by Sable Hunter
“Mate being the operative word?” She giggled feeling better than she had in a long time. Crawling up on a tall white stool next to the wheel, she watched him expertly pull away from the dock and set off across the lake.
“Mate is always the operative word.” Seeing her cheeks turn an engaging shade of pink, he eased back on the suggestive talk. “Look out at the water.” He pointed. “You wouldn’t think that a few months ago this lake was down about twenty feet. Today the levels are up to normal, it’s a pleasant sight to see.”
“Philip was telling me about coming up here to explore the old town site of Bluffton which is usually covered by water. He said the drought let archaeologists explore sites all over the state. They found everything from a Native American skull to a person who’d been missing for a decade still strapped in her car.”
“You and Philip seemed to have found a lot to talk about.”
Molly slapped his arm with her hand, only half playfully. “Stop it. If we have any chance at all for this to work, you have to let go of suspicion and jealousy.” She placed a hand on his neck and urged him close to her. “I’m not going to be unfaithful to you. You can trust me. As long as we’re together, I’ll always put you first.”
“I liked what you were saying until you added the ‘as long as we’re together’,” Ten grumbled.
“We’re together now,” she reminded him with a teasing smile, her teeth catching her lower lip seductively. “Now where are these eagles I’ve been hearing so much about?”
“Just wait.” He turned on a little music and they sat back enjoying the wind in their faces as they motored up the lake toward the Colorado River Canyon. From where they began, it was about ten miles to where the canyon walls began to form high white limestone cliffs. “There’s a waterfall straight ahead and if you’ll keep your eyes on the skies, maybe you’ll see the sight of a lifetime.”
Molly did just that, staring so hard with her head tilted up that she almost got a crick in her neck. And then she saw it, soaring over the beautiful walls was a large bald eagle. He sailed overhead, swooping right in front of them, almost as if he was putting on a show especially for Molly. Tennessee couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was so beautiful, so perfect. His woman carrying his child. And to think, he’d almost lost it because he let his fears get the better of him. “So beautiful.”
“Yes, it is.” She turned to him with the brightest smile he’d ever seen. They watched until the bird lit high up in the top of a tree near a very impressive nest.
“This is a pretty spot.” He maneuvered the houseboat nearer to shore in a natural cove and dropped anchor. “Would you like a drink?” Tennessee moved to the wet bar that stood near the wheelhouse. “We have a little bit of everything.”
“Do we have orange juice?”
“Ah, yes. No alcohol for you.” Squatting in front of the small refrigerator, he found a carton of juice. “Here we go.” Standing, he poured them both a glass full. “I don’t need to be drinking and driving either. Safety first, especially with our little one to consider.” Ten cupped the gentle swell of her abdomen “Have you felt her move yet?”
As always, his touch made her want more. She placed her own hand over his, pressing it tighter against her body. “No, I can’t wait until I do.”
His eyes burned into hers and he pulled at one of the ribbon straps tied on her shoulders. “I think we need to cool off.”
Molly trembled. All of her intentions had been to keep a certain distance between them, to give herself time to be sure. He’d hurt her so badly, been so ready to assume the worst about her. And yet the attraction between them was irresistible. “Can I trust you?” she spoke before she realized.
A look of pain crossed his face. “I will never hurt you again. You have my solemn vow.” He led her to the hot tub. “Let’s just relax and talk. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to.”
He’d cut the engine, so the only noise was the lapping of the gentle waves against the hull of the boat and the occasional cry of one of the eagles flying overhead. Following his lead, she slipped her clothes off and stepped over into the warm waters, sitting down across from him. She couldn’t help but notice how his eyes roved over her body. The suit was a one-piece, cut high on the sides. It hugged her curves, but not as tight as she knew he would. “This feels good,” she smiled as the bubbles teased her skin.
