Love in a Small Town (36 page)

“A little.”

“I saw a freezer in there with packaged ice cream. I’ll go check it out.”

He came back grinning triumphantly. “Ice cream sandwiches, Madam?” He brought her two; he knew she loved ice cream sandwiches.

“My hero,” she said.

Just forget everything for a while and have a nice time.
They were, but maybe they didn’t forget
everything,
Molly thought. Maybe memories of how things had once been lingered deep in their minds, and in their eyes, too.

As time wore on, however, Molly felt herself growing more and more relaxed, and she sensed that Tommy Lee did, too. The two of them seemed to get a lot better at forgetting everything and having a nice time. They decided not to go to a show but to drive and walk around the lake. They watched people fishing, watched ducks, watched a man start a big pile of brush on fire, which Tommy Lee said was a really stupid thing to do with the breeze blowing as it was. They watched to see if the brush pile would ignite a grass fire, but thankfully and miraculously it did not. They came by a bait shop-convenience store and bought Coca-Colas in little bottles and snack cakes, not the most nutritious food, but they were forgetting everything and having a really nice time now.

Tommy Lee gave Molly a bite of his brownie, and Molly gave him a bite of her oatmeal cream cookie. Then she leaned over and licked cream from the corner of his mouth with the tip of her tongue. He looked startled, and she knew he was self-conscious because they were right out in public—no matter that no one was around. Still, she gave his lips another lick, and then Tommy Lee started laughing and almost fell off the retaining wall where they sat.

When they got back into the Corvette, Tommy Lee took her hand and kept hold of it even as he shifted the stick of the Corvette, like he used to do back in high school.

Following a rutted road off from the lake, they came to a fenced pasture. Two horses were inside the fence. They were well-cared-for horses, muscular and tame and obviously well used. They came right up to the fence when Molly smooched to them. Delighted, she blew in their noses and petted and talked to them. The two were amusing in their attempts to gain attention.

Tommy Lee touched one, then got bored and went off, looking at an old falling-down cabin. Next thing, he gave a shout. He had found an old truck. A Ford, he said, but how he knew it was beyond Molly; she didn’t see an emblem when she finally picked her way, in her new shoes and slim-fitting dress, through the tall weeds to have a look at what had once been a truck. Tommy Lee was inspecting every rusty part.

“It’s hot,” Molly said after several minutes, and went to sit in the Corvette parked in the shade and wait for Tommy Lee to get through his enthusiasm for a hunk of metal with rotted tires.

Waiting, trying not to sweat, Molly began to get sad. She told herself it was silly, especially when he came back so excited and talking about finding out who owned the old truck and buying it and how he could put a four-sixty into it, which was apparently some great motor. How could she be sad when his eyes were dancing like that? When he took her hand like that? Did it really matter that he didn’t have one iota of interest in horses and she didn’t care one whit about that truck? What she cared about was being with him. And what he truly seemed to care about was being with her.

Tommy Lee drove around the lake until he came to a small beach area with no one in sight. He lolled on the grass while Molly took off her shoes and went wading, holding her skirt up and feeling very seductive. She felt Tommy Lee’s eyes on her. She looked over her shoulder at him. Slowly she turned and, her eyes on his, walked toward him. She sat beside him and kissed him, and he propped her against his chest while they watched the sun getting really low in the sky.

“We both like to look at the sunset,” Tommy Lee said suddenly.

“Yes . . ." Molly said, ". . . and to drive around and do nothin’.”

“We like Cokes,” he said and kissed her neck.

“Ah . . . we like summer.” He was kissing down her neck now, and she was starting to tingle. The grass was summer brown and prickly and they had no blanket or even a towel, so they got into the Corvette to neck. It wasn’t the most comfortable place, but they tried forgetting that, too. Molly couldn’t help thinking how silly, when they had beds back in Valentine. Even if a person was young, could a body possibly be able to bend to the extent needed to enjoy passion in a two-seated sports car?

But there was something about it all—about the youthfulness of it, about reliving the memories it evoked, the daringness of it. There was just something wild and wonderful about it, causing them to not only disregard the uncomfortableness but to slip right beyond it to boiling blood and forgotten reason.

