That Thing You Do (A Crystal Lake Novel Book 2)

by Juliana Stone

  “Then what?” Why the hell was his heart nearly beating out of his chest?

  “Then you go home to the city and I go back to my life and this will be a memory, and that’s okay, because it’s a good memory.” She nodded, her eyes on the road. “A really good memory.”

  Nathan had nothing to say to that because Molly was right. That was exactly what would happen, and they’d both known it going in. So why did he feel like such a shit?

  And why the hell did his heart actually hurt?

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Malone family home was a beehive of activity when Molly pulled up in front of it, and with no room in the driveway, she parked on the road. She spied several out-of-state license plates, and then saw Aunt Sally sitting on the front porch, smoking like a fiend. She tapped her ashes onto Millie Malone’s prize hydrangea bushes, and then looked around to see if anyone saw. Which was when she spied Molly sitting in her truck on the road. Aunt Sally gave a small wave and smiled widely, her toothy grin something to behold even from Molly’s perch.

  Busted.

  Molly slid from her vehicle and walked up the driveway, smoothing the simple pale blue blouse she’d paired with her favorite jeans.

  “Hey, Aunt Sally,” she said, looking at the ashes visible on the pale pink hydrangeas. Her mom would have a fit if she saw them. Molly reached over and gently shook the bush and then looked pointedly at her aunt. “I would maybe find an ashtray.”

  Sally was her dad’s oldest sister and, at sixty-five, had nearly ten years on him. Never married, she lived in Illinois, in a small town called Streeter, where she kept four cats, three birds, at least two gerbils, and, last Molly heard, a large python. The Malone love of animals was in the genes, her dad once said, and Aunt Sally was living proof.

  “Why, don’t you clean up real good,” Sally said with a wink. She got to her feet and, after one last puff, flicked her cigarette butt into the tall grasses that bordered the garden, waving her hands in the air like a crazy person.

  “What are you doing?” Molly knew her aunt was eccentric, but this was kinda over the top.

  “I told your mother that I quit smoking.”

  Molly wrinkled her nose and would have pointed out it was useless to hide, her mother had a nose that would make and hound dog jealous, but in that moment, Millie walked out onto the porch. She was searching for something in her large bag and didn’t seen Molly at first, but then she yanked her head up and made a face.

  “Sally, if you’re going to smoke, I would suggest doing it elsewhere. I’ve got windows open, and I don’t want that horrendous smell in my house.” She glanced at Molly. “Ready?”

  Molly said goodbye to her aunt, and, once her mother was belted up in the truck, she headed across the bridge.

  “My goodness, your feet are in rough shape. You’ll never snag a man with toes that look like that.”

  “Unless you’ve got a toe fetish, pretty sure most men are willing to overlook chipped polish if it means getting lucky.”

  “Toe fetish. Really,” her mother muttered. “As if anyone in Crystal Lake would be afflicted by something as ridiculous as that.”

  “You’d be surprised. I heard Clive Whitlow only has sex with his wife when she’s wearing a tutu and sparkly wings.”

  “Where on earth would you hear something like that?”

  “His wife, Mrs. Whitlow, told me when she brought her budgie in to be sexed.”

  Molly could tell her mother was trying real hard to figure out if she was being serious—which she was—but then decided to ignore the conversation altogether. She smoothed out her skirt and pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

  “Well, they’ll get you all fixed up and looking spiffy. Jessica told me we’re all to get the same color. Blush pink, you know, like from Steel Magnolias? She’s such a doll. I’m so happy to have another daughter in the family.” Millie sighed and settled back in her seat. “I’m not going to lie. I’m looking forward to relaxing for a few hours without your father breathing down my neck and your Aunt Sally right behind him. I swear I’ve been run ragged these last few days. Weddings are exhausting.” She angled a look toward Molly. “And you’ve been no help. In fact, it’s been days since I saw you last.”

  “I’ve been busy, Mom. And if you needed me for something, all you had to do was ask.”

