Worth The Wait (Small-Town Secrets-Fairview Series Book 1)

by Sophia Sinclair

  “It’s an interesting theory,” Molly said.

  “It all fits,” David said.

  “Do you think your grandfather would have married her, if he had lived?”

  “I don’t know. I’d like to think so. By the timing, best I can figure, it’s entirely possible he didn’t know she was pregnant. She might not even have known for sure; it’s not like she could just walk down to the corner drug store and buy a test. She must have been a couple of months gone at the time of the murder, maybe still hoping she was just late. She never talked to me about anything like that. It wasn’t the type of thing she would have ever talked about.”

  “Old man Green has been dead for years, at any rate,” Molly said. “Even if he did it, it’s too late for justice.”

  “That may be, but you can see why I think Matt will be motivated not to cause any more trouble for you. He won’t want the scandal.”

  “I hate Matt Green! He’s been a thorn in my side all my life. It would have been very satisfying to see his face when he learned his pillar-of-the-community grandfather was a murderer.”

  “I was planning to let the chips fall where they may, but I may hold onto the bombshell in the interest of keeping the peace around here.”

  “Why?” Molly asked.

  “I think you know why,” David said. He took a step to the chair where she was sitting and held out his hand to her. She took it, and he pulled her to him. He put his arms around her and began kissing her just as softly and slowly as she remembered from the last time. She relaxed into him and kissed him back. But this time they were in a motel room instead of a janitor’s closet. She could feel by the way he was pressed against her that his thoughts were moving in the same direction. She moaned into his mouth and he cupped his hands under her buttocks and lifted her off the floor. Molly felt alarmed for just a second — was he going to break his back lifting her? Holy cow, why had she not been following her diet? But he seemed to find her weight no burden at all. He broke the kiss just briefly to lay her down down on the motel bed before joining her and resuming the kiss. He seemed to be in no hurry at all. His hands stroked her hair, finding the pins and placing them on the bedside table, all while the soft, gentle, teasing kiss went on and on. Her hands wandered to his still-damp hair and played with the little curls at the nape of his neck. His hand moved to her thigh and began slowly, lazily moving the fabric of her dress higher and higher. Molly was thankful to recall she happened to be wearing some sexy black lace panties and a matching bra. His fingers softly, softly grazed the top of her thigh, tracing a path by the lace edge. First his fingers moved across the outside of her upper left thigh, and then back toward her buttocks. Then he moved forward, toward the top of her thigh, and then began to move toward the front. Just when she was sure he was going to slip his hand right onto her mound, he reversed course and slowly moved back toward her buttocks. He stopped, gave her butt a gentle squeeze, then resumed his slow path toward his eventual goal. Molly kept kissing him back. His finger was almost where she was now more than ready for it to touch. He leaned back just slightly to make room for his hand in between them, and softly grazed the front of her panties. She was so wet that she knew as soon as his hand moved just a tiny bit down, he’d be sure to feel it. His kissing intensified, and she made a small moan of encouragement so he’d know she was ready for more. His finger moved over her clit, through the panties, teasing it, then reached down further, moving his fingers over her cleft. The thin lace did nothing to hide how soaking wet she was. She moaned more, and his finger finally slipped into her panties.

  He began kissing her neck, making his way up to her ear, and whispered, “God, Molly, I want you.”

  “I want you, too,” she said. There was no denying it. Her body had already said yes. He stopped kissing her and began undressing her. She helped him, kicking her panties off and raising her arms so he could pull her dress over her head.

  “You’re so lovely,” he said. He tore his clothes off in record time and returned his attention to her, helping her remove her bra. “Your body is beautiful,” he said.

  “So is yours,” she whispered back. It was true. He was muscular and well-proportioned, with a tight little butt she just had to reach out to touch. He resumed kissing her, a bit more urgently now, and one of his fingers slipped inside her, causing Molly to make little involuntary sounds of pleasure. She slipped her hand around his erection and began gently caressing it, making him groan.

  “Are you on any birth control?” he whispered. Molly came to attention — she hadn’t even given it a thought. “Oh, no. No, I’m not,” she said. “I haven’t exactly needed any for a long time. Do you have … anything?”

  “I don’t. I wasn’t expecting anything like this, either,” he said.

  Molly’s body was strongly advising her to worry about this later and enjoy the moment, but David had more self-control. “I could probably get something from the front desk, but you know that’s going to lead to gossip. I have a better idea.” His hand sped up what it was doing to Molly. He seemed to know the exact right spot to hit, and he adjusted the pressure and speed according to her moans of pleasure, until finally she just threw her head back and let out a long cry of pleasure. It had been a long time since somebody had taken such good care of her body, and she was embarrassed to realize how loud she’d been. David was smiling with pleasure, but she looked down and realized he looked to be in serious need of some pleasure of his own. Her hand crept out and she gave him a few more strokes, then gathered up her courage and took him into her mouth, trying not to worry that she hadn’t done that in forever and wasn’t sure she even remembered how to do it.