“It does, I think it would feel even better if you sat closer to me.” His smile was relaxed and welcoming, so Molly didn’t hesitate, she moved over next to him and he wrapped an arm around her, bringing her into the cradle of his embrace. “I know you probably aren’t ready to hear this, but I want to share with you what I hope for our future. Can I?” His finger moved lazily down her arm.
Molly moved restlessly against him. “Ten, it’s too soon.”
“We’re just talking.” Pulling her close to him, he wrapped an arm across her front, laying his head against hers. “That’s one of the things we didn’t do enough of the first time around.”
“I guess we let our libidos be in charge.” Molly relaxed, sinking back against him. The haven of his arms was a wonderful place to be. She sighed. “I never thought I’d be with you again like this.”
Tennessee kissed her hair. “I wish I could erase that from your memory. I was gullible, I believed what was in front of my eyes rather than what was in my heart.”
“I guess if our positions had been reversed, I’d have believed the same thing.” Molly was trying to see things from his perspective.
Ten squeezed her arm, kneading the toned flesh. “You would have been smarter, I’m sure. I was already conditioned to expect the worst from O’Neil and from women in general.” He kissed the side of her face, letting his lips linger. “I was right about him and wrong about you.”
“Yes, you were.” She placed her hand on his rock hard thigh. “But I forgive you. Now, tell me how it will be if we’re together.”
Ten didn’t like the ‘if’ in her statement. “If I can dream of how it will be when we’re together, this is what I see.” He let his gaze wander to the distant shoreline as if could see the future in front of him. “We’re going to remarry, this time in front of my family in the same little chapel where Heath married Cato and all of our Tebow cousins will come.”
“Will our little angel be the flower girl?”
With a laugh, he half dipped her in the water. “I can’t wait that long to make you mine again. If I have my way you’ll still be pregnant when you walk down the aisle.” She wiggled in his arms and he kissed her still. “I want our baby to have my name when she’s born.”
His words were tugging at Molly’s heart. “What are we going to name her?” she asked again, the pleasurable chore one she obviously spent a lot of time thinking about.
“We’ll have to come up with something special.” Gently he rocked her from side to side in his arms. “I don’t want to live in the house with my family. Building our own place will take time, but it will be worth it. You can help me pick out a spot on the ranch. And I’ll start my own venture, if it’s not the windfarm in West Texas, we’ll do something else.”
“What about us? What’s your dream for us?”
Tennessee paused, pressing his lips to the side of her throat. As she nestled close to him, he could feel her heartbeat beneath his hands. “We’re going to love one another forever.” He whispered against her ear. “I found my soulmate in you, Miss Molly. I want to include you in every part of my life. I want to climb mountains with you. I want to have more babies with you. I want to grow old with you.”
Molly turned in his arms and took his face in her hands. Layering her mouth over his, she kissed him gently. “I want that too, more than anything.” Euphoria bubbled through Molly’s veins as effervescent as the excited waters of the Jacuzzi.
“I have something for you.” Ten shifted her away just far enough so he could reach over the side to snag his pants. Reaching in a pocket, he brought out a jeweler’s c
ase. “Here, until you will wear your rings, I want you to wear this.”
Molly’s eyes grew big as she opened the box. “Oh, my goodness. Tennessee! It’s gorgeous.” Lying on a bed of velvet was a necklace. The chain was fine and made of gold. Hanging at the end of it was a perfect solitaire diamond. The rays of the sun caught in its facets and turned it to a blaze of fire. “I love it.”
“Good.” He took the necklace from the box and tossing it behind him. “Let me put it on you.”
Eagerly she turned her back to him and he placed it around her neck. “Beautiful.” He kissed her playfully. “The necklace is pretty too.”
Molly’s heart felt so full she thought it might burst. “I’m so happy to be with you again.” She buried her head against his chest. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too, baby girl.” He held her close. “More than you’ll ever know.” Tennessee couldn’t help himself. He wanted her so much. Feverishly, his lips claimed hers and his hands began to caress her, slipping his fingers under the edge her bathing suit to caress her the top swell of her breasts.
