Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) (19 page)

I strummed my guitar and wrote down a few notes as I
thought about her. She was good for my music, shaping it without even being
aware that was what she was doing.

I looked at the clock again…only one more hour until
she’s out of class.

I killed some more time cleaning up the apartment and
changing my sheets. Just in case she stayed with me again tonight, I didn’t
want her to think I was a slob. When my phone finally rang before I even looked
at it I thought, “If this isn’t her, I’m not even going to answer it.” It was
her.

“Hey,” was how I answered. It’s no wonder women want
me.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m out of class and on my way home.
I just called to see how your day was.”

“Productive,” I told her. “How was yours?”

“It was long and excruciating, and I’m glad it’s over,”
she said.

“Oh…but it’s not, even close,” I said. While I was
cleaning house, I’d had a brilliant idea.

“Oh it’s not?”

 
I could see her
smiling, and even over the phone it gave me chills.

“Nope, I have big plans for you. That’s if you can
stand another evening with me, and a little bit of cold.”

“The evening with you sounds great…but, the cold, not
so much. What do you have in mind?”

“They have an outdoor skating rink set up in the park
in town. I thought I would make us a picnic and we could go skating and have a
picnic dinner under the stars. What do you think?”

“I think the cold can be damned,” she said. “I’m
there.”

I arranged to pick her up in a few hours. She wanted
to shower and change and I still had to plan a picnic for two people on a
strange diet, and I realized I would have to run down and buy a picnic basket
since I didn’t have one of those either.

I went to the super center in town and picked up
things to make a Caesar salad, some fruit cups, some yogurt covered
strawberries and some organic juices in plastic containers. I got two bottles
of water too. I had become obsessed with her drinking enough water. I couldn’t
stand the thought of her getting sick again. When it was time, I had Suzie’s
saddlebags all packed up and ready to go.

Molly’s dorm mother Debbie called up for her and then
sat and waited with me until she came down. That was fun. She kind of reminds
me of the talk show hostess Ellen, only on steroids. Debbie is a big girl, and
by big, I don’t mean fat. I mean she could probably bench press me. She
cross-examined me while we waited, “Where are you from? How do you know Molly?
How old are you? Have you met her grandmother?” Like I said, it was fun, and
when my beautiful Molly came down the stairs I was sad that it had to come to
an end…Not at all.

We said good-night to Debbie…I think. Molly mesmerized
me with her beauty. I know that sounds clichéd or over-the-top, but it’s true.
She had on another one of those cute little knit hats like she wore to the
football game, only this one was white. She also had on a fuzzy white sweater
and a pair of jeans that looked like they had been made just for her…I swear.
She put on her coat and gloves before we got on Suzie, and I think I may have
glanced around to make sure Debbie wasn’t watching, and then I kissed her. She
kissed me back, and I hope I’m right, but she seemed to be as happy to see me
as I was her.

I drove slow, knowing she was cold. I was thinking I
might have to get a car for the winter months. Not that I’d ever give Suzie up,
but a car for when I had Molly with me, to keep her comfortable and warm, would
definitely be worth the investment. Well, okay my dad’s investment until I
started making a little more money. But Dad was cool like that, I knew he’s
help me out.

When we got to the park, I parked Suzie in a
well-lighted lot, right underneath a lamppost. Molly got off and as she was
taking off her helmet, she said, “Is Suzie afraid of the dark?” She smirked
when she said it. She’s lucky she’s her because no one else gets away with
making fun of my Suzie.

“Let’s put it this way,” I told her. “I would never
leave you standing in a completely dark place for hours. I would be afraid
someone would take you, or at the very least, touch you against your will…am I
right?”

She wrinkled her nose and said, “Which one of us do
you like best?”

I pled the fifth, and she laughed. I like her best, of
course. I was just afraid if I opened my mouth about it, the big “L” word would
come out. I had just got her comfortable enough to go out with me. I wasn’t
going to risk scaring her away already.

We walked across the park hand in hand. It was a
little cold, but overall a really nice night for early December. The pond was
easy to find. They had it decorated for Christmas with a big tree in the middle
and twinkling fairy lights were strung overhead. We rented our skates, but
decided to eat first so we found a nice little semi-secluded spot under a big
tree. It was close enough to the lights that we could see what we were eating,
but far enough away to give us some ambiance.

“So what were you and Debbie talking about earlier?”
she said with a grin.

“She was getting my life story,” I told her. “If you
hadn’t come down when you did, she may have brought out the torture devices.”

Molly laughed. “My grandmother left me in her care and
right before she left me there for the first time, she gave Debbie her scariest
look and said, “I’m counting on you.” I know, looking at Debbie it’s hard to
imagine, but I think Gran scared her.”

“I wasn’t scared…much,” I told her, honestly. “I wrote
a song for you today. Do you want to hear it?”

“I’d love to,” she said.

“You have to dance with me,” I said. She looked around
at all of the people in the park and said, “How about we eat, and while we
skate you can sing it to me. We won’t stand out so much, dancing on the ice.”

“You don’t like to be the center of attention?” I
asked her.

“Not at all,” she said. “Do you?”

I had to be honest here, but without coming off like I
thought I was some kind of stud or something. “Well, I wouldn’t say being the
center of attention so much as center stage, if you know what I mean?”

She laughed and said, “No, I have no clue.”

“Okay,” I told her. “I’m a musician and I like to
entertain people with my music. I feel like center stage means you’re giving
something back in return for the attention.”

“I guess that makes sense,” she said. “Are we going to
eat? I’m starving.”