  “Oh, Molly-bean, I’m glad you said that.”

  Molly-bean? That was only pulled out in an emergency. Alarmed, Molly glanced at her mother, who was staring back at her with a look she knew all too well. Dammit. She’d walked right into something, held the door wide open even, and she had no idea what it was.

  “Okay. Spill. What do you need or want, exactly?” Whatever it was couldn’t be that bad considering they were in the final stages of this wedding that had eaten up so much of her time. With the rehearsal at the church and then the ceremony and reception tomorrow, there wasn’t much left to do.

  “You don’t have to sound so hard done by, Molly. Most kids jump at the chance to help out their parents.”

  “I have no problem helping you out. It’s the use of Molly-bean that makes me nervous.”

  “I need somewhere for your cousin Janelle to stay, and I’m hoping you can let her use your spare bedroom.”

  “I don’t have a spare bedroom.”

  Her mother frowned. “That room is still empty?” When Molly nodded, her mother shrugged. “Well, she can sleep on your sofa, then.”

  “No.”

  “What do you mean, no? Why on earth can’t Janelle stay at your house?”

  “Because….”

  Because she only had two nights left with Nathan.

  Because she barely knew Janelle.

  Because she only had two nights left with Nathan.

  “You know how I feel about strangers, Mom.” Okay. That sounded weak, even to Molly.

  “What has gotten into you? Janelle is not a stranger. You’ve known her your entire life.”

  “Well, I haven’t seen her in at least ten years.”

  “What does that matter? She’s still family.”

  Molly maneuvered her truck through an intersection. “Why can’t she stay with Nana or at your place?”

  “My house is full up, and your Aunt Sally brought her python.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t ask.”

  “But—”

  “Janelle asked to stay with you.”

  Molly tapped her fingers along the steering wheel while she waited for the traffic light to change from red to green. “If it were me, I’d want to stay in a hotel is all I’m saying.”

  “Well, she’s not you, and besides, she can’t afford a hotel.” Her mother’s voice dropped. “Her husband left her for the coffee girl at the local Starbucks, and she lost her job. All in one week, the poor thing. She has no money saved, and her ex-husband is being difficult, from what I understand.”

  “Why are you whispering?” Molly accelerated. “There’s nobody here but us.”

  “Why are you being so argumentative about this?”

  “I’m not.”

  “You are.”

  Molly knew her mother was like a dog after a bone, and if she didn’t shut this down sooner rather than later, she’d dig and dig until she found out about her and Nate. And that was a conversation she could do without.

  “Fine,” she said, taking a left, knowing she’d lost the battle. “She can stay with me.”

  “Of course she can stay with you. I already told her so.” Millie peered out the window. “Where are we going?”

  “The salon on Main Street?”

  “Oh no. The salon couldn’t handle all of us girls. Goodness, I wasn’t paying attention. You need to head back to River Road and go around the lake to the spa over by the golf course. The new one. It’s called Estelle’s. Have you heard of it?”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “You sure are grumpy. What do you care where we go? I’ve got it on good autho
rity that Estelle’s is top-notch. I heard that celebrities fly in just to go there. Friends of that Bluebell Barrington.”

  “Booker.”

  “What?” Her mother looked annoyed.

  “Blue married Cam, remember? Nash’s younger brother.”

  “Oh, yes, she did. Did you know my friend Clarice works there? You remember her, don’t you?”

  Molly wheeled her truck into the grocery store parking lot and screeched her tires as she headed back the way she’d just come. “I remember her all right.”

  “From church.”

  “Yep.” She’s a demon who’ll cast as spell on you and get you to do all sorts of nasty things you normally wouldn’t.

  “I know you think this kind of thing is frivolous, Molly. But trust me, sweetie, you’re going to love it, and if we have enough time, you should think about some of their other services.”

  “Like what?” She looked at her mother with narrowed eyes.

