“I don’t…feel….” He sighed and looked back out to the farm. “When I kiss other women, it’s not like kissing you. When I kiss you, it’s like I just can’t get enough. I can’t imagine wanting to kiss anyone but you, and I’m not going to lie—that scares me a little.”
“It scares me a little too,” Molly said. “Because I feel the same.” She couldn’t believe she stood in this barn, saying these things. She’d been so broken the day of her divorce, and she’d truly believed she’d never find someone who could love her the way a husband should.
The thought of having to tell Hunter about her ex-husband made her insides turn to mush, but the prize was so amazing that she’d do it. She wanted to be with him forever.
“I want more,” Hunter said, sliding his hand along her waist and tucking her into his side. “But that doesn’t mean I can have it yet.”
“Yet,” she said.
“Let’s go to dinner,” he said. “Nothing hard the rest of the night, okay? Just burgers and fries and fun with my cousins and my uncle.”
“Okay,” Molly agreed. “Are you still planning on coming to help me put together my new bookcase tomorrow?”
“That’s tomorrow?”
“It’s Saturday tomorrow,” she said, smiling at him. Hunter could solve any crossword puzzle. He could lift a hay bale in each hand without even groaning. He shot x-rays into crystals and actually understood what the data meant when it came back. But he wasn’t great with knowing what day of the week it was, or how much time had passed. He needed to be reminded of certain things over and over, and Molly found him very much like a second-grader in that regard.
“I didn’t know Wes was coming to town,” he said.
“Bring him along,” Molly said. “It’ll take less time, and then you two can do whatever you need to do.” She took a step to get him to move forward too. They really were going to be late for dinner if they didn’t leave soon. “I’m going to be in my classroom until lunchtime, and then Gloria’s going to give me another horseback riding lesson.”
“That’s right,” he said. “I remember now.”
“Mm hm.” Molly laughed with him, and while she had started to feel like her relationship with Hunter had turned clinical, that kiss had taken things in a brand new direction.
They pulled up to The Burger Babe, and Hunter nodded to an enormous black truck two or three spots away. “They beat us.”
“That’s because you kissed me forever in the barn,” she teased.
He jerked his attention to her, and Molly leaned over the console and tipped her face up toward his. “I liked it, Hunter. Kiss me again real quick.”
He did, barely matching his lips to hers before someone rapped on the window behind him. He broke the connection and turned, laughing when he saw his uncle standing there. He opened the door and slid out of the truck, more loud laughter joining his.
His uncle clapped him on the back and the excited cries of children met Molly’s ears. When she rounded the front of the truck, she found Hunter with a little girl in his arms and his other hand clutched in a little boy’s.
Another child stood next to Wesley Hammond, who turned toward her. “Molly Benson.” He engulfed her in a hug, lifting her right up off her feet. She squealed; he laughed and put her back down.
“Why’d you decide to come all the way here?” Hunter asked, taking the first step toward the entrance of the restaurant.
“Road trip,” Michael said. “Dad loves ‘em.”
“I do love a good road trip,” Wes said, and Molly smiled to herself. The man had defined road trip when he’d driven from right here in Ivory Peaks to all forty-eight contiguous states. He’d taken a cruise ship to Alaska and a plane to Hawaii, and Molly could only imagine the things he’d seen and experienced.
He’d turned sixty a couple of years ago, but he’d told everyone at the dinner she’d attended a month ago that he died his hair to keep the gray from taking over. He was dark like Hunter, and tall like Hunter, and extremely handsome like Hunter.
Molly felt like a dwarf in his presence, but when Hunter said, “Here, Easton, hold your daddy’s hand. I want to hold Molly’s,” she felt just as big and just as important as these Hammond men.
“Wes,” someone said inside the restaurant, and more loud laughter followed. Hugging ensued, and they got