have to let Hunter into her house. She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d sit out in his truck and wait for her.
That would be something Tyrone would do; Hunter would come to the door, despite what she’d told him to do.
She hurried into her closet and scanned while Hunter told her about his drive across most of America. When the doorbell rang, he said, “That’s me.”
“I’m coming,” she said, reaching for the closest pair of pants. They were black jeans, and she quickly leaned against the wall to pull them on. “Skinny jeans,” she muttered, and Hunter chuckled.
“Oh, I hear a cat,” he said. “Do you have a cat, Molly?”
“Yes, and she’s not nice,” Molly said. “So I’d tread carefully if I were you.”
“I’ll sit on this mighty fine front porch,” he said. “You’ve always wanted a front porch.”
“That one’s too small,” she said, yanking on the jeans to get them over her ankles. She shimmied into them and stripped off her lounge T-shirt. She grabbed a blouse in green and gray, because with her reddish hair, she looked good in green. Purple, too, but she didn’t have time to hunt for her paisley print right now.
Hunter was waiting.
“Too small?” Hunter repeated. “You’ve got a table and chairs out here.”
“I never use them,” she said, searching now for shoes. “They’re too small too.”
“They are?”
“You sit in one of those chairs, Hunt, and I’ll pay you twenty bucks if you don’t fall right out.” There was no way the tall, broad-shouldered cowboy could perch on that delicate porch furniture. Even when Molly had bought them, she’d known she’d never use them. She’d almost been bucked right out, and she was half the width of Hunter.
She grabbed a pair of sandals, reminding herself it was summer, and she wouldn’t have cold feet. A moment later, she retrieved the phone from the shelf and strode down the hall.
On the other end of the line, Hunter yelped, and a terrible crash nearly deafened her. Despite her best efforts not to, she let out a string of laughter, covering up anything Hunter might have said.
She glanced around, wondering what she was forgetting. Nothing came to mind, and Molly reached for her purse and headed for the front door. Somewhere along the way, her footsteps slowed, and before she knew it, she’d stopped a few paces from the exit.
Hunter waited on the other side of that door, and Molly could barely breathe.
Chapter 5
Hunter couldn’t think of anything to say, and Molly had gone quiet too. He’d fallen right off the tiny, doll-sized chair on her front porch, and his ego wasn’t the only thing bruised. His knee smarted, as did his tailbone, and he stood at the top of her stairs, waiting.
She didn’t come out, and Hunter looked down at his phone. He was lucky he hadn’t cracked it when he’d fallen, as he’d thrown it in his attempt to catch himself.
His voice had dried right up, and he half-wished he hadn’t asked to see Molly that evening. He really just wanted his butter pecan ice cream and a soft bed to sleep in. After all, he had to get up at five-thirty to help his father with the farm chores, get ready for work, and make the journey from farm to city.
His stomach swooped, and no amount of fishing or Elise’s caramel corn had soothed him. Nothing was going to be the same after tomorrow, and Hunter wanted to enjoy tonight.
He should tell Molly that he needed to get back to the farm, and he’d call her another time to set up a date. He had no idea what he’d been thinking earlier this afternoon. He didn’t have time to start a relationship right now. He was starting a new job—a high-stress job at the family company. He had to find somewhere to live and move there. He couldn’t take on a woman and attending to her, trying to show her how great he was in the early stages of a relationship.
“What am I doing here?” he asked himself.
“Getting ice cream.” Molly stepped to his side as he flinched at the sound of