Jacob smiled. “Must be hard working for him.”
He saw the flash of Molly’s white teeth. “He’s a tyrant, to be sure.”
A flock of geese squawked their annoyance at being disturbed. Before they’d opened their wings to fly away, Molly had her camera pointed at the lake, ready to photograph them as they rose into the air.
Jacob slowed down and watched another smile fill Molly’s face to overflowing.
When the geese had well and truly disappeared from sight, she turned to him and frowned. “What brings you out to the lake this early, Jacob Green?”
He stood no more than ten feet from her, caught in the way he normally was around her. “I run to the lake most mornings.”
“From your parents’ ranch?” Molly looked worried. “It’s a long way to roam on your own. You must have left before dawn.”
In all of their conversations, Molly hadn’t realized that he lived in the original ranch homestead. “My home is here, by Emerald Lake. Victor flew over my house when we showed you the property.”
“The pretty house surrounded by wildflowers? I thought it was rented to someone else.”
“Why would you think that?”
Molly put her camera in its leather case and moved away from the water. “It doesn’t seem grand enough for a man with such an impressive reputation around town.”
“Are you serious?”
Molly glanced at him before reaching into her backpack for a bottle of water. “Why did we meet at your parents’ ranch to sign our contract?”
“Mom invited me to dinner.”
“But you have a bedroom there.” Molly’s cheeks flushed bright red. “Not that your living arrangements are any of my concern.”
Jacob wiped his hands down the side of his running shorts. “I’ll always have a bed at mom and dad’s place, wherever they’re living.”
“And that’s the way it should be,” Molly said softly. “I made a mistake, and for that I’m sorry. You’d be wondering why I’m here, then?”
“You’re taking photographs for my marketing campaign?”
Molly nodded. “I came a couple of days ago to capture the lake at sunrise. Today I’m going to photograph the animals and birds. I was hoping to ask permission from the people living in the house to take some photos of their home. To show what is…”
“…and what could be.” Jacob finished Molly’s sentence and smiled at the surprise on her face. “Some of the time I listen to you.”
“You’re such a charmer. It’s a shame you’re selling your home. It might have made you more appealing to the right woman.”
“You think someone would like me more for what I own?” Jacob tried not to let disappointment slip into his voice. He’d expected more from her.
She shook her head. “Not for what you own, but for what a woman could do with this land. If she got annoyed, she could come down to the lake and get away for a while. It’s a miracle how soothing the water can be.”
Jacob frowned. “Are you saying I’m annoying?”
Molly took the lid off her water bottle and drank quickly. She glanced up at him as she slipped it into her backpack. “I’d be thinking I’m talking too much.”
Jacob grunted. “Some women think I’m a catch.”
“Of course they do,” Molly said with a smile. “Now that your ego is feeling better, do you think we could photograph your home?”
Jacob crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I didn’t leave Tess and Logan’s wedding until midnight, and you were still there when I left. How much sleep did you get last night?”
Molly shrugged her shoulders. “Not a lot, which is why there are bags under my eyes.”
Jacob stared into her eyes. He couldn’t see any bags, but he did see honesty and kindness, something so rare that it took his breath away.
“You’d be wanting to stretch your muscles,” Molly said matter-of-factly. “You’ll be seizing up and walking like an old man by the time we get back to your pretty home.”
“Are you telling me to hurry up?”
Molly grinned. “I wouldn’t be so bold. But I might be willing to share a chocolate bar if you’d let me walk with you?”
Jacob started stretching. “Depends on what type of chocolate you’re talking about?”
Molly lifted the flap on her backpack and pulled out four different bars. “I’ll leave the first choice to you.”
“You’re a chocoholic?”
Molly tilted her nose in the air. “I prefer the term, connoisseur. A life without chocolate wouldn’t be worth living.” She grinned as he took the Mars Bar sitting in the middle. “A wise choice.”
Jacob stuck it in his pocket and started walking away from the lake. “Have you got all of the photos of the wildlife you need?”
“As much as I have the time for. I could photograph your land for days and still not be satisfied.”
Jacob held the branch of a tree out of the way so that Molly could walk past. “When I first bought this property I spent every spare minute I had out here. When dad had his heart attack, it was all the reason I needed to make Bozeman my home for a few months.”
“Where did you call home before that?”
“I alternated between New York and Dallas. The properties I own in other cities are run by people I’ve worked with for years. But the Metropolitan and Renaissance had new managers and I needed to be there.”
Molly glanced across at him. “Are you a hard man to work for?”
“What do you think?”
Molly walked a few more feet before answering. “I don’t know you well enough to answer your question, but I do know you’re fair. That counts for a lot in the way of management. You have a habit of frowning and not showing what you’re thinking. That could be a bonus in business, but a hindrance in most other things in life.”
Jacob realized he was frowning now. “I can’t stop frowning.”
“Sure you can. Don’t think so hard about matters of no consequence.”
“That’s easier said than done.”