For a time, Molly gave herself over to him. He was sitting down and she was in his lap, straddling his hips, facing him. Their kisses were hot and heavy and she could feel his erection hard and huge beneath her. Their passion was combustible and in a few seconds, they’d be making love unless she stopped them.
Pulling away from him was hard. She wanted him, there was no denying that fact. But after everything that had happened, it was just too soon. “Ten…” she whispered as she ducked her head, resting it on his shoulder, “we need to stop.”
Tennessee’s heart was pounding like a jackhammer. “Okay, baby.” He tried to bring himself down by peppering kisses on her neck and chest, but that didn’t seem to be helping. “I just miss you so much.”
“I know.”
“Look at me.” He placed a finger under her chin and tipped her face up. “I am not above groveling. What I did to you was unforgiveable.” Ten’s voice was impassioned. “But I’m stubborn. I’m begging you to love me again.”
Molly’s heart was aching in her chest. She wasn’t about to tell him, but the impossible was already a reality. She’d never stopped loving him. Throwing her arms around his neck, she hugged him close to her. “Let’s take it one day at a time.”
Tennessee buried his face in Molly’s neck and breathed her in. “Okay, just remember, you hold my heart in those delicate little hands of yours. Don’t break it.”
“Like you broke mine?” The words were out before she could call them back.
Tennessee sighed, putting her a little distance from him. “Yea, like I broke yours.” He shut his eyes, knowing she was right. Not until this moment had he truly faced his sin. “I don’t deserve you, I know that. But I’m not asking for justice, I’m asking for mercy.”
“I know.” She rubbed a hand across his chest, right over his heart. “I’ll try. I’m just afraid.”
Tennessee looked up into the sky and watched one of the eagles as it rode the wind currents overhead. If he couldn’t win her back, there was no one he could blame but himself. “So am I, Molly. So am I. But things will be different, you’ll see.”
* * *
From the moment Tennessee told her things would be different, he did his best to keep his promise. Over the next few weeks, he was attentive, yet always respectful. They fell into a routine whereby he worked on the ranch and she grew more comfortable around his family. Each night he’d spend time with her. They couldn’t do anything strenuous like rock climbing or hiking, because of her pregnancy. Instead, they shared quiet time on things like moonlight rides in the old hay wagon where they’d lay in the back and look at the night sky…
“Do you think anything is actually out there?” he asked.
“Like what, heaven or aliens?” She stared at the star spangled expanse with him.
“Both,” he murmured. “After mom died, I used to try and imagine heaven. I couldn’t reconcile what I’d been taught in church with her personality. If she thought she had to sing and pray and play a harp all day, she’d kill herself.” He laughed. “My mom was a hoot. She was raised a rich debutante in South Louisiana, but she loved to fish, swim and ride horses. And she had this irreverent sense of humor,” he turned to look at Molly. “She wasn’t vulgar by any means, but she loved to play jokes on people. Once when we were young, she took the cushions out of a chair and cut them so she could actually slip one over her head and wear the other one like a skirt. She put some more material over her arms, then sat down in this chair to wait until one of us came along to sit down. The unlucky one turned out to be Jaxson. He plopped down in the chair and then she just wrapped him up in her arms and he screamed bloody murder, he thought the chair was eating him.”
Molly was laughing so hard, she had to hold her stomach. “That’s hilarious. I don’t know if I believe in heaven either.” He voice grew somber. “I remember going to church once after mother died and the preacher said people who committed suicide didn’t go to heaven. He said they went to hell.” She grew very quiet. “I never went back.”
Tennessee drew her close. “He was wrong, Molly.” He held her as she cried, trying to heal her with tender touches and soft words…
At other times they baked cookies or made fudge together. The whole family would gather around the kitchen table to talk and eat or sometimes they’d make popcorn and watch old movies piled up on cushions in the living room. Several times Molly and Ten played games like scrabble, where they’d get into loud discussions about words Ten tried to use on the board. One night it led to something a little different…
“You can’t use that word. Cher is a proper noun, like Sonny and Cher.” Molly declared with a huff.
