Rydin' the Storm Out (16 page)

Molly turned to the door and unlocked the storm door. “Hello, I was finishing up with a customer…thank you for waiting.”

Grateful that her voice didn’t sound shaky, she stood aside as Frank and Jeffrey walked in. “Hi Frank, Ryder says he’s not far from here and he’s sorry he’s late. Can you wait?”

“Absolutely, Molly. No problem.”

“Frank, this is Jeffrey Jepson, my landlord’s son. Mr. Jepson, this is Frank, my next-door neighbor.”

The two men shook hands, and Jeffrey scowled at both Frank and Molly.

“How can I help you, Mr. Jepson?”

“I came to have a
private
conversation with you, Ms. Bates.”

“Oh, there’s nothing you can’t say in front of Frank. Please, go ahead.”

Jepson looked at Frank and then at Molly. It was clear, he didn’t have anything at all to discuss. He just wanted Molly alone. Frank walked over and sat on the sofa, crossing his left ankle over his right knee. Molly was so grateful Frank had come when JT called him. She looked at Frank and smiled. “I guess my manners have escaped me. Can I get either of you something to drink? I still have coffee or water. I could make tea if you prefer.”

“Nothing for me, Molly. I’m good, but maybe Mr. Jepson would like something?” Frank pointedly looked at Jepson.

“Ah, n-no. N-nothing for me.”

Molly sat on the sofa next to Frank and pointed to a chair at a forty-five degree angle for Jepson to sit down. “So, Mr. Jepson, what did you need to discuss?”

“I…well, I just wanted to discuss the purchase of this house. I…well…um.” Jeffrey started patting his breast pocket down.

“Hi! Frank, sorry I’m late.” Ryder strode in, looking entirely like the sexy, gorgeous man he is. Molly let out a big breath, not even realizing she had been holding it. Ryder quickly shook hands with Frank. He leaned down and kissed Molly on the lips. He stood back a bit and winked at her. Then he turned his attention to Jepson.

“Mr. Jepson. I didn’t realize we were expecting you today.” Ryder reached over and firmly shook Jepson’s hand.

Jepson’s eyes glinted narrowly at Ryder. He cleared his throat as Ryder sat next to Molly and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He gave her a little squeeze of reassurance and kissed the top of her head. This jerk was starting to become obnoxious and intrusive, and Ryder wasn’t going to allow it.

Jepson patted his jacket pocket and quickly stood. “I have to apologize, I thought I had the Offer to Purchase with me, but I seem to have forgotten it. I’ll bring it by a little later.”

“Actually, Molly and I are meeting with our banker in a few hours to write up an Offer. Our banker will get it to you for signature and I believe you’ll need to sign it and return it to her.” Ryder’s voice was firm and he never moved his eyes from Jepson’s. He wanted Jepson intimidated enough to know that Ryder was not someone to mess with.

“Oh, right…right. I was wondering what was going on with it all. It’s been a couple of weeks and I hadn’t heard anything from you. I’ll be going then. Sorry to have bothered you, it seems you have quite a lot going on.”

“There is usually someone here working with Molly or me. I have a very large family, so someone is usually hanging around. It was nice seeing you.”

Jepson walked quickly to the door with Ryder on his heels. Frank and Molly both stood, but stayed where they were. Ryder opened the door and Jepson left without turning or saying goodbye to anyone. Ryder watched him get into his car and drive away. Once he was out of the driveway, Ryder locked the storm door and the main door. He turned to look at Molly and she ran into his arms. She was shaking and wrapped her arms tightly around him. Ryder cupped her head and pressed her against his chest. He looked over at Frank.

“Thanks so much for running over here so fast. I can’t tell you how grateful we are.”

Frank nodded. “To be honest with you, I thought it was just Molly being a little paranoid, but as soon as I saw the look on his face, I knew that wasn’t the case. That one isn’t right.”

Molly turned and smiled at Frank. “I’m never paranoid!”

Frank chuckled. Ryder cupped Molly’s face in his hands. “Are you ok, babe?”

“Geez. I was scared shitless. He kept knocking and knocking and then when he yelled, ‘I want to talk to you,’ it really scared me. I was so happy to see Frank walk over. Thank you so much, Frank.”

“May I ask what the deal is with him?”

Molly took a deep breath. “Mr. Jepson, Ellison Jepson, my landlord, passed away a couple of weeks ago. Jeffrey is his son and found a sheet of paper in Mr. Jepson’s safe to sell me the house. The first time he came here to speak with me about it, he cornered me in the kitchen. I was scared but luckily, Ryder came in before anything happened. We’ll ask Pattie, our banker, to put her contact information on the contract for Jeffrey to respond to her directly. I don’t want to deal with him anymore.”

Frank nodded. “I’ll keep my eyes open from now on. I had no idea Ellison passed away. We haven’t been in contact since he moved out and you moved in.”

***

The next evening, Ryder and Molly joined Tammy and Danny for wings at The Stadium View and then went to The Barn for drinks and dancing.

They found a table not far from the dance floor and Molly and Tammy headed out to dance while Ryder and Danny sat at the table drinking their beers. Ryder loved watching Molly dance. Her beautiful body was so graceful when she moved. Her full breasts, one of his favorite things about her body, moved when she moved. Tonight, she was wearing turquoise jeans with a soft gray sweater and tall gray heels that allowed her cute little toes to peek out. She had turquoise dangly earrings that wiggled and sparkled while she moved around.

As Ryder watched her and Tammy move around the dance floor, he couldn’t help but smile as he watched.

“What are you up to?”

Ryder swung his head around at the woman’s voice only to see Rachel standing at his table looking at him. He turned his gaze to Danny and then back to Rachel.