“To be sure,” Molly sighed.
There weren’t many times when Jacob was puzzled by another person, but Molly puzzled him. “Was your granny’s death the only reason you came to Montana?”
Molly walked carefully over the exposed roots of the trees surrounding them. Her feet barely made a sound on the carpet of pine needles. “I came to Montana for a number of reasons, but that’s a sad tale for another day.”
“What happened?”
“Did you not understand what I said, Jacob Green? I don’t wish to talk about it. It would spoil such a fine day.”
Jacob thought about the things that could be as bad as someone dying. There wasn’t much. “Did you gamble all of your money away?”
“No. I’ve never been fond of betting on anything I didn’t know the answer to.”
“What about having your bank accounts cleaned out by a scam artist?”
Molly laughed. “The only scam artist I know is my sister. She asked me to invest in her flower business and promised me a rose each day. So far I’ve only been given one.”
“Were you jilted at the altar and left to cancel your own wedding?”
The smile fell off Molly’s face.
Jacob stopped walking. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged her shoulders and kept walking. “It wasn’t as dramatic as that. I married Rowan with all of the pomp and ceremony befitting a man of his status.”
Jacob’s gaze shot to Molly. “You’re married?”
“Not anymore. My ex-husband was born in Seattle and immigrated to Ireland when he was a boy. He grew into a man with more money than common sense. He often lived for the now and forgot about the rest.”
“That’s why you didn’t need a green card to stay in Montana?”
Molly nodded.
“How old were you when you got married?”
“Twenty-four. We were divorced before the year was out. Would you mind if we changed the subject?
My marriage isn’t something I’m particularly proud of.”
“Would you get married again?”
“No. I don’t see the point.”
Jacob wasn’t going to disagree. He hadn’t gotten married, but he had been engaged. A broken heart took a long time to get over, and sometimes you never did.
They walked through the last of the trees and made their way through the meadow filled with wildflowers.
“Would you look at that,” Molly said softly.
Jacob frowned at his home. “What?”
Molly already had her camera out of its case, snapping photos as though there was no tomorrow. “It’s as lovely a home as ever I’ve seen.”
Jacob watched her crouch on the ground and take a series of photos through the wildflowers. She slowly walked around the log house, smiling at the smallest of things.
“Have you always had a lucky horseshoe over your front door, Jacob?”
He nodded, not that Molly would have seen him. She was too busy taking photos of the horseshoe. “The previous owners put it there.”
“Has it brought you luck?”
Jacob thought about his dad and how well he’d responded to the treatment his doctor had prescribed. He thought about his properties, including the one they were on now. And he thought about Molly. A month ago she’d do anything not to talk to him. And now here she was, photographing his home and talking about lucky charms.
“I suppose the horseshoe has brought me luck.”
“Well, then. That’s something to think about. Would you like to open your door for me? A few interior shots would be grand.”
Jacob unlocked his front door and stood back while Molly took her photos. If her sighs were a measure of how well everything was going, his marketing campaign might be starting sooner than he thought.
That should have been a good thing. But a portfolio of images meant seeing a lot less of Molly. And that wasn’t something he wanted to happen.
“Your home is as lovely on the inside as the outside. I don’t understand how you could leave what’s here and move to New York.”
Jacob leaned against the wall and watched Molly take photos of his home.
He was beginning to wonder the same thing himself.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Is anyone home?”
Molly glanced up from the kitchen table in her sister’s apartment. “I’m in here, Rachel.”
“You left the door unlocked again.” Rachel put two bags of fresh vegetables on the kitchen counter and turned the coffee machine on. “Becky will have kittens if you don’t lock the door.”
“Becky worries too much. Bozeman is a safe and pretty town. No harm will come our way while we live here.”
“You can’t know that.”
Molly smiled. “No, I don’t. But the camera I installed above the door will help keep any burglars away.”
“You installed a security system all by yourself? I’m impressed.”
“I like gadget stores. The camera has a wifi receiver that’s triggered by someone standing in the doorway.” She pointed at her iPhone sitting beside her. “I know who’s at my front door before they ring the bell.”
Rachel watched Molly replay the recording of her standing at the front door. “I like it.”
“If you want me to install one for you, just let me know.”
Rachel took her car keys out of her pocket. “Hold that thought while I go and get today’s mail for The Bridesmaids Club. I left it on the front seat of my car.”
“Did more boxes of dresses arrive?”
Rachel shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“That’s a small mercy for us, then.” While Rachel was gone, Molly went back to working on Tess and Logan’s wedding website. She’d developed all of their photos, cropped and layered the images, and placed them on a series of private pages.
Rachel came back to the kitchen with a shoe box clutched in her hands. “What are you doing?”
Molly leaned forward and enlarged the image in front of her. “Working on Tess and Logan’s wedding website. Do I need to crop this image a little on the right?”
Rachel stood behind Molly and peered over her shoulder. “It looks okay to me…”
“What if I do this?” Molly held a piece of paper over the screen and covered some of the image.