Then suddenly headlights and the sound of vehicles jerked them out of the depths of passion.

“Oh, my Lord,” Molly said. Tommy Lee said something stronger under his breath. Molly, blinking, only just then realized the sun was gone and dark had all but come. The headlights bounced over the grass and trees—a carload of teens, and a pickup truck followed them.

“Hey, man, cool car!” Teens pouring out of the car and out of the truck, coming across to admire the Corvette while Molly tried to pull her dress back down over her bottom and get it buttoned over her breasts.

Then Tommy Lee got out and showed the boys the engine. Five boys and one girl. Several other girls waited over in the car and truck, the same as Molly did, withered and hot and sweaty in the seat of the Corvette.

* * * *

Maybe it was the teens making them suddenly aware of their foolish actions, or perhaps it was simply being interrupted, but whatever the reason, their romantic night appeared to have ended. On the drive back to Valentine, Molly began to worry whether Tommy Lee would go to their house or to the cottage. He had fallen back into his usually quiet self, and she remained unusually quiet.

She didn’t think she was ready to return to their house. The more she thought of it, the more she concluded that she had reached her limit for forgetting everything for a while and just having a nice time. All the fears and doubts about her life and their marriage seemed to be falling right out of the sky and landing on her. She couldn’t explain it to herself, much less to Tommy Lee, so she couldn’t tell him
not
to go to the house. She grew more and more nervous, waiting to see what he would do and hoping they didn’t end up in a big fight.

The closer they came to Valentine, the more tense she became. Then, when Tommy Lee drove past the turnoff for their house and kept on, heading for the cottage, Molly suddenly got very depressed. He hadn’t even asked her if she wanted to go to the house. She told herself she was being really unfair and erratic, and realizing this made her grow even more blue.

When Tommy Lee pulled into the drive and Molly saw the soft glow from her mother’s living room windows, she realized she had once more forgotten all about the threat of Eddie Pendarvis.

“Oh, gosh, I didn’t call and check on Mama and Rennie.”

“They’re okay. Sam’s still here.”

He was; there was the Bronco patterned in the thin moonlight. Apparently he was staying the night; it was after midnight.

Molly wondered where Sam slept. To her mind it would be poor taste for Rennie and Sam to carry on right in Mama’s house. But then Mama was quite liberal about these things, and in this Molly agreed with Kaye.

“I still should have called," Molly said, feeling guilty. Then she realized Rennie’s car sat on the far side of the Bronco. In the few seconds it took her to realize it was Rennie’s car, she was struck with alarm, thinking someone else was at her mother’s house and that that someone could be Eddie Pendarvis. The recognition of Rennie’s car came with great relief. “I guess Sam took Rennie to get her car.”

“He said he was going to,” Tommy Lee said absently.

Molly thought about that. “You might have told me.”

“Why?”

“I would have liked to know about my sister goin’ up in the vicinity of that madman. And I might have worried if I hadn’t been able to reach Rennie.”

She felt his surprise at her attack, and she realized it had been sort of an attack, although she hadn’t meant it to be. Or maybe she had. He was being way too calm again.

“I would have told you then,” he said. She could tell he was wondering at her; she could hear it in his voice.

But she continued right on. “Maybe you wouldn’t be with me, and I’d call, and she wouldn’t be at Mama’s and maybe Mama wouldn’t be there to tell me where they were."

“Well, none of that happened,” Tommy Lee said, which pretty much shut her mouth.

He had stopped in the deep darkness beside the cottage and cut the engine. They sat there a few minutes. Molly realized she was taken by the strong reluctance to leave him, an emotion that seemed quite strange, considering how tense she also felt.

Apparently Tommy Lee didn’t want to leave her either, however, because he didn’t shove her out and zoom away. He was just sitting there, staring straight ahead, his profile a shadow in the darkness.

“Do you want to come inside?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, I guess not.”

After a minute, Molly said, “Okay.” Still, she sat there. “I had a nice time this evening, Tommy Lee. A really nice time.”