  “Whatever you want, dear. My treat.” She studied Molly a few moments longer, pulling her glasses down and peering at her over the bridge. “You might want to clean up your brows a bit. They do waxing.” She pursed her lips and looked ahead. “Or so I’ve heard.”

  Thankfully, they reached Estelle’s a few minutes later, and, once inside, the demon herself directed them to a private room in the back. She smiled and greeted Molly like an old friend, which caused her mother to look twice. However, there was no time for chitchat. Millie headed straight for Jessica’s mother. The two women settled into side-by-side pedicure chairs, their heads tucked together as they began an earnest conversation, about the wedding no doubt, and, thank God, ignored everyone else.

  Every bridesmaid was sitting and accounted for, feet soaking in hot bubbly water, and Jessica motioned excitedly for Molly to join her at the manicure table.

  “I was beginning to think you were going to be a no-show,” Jess said as the manicurist took her hands.

  “Nah. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.” Molly kept a straight face but chuckled when Jess gave her a wicked side-eye.

  “I know what you’ve been looking forward to, and it’s not this.”

  Molly smiled at the woman who was looking at her fingers, an expression of horror on her face. She shrugged and let her have at it, before turning to Jess. There was no use lying to Jess. The woman was intuitive. She knew what was going on.

  “It’s weird, you know?”

  “What is?” Jess watched her intently.

  “My whole life, I knew what we were. Me and Nate. I knew what our boundaries were. What our expectations were, and now…” She sighed and blew a piece of hair out of her eyes. “Now, everything’s different.”

  “But it’s good, right?”

  She slowly nodded. “It’s like I nothing I imagined it would be. But…”

  “I hate when a sentence ends in but.” Jess interrupted. “Why does there always have to be a but? Can’t you ignore it? Forget about? Pretend the but doesn’t exist?”

  “I wish I could, but whatever this is, it means nothing.”

  “Molly, I know we’ve only just gotten to know each other. But from what I see, from what I’ve heard, you’d never be with a man if it was just nothing. And I know that Nate’s got a bit of a reputation with the ladies.”

  “You think?”

  “But for what it’s worth? He’s nothing like what I expected, and he can’t take his eyes off you. Everybody’s noticed it.”

  Molly thought about that as she contemplated some things. Like Sunday night and her bed without Nate in it. The way he smiled at her jokes, because he was literally the only person on the planet who got them, and the way he liked to rub her shoulders, kiss her neck, and argue about sports.

  She was going to miss all those things. But her heart was going to miss him even more. And that was pretty much the crux of the matter.

  “What I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter because whatever this is we’ve been doing has an expiration date on it, and that expiration date goes live Sunday morning.”

  Molly wished Jess would say something comforting, like Molly was wrong or it would all work out, but she didn’t.

  “You’re in love with him,” Jess whispered.

  “Yes.” There was no point in denying it.

  “Since Vegas?” At Molly’s sharp look, Jessica shrugged. “I mean, I heard some things about you two.”

  Again, there was no point in denial. “I think I’ve been in love with Nathan since we were kids.”

  “That’s a long time.”

  “I suppose it is.” Molly thought about it. “We had this dog, a golden retriever named Shelby. She was beautiful and sweet, just a great dog with the best disposition. My parents got her as a puppy a few months after they were married, and my earliest memories, she’s in all of them. Shelby was four years old when Zach and I were born.” She smiled. “My mom used to tell everyone that Shelby was the third parent in the house, and it was because of her that she didn’t go crazy raising twins.

  “When I was eleven, Shelby got sick and started losing weight, not eating much and was lethargic. We knew it was serious. I mean, I could tell by the look on my dad’s face. She had arthritis really bad in her hips, so on top of the cancer, it was hard for her to get around. That year, right around the time she was failing badly, Zach and the boys had to travel out of state for hockey. I was on the team too, but no way was I leaving Shelby. I knew I couldn’t. Dad gave Shelby meds to keep her comfortable until they got back, and she was scheduled to be euthanized on that Monday. My parents went with Zach, and my Nana stayed over, and Nathan…” Molly took a moment as the memories washed over her.