“That looks a lot better. Can I see some of the other photos?”
“Sure you can. Let me make a note of this change, then we’ll go through the images together.” Molly wrote a note to herself, then moved her laptop across so that Rachel could see the screen. “I haven’t got the images the other photographer took. They’ll be coming in the next day or two.”
She went back to the homepage and passed Rachel the mouse. “I’ll let you move through the photos as you please. The music will come later, after I have everything in place.”
“Music?”
“To set the mood as you remember the day. Something romantic, a song that is special for Tess and Logan.”
Rachel sighed when the first photo came onto the screen. “It’s beautiful.”
Molly was pleased that Rachel liked the first image. It was one of the photos Molly had taken for Tess and Logan’s engagement. They’d wanted something different, something to remember the first time they’d met. So Molly had taken them back to where it had all begun - Angel Wings Café.
They’d made pancakes together, laughing through the mixing of ingredients, telling Molly the stories that had been left untold. The image that Rachel had sighed over was one of Molly’s favorites.
Logan was standing behind Tess with his arms wrapped around her shoulders. She had flour on her face and a smile that was nothing other than amazing. She was in love, and the grin on Logan’s face told the world how much Tess meant to him.
“How do you find that kind of love?” Rachel asked softly.
Molly took in the longing on Rachel’s face and rubbed her arm. “I don’t think you can find it. When the time is right, it will find you.”
Rachel moved to the next photo. She smiled as she made her way through the pre-wedding images. “I didn’t know you’d taken photos of Logan and his groomsmen before the wedding.”
“I slipped away after I had my hair done. Logan took his friends to the golf club. They were easy to find.”
“Oh, Molly. These are beautiful.” Rachel stopped at an image of Tess and Logan leaving their reception at the end of the night.
Tess’ dress, made from organza and lace, shone in the soft light coming from the chandeliers in the lobby of the hotel. There had been hugs and kisses, and more than a few tears as the newly married couple left for their first night as husband and wife.
Molly watched Rachel’s face as she moved through the images, noted the ones that touched something inside of her, the ones that needed to be looked at again.
When she’d seen the last photo, Rachel sighed. “Tess and Logan are going to love these.”
“I hope so. When the website is ready, they can invite their wedding guests to have a look. They’ll be able to order the photos they’d like to keep. It’s a lovely reminder of a special day.” Molly stood up and took two clean mugs out of the dishwasher. “Now tell me about The Bridesmaids Club. Do you need me to help with any fittings this week?”
Rachel shook her head. “Not yet. We didn’t book any appointments while Tess is on her honeymoon, but I think I might have found a problem.”
“What kind of problem would that be?” Molly left a mug of hot coffee beside Rachel and made herself a cup of tea.
“Do you remember when I started helping you? I went through all of the letters you’d received and sorted them into groups. I missed two letters.”
“I wouldn’t be worried. You’ve done a grand job of putting order into the piles of letters we receive. Do these letters contain things we can help with?”
Rachel took the shoe box off the counter and brought it across to the table. “One of them we can definitely help with, al
though we might be too late. But I’m not sure about the second letter.”
Molly closed her laptop and pushed it away. “Well then, let’s have the letters and we’ll see what we can do.”
Rachel pulled a white piece of paper out of the box and put it on the table. “I found this letter under the flap of the box. It’s three months old, but the bride doesn’t get married for another four weeks. She lives in Bozeman and needs two bridesmaids’ dresses.”
“Did she include her telephone number?”
Rachel nodded. “I called her as soon as I found it. But it’s not the dresses that are the problem. Marsha thinks they’re going to have to cancel their wedding.”
Molly picked up the letter. “What do you mean?”
“She’s got the same problem that other couples have got. They were supposed to get married at the Emerson Center. The fire damage still hasn’t been repaired and they can’t find another venue.”
“There must be somewhere they can go? Have they tried a hotel or conference center out of town?”
Rachel nodded. “They’ve looked everywhere. There’s another complication.”
“There can’t be many things that are worse than not having a venue?”
“The groom uses a wheelchair. They found a couple of venues between here and Billings that are available, but they didn’t have good access. I asked Marsha where her dream wedding location would be. Do you know what she said?”
Molly shook her head.
“Emerald Lake.”
“Really? Why would Marsha be wanting to marry her man there? ‘Tis a lovely spot, but it’s awfully remote.”
“She met her fiancé at a party on the shores of Emerald Lake ten years ago. It’s the place where he proposed to her.”
“It has a connection,” Molly murmured.
Rachel nodded. “What do you suggest we do?”
“I’ll call Jacob Green. We’ll need his permission before anything can happen at the lake. And then we’ll call Marsha. Do you know how many people are coming to their wedding?”
Rachel pulled a notebook out of the shoe box. She flipped to the last page she’d used and ran her finger along the text. “Twenty-four, including the wedding party.”
Sweet on You (The Bridesmaids Club Book 4) Page 8