by Liz Isaacson
“Grandma made a cake last night,” Dad said. “Trust me, we have everything you could want.”
Hunter paused as others moved up the aisle in front of him. “Is it for me, Dad?”
“Of course,” Dad said with a healthy grin. “Grandma and Grandpa can’t wait to see you again.”
Hunter hadn’t stayed at the farm last night, because he hadn’t quite been in town yet. He’d driven in that morning, just in time for church. Everything he owned was either in the back of his truck or on its way from Massachusetts.
“I don’t need a big welcome home party,” he said, his mood darkening. He didn’t really like having the spotlight on him, and he gave his father a glare.
“It’s Grandma,” Dad said. “What am I supposed to tell her? That she can’t make a cake for her favorite grandson?”
Hunter softened then. “Where are they?” He eased into the flow of people moving toward the doors at the back, his hand still gripping Deacon’s.
Dad moved into the aisle with him, and they stood at the exact same height, shoulder to shoulder. “They don’t get to church much anymore,” he said. “Not since Grandpa’s fall.”
Hunter nodded, his teeth automatically clenching together. He hadn’t been here for that; he hadn’t had availability to come visit. Regret laced through him as he moved slowly toward the door.
In the foyer, the crowd dispersed a little, and Hunter had more breathing room. “I’m over this way,” he said to Deacon, tugging on the boy’s hand to get him to go left. “You comin’, Tucker?”
“Yeah.” Tucker hurried over to Hunter while Dad and Elise and Jane went right. He dropped his bag, and Hunter paused to wait for him to pick it up.
“I still think we should get ice cream,” he said to Deacon. “Do you think Grandma got butter pecan?”
“She got vanilla,” Deacon said, looking up at him. “And cookies and cream, and that gross bubble gum kind that Jane loves.”
“Hmm.” Hunter looked up, thinking the definitely needed more ice cream, and everything around him fell away.
Molly stood fifteen feet in front of him, next to her mother. She still had that gorgeous smile framing white teeth. Her reddish-brownish-blonde hair had always struck Hunter right behind the heart, as had her bright green eyes.
Hers met his dark ones, and he saw the moment she recognized him. Those eyes widened, and she lifted one hand to cover her mouth, which had opened slightly.
Her mother said something to her, but Molly didn’t react. Hunter knew exactly what was going on, because everything around him was muted too. Just gone, because there was Molly, and she was all he’d ever wanted or need.
Hunter realized in that moment that he’d never gotten over her. He may have kissed other girls, but he’d only ever wanted to kiss her.
She blinked, leaned toward her mother, and said something to her.
Her mother’s eyes flew to Hunter, and he managed to lift one hand in a half-hearted wave.
“Hunt,” Deacon said, and all kinds of chatter and noise met his ears as his senses returned.
“Yeah?” Hunter glanced down at the boy for a fraction of a second. “What?” He looked back to where Molly had been, but she’d moved.
No! his heart cried out. He had to find her and talk to her. He had to know if she was seeing someone or if she might be available to be his again.
“Tucker’s gone,” Deacon said, and that got Hunter to focus.
“What?” He turned around, expecting Tucker to still be collecting his bag from the floor. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere behind Hunter. “Where did he go?” He scanned the front doors, but bright sunlight poured into the building, blinding him.
“Hello, Hunter,” Molly said, and Hunter felt like he was being whiplashed all over the place. He swung around again, and she stood in front of him now, definitely older than the girl he’d first crushed on, but still just as beautiful. She smiled and tucked her hair, just as she’d done in the past. He remembered when he’d tucked it for her, and then kissed her. He’d done that many times, and he wished he could think of something else. Anything else.
“Hey, Molly,” he said. “I, uh, sort of have a problem.”
Her smile faltered, and she glanced at Deacon. “You do?”
“Yeah,” Deacon said. “He lost our brother.”
