The Gravity of Love

by Thomas, Anne

  "Well, this sure is nice." Molly said, clutching her mug of hot chocolate while sitting next to Harrison, the same old comforter around both of them as they sat in front of the fireplace.

  "It is." Harrison agreed, wrapping his arm around her to keep her close. "It's still a little chilly though."

  "Remember when we used to spend most of our winters this way? Spent our night time prayers on begging for snow storms so we could camp out right here, just like this."

  "Well, not just like this." Harrison said, his eyes starting to glow. "Remember when we used to tie comforters from the stairs to the back of the couch and make a giant tent to lay under?"

  She laughed. "I do! Sleeping inside a blanket tent in the middle of the living room with a fire going and it being freezing outside was even better than camping outside in the summertime."

  "No, not when I turned sixteen and got my first truck. Then we could go anywhere and sleep in the truck bed under the stars."

  A smile widened upon Molly's lips. "Those times were great too."

  "We sure did have a great childhood together, despite all the problems we suffered through."

  She snuggled closer to him. "Very true."

  "Tell you what...we're getting a lot of work done on that barn. So how about we let our blisters rest tomorrow and take the day off? Play in the snow."

  Molly's eyes lit up. "I love the morning after a good snow."

  Harrison looked over in to her eyes. "I know."

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  "When will you just believe me and stop asking?" Molly said with a laugh.

  "Well, I want to know. For real."

  She rolled her eyes. "Harry, I did not hook up with any man at the dance. I didn't find any of them attractive enough to draw my eye and I didn't like a single one enough to date."

  "You do know you have to run all the men through me, the Ohsowise One, before committing to a man, right? Even just dating."

  "I always do!"

  "Correction!" Harrison exclaimed, pointing a finger at her. "You do not. You didn't with Ephram. And look at how that ended up. Can you remind me how it ended again, Molly?"

  She groaned. "He ended up going back to his fiancée. Okay, so I messed up once. But I'm not going to again!"

  "You only actually dated once in your adult life, so that number is really a big deal!"

  "What is it going to take to prove to you that I am not interested, nor am I dating, anyone from that party?"

  A glimmer appeared deep within his eyes that actually caught her off her guard for a moment. If she didn't know better, she would have said that it was the look of pure lust. Now that was just silly, coming from Harrison. She slid on her coat as she waited for him to answer. But he didn't. He zipped his coat and slid on his gloves, adding an orange and yellow knit hat with ear flaps, then headed towards the door.

  Molly didn't follow. "Well? Answer the question."

  His smoldering look glanced her way again, his mouth opening, then quickly closing as he hurried out the door.

  She pulled on her leather black gloves and a red hat with a pom pom at the top before running out to follow.

  A snow ball hit her square on the chest as soon as she walked on to the porch. "Oh, so it's a snowball fight you ask for? Silly, silly boy. Do you not remember anything of our childhood? Where I stomped you on every fight? I reign victory!"

  Before she could continue her monologue, her mouth tasted another snow ball.

  She took off of the porch, grabbing snow and flinging it at Harrison, how was running all around the yard, energy packed in his body, begging to be released. Fortunate for her, it was the same with her body.

  After getting hit five more times, she abandoned the snow balls and snuck up on him, then jumped upon his back. In his surprise, he lost his balance and went crashing in to a snow drift, soaking him entirely in wet snow. A growl erupted from the body beneath her before she was flung off his back and he got up and wrestled her in to the mound that had his impression it to it. As she felt the wetness leak through her clothes, she pushed him hard, but his grasp upon her was strong. Losing balance again, he fell over and started to tumble down the hill, taking her right along with him.

  "Ugmph." Harrison groaned when they finally stopped at the bottom, Molly's body sprawled fully on top of his.

  Her back was sore and she was sure she had stretched a few muscles. She started to get up stiffly, looking down at Harrison's face directly below her. During the fight, his eyes had been full of childish excitement. They were now smoldering again, hot enough to melt the snow around them.

  She looked at him in curiosity, trying to figure him out. Could that look actually be meant for her? No, with her luck he was just thinking about how fun it would be to do this with his next girl friend or something. She rolled off of him and fell in to the snow again, waving her arms and legs.

  "Help me up." She told him, noticing he hadn't gotten up yet. But upon her command, he stood, walked to her and carefully avoided stepping in her new snow angel as he picked her up by the hands.

  "We should go sledding." She whispered at the exciting thought.

  He snorted. "You don't think what we just did was sledding enough?"

  "Nope. That was romping down a hill."

  His eyes glowed that deep, lusty glow. She instantly turned around and walked in the direction of the sleds. She didn't want to keep facing him when he gave her that look. It scared her at the thought that he might be really meaning her. And it scared her more that her heart raced wildly at the thought.

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  "Silly rabbit! Trix are for kids!" Molly giggled as she was handed a bowl of cereal.

  "After what we spent yesterday doing, I do believe we qualify." Harrison said with a chuckle, sitting across from her on the little round, wooden table that was drilled down in the middle of the barn.

  "We might want to get a table cloth for this. You know, something cute to add."

