memories of a life she might have had—or perhaps it was because her father had died, but she had a sense that her life was never going to be more than this. That whenever she came into town for the next fifty years, it would play out just the same.
That thought used to bring her ease. Reminded her that she knew who she was and where she belonged. But that kiss with Jason under the stars two nights ago had stirred something inside of her. Something she wasn’t too sure would ever go back to sleep.
Lacey Duvall looked up from behind the counter and smiled when Molly walked up.
“Mocha latte?”
“Yeah.”
“I heard Jason McCoy is back in town,” Lacey said in a questioning sort of way. The two of them had dated a couple of times in high school. Maybe she was hoping to see him again.
“He inherited half of the Bar T. So he’s here to take care of that,” Molly said. “Then he’s going back to Houston.”
“You okay with that?” Lacey asked, turning to the back counter and grabbing Molly’s coffee from her teenaged assistant. “He’s been gone a dog’s age and you haven’t heard from him before now, have you?”
Lacey was a gossip, though not in a malicious way. Molly supposed it would happen to anyone who worked in a small-town coffee shop.
“It was a surprise,” Molly admitted. She smiled and nodded at the kid as she took her coffee from Lacey. “But of course I’m going to honor Dad’s wishes.”
The bell on the coffeehouse door pinged and Lacey turned to greet her next customer with a smile.
“Jason McCoy, I wondered if you were going to stop by,” Lacey said.
Molly stepped over to the bar to add a packet of sugar to her latte and then stirred it slowly. Way slower than was called for.
“I heard this place had the best coffee in town and had to check it out,” Jason said. When he’d left thirteen years ago it hadn’t yet opened.
“It’s the only coffee in town so I guess you are right,” Lacey said. “What’ll it be?”
“Hey, Lacey. Good to see you again. Filtered coffee, please. The biggest cup you have.”
Molly glanced over her shoulder at him. She wanted to play it cool. It was probably no big deal to him to make out with her, but it was a big deal to her. She realized just how limiting her life had been staying here. If she’d gone out and seen the world...maybe she wouldn’t be so fascinated by his damned blue eyes and firm mouth.
He stepped closer and looked down at her, a furrow wrinkling his brow.
“What?”
“I asked how you were,” he said.
“Good. I’d like to discuss a few ideas about the ranch. Maybe we can do that before we head over to see Rupert.”
“Okay. You want to talk here or in the park? It’s a nice day and I saw an empty bench on my way in.”
“Park sounds good to me,” she said. That way the town gossips—and, let’s face it, in a town this size everyone knew each other’s business—couldn’t hear what they were saying. Hell, it didn’t matter what they said—people were always going to talk. Many of them probably remembered how she’d followed Jason around town the summer before he left. How she’d tried wearing makeup and short skirts to catch his attention...
He called out a good-bye to Lacey. Molly noticed Lacey had her cell phone in her hand, furiously texting something...probably about them. She was embarrassed and a little bit...well...excited that she was being linked to Jason. And that was the problem right there.
He wanted her to buy him out or have her accept his offer to turn over his half of the ranch so he could leave. Go back to Houston. And the truth was she wanted him to stay.
They walked over to the park bench. She sat down on one end. Jason stood there for a minute then stooped to put his coffee on the ground by her foot. He stayed there so that they were at eye level and she looked at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to see what’s going on in your pretty head,” he said.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Try to be charming,” she said. “Sit down and let’s talk about the ranch. That’s all we have between us.”
“We have a hell of a lot more than that.”
“Passion?” she asked, remembering the other night. “Dad always said passion leads to trouble.”
“And he was right. But not this time,” Jason said, putting his hand on her leg. “Are you ticked at me again?”
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