Sneak Peek! HIS FIRST LOVE Chapter Two
Molly Benson had felt an incredible energy when she’d arrived at church that morning. She hadn’t known what it was, and her father’s sermon, while great, hadn’t been the source of Molly’s excitement that day the way she’d expected it to be.
Now, she stood face-to-face with Hunter Hammond, having been drawn across the foyer toward him by some unseen magnetic force. He was the reason for the renewed energy at church today, and Molly wished the Lord had given her some hint that the boy she’d shared her first kiss with would be standing in front of her that morning.
He wasn’t a boy anymore, that was for sure.
In fact, he’d bulked up and grown another two inches during the last three years of high school, and Molly had regretted breaking up with him more than anything else in her life.
At least until she met and married Tyrone Hensen.
Trepidation moved through her, and she told herself it was because Hunter’s brother was lost, not because she’d already been divorced before she’d turned twenty-five.
“What’s his name?” she asked, glancing around for another miniature of Hunter Hammond.
“Tucker,” Hunter said, and he raised his voice and called the name again. He looked at Deacon. “Did you see if he went outside?”
There were three entrances to the foyer, one on each slanted side of the front of the church. Molly’s mother and father stood next to the one on the right, as that one led to the parking lot most patrons used. The crowd had thinned enough now that Molly could look over her shoulder and meet her mother’s eye.
She managed to convey that she needed help, and her mother started toward her. “We can split up,” she said. “My mother will have seen him if he’d used the east door.”
Mama arrived, and she said, “Hunter Hammond. How are you?” in the most pleasant voice. She stretched up and hugged Hunter, and Molly was jealous of her mother. Ridiculous, but oh, so true.
Hunter smiled, and such a gesture should be illegal because of what it did to Molly’s pulse. “Real good, ma’am.”
“He’s lost Tucker,” Molly said as they parted. “Did you see him go out the west door?”
“No.” Molly’s mother sobered and looked from Molly to Hunter to his little brother. “Let’s check out front.”
“I’ll take Deacon out the east door.” Hunter moved that way, and Molly couldn’t seem to get her feet to work.
“Mols,” Mama said, and Molly jolted back to attention. She didn’t have time to stare after the handsome man Hunter had become. As she followed her mom out the front doors, she wondered if Hunter had felt any of the electricity she had. Had he simply moved on? Was he married? What was he doing now? Where was he living?
He might not even be back in town for good, Molly told herself. Don’t go getting your hopes up.
There were a hundred different things that could keep Molly from reconnecting with Hunter, and her mind started to list all of them as a defense mechanism.
She heard Hunter calling for Tucker around the corner, and her mother did the same thing. A little boy came around the corner to their left, and Mama said, “There you are, Tucker Hammond.” She moved down the steps, holding tightly to the handrail, Molly noticed. Her mother was getting older, and while she still possessed every ounce of charm and sophistication she always had, her last round of fighting off her uterine cancer had taken a lot from her. Molly’s divorce hadn’t helped anything, and pure regret moved through her as she followed Mama.
“Your brother is looking for you, baby,” Mama said, scooping the child into her arms.
“I’ll get Hunter,” Molly said as
she looked at Tucker. He definitely had the same brown eyes as his brother and father, and coupled with that light hair, Molly thought he’d break more hearts than Hunter had.
After she’d broken up with him, he’d dated plenty of other girls. A different one every weekend. Sometimes he’d taken Laurel Phillips to a football game on Friday night and Teri Childs to a movie on Saturday night.
He didn’t stay with any one girl at all, and Molly had told herself over and over that he was doing what she’d said they should. Meet and go out with a lot of different people. Then they’d know who they really liked.
Hunter had told her for about a year that he liked her, and that he didn’t need to take anyone else to dinner to know it. And yet, when she’d finally ended their four-year relationship, that was exactly what he’d done.
She pushed the high school memories out of her mind as she went around the corner. “Hunter,” she called to the tall man on the edge of the cement, looking out over the cemetery and the woods behind that.