  "Why? It looks nice rustic."

  "It looks nice and full of splinters is what you mean."

  He shrugged. "If you want. I mean, hey, we already got curtains for the windows. Might as well add a table cloth."

  "That's the spirit!"

  Harrison looked around the large room that was just about finished. "I can't believe we're going back to Nevada soon. This whole trip has been pretty surreal. Like a trip back to the past. Soon enough, within days, we have to go back to being adults. Paying bills...working a job...maybe I should just get a substitute after all and stay longer." He side glanced over at her as he took a big bite of cereal.

  She met his gaze with curiosity. "I don't know." She said honestly. She wasn't quite sure how she felt staying here.

  The phone call from Marty started to ring in her ears. It seemed that things were changing in Harry. Not that she understood or could even name what it was, but she was noticing changes and was scared to look at what she was feeling. Perhaps going home would be better. But just maybe, she'd discover something big by staying. "I don't know." She repeated, more to herself than to him.

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  Harrison groaned. "This is so boring!" He roared, throwing down his paint brush and making the paint splatter around him.

  Molly rolled her eyes. "It's fun."

  "For women. They like this part. There's no hammering or cutting those are the fun parts."

  She shook her head and kept going with her roller.

  "Now, you know what would be fun?" He went on. "I think this room would look really good with a...splatter effect."

  Before she could react, she felt the hit of paint on her hip. He had just thrown light green paint against her, which hit a large spot of the white wall as well.

  She looked over at him in shock. "You just threw paint at me."

  He shrugged. "So? Whatcha gonna do a
bout it, Radcliffe?"

  That childish, playful look was back in his eyes and smile. He wanted her to join him. It was a look he got all too rarely. Why not indulge? She looked back at the green splattered haphazardly against the wall and actually liked the look of it. Dropping the roller, she picked up the paint brush, dipped it in her green paint that she was using to make a boarder around the ceiling, and threw it at Harrison, hitting his right shoulder.

  "Yes! Good shot!" He said with a few small jumps before plopping his whole hand in the canister and whipping the excess towards her. He picked up the whole thing and carried it to get closer. She kicked hers to move away, making more paint dump out all over her shoes and bottom of her jeans.

  "Ugh!" She exclaimed when she saw the mess she had made against herself. "Fine. This is war."Two normal skin toned hands dipped in the can, two green hands resurfaced. She whipped the paint at him at the same time he was to her.

  This carried on for minutes at a time, trying new tactics and seeing who could do the most damage. Until finally, they were worked up enough to start putting a finale in to play.

  Molly, her shirt and pants covered in green as well as her hair, dripped her hands and arms in to the rest of the paint in her can, then charged at Harrison.

  She wiped her hands down his face. In through his hair. Down his long, muscled arms.

  Instead of fighting back, his body went slack and allowed her to do it. She took some paint from his shirt and kept going, starting to get carried away with it. Forgetting she was supposed to be attacking him. She made lines and shapes on his cheeks and forehead. Decorated the edges of his lips to look like liner. She continued down his neck, making little stars. His arms got squiggly lines. His fingers got straight lines, like bones. She was just looking for more skin to cover when he finally grabbed her arms and pushed her up against the wall. She thought he was going to cover her in paint. Her backside and her hair were now drenched in green from his action. But instead of painting her, he sandwiched her between the wall and his body against hers, then impulsively kissed her, hard.

  And it suddenly occurred to her that in twenty-five years, they never kissed like this. Sure, they'd been each other's first clumsy kiss. An awkward puckering up and squinting, a few second lip touching and done. They'd been what, thirteen? At the moment, she couldn't really remember what age. Or anything. All the memories she was trying to go through vanished like sand through her hands.

  And she realized that not only had she never experienced this with Harrison, she never kissed any man like this. Not this deeply, with so much wild abandon and passion.

  Her fingers were running through the ends of his dark hair again, only this time it wasn't with intention to paint.

  Her brain started to scramble, unsure of what to pay attention to the most this urgent lips slamming against hers, his hard chest pressed tightly against hers so much she could barely breath, or his fingers that were digging in to her right shoulder and left hip.

  So this was what Candy Grey had gone on about.

  This was Harrison.

  A whimper escaped her throat when her head started to feel cloudlike. Light, not really there. While, in contrast, her heart pounded away, making her blood rush to every part of her body, heating her up and making her feel wild. Surely, heaven could not top this.

  This. A kiss, with Harrison. If she was in her right mind, she'd be shocked in to speechlessness. But she was quite speechless at the moment even without the help of that fact.

  And then it was over. Harrison stopped kissing her. He pulled away, releasing the pressure he had put on her body. He stared straight in to his eyes. Hers looked somewhere between wild with lust and sated at the thought that it had started at all, whereas his looked wide and round. Shocked. Unbelieving at what he had just did.

  He backed away a few more steps, leaving her to lean against the wall. Was she capable of walking still? She didn't trust her legs, which seemed to have turned in to jello. Red jello. She was quite sure everything on her was red at the moment.

  She'd ask him what he was thinking, why he looked so strange, but her throat was too constricted to allow audible speech to escape past it.