  “Oh, my God, that’s fantastic. Oh, Molly. Oh, sweetheart. This isn’t going to take very long,” he said. “Yes, just like that. Like that. Oh, God. Yes. Yes,” he said. Then he warned her, “I’m going to come.” She braced herself, caught part of it in her mouth, but, overwhelmed, used her hands to finish.

  “I’m afraid I need some practice,” she said. “It’s been a very long time.”

  “No, it was perfect,” David said. “Absolutely wonderful.” He pulled her back into his arms, their naked bodies pressed together. She wondered if he would kiss her or if he’d consider her mouth off limits now. Hank found the idea of kissing her after finishing in her mouth distasteful to the extreme, but David had no qualms. He kissed her deeply, his hands caressing her everywhere. Her fingers found their way to those sexy little curls that framed his face. She couldn’t stop running her fingers through them. She dragged her fingers up his forehead and over the top of his head so she could drop a kiss at his hairline. He had a prominent widow’s peak hiding under those thick curls, something she’d always found attractive in a man. She said so and kissed him there again.

  “I didn’t even get to these lovely breasts,” he said, stroking them. “Next time. And I promise I’ll be prepared with protection next time. I won’t buy it in Fairview, either. I’ll get it out of town. I understand your concern about gossip.” Molly wondered if that meant he planned to keep their relationship a secret. Or if he considered that they were having a relationship. Maybe he just wanted to have sex with her.

  “Are we …?” Molly couldn’t find the words.

  “Are we dating, do you mean?” David asked. “I hope so. Or do you want to keep me a secret?”

  “It’s not that I want to keep you a secret, exactly,” she said. “It’s just that I’ve been telling, oh, everybody in town, I think, that we are not ‘a thing,’ which is the question everybody is asking. Including my children. I haven’t really let my children get to know the few men I’ve dated through the years. But they already know you, so I’m not even sure how I want this to work.” She sat up and began gathering up her bits of clothing. He made no move to dress, seemingly totally comfortable lying there totally nude.

  “I’ll follow your lead, then,” he said. “If you want to take your time making this public, that’s not a problem, as long as you realize th
is is the damnedest town for gossip. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “I should get home,” she said. “I don’t like to leave the kids alone for too long, and I need to check on the pooch, too. She glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. “I had no idea it was this late.”

  “When will I see you again?” he asked, as she began to dress, a bit self-consciously. He was not even trying to hide the way his eyes devoured her nudity.

  “Well, I’ll drop off Tommy tomorrow night,” she said.

  “No, when will I see you alone again?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. She couldn’t invite him to her house, and she couldn’t keep coming to his room; she might as well post online an announcement that she was having sex with him if she did that. His arms were around her again, as she stood there in her bra and panties, dress in hand ready to go over her head.

  “Hey, you aren’t regretting this, are you?” he asked. She could see the real concern in his eyes.

  “I don’t regret this, no,” she said. “But at the same time, I’m just not sure what I want. Can we leave it like that?”

  “Of course,” he said. But she could see he was disappointed.

  Chapter 8

  After a very satisfying sleep, Molly awoke to hear noises downstairs. Could it be? The kids were awake before her. That was a first. They were awake, had already let Clarence out, and were eating cereal. Clarence, parked by Tommy’s chair, was staring intently at the boy as he ate, his eyes following every spoonful as it went from bowl to mouth. The old dog seemed to be willing the food to drop to the ground.

  “Did you feed Clarence?” she asked, as she walked in, tightening her old terry bathrobe around her and taking a seat at the table.

  “Yes,” Beth said. “He ate it all in about 20 seconds. I think he’s still hungry,”

  “Poor pooch,” Molly said, scratching him behind the ears. “Sorry, Clarence. I know how it is, boy. But you’ve gotta take off some weight for your own good. Maybe somebody should take control of my diet and not let me eat what I want. Maybe then I could fit into my skinny jeans again.”

  “Mom! You always tell me to worry more about being healthy than being skinny,” Beth said. “You don’t need to lose any weight.”

  “Well, I could stand to drop a little, but you’re right, I should worry more about being healthy than fitting into jeans I’ll probably never wear again anyway.” She poured herself some cereal — a little less than she wanted — and began to eat. “Suzie will be home next weekend,” she said. “I talked to her a little bit yesterday. She’s looking forward to meeting Clarence.”

  “I sent her some pictures,” Beth said. “She agrees we did the right thing by saving him. She wants us to take him for a walk in the woods.”

  “I think it’ll be about a five-minute walk, with us carrying him the last two minutes,” Molly said. Clarence had proved to be ridiculously out of shape. “If he were a human, he’d be one of those fat old men you see riding a scooter in the grocery store.”

  “Don’t listen to her,” Tommy said, rubbing the dog’s head. “You’re going to be ready for skinny jeans in no time, boy. And by next summer, all the girl dogs are going to want to sniff your butt.”

  “Tommy!” Molly said. But she laughed. She liked that Clarence was bringing out the fun side of Tommy’s personality. She realized he’d been withdrawn for some time, and was glad to see him getting back to his old self a bit.