  “He loved hockey more than anything.” She looked at Jess. “Like the kid slept in his hockey gear when we had early morning practices.”

  “Sounds stinky.”

  “You have no idea.” She paused for a moment when the manicurist motioned for her other hand. “But that year, he told his parents he was sick, which he wasn’t, and he missed the hockey tournament for me. He came over that Saturday, and we spent the entire day with Shelby, making her comfortable, just being with her because I didn’t want her to be alone when it happened. And I knew it was coming. When it did happen, I was so grateful that Nathan was with me, because it would have been awful if I’d been by myself. I think that’s when it happened. That’s when he won my heart without even trying.”

  “Have you told him?”

  “No.”

  “Well, don’t you think you should?”

  “Would you?” She turned to Jess. “Would you put yourself out there like that when there’s a pretty good chance you’ll be rejected? Especially when it doesn’t change anything? Like the fact his life is in an entirely different state? A life he loves and has no intention of giving up?”

  “I don’t know,” Jess said softly, a sad smile on her face. “I’m sorry.”

  “I am too.”

  Molly gave herself a mental shake. What the hell was she doing? This was the day before Jess’s wedding, and here she was making Jess sad and miserable with her story of woebegone lost love, or rather a love that had been doomed before it began all those years ago. It was time for her to pull up her big-girl panties and face facts.

  Nate was leaving. She was staying. The end.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The wedding rehearsal ran late. It was a rather large affair, with five groomsmen and Nathan as best man, five bridesmaids, and a woman named Poppy Fairbanks acting as maid of honor. A lifelong friend of Jess’s, she’d been out of town for the last few weeks on a buying trip for her shop, Bella & Hooch, and was the main reason the rehearsal started thirty minutes late. She’d literally gotten back to town, dropped her luggage, and hightailed it over to the church, apologizing profusely.

  Her plane had been delayed on departure from LA, so it wasn’t as if it was her fault, but Nathan was annoyed anyway. Not at Poppy, but at the fact that it was nearly nine o’clock, they wer
e back at Jess’s parents’ after eating a casual dinner, and he hadn’t been able to get Molly alone.

  Not for lack of trying either. She was definitely avoiding him.

  He stood at the back of the dining room, watching Molly as she sat with Jess and Poppy. The three women were huddled together, talking about God knows what, and Nate was done being ignored. He strode toward them and successfully sidestepped at least three conversations along the way with a quick smile and handshake. He had no interest in talking sports, which was probably a first for him, but he had other things on his mind.

  Like Molly Malone. Like getting her naked. Like spending what little time they had together, alone.

  He stopped when he reached the women, gave that smile and polite nod he’d just used to blow off those other folks, and then turned to Molly.

  “Can we talk?”

  Her eyes fell away from his, which made his gut tighten, as she looked to Jess before getting to her feet. Slowly, as if she’d rather be plucking nose hairs or visiting Estelle’s again. He put his hand at the small of her back and guided her toward the large French doors that led to a three-tiered deck out back. Soft lighting threw muted shadows from the top to the bottom, and they continued down to the bottom level. Out here, the air was crisp with a hint of fall, and the water looked like glass. Along the beach, fog crept up the embankment, ghost fingers that stretched long and thin, and under his palm, Molly shivered.

  She wore a sleeveless blue dress. He doffed his sports jacket, placing it over her shoulders without a word. The two of them stared out over the lake for a good long while, Nate searching for the right words but at a loss as to how to describe the turmoil inside him.

  “We don’t have to do this, you know.” Molly turned to him, those beautiful eyes of hers wide and shiny.

  He remained silent, letting her take the lead. Probably because he didn’t have the words, mostly because he was afraid to open his mouth and say the wrong thing.

  “We don’t have to talk about the last two weeks. Analyze what it means, how it changes things.” She exhaled. “How it changed us, because…I don’t want us to change, Nate.”