the words Hunter Hammond is back in Ivory Peaks. Hunter Hammond is back!
“Do you want to come to lunch at my house?” she blurted out before she could think too hard about it.
His eyes widened a little bit, and he looked down at his two brothers. “Hey, you guys,” he said, dropping into a crouch. “Will you go wait for me on the steps? I just need to talk to Molly alone for one second.”
“All right,” Deacon said, and he took Tucker’s hand. The two of them walked away while Hunter straightened. He kept his eyes on them until they’d sat on the bottom step, and then for another few seconds.
When he finally looked at her, a storm rolled across his face. Molly wanted to recall the invitation, but it was too late. She wasn’t sure what was going through his mind, because Hunter had never said a whole lot. He’d felt deeply, but he’d gone to therapy to learn how to do that. For a long time, he’d told her he’d simply existed behind a barrier made of frosted glass.
He softened and lifted one hand toward her, sliding his fingertips along the side of her face and tucking her hair behind her ear again. It took all of Molly’s will power to stay still and not lean into those hands she’d known so well.
“I want to, Molly,” he said as his hand dropped back to his side. “But I literally rolled into town ten minutes before church started. I haven’t seen my grandparents yet, or really talked to my parents. So I really shouldn’t.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice a bit ragged. She cleared her throat. “It’s okay. You go have fun with your family.”
He nodded, and Molly wished with every birthday candle on the planet that he’d ask her out for another time. She’d clear any schedule she had to in order to be there.
He didn’t though. Instead, he just nodded, ducked his head so his cowboy hat concealed most of his face, and said, “Deacon, Tuck, let’s go.”
The little boys came toward them, and Hunter looked up at her as they took his hands. “See you around, Molly.” He started toward the small parking lot, and Molly turned as he went by and watched him take the boys to a large, gray truck that had a white trailer attached to it.
It was exactly the kind of vehicle someone as masculine and male as Hunter would drive, and he lifted Deacon into the backseat while the child laughed. Molly smiled too, because wow. Hunter Hammond interacting with children was another low blow to her feelings for him. She’d seen him hold his sister when she was a baby, and she’d suspected then that he’d be a caring and attentive father. To actually see his concern for his brothers only cemented that.
He closed the door and turned back to her. Embarrassment leapt to Molly’s face, and she ducked away from him, hurrying toward the steps that led back inside. She’d made her feelings for him known. She didn’t need to add further humiliation to her already burning life.
Inside, she met her mother as she came down the hallway that led to Dad’s office. “He’s going to be a few minutes,” she said. “That means at least an hour. Can I ride with you? Or were you planning to go home and then come to the house for lunch?”
“I can take you,” Molly said. They went out the west doors and around to the back of the church, where Dad always parked. Only a few spots were available, and usually the family took them.
Ingrid’s car was gone already, which meant all of Molly’s younger siblings had already left. She clicked the button on her fob to unlock her car, and the vehicle beeped. Molly’s neck felt so tense, and after she got behind the wheel, she pushed out her breath and rolled her shoulders.
“Is Hunter coming for lunch?” Mama asked.
“No,” Molly said miserably. Too miserably. Her mother’s gaze on the side of her face felt too heavy to bear, and Molly quickly started the car and put it in reverse.
“You invited him, though, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Mama,” Molly said. Her mom didn’t ask another question, and that drove Molly crazy. She knew this tactic, because she’d grown up with it. She’d seen her mother fall silent when talking to Ingrid about her prom date, and when asking Lyra if her boyfriend was going to propose soon. Eventually, they all broke and spilled