I opened up the basket and started taking things out.
I handed her a bottle of water as I did. “My kidney thanks you,” she said with
a smile before drinking it. Then she looked at all the food and said, “Wow! My
stomach and taste buds are going to be indebted to you too. I can’t believe you
did all of this. Thank you.”

“It was fun,” I told her, honestly. “I like it that
we’re both kind of on the same diet. I used to feel so left out when everyone
was eating and I had my little healthy portions.”

“Aw,” she said. It was cute, she wasn’t being
sarcastic or anything as she said, “I don’t like thinking of you feeling left
out.” I had to lean in for another kiss. She met me halfway. We kissed until we
both needed to breathe and then she cleared her throat and said, “Can we eat
now?”

I laughed, “Yes, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I want to do that some
more. I just want to do it on a full stomach.”

After we ate and cleaned up our mess, I told Molly,
“If you want to put on your skates, I’m going to take the basket back and put
it in Suzie’s bag.”

She grinned and said, “You’re just going back to check
on her, aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” I said, “are you jealous?”

“Maybe,” she said, with another grin. I kind of liked
that idea.

When I got back, she had her skates on and she was
waiting for me on a wooden bench next to the pond. Her little nose was all red
from the cold, but her eyes were bright and shiny. I could tell she was having
fun. I sat down and put on my skates too and we hobbled the two feet to the
entrance, clutching onto each other for dear life.

Once we were out on the ice though, I realized that in
a competition, Molly would have beaten me, hands down. Her moves were so
graceful that I was tempted to just sit down and watch her. Instead, I turned
her so that
her
back was against me and I let her lead
us across the ice as I sang the silly little song I wrote for her. Last night,
while we made love, I thought I was falling in love with her, but sometimes in
a man’s brain, love and lust get mixed up. Tonight after I finished singing to
her and she turned back towards me and I wrapped my arms tight around her, I
knew the difference. I was falling in love with this girl, and I was falling
hard.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

MOLLY

Kissing Brock, on the ice in public like that was not
like me at all. I thought about that for a few seconds, and then I decided that
if being me meant not kissing him like this I didn’t want to be that girl.
Nothing up to this point in my life had ever felt better than being in his
arms, or feeling his lips on mine. His singing to me as we skated didn’t make
me worry that people were looking; it made me hope that they were listening. It
gave me goosebumps, in a very good way.

I wasn’t always self-conscious I public. I never cared
or even noticed when people looked at me, until after I got sick. Every time I
turned a corner after I’d been sick and went back to school, it felt like someone
was looking at me. They weren’t bad looks, or mean ones. They were just looks
filled with curiosity or pity. Either way, they made me feel like some kind of
side show attraction, and I hated it. That was the best part about starting
college…until I met Brock, of course…but knowing that when I walked across
campus, no one knew my history. No one was saying, “Oh look, her hair grew
back,” or “Poor girl, how much longer do you think she has left?” I was just
Molly, finally. And now…Well, now I’m part of a couple, Molly and Brock, Brock
and Molly. I laughed out loud at myself when I had that thought.

“What are you laughing at?” Brock asked me.

“I’m just happy,” I told him. It was so beautiful out
here, such a nice night that I felt like the Fates had arranged it all just for
us. I knew at last what those silly women in the romance novels I used to read had
been talking about all of these years. This is where I’m supposed to be, here
with this wonderful man, safe in his arms.

We skated for a while, and then we got some hot
chocolate and took a walk around the park. We talked some. But mostly we walked
in silence, just holding hands and enjoying the fact that we were together.

When we got all the way across to the far side of the
park he said, “I guess we should turn around.” I started to, but then he spun
me back around to face him and he gave me the most incredibly hot kiss I’ve
ever had, not that I have much to compare it to. It was one of those kisses
thought that made you think, if I died right now…my life would be complete. But
then he took it to another level. He slid his lips across my cheek and down to
my neck. He started with soft kisses, and before I knew it he was nibbling, and
I didn’t want him to stop. My heart felt like a sledge hammer banging against
the inside of my chest it was pumping so fast and so hard. He ran his hands
through the hair that hung out of the back of my hat at the same time, and when
he whispered, “Oh Molly,” in that sexy, bedroom voice of his, it almost put me
over the top. I swallowed hard, pushing the lump in my throat back into my
belly where it belonged and said, “It’s not legal to make love in a park,
right?” Brock laughed and said, “Trust me, if it wasn’t…”

“Are Megan and Jake going to be gone again tonight?” I
asked him.

“Yeah, Jake said one more night,” he said breathlessly.

“Let’s go home,” I told him. I was suddenly so bold
that I surprised myself, but I had never wanted anyone or anything the way that
I desired this man.

The ride back to his apartment on Suzie was twice as
cold as it was on the way over. I didn’t care though. All I had to do was just
think about kissing him again and all of my senses came alive and caused
comfortable warmth to travel through my veins.

The other thing that is so incredible about this guy is
that we’ve already made love once. Most guys would assume that to mean we would
be doing it again and again. But not Brock. When we got back to his apartment
he told me to sit on the couch and he went and got me a blanket. Once had
tucked me all in, he made me a cup of tea and then he said, “Do you want to
watch a movie?” I wanted to hug him until he couldn’t breathe. In relatively
short amount of time, I think he may have restored all of the faith in men I
had lost when Zack walked out on me.

“Sure,” I told him with a smile. He handed me a few to
look through and to my surprise and delight, there was
Untamed Heart
right in the middle of the stack.

“This one?” I asked him.

He grinned.

“Somehow I knew you would like this one,” he said.