“I did, too.”

She felt around for her purse. Tommy Lee hopped out of the car and came around to open the door for her. He took her hand and walked her the few feet to the back door. Then with suddenness and strength, he pulled her into his arms and against his hard body.

Thin moonlight shone down upon them. She looked up into his face, into his eyes, before he lowered his head and kissed her. A hard kiss, seductive and deep, deeper and deeper, entering her and drawing her to him, until she lost her breath and just about everything else.

“Come inside, Tommy Lee,” she whispered hoarsely.

“No,” he replied, thick and firm.

Molly was somewhat stunned. Tommy Lee was gazing down at her. He brought his hand to her cheek, rubbed his calloused thumb over her lips.

“I can wait for you, Molly. Until you’re ready.”

He left her there.

She watched him stride away, then turned and fumbled for the handle of the screen door, hurrying inside so as not to stand there and watch him leave. She stood in the middle of the dark kitchen and listened to the Corvette engine disappear down the road. She knew that a part of her heart went with Tommy Lee, and a part of his stayed with her. They were each searching for the whole.

Chapter 25

Diamonds To Dust

Molly slept so late the following morning that the sun was high and the black fan blowing hot air over her. She wandered into the front room and over to the window. Sam’s Bronco was gone, and Kaye was just leaving from her Sunday visit with Mama. Molly watched her sadly, praying things were better between Kaye and Walter.

She stood there a moment, looking at the driveway, recalling how she had stood in this very spot and watched Tommy Lee drive up the day before. Memories and feelings from that afternoon and evening stole over her. Memories of Tommy Lee’s warm eyes and his hand reaching for hers.

Turning, she went to shower and get dressed and get herself over to her mother’s. She had a confusing mixture of emotions and felt the need to be with Rennie and her mother. Perhaps she wanted one of them to be able to answer the telephone should Tommy Lee call. The prospect of having to talk to him unnerved her.

Molly had an odd feeling, as if time was at hand, for what she was not quite certain. Maybe it was the weather, she thought, as she walked across the lawn to her mother’s house. The air was heavy and still, as it often was before a weather change. And that was how Molly felt inside herself, too.

When she stepped into her mother’s kitchen, Rennie was on the telephone. “The
police,”
Mama said, for some reason whispering.

On her end Rennie said little more than yes and no and thank you. After she hung up, she said simply, “Eddie’s left town,” causing Molly to have to request a more thorough explanation of the conversation.

In an oddly bored and distracted manner, Rennie related that the policeman had called to inquire whether she had heard from Eddie Pendarvis. When she said no, the policeman informed her that it appeared sometime late Saturday Eddie Pendarvis had taken all of his worldly belongings and left town. Rennie, who had quite quickly returned to her old audacious self in the security of her family, now painted Eddie Pendarvis in a ridiculously stupid light and gave no credence to the possibility that the man might stalk her from an unknown, hidden place. She appeared to have put all fear of Eddie Pendarvis behind her.

Her attitude both relieved and perturbed Molly. Molly thought it at least within the realm of possibility that they had not heard the last from Eddie Pendarvis. Still, she had to admit that ignoring all thought of the man might be a good course. Rennie was happy, happier and more upbeat than Molly had seen her in a long time. She even began to speak of moving down to Valentine permanently.

“Let’s face it,” Rennie said, “How many stalkers and muggings do we get in Valentine? And it’s time I thought of
buying
a house.” She went on to talk about a house being an investment and how much fun it would be to have one of those Victorian places up on Church Street, with a wide porch and flowing hedges of yellow forsythia. “I’ve always dreamed of having a place like that.”

This dream came as news to Molly, as she couldn’t recall Rennie ever mentioning it. A house like that certainly was a far cry from the adults-only, modern living community where she now resided. In fact, Rennie had at one time said she had to shake the dust of Valentine off her feet and not look back. Molly suspected Rennie’s not only looking back but running back had much less to do with practical investment and safety and a lot more to do with desire for Sam Ketchum.

“Well, maybe . . . I guess so,” Rennie admitted when Molly said this to her.