around the corner to their left, and Mama said, “There you are, Tucker Hammond.” She moved down the steps, holding tightly to the handrail, Molly noticed. Her mother was getting older, and while she still possessed every ounce of charm and sophistication she always had, her last round of fighting off her uterine cancer had taken a lot from her. Molly’s divorce hadn’t helped anything, and pure regret moved through her as she followed Mama.
“Your brother is looking for you, baby,” Mama said, scooping the child into her arms.
“I’ll get Hunter,” Molly said as she looked at Tucker. He definitely had the same brown eyes as his brother and father, and coupled with that light hair, Molly thought he’d break more hearts than Hunter had.
After she’d broken up with him, he’d dated plenty of other girls. A different one every weekend. Sometimes he’d taken Laurel Phillips to a football game on Friday night and Teri Childs to a movie on Saturday night.
He didn’t stay with any one girl at all, and Molly had told herself over and over that he was doing what she’d said they should. Meet and go out with a lot of different people. Then they’d know who they really liked.
Hunter had told her for about a year that he liked her, and that he didn’t need to take anyone else to dinner to know it. And yet, when she’d finally ended their four-year relationship, that was exactly what he’d done.
She pushed the high school memories out of her mind as she went around the corner. “Hunter,” she called to the tall man on the edge of the cement, looking out over the cemetery and the woods behind that.
He turned toward her, his anxiety plain to see. She gestured for him to come to her, saying, “Mama found him. He’s okay.”
Relief painted over his handsome features, and he strode toward Molly, his youngest brother in his arms. Time slowed for Molly. All sound disappeared. All she could see was Hunter Hammond in that cowboy hat, a boy who looked just like him on his hip, and her entire future with him right in front of her. Just out of reach.
“Thanks, Molly,” he said as he passed, not slowing down for even a moment. Time sped again, and Molly spun around as the scent of Hunter’s cologne lingered in her nose. My, he knew how to put together an arsenal against a woman, didn’t he?
The dark slacks, white shirt, and trendy tie. The cowboy hat. The good looks—superior looks. Molly had never met a man as handsome as Hunter. No woman had. He was just that gorgeous.
And the cologne too?
It was almost like he knew he wasn’t playing fair.
She ducked around the corner too, just in time to see him take Tucker from Mama, now carrying both boys in his arms. He pressed his forehead to Tucker’s, his mouth moving. Molly was too far away to hear what they were saying, but the soft, adoring look on Mama’s face said enough.
She loved Hunter too.
She always had; it had been the Pastor who’d warned Molly about getting too serious with a boy too young. To her knowledge, Hunter’s father hadn’t been very keen on their relationship either.
Molly approached slowly, smiling at her mother. Mama linked her arm through Molly’s and said, “I have to go check on Dad. We’ll see you at the house for lunch?”
“Yes,” Molly said, glancing at her quickly. She couldn’t keep her eyes off Hunter, and she really wanted to invite him to lunch too.
Mama left, and Hunter set both boys on the ground beside him. He adjusted his hands in theirs and looked at her. With the crisis over, he seemed calm, confident, and perfectly collected.
“Thanks for your help,” he said, that smile appearing again.
Neither of them moved. Molly finally reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, her voice stuck somewhere down inside her chest.
“Do you live with your parents?” Hunter asked.
Molly raised her eyes to his. “No, I have my own place.”
“So you live here.” This time, it wasn’t a question.
“Yes,” she said. “You? Just visiting?” He’d gone to college at MIT. Like, the actual MIT, where only geniuses and future Nobel Peace Prize winners went to get educated.
“I’m starting at HMC tomorrow,” he said, the smile faltering. “I’m literally moving back today.”
“To the farm?”
“For now,” he said. “I’ll probably get a place in the city. It’s too far to commute for long.”