  “David says he thinks we can get him back in shape by next spring, if we’re strict with his diet and take him on a short walk every day,” Tommy volunteered.

  “When did David become some sort of dog expert?” Beth asked.

  “He knows lots of stuff. He’s worked on a bunch of books,” Tommy said.

  “About dogs?” Beth asked.

  “No, but about everything. He has a big box of them in the library of his house. They’re about physics and chemistry and engineering and even medical stuff. He knows everything,” Tommy said. He’s going to turn the library into his writing room, he said, once we get it painted. First we have to put in the new windows. He’s teaching me,” Tommy said.

  “Dad could teach you all that stuff, too, you know. If you showed some interest. He fixed up his place all by himself,” Beth said. “You weren’t interested in learning how to put in windows when Dad was doing that.”

  “No offense to Dad, but his teaching is mostly, ‘hand me a screwdriver’ or ‘go fetch me another beer.’ David is showing me step by step how to do all this stuff. He says guys should know how to fix their own stuff.”

  Molly was gratified to hear that Tommy seemed to genuinely like David. It would make everything that much easier if the relationship ended up amounting to anything. She wasn’t sure what she wanted from it, though. David appeared to be a good man, but she knew from experience how easy it was to get excited about a few good qualities and then to find out, after her feelings were already involved, about some fatal flaw. With Hank, it was irresponsibility and infidelity. With others it had been things like too much drinking or simple laziness. She was doing just fine on her own and didn’t want to jeopardize the little life she’d carved out for herself if David ended up being unreliable. She had to admit, though, that he had impressed her with his concern for her the night before. He could have made love to her in his room last night if he’d wanted to. She felt angry with herself that she hadn’t even given the possibility of pregnancy a thought — she’d been more than ready to abandon herself to the passion they’d shared. That he’d been the responsible one was both embarrassing and somehow reassuring. She didn’t like to think about how much worry she’d be feeling this morning if she’d had unprotected sex with him last night.

  After breakfast her phone buzzed. It was Lori, of course, wanting to tell her more details than Molly wanted to hear about the cardiologist. Lori seemed to feel that no experience was complete without telling someone about it, whereas Molly was more apt to keep her own counsel. It didn’t matter; Lori had more than enough to say and seldom noticed that Molly shared much less.

  “We drank this old bottle of wine last night that cost over $100,” Lori texted.

  Molly shook her head. Lori was inclined to be impressed when men spent money on her; she never seemed to realize that what seemed like big money to her was of little importance to men whose incomes were close to the library’s entire annual budget.

  “So you had fun?” she texted back.

  Lori: “OMG yes!! I stayed until 6 this morning. He didn’t want his son to know I was there so I snuck out”

  Molly was betting the son was less than oblivious, but she didn’t say that.

  Molly: “Glad you had fun.”

  Lori: “I am soooo tired today. We hardly slept”

  Lori: “Did you go straight home?”

  Molly: “Not exactly.”

  Lori: “Was the Pirate Man involved?”

  Molly: “Mayyyyyybe. :)”

  Lori: “Tell me everything!”

  Molly: “Too long to text. Are you off today? Come over. Meet Clarence.”

  Lori: “Off. Let me take a nap first. After lunch?”

  Molly: “Sure”

  Molly had to drive Tommy to David’s house. She would ordinarily just throw something on for such an errand, but not today. She took the time to shower and put on makeup. She didn’t want to look like she was trying too hard to look good, but she did want to look good. She chose a pair of jeans that, in her own opinion, made the most of her butt, and a plain red T-shirt. She hoped it would look like she’d dressed with little care, even though she had chosen the red T-shirt specifically because it set off her coloring. She put on some makeup with a light hand, hoping to look good but not like she was trying.

  When she and Tommy arrived, it was evident David had not taken his appearance into consideration. He was wearing old, ripped jeans and a faded work shirt, rolled up to his elbows. Though it was morning, his shirt was already soaked with perspiratio
n. He still looked damned good to her, though. She couldn’t tear her eyes off him, in fact. There was something about the way a man looked when he was doing hard physical labor that appealed to her far more than if he were wearing a nice suit. Though she was willing to bet he’d look just great dressed up, too.

  “Hey,” David said, as she reached the end of the long driveway. “You guys want some coffee?” Though she’d never known Tommy to have any interest in coffee before, he immediately said, “Sure.” Molly got out of her car and followed David into the house.

  “This is my makeshift kitchen,” he said, leading them into a very dated-looking room with unfashionable old linoleum and vintage cabinets. He had a coffee maker and microwave on one counter, and a cooler that proved to contain ice, soda, a few beers and some cheese and lunch meat. A loaf of bread sat atop the microwave. Tommy took a chipped mug from a small collection that sat on a paper towel next to the microwave and poured three cups, picking up one and drinking it as if it were something he did every morning.

  Molly walked toward the living room. It was empty, but as David had described, it was decorated with a spray-painted depiction of an extremely large male body part. She smiled in spite of herself and surreptitiously took a picture of it with her phone and sent it to Lori, adding, “I know how much you love unsolicited dick pics!”