He turned toward her, his anxiety plain to see. She gestured for him to come to her, saying, “Mama found him. He’s okay.”
Relief painted over his handsome features, and he strode toward Molly, his youngest brother in his arms. Time slowed for Molly. All sound disappeared. All she could see was Hunter Hammond in that cowboy hat, a boy who looked just like him on his hip, and her entire future with him right in front of her. Just out of reach.
“Thanks, Molly,” he said as he passed, not slowing down for even a moment. Time sped again, and Molly spun around as the scent of Hunter’s cologne lingered in her nose. My, he knew how to put together an arsenal against a girl, didn’t he?
The dark slacks, white shirt, and trendy tie. The cowboy hat. The good looks—superior looks. Molly had never met a man as handsome as Hunter. No woman had. He was just that gorgeous.
And the cologne too?
It was almost like he knew he wasn’t playing fair.
She ducked around the corner too, just in time to see him take Tucker from Mama, now carrying both boys in his arms. He pressed his forehead to Tucker’s, his mouth moving. Molly was too far away to hear what they were saying, but the soft, adoring look on Mama’s face said enough.
She loved Hunter too.
She always had; it had been the Pastor who’d warned Molly about getting too serious with a boy too young. To her knowledge, Hunter’s father hadn’t been very keen on their relationship either.
Molly approached slowly, smiling at her mother. Mama linked her arm through Molly’s and said, “I have to go check on Dad. We’ll see you at the house for lunch?”
“Yes,” Molly said, glancing at her quickly. She couldn’t keep her eyes off Hunter, and she really wanted to invite him to lunch too.
Mama left, and Hunter set both boys on the ground beside him. He adjusted his hands in theirs and looked at her. With the crisis over, he seemed calm, confident, and perfectly collected.
“Thanks for your help,” he said, that smile appearing again.
Neither of them moved. Molly finally reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear, her voice stuck somewhere down inside her chest.
“Do you live with your parents?” Hunter asked.
Molly raised her eyes to his. “No, I have my own place.”
“So you live here.” This time, it wasn’t a question.
“Yes,” she said. “You? Just visiting?” He’d gone to college at MIT. Like, the actual MIT, where only geniuses and future Nobel Peace Prize winners went to get educated.
“I’m starting at HMC tomorrow,” he said, the smile faltering. “I’m literally moving back today.”
“To the farm?”
“For now,” he said. “I’ll probably get a place in the city. It’s too far to commute for long.”
She nodded, every cell in her body buzzing with the words Hunter Hammond is back in Ivory Peaks. Hunter Hammond is back!
“Do you want to come to lunch at my house?” she blurted out before she could think too hard about it.
His eyes widened a little bit, and he looked down at his two brothers. “Hey, you guys,” he said, dropping into a crouch. “Will you go wait for me on the steps? I just need to talk to Molly alone for one second.”
“All right,” Deacon said, and he took Tucker’s hand. The two of them walked away while Hunter straightened. He kept his eyes on them until they’d sat on the bottom step, and then for another few seconds.
When he finally looked at her, a storm rolled across his face. Molly wanted to recall the invitation, but it was too late. She wasn’t sure what was going through his mind, because Hunter had never said a whole lot. He’d felt deeply, but he’d gone to therapy to learn how to do that. For a long time, he’d told her he’d simply existed behind a barrier made of frosted glass.
He softened and lifted one hand toward her, sliding his fingertips along the side of her face and tucking her hair behind her ear again. It took all of Molly’s will power to stay still and not lean into those hands she’d known so well.
“I want to, Molly,” he said as his hand dropped back to his side. “But I literally rolled into town ten minutes before church started. I haven’t seen my grandparents yet, or really talked to my parents. So I really shouldn’t.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice a bit ragged. She cleared her throat. “It’s okay. You go have fun with your family.”
