Chapter 34

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

BLAKE

I dream of Molly all night. I see us exploring Chicago together, traveling the world, and even getting married someday. I wake up feeling like a million bucks. At least until I remember that she doesn't know what I'm really doing here.

Grabbing my laptop from the nightstand, I open it and start to write.

Starting to date someone new is full of risk, but it can also be full of excitement. A new love interest is invigorating. It's the unknown becoming known, like slowly unwrapping a Christmas present. Once the paper is off, you're left wondering if the box will hold a dozen of the best vintage baseball cards of all time, or if you'll find yet another homemade sweater full of holes that your grandmother didn't sew together?

Last night, Polly and I shared our first kiss. It was wonderful and amazing. It felt like the beginning of something special. Which, if I'm being honest, scares me. I did not come to this event believing that it was anything more than a sham—a way for Trina Rockwell to keep meddling in the lives of single people and making money while she was at it.

But now that I've met someone I really like and want to get to know better, I'm forced to consider that maybe Trina knows what she's doing. She definitely comes up with fresh, out-of-the-box activities—like last night's group square dancing lesson …

In a rare moment of charitable thinking, I'm about to give mad props to Trina, but there's a knock on my door. On my way to answer it, I stop in front of the mirror to tame the bedhead I have every morning.

After making sure I'm somewhat presentable, I open the door. It's early, so I'm surprised to see Molly standing there. She looks gorgeous in her fuzzy red turtleneck sweater and skinny jeans, and it's all I can do not to pull her into my arms. "Molly." I step back to let her come in, but she doesn't move. Instead, she just stands there with her mouth hanging wide open. "Are you okay?" I ask.

"I … um … I'm … well …"

"Having a stroke?" I tease.

She points toward my bare chest and manages to utter, "You're naked."

Looking down at my plaid flannel pajama pants, I assure her, "Not naked. I just don't have a shirt on."

"Wh … Why? I mean, why? Why don't you have a shirt on?" I wonder if she's this flustered with everyone or I just make her nervous. I hope it's the latter because that would mean she has feelings for me too.

Her expression is so odd, you'd think she'd never seen a man's bare chest before. "I just woke up. I haven't even gotten out of bed yet."

She surprises me by saying, "But it's ten thirty. "

"Are you serious? I never sleep this late." I step back into the room. "Do you want to come in? I'll throw on some clothes so we get down to the dining room in time for breakfast."

"I … um … no. I'll just stay here."

"Suit yourself," I tell her before blowing her a kiss and shutting the door. Molly is adorable when she blushes, which is something she's been doing nonstop since I opened the door.

Hurrying to my closet, I grab a fresh pair of jeans and a grey cashmere sweater. I barely got the chance to wear warm sweaters in LA, so I'm loving the heck out of doing so now that I'm back in the Midwest. Once I'm dressed, I run into the bathroom and brush my teeth. Then I add a splash of my signature aftershave.

When I step out into the hallway, Molly is leaning against the wall like she's using it as a support to keep her from falling to the floor. "You ready?" I ask.

"Uh … um …" She leans in toward me and practically inhales my neck. "Y … you smell great!"

I bend down and sniff her back, letting the tip of my nose touch the delicate skin at the base of her neck. Then I lift my head so that my mouth is resting next to her ear. "You smell pretty incredible yourself."

She visibly shivers. I love having such an obvious effect on her. "Th … thank you."

"You mean thump queue?" I tease, remembering our first encounter on the train.

Her blush is delightful, but she doesn't comment.

"Before we go down to the dining room, Molly, I wanted to make sure you understood what's going on here."

A look of panic crosses her face. "What's that?"

"I want you to understand how much I like you," I tell her with a slow grin.

"Oh."

"And I wonder if I might give you a small, good morning kiss to remind you." I assure her, "I just brushed my teeth."

"I … um … "

Her chin bobs up and down slightly, which I take to mean that she's okay with it. Lowering my mouth to hers, I let my lips briefly touch hers before starting to pull back. But she doesn't let me break contact. She moves with me until our bodies are pressed against each other.

"You still like me this morning, huh?" she asks breathlessly.

"Very much," I assure her. "Do you still like me?"

"Mmmm."

Taking her hand, I say, "We have to get our order in by eleven or we'll have to eat lunch." Then I pull her in the direction of the elevator.

Once we're inside, she declares, "I'm getting the chocolate chip pancakes. How about you?"

"That sounds good," I tell her. "Why don't I get the Swedish pancakes, and we can share?"

She nods her head. "Perfect."

We're at our table and seated with only five minutes to spare, so we order right away. I ask for a cup of coffee and Molly gets a hot chocolate. She divulges, "I've had at least two hot chocolates every day since I've been here."

"Sounds like you know a good thing when you find it," I tell her. Not unlike me finding her.