“No, baby, you’re my cher.” He pronounced it ‘sha’, with an ‘a’ like in sad. “It means you’re my beloved.”
His explanation left her speechless. She’d got up from her chair and came around to kiss him hard, then ran from the room like the very devil was after her. Tennessee had smiled, thinking he was gaining ground.
But the most ground he gained was when he began brushing her long hair at night. The first night he began the ritual, she’d come downstairs after a shower, wearing a gown and robe that covered her from head to toe. It certainly wasn’t one he’d bought for her. “Where did you get that outfit, from a nun?” he’d teased.
“I borrowed it from your sister, Pepper. I needed something warmer, you guys keep it like a refrigerator in here.” She’d walked in front of him and he’d followed her progress like a hound dog eyeing a bone, with his tongue almost hanging out. Even though the garment had a lace collar around her neck, long sleeves almost to her fingertips and nothing showing at the bottom but her toes peeking out – it was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. Molly looked so cuddly he could barely stand it. Maybe it was because everything was covered up like a wrapped present, but the look certainly did it for him.
Her hair had been up in a towel and when she’d sat down on the rug in front of him to watch the evening news, the only thing he could watch was her. She unwound the towel and fluffed the dark silky waterfall until it was almost dry. And then she’d pulled it over her shoulder and began to carefully brush the waist length strands. Before he knew it, Ten was sitting on the floor behind her. “Here, let me.”
Molly’s fingers had trembled when she relinquished the brush to him. This was such an intimate act. He held his breath as he began to gently work the tangles from her hair, finally graduating to long luxurious strokes. “Lean back,” he encouraged. And when she did, he gathered it into a ponytail and laid it over her shoulder so he could massage her neck and shoulders. Gradually the rest of the family left, one by one, until they were alone.
Molly and Ten didn’t talk, he just held her as the newscaster talked of politics and poverty, war and peace. By the time the late show came on, she was asleep in his arms and he was as content as he’d ever been.
But no matter w
hat their evenings had held, Tennessee never failed to walk Molly to her room and leave her at the door with a gentle kiss. Truthfully, it was getting harder and harder to tell her goodnight.
* * *
At six months pregnant, Molly felt like she was beginning to waddle. A little over a month had passed since Tennessee found out the truth, six weeks of getting to know one another again and now Molly was ready for more. Sometimes she wanted him so much she trembled. He’d told her to come to him when she was ready, but she was afraid of being rejected. Her body was changing, her waist was thicker and a few stretch marks marred the skin of her middle. In the beginning, he’d seemed almost desperate for her. Now, however, he almost seemed like he was trying to avoid touching her. Oh, he still kissed her goodnight and he still brushed her hair, but that was all.
They’d had a wonderful evening. Ryder and Pepper had boiled shrimp and made etouffee. And now she needed to walk it off. As normal, Tennessee didn’t let her leave the house alone. “Where are you going?”
“To feed Prince.”
He’d fallen in step with her. “I hate to tell you this, but it’s time to wean that boy.”
Molly wasn’t surprised. “He’s grown by leaps and bounds. I’m grateful that you and Heath fixed it so I could feed him through the fence. I think he’d take me down for a bottle now.”
“Yea, he’s turned into a young strong bull.”
After Molly fed him, she turned to Tennessee. “What’s going to happen to him?” she asked as she scratched the calf between the ears.
“He’ll rejoin the herd and either go to the sale barn in the fall or be set aside for a herd bull.”
Molly whirled on Ten. “What do you mean go to the sale barn? Who will buy him?”
“One of the feedlots.” Tennessee fought back a smile. He could see where this was going.
“Feedlot? To be made into hamburger?”
“Yea, you should have named him Chuck instead of Prince, you know ground Chuck.”