He nodded, and Molly wished with every birthday candle on the planet that he’d ask her out for another time. She’d clear any schedule she had to in order to be there.
He didn’t though. Instead, he just nodded, ducked his head so his cowboy hat concealed most of his face, and said, “Deacon, Tuck, let’s go.”
The little boys came toward them, and Hunter looked up at her as they took his hands. “See you around, Molly.” He started toward the parking lot where most people parked, and Molly turned as he went by and watched him take the boys to a large, gray truck that had a white trailer attached to it.
It was exactly the kind of vehicle someone as masculine and male as Hunter would drive, and he lifted Deacon into the backseat while the child laughed. Molly smiled too, because wow. Hunter Hammond interacting with children was another low blow to her feelings for him. She’d seen him hold his sister when she was a baby, and she’d suspected then that he’d be a caring and attentive father. To actually see his concern for his brothers only cemented that.
He closed the door and turned back to her. Embarrassment leapt to Molly’s face, and she ducked away from him, hurrying toward the steps that led back inside. She’d made her feelings for him known. She didn’t need to add further humiliation to her already burning life.
Inside, she met her mother as she came down the hallway that led to Dad’s office. “He’s going to be a few minutes,” she said. “That means at least an hour. Can I ride with you? Or were you planning to go home and then come to the house for lunch?”
“I can take you,” Molly said. They went out the east doors and around to the back of the church, where Dad always parked. Only a few spots were available, and usually the family took them.
Ingrid’s car was gone already, which meant all of Molly’s younger siblings had already left. She clicked the button on her fob to unlock her car, and the vehicle beeped. Molly’s neck felt so tense, and after she got behind the wheel, she pushed out her breath and rolled her shoulders.
“Is Hunter coming for lunch?” Mama asked.
“No,” Molly said miserably. Too miserably. Her mother’s gaze on the side of her face felt too heavy to bear, and Molly quickly started the car and put it in reverse.
“You invited him, though, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Mama,” Molly said. Her mom didn’t ask another question, and that drove Molly crazy. She knew this tactic, because she’d grown up with it. She’d seen her mother fall silent when talking to Ingrid about her prom date, and when asking Lyra if her boyfriend was going to propose soon. Eventually, they all broke and spilled way
more than necessary, and definitely more than they would’ve said if their mother had simply kept questioning them.
Molly wasn’t going to give in this time. They only lived eight minutes away from the church, and she flexed her fingers on the steering wheel as she approached the first red light. The blocks passed, and Molly started to congratulate herself on staying silent as she made the final turn onto the street where she’d grown up.
“Molly,” her mother said as she pulled into the driveway beside Ingrid’s sporty red hatchback. “Did you at least get his number?”
“No, Mama,” Molly said, putting her plain white sedan in park. “He doesn’t want me anymore.” She looked at her mother then, her eyes wide and all of her hurt feelings streaming from her.
“You don’t know that.” Mama reached over and brushed Molly’s hair off her shoulder.
“He didn’t ask me out,” Molly said. “He didn’t even say if he was seeing someone.”
“He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring,” Mama said. “There’s still time, Mols.”
“No.” Molly shook her head. “He won’t want me once he finds out I’ve been married.”
“Molly,” her mother started, but Molly opened her door and got out of the car. She didn’t want to hear how she was good enough for another man, and that a divorce was not the end of the world.
It felt like the end of the world, like the biggest failure of Molly’s life, and she didn’t want to hear anything her mom might say.
Thankfully, inside the house, all three of her sisters stood in the kitchen, all of them seemingly trying to talk over each other.
The youngest, Kara, had just graduated from high school. In just a few months, she’d go off to school in the city. Ingrid would return to college for her last year, and Lyra would go back to Utah, where she went to school in Salt Lake City.
Mama and Dad would be empty nesters for the first time, and Molly would keep getting up and going to school every day, teaching the second graders in her class how to read and how to be kind to one another.
She just needed to make it through this summer. Somehow.