Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Molly stripped out of her rehearsal dinner dress and into her Christmas pajamas. The flannel ones. Even if she had a sexy nightgown, she wouldn’t wear it. Sexy wasn’t her style.

Ben — no pajamas, but he had taken off his tie — was already on his balcony when she stepped outside and took her chair. He had his feet up, as he often did.

“There’s a lot of information about you in the internet,” she said.

“Uh-oh.”

Molly looked his way and smiled. “I haven’t found anything that’s going to scare me off, but there are a few things you need to know about me. I’m not famous. No one cares who I dated or whether or not I can catch a ball.”

“You could never catch a ball.”

“True. I’m surprised you remember.”

Ben was quiet for a moment, then he said, “I remember a lot about you. There aren’t a ton of memories of other kids from the 6th grade, but you… it’s like you’ve been here all along, living in my head.”

“You said romance is for suckers. If that’s the case, I’m a big, fat sucker.”

“That was too harsh…” he began.

“Like I told you, I’ve been engaged three times. I fall head over heels, I think this is it , and I get lost in the idea of love and happily ever after. For a while I’m blissfully happy, but it doesn’t last. It’s like I hit a wall, like one day I look at my fiancé and realize he’s not who I thought he was. I want love, I want it all, but he’s not the one.”

Now here she was looking at Ben like he was the one. She couldn’t tell him that. This pretend engagement felt more real than any of the other three, but it wasn’t real. She couldn’t allow herself to think it was, or would ever be.

“I like you a lot,” he said.

“I like you,” she admitted.

“After this is all over, I’d like to see you again.”

“How would that work?”

“I don’t know. Keep it simple. I’ll visit you, you can visit me…”

“Do we really know each other well enough for that?” she asked.

She felt his gaze on her as he answered, “Well enough for what?”

Overthinking was not her friend. She wanted Ben. He wanted her. Maybe for tonight that was enough.

“I hear you have a bottle of water in your room.”

And she had two condoms in the pocket of the dress she’d worn last night.

They left their balconies at the same time, closing the sliding glass doors almost simultaneously. Molly tried not to rush, she tried not to be overly anxious, but it wasn’t easy. Her heart beat too fast; she practically came out of her skin at the idea of what was to come.

Ben.

She went to the closet and grabbed both condoms from the pocket of her bachelorette party dress, then slipped them into her pajama pockets.

Every piece of clothing should have pockets! Why wasn’t that a law?

The chair that had been placed in front of the connecting door wasn’t heavy; she moved it easily, unlocked the deadbolt, turned the knob, and opened the door. Ben stood there, waiting. Waiting for her.

Molly wished she had something sexier to wear than flannel pajamas with red and green elves all over them, but for tonight this was it.

“No pajamas for you?” she said as she stepped into Ben’s room, which was indeed a mirror image of her own.

“I sleep naked.”

If she hadn’t already been on edge…

“But your PJs are cute.” Ben pulled her in and gave her a kiss, a long deep kiss she felt to her toes. The kiss ended abruptly and he said, “Take ‘em off.”

She did, pausing only long enough to remove the condoms from her pocket and drop them on the bedside table. He stripped down to nothing more quickly than it took her to do the same. Damn, the man was nothing but muscle! Well, muscle and an impressive erection she tried really hard not to stare at.

Molly was usually shy at this point of a newish relationship, but tonight she wasn’t shy at all. She turned off the bedside light but didn’t rush to hide under the covers. The bathroom light was on, and it cast just enough light for her to see Ben, for him to see her.

She wanted him, and for tonight that was enough. So what if she was a romantic and he thought romance was for suckers. So what if…

Stop overthinking.

He threw back the covers and laid her on the bed, then covered her with his long, hard body, skin to skin. They kissed; her hands explored his skin as if this was the first time she’d ever connected with another human this way.

The kiss ended and his mouth was on her nipples, then on her neck, then on her nipples again. All thought faded to nothing but this , to what they had and what was to come. His fingers delved between her thighs and worked magic. She’d never been so ready, so hungry, so sure of what she wanted.

She told him plainly what she wanted, and he moaned in response.

He reached for one of her bachelorette condoms and opened it. They realized as he put it on that this particular condom was of the glow in the dark variety. Green. About the color of her bridesmaid dress.

They both laughed, but not for long.

Ben eased inside her, and she forgot everything else but this. The feeling, the sensations, the need for more. She wanted all of him and she was ready to give him all she had. He moved, and nothing existed beyond this bed. Nothing mattered but where they were and where they were going.

Here was so fine.

The orgasm came hard and fast. He’d think she was easy, but she didn’t care. Apparently he was pretty easy himself, since he was right behind her. The intensity of their coming together was replaced by satisfaction and a certainty that all was right with the world. At least for now. He kissed her again, gently this time. She kissed him back, ran her hand down his arm, wallowed in the feel of his skin against hers.

What do you say in a moment like this one? Were words necessary? She couldn’t tell Ben she loved him. That’s not what he was looking for. It wasn’t what she was looking for, either. He didn’t say anything, and while she didn’t mind silence it seemed as if one of them should say something .

So she did.

“Green is my new favorite color.”

Sex was easy, but actually sleeping beside another human being was another matter entirely. It had been years since he’d slept with a woman, which required a level of trust he didn’t have with many people, not anymore.

He liked sleeping with Molly, liked having her right there, within reach. Being with her was easy, in a gut deep way.

Until a couple of days ago he hadn’t seen her in eighteen years. He played ball with a couple of young guys who would’ve been toddlers the last time he saw her, when he’d proposed, when they’d been children.

So why did he think about her now and then? Not all the time, he wasn’t obsessed or anything, but on occasion he heard a song or saw a playground or passed a couple of kids on bikes and he remembered a moment from that charmed time in his life.

If his dad hadn’t gotten transferred, would they have been high school sweethearts? Would he have proposed to her again? She might’ve said yes that time, instead of “I’ll think about it.” His entire life would’ve been different.

But it wasn’t. That was a dream; this was reality. They were where they were and who they were. There was no going back, but could they move forward from here? Had their one chance come and gone?

Oddly enough he’d thought of Molly when that weird woman in the Airstream had sold him a half-heart Christmas ornament. In a flash of memory it had reminded him of the necklace he’d given to Molly when he’d proposed. She probably didn’t remember that cheap, silly thing, but he did. Or at least, he had on that day.

Molly came awake with the sun. She rolled into him, draped her arm around his waist, lifted her leg over his, and moved against him in a gentle way that drove him crazy. She kissed his neck; she breathed against his skin and that was all it took.

They had one more condom. He reached past her to grab it from the nightstand, and this time he checked the package. This morning’s condom didn’t glow in the dark, but it was banana flavor. He decided not to mention that fact.

Before the ceremony he’d find a nearby drugstore and stock up on non-novelty condoms. Everyone was scheduled to check out tomorrow, but maybe he could convince Molly to stay for a few more days. He wanted her all to himself to see if what he felt was real, to discover if this was going anywhere or if it was nothing more than wedding frenzy combined with nostalgia.

No matter what it was, he intended to take his time this morning. Molly was a woman to be savored, to be adored, and he was going to do just that. He rolled her onto her back and kissed her neck, her breasts, and down. His hands explored, and so did hers. As he moved between her thighs she sighed and whispered, “Well, Merry Christmas to me.”