  "I...I...I just remembered that I got to go." Harrison stuttered as he tried to run his hand through his hair but failed from the drying green stuff plastered throughout it.

  He turned on his heel and fled out of the barn, leaving her to try and put the pieces together of what the hell just happened. And why she was still grinning like an idiot after he had left her without an explanation.

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  Molly had cleaned up the barn the best she could by herself as she calmed down. It was surprising, how long it took to calm her throbbing heart and racing blood. She couldn't remember a time in her history that she ever felt similar to this. No, never.

  She headed outside, which helped to cool her off. She couldn't return to her home drenched in paint, so she headed to the Redford's.

  Mrs. Redford opened the door and ushered her inside without a mind of how messy she was. Her home was welcomed to messes.

  "I...I need a shower."

  "You sure do! Come up with me, I'll put on a bath and get you some tea. You look like you could use it. Have you been in the cold long? Your cheeks are rosy."

  She blushed deeper. The woman who she had always thought of as her real mother handed her a large towel for her to drape herself in until the bath was ready. Hurrying in to a spare bedroom, she took off all her clothes, then wrapped the towel around herself and carried her clothes to the washer. Inside, she saw a pair of clothes that were stained green already there.

  "You're bath is ready. Nice and hot." Mrs. Redford informed when she found Molly.

  Molly looked back in to the washing machine. "Where's Harrison?" She asked hesitantly.

  "Oh, I thought he would have told you. He said he had an urgent call back home. He left."

  Her eyes bulged. "He left? As in, back to Nevada?" She exclaimed.

  She nodded. "He really didn't tell you? He was in quite a rush when he left. Just changed and washed the paint off of him, without explaining that part, by the way, and left." The stare Molly received was pointed Mrs. Redford wanted to know why.

  "That's...strange. I don't know why he did that. I guess I'll go take that bath now though."

  Mrs. Redford took the clothes from her and held them out, looking at the bottom of her shirt. Where there was a large, green hand print where her hip was. Another at her shoulder. And on her back.

  Molly, red as crimson, spun around and ran towards the bathroom.

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  Laying in bed that night, Molly tried desperately to fall asleep. But there was no use. Marty confirmed the fact that Harrison had come home. He had called Joe to pick him and

  Jake up at the airport and take him home. He hadn't told either of them about what had happened. But he had locked himself in his apartment. So much for the emergency that he had to fly at that moment.

  What had happened? He kissed her. He, not her. And then he had fled. Why? Obviously there was nothing of purpose that called him away. And why lock himself in his apartment? Was he angry at himself for kissing her? Did he think he stooped to a new low? That she wasn't good enough for the honor of dating him?

  Well she had news for him. Despite how good it was to be kissed like that from him, she still stuck to her earlier promise she would never date him. Would never let this relationship prosper to more than friendship. She was thin with friendship. But she still wasn't fine with the fact that he had left her, utterly confused, to sort this out on her own.

  Her anger started to flare up again. Truce was off.

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  Chapter 12 And now we're Standing Face to Face

  Molly flew home in the morning, New Year's Eve. Though she had toyed
with the idea of staying longer and allowing Harrison to find her a replacement, she didn't want to be all alone with her mother anymore. Okay, so that might not be the only reason...

  And Marty had called that night to inform her of a New Year's party. It was black tie, very formal, and a dance, but it would be loads of fun she promised she'd go. Despite the fact that Joe had persuaded Harrison to go and Ephram and his again fiancée were on again. In fact, the party was pretty much thrown in their honor. But it was going to be fun...

  She arrived at the airport late the plane had been delayed and instead of having three hours to get ready for the party, she now had a half an hour.

  "So, is he seeing anyone yet? I mean, he's been home for a whole day now." Molly said, clutching the door of the car and wishing they could go faster.

  "No, Molls. He's barely left his home."

  "But why? And why is he going to the party? Obviously he must have a date he never goes to a party if he don't have a date."

  Marty suddenly went beet red. Not a good sign.

  "Marty? What do you know what I don't?"

  "Um...well...well, just because you go away doesn't mean life stops here. You guys left us all lonely and..."

  "Marty! Just say it!"

  She nodded with a gulp. "Okay. Joe and I are...are dating. And we're going to the party tonight together. So we set up Harrison to go with you. Honestly, I didn't know what had went on when we made these plans."

  Molly looked out the window with a smile. Before the last part set in, she was thinking about the first. Marty and Joe dating. In all this time, she had never even considered the match. Well, that was interesting.

  But oh, wait. Harrison. Taking her. To the party. That was not good. "Are you sure he doesn't have a real date?"

  "You better be talking about Harrison and yes, I'm sure."

  "Well? What did he say when you told him this?"

  She shrugged, gripping the steering wheel even harder. "I don't know. He seemed...fine."

  Molly looked over at her friend. "Now the truth."

  "He was hesitant. But he did agree."

  Molly tapped her fingernails on the arm rest. She wasn't sure how to take this. So she changed the subject. "It's raining. That's going to kill the hairdo's."