“What do you want, now, Rachel?”

Rachel laughed at his tone. She wanted him back in her bed. Sure they’d only had sex, maybe three times, but dammit, she wanted more.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” She slid her gaze to Danny and smiled at him.

“Danny, this is Rachel. Rachel, this is Danny.”

Danny nodded at Rachel and looked back at Ryder, understanding this was the woman that Molly had complained to Tammy about.

“Do you want to dance with me, Ryder?”

“No, Rachel, I don’t want to dance with you. If I wanted to dance, I would dance with Molly, not you. You know I’m with her, why do you insist on constantly trying to start shit every time you see us here?”

“Come on, Ryder,” she whined. “We had fun together. I just want to have more fun that’s all.”

“We had sex a couple of times, that’s all. It was never anything more, and it never will be. Try and get that through your head.”

“Well, you keep coming back here, knowing I’ll be here, so I think you still want me.”

Ryder shook his head and looked at Danny again. He chanced a look at the dance floor to see Molly watching, her eyebrows raised in question. Shit!

“We come here because Kevin, the owner, is a very good friend of my dad. It’s a bar my whole family comes to and I’m not going to avoid going to a place my family frequents because of you. There’s no reason we can’t both be here without this constant bullshit. I’m with Molly. I love Molly. End of story.”

“But…”

“What’s going on here?” Ryder looked up to see JT standing at the table and Gunnar on his way over.

“Same old shit man,” Ryder said as JT and Danny shook hands.

Gunnar arrived at the table and shoved himself between Ryder and Rachel, then waved at Molly and Tammy on the dance floor. Molly waved back and smirked as Rachel scowled, first at Gunnar, then Molly. Tammy started laughing, returned Gunnar’s wave, then turned back to Molly to finish dancing out the remainder of the song. Rachel stalked back to her table as Molly and Tammy came back to join the men.

“Hey there, how are you?” Molly greeted Gunnar with a hug and whispered in his ear, “Thanks for helping with Rachel.”

Gunnar smiled at her and whispered back, “I hate that bitch and I’m sick of her bullshit.”

When he pulled away, he winked at her. Molly said hello to JT and Tammy said hi to everyone. Ryder and Molly danced a few slow dances, which really got Rachel snarling. Danny and Tammy danced a couple of slow dances as well.

“You know, it’s so weird looking at the two of you standing next to each other. Who would have thought something this strange would happen to people I know,” Tammy said, between sips of her drink.

Gunnar laughed and looked at Molly. “Yeah. All my life I wanted a sibling. I’m glad I have her now, but wish she would have been around a long time ago.” He nudged Molly with his shoulder, and she nodded in agreement.

“There were so many times in my life, I could have used having an older brother. You have no idea some of the things I had to endure!” Molly said.

Tammy gasped then froze; she didn’t think Molly had told anyone about her stepfather. The drinks must be making her tongue loose. Ryder, Gunnar, JT, and Danny all noticed the look on Tammy’s face. Tammy stared at Molly, and Molly realized she must have said more than she intended to say.

Gunnar cocked his head to the side as he turned to look at Molly. “Like when?”

It was Molly’s turn to freeze up. Shit! She shouldn’t have had that fourth drink; she knows better than that. Trying to gather her thoughts as quickly as she could, she looked at Tammy with a horrified look on her face.

“You know high school boys can be evil,” Tammy offered.

Molly looked relieved as she slid her gaze to Tammy and then back to the table.

“Hey. Something happen to you as a kid Molly? You can tell me you know.”

Molly looked up at Gunnar and shook her head. Gunnar leaned down and kissed the top of Molly’s head and looked at Ryder. Ryder’s brows drew together as he was processing these facts.

Some days were just made for puttering around the house. That was today. Ryder was working out with his brothers at their house and Molly was organizing her office space. She had neglected it a little over the past few days.

On her knees in front of her desk, Molly pulled open the bottom drawer and began filing invoices from this month. Hearing a thump at the back of the house she froze. Nothing. Her imagination was getting the best of her lately. She continued filing as her phone rang.

Reaching forward to grab it off the desk she quickly swiped the answer icon, “Memories by Molly.”

“You’ll be happy to know I’m out. I’ll be around to collect what’s mine.”

“How…when did you get out?”

All Molly heard was laughing on the other end of the phone and then the line went dead.

Molly sat back on her heels as her heart thumped so loudly she couldn’t hear the music coming from the stereo. The trembling in her hands and tightness in her neck threatened to reduce her to tears. She would not let this bastard
ever
touch her again. In spite of the fact Molly thought she was damaged, she’d found happiness with Ryder.

Taking deep, calming breaths, Molly pulled her phone up and swiped her finger along her contacts until she came to the one person with whom she could freely talk to. Tapping the smiling picture staring at her, Molly lifted the phone to her ear.

“Hey, there girl, what’s happening?”

At the sound of Tammy’s voice, Molly’s composure crumbled.

“Tammy
,
” she sobbed into the phone and, trying to form words, Molly spoke again. “He’s out.”

“What…who’s
…
Fuck! When?”

Swallowing the thick knot in her throat, Molly whispered, “He just called me.”

“No. How did he get your number?”

“He called a few weeks ago. Told me he got my number from the Rolling Thunder video.” Molly’s voice cracked.

“Tammy. He said he’s coming to collect what’s his.” Molly swiped at the tears rolling down her cheeks.

“What did Ryder say?”

“I haven’t told him yet. Things are so good, how could I tell him? He’ll think I’m dirty.”

Tammy took a deep breath. Softening her voice, she said, “No he won’t, Molly. Just like I don’t, he won’t either. You have to tell him.”