She giggles. "I was planning on being really good and not having a lot of sweets, but I went off the rails and now I don't even know where the rails are."

"The holidays are the time for decadence," I assure her.

"So," Molly says, "you're going back into the trenches today."

I feel a guilty heat under my collar while answering, "I want to find out what else Trina has up her sleeve that we might be able to incorporate at the coffee shop."

Molly looks over my shoulder. "Isn't that Thor sitting over there? And Krista, too?" I turn around and sure enough, Krista and Thor are sitting near us at separate tables.

"I wonder why they're not sitting together," I say .

Molly exhales loudly before announcing, "That's probably our fault. Or rather your fault."

"My fault? How do you figure?"

She glares at me meaningfully. "You're the one who broke up their first date when you started acting like you were interested in Krista."

"Ah, yes. But I was really interested in you."

"You had a funny way of showing it," she murmurs sardonically.

"That's because I'd decided not to pursue anyone while I was here. As such, I was trying to give you and Thor some time to connect."

"So, you were never interested in Krista romantically?"

"I was not," I assure her. "But I have an idea, if you're game."

"What's that?"

Standing up, I tell her, "I think I should go ask Thor to join us and you should ask Krista and once we're all at the same table, we can update them on our new status. That way, they might decide to reconnect."

"Our new status?" she asks flirtatiously. "What might our new status be?"

I give my shoulders a brief shrug before telling her, "I was thinking we should tell them that we've paired off and that neither of us is available."

Her smile is positively blinding. "Let's do it!" She practically sprints toward Krista before I've even taken a single step.

Once Molly reaches her destination, I head to Thor's table. "Hey, man," I say. "How about joining me for breakfast?"

I don't think he saw me coming because he startles when he hears my voice. "Hey, Blake. How are you?"

"Really good," I tell him. "Would you like to join me?"

Pushing away from his table, he stands up and grabs his plate. "I'd love to."

I lead the way to Molly's and my table, with Molly and Krista only seconds behind us. When Krista sees me, she stops dead in her tracks. "You …" she accuses like I just ran her dog over with my car.

"Krista!" I say, hoping to sound friendly, but not too friendly.

Addressing Molly, she says, "I'm not sure this is such a good idea."

Molly takes her arm and pulls her toward the table. "I think it is. There's something that Blake and I want to tell you both."

Krista sits down, but not before scooting her chair as far from mine as she can. Thor sits down normally.

I open my mouth to tell them what's going on, but Molly beats me to the punch. She says, "Blake and I have decided that we're going to take ourselves out of the dating pool."

"What, why?" Krista asks. Then she points between us and guesses, "Are you two dating?"

"I knew it!" Thor claps his hands together loudly. "I knew you were into Molly!"

"I was," I tell him. "I didn't want to come on too strong right out of the gate."

"So, you asked me to go hot tubbing with you instead. How flattering." Krista doesn't sound the least bit complimented.

"I wanted to make sure I talked to a few women before settling down with Molly here." I say this like I was choosing a kitten at the animal shelter and not a love interest.

Molly seems to take it that way, too because she kicks me sharply under the table, causing me to cry out in pain. She says, "Blake and I should have never joined you two for breakfast. You seemed like you were having such a nice time …" She lets her insinuation hang in the air—that they should reconnect.

Thor clears his throat somewhat uncomfortably before telling Krista, "I really did enjoy spending time with you."

"I enjoyed spending time with you, as well." After a beat, she adds, "I've seen you talking to some other women. Have you met anyone special?"

Thor winks at her. "I thought I did but then Blake stole her away from me. "

Raising my hands out in front of me like this is a stick-up, I apologize. "I'm sorry if I messed anything up between the two of you."

Thor is quick to ask Krista, "What do you say we take off and spend the day together? Maybe go for a hike?"

"That's sounds very nice, Thor." Krista pushes her chair back before addressing Molly. "Thank you for inviting me to join you." Then she turns and stares daggers at me. "Blake." That's all.

Once Thor and Krista leave, I tell Molly, "That was fun. Who do you want to set up next?"

She looks around the room like we're really going to do this, but then she responds, "I haven't talked to that many people. You're the one who's been making the rounds. I think you're going to have to take the lead."

The waiter stops by and drops off our food which prompts me to say, "I'll think about it, but for now I want to enjoy my date with you. How does that sound?"

"So good," she practically purrs.

Meeting Molly is the last thing I expected when I came here, but I'm not complaining. Playing stupid, I ask her, "Are you talking about me or the pancakes?"

Molly cuts into her pancakes and takes a bite. She releases a groan of appreciation before answering, "Clearly, I'm talking about the pancakes."

Molly Anders is well on the way to capturing my heart, and I can only hope she feels the same way about me. If this were a fairytale, we'd be nearing the "And they all lived happily-ever-after" portion of the story.

Unfortunately, this isn't a children's book and there's still a big secret between us that needs to be told.