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Molly jumped out of her skin and her Birkenstocks. She looked up at Nate and panicked, pressing her finger to her lips. If Zach found out what she and Nate were doing in here, it would be the kissing pillow all over again. But one thousand times worse.
“Are you in there?” The door handle rattled, and she slammed her hand against it.
“I’m getting changed, Zach,” she said sharply, biting her bottom lip, forehead resting against the door. “I got sauce on my shirt.” She pulled the lie out of her butt and winced. What was she? Five again?
“Oh, okay. Hey, I’m looking for Nate. Mom said she saw the two of you head to the house.”
“He came in to use the bathroom.”
“Huh, I wonder where he went off to. Don’t worry about it. I’ll find him. You should hurry up, though. Dad’s working his way up to some kind of epic speech, and you don’t want to miss that.”
“I’ll be a couple of minutes.”
She listened intently and, when she was sure Zach was gone, turned around. “That was close.”
Nate nodded and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. A hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and Molly’s stomach turned over, full of butterflies and a bunch of other stuff she had no name for. Her heart, already ramped up, surged to the next level, making her feel faint, and she pushed past him. I can’t deal with this, she thought. She yanked open the top drawer of her old dresser and rummaged around until she found a T-shirt that had probably been folded and hidden since she’d first come back from college.
“I need to change,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. His devastating smile was still there. So were the butterflies.
“We need to talk, Molly.”
“I don’t think so, Nate.” She shook her head, but the look on his face told her there would be a talk, so all she had was the power to say when and where. “At least not here and not now.”
He held her gaze longer than he should and, by the time he reached for the door, that damn smile had infiltrated his entire face—and Nathan Jacobs’s smile could literally stop a bus. Which, in fact, happened once, but that was a story she didn’t want to think about right now either, because she didn’t have time for a trip down memory lane.
“This talk is going to happen, Moll. But don’t worry, I’ll find you later.”
And then he was gone.
Molly wasn’t sure how long she stood there staring at the door like an idiot, but it was long enough for her calf to cramp. With a groan, she ripped off her shirt and pulled on the black T-shirt, which was too tight across the bust, but there was nothing else for her to wear. She was about to head outside when her phone buzzed. She retrieved it from her back pocket and quickly scrolled through several hasty messages from Jade Davenport, who was on call for the animal shelter. Someone had reported that a dog had been dumped down near old mill, but Jade couldn’t get there to check it out because her youngest child had a fever and her husband was at work.
Molly called Jade to let her know she’d run down to the mill and see what was up. She was still on the phone when she yanked open the bedroom door, only to find Nate leaning against the wall as if he were waiting in line for popcorn.
“I thought you left. Have you been standing there the whole time?” she blurted.
“Excuse me?” Jade asked.
“Sorry,” Molly replied, eyes on Nate. “Don’t worry about anything. I’ll go, and please forward any more calls to the shelter directly to me.”
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“I have to go to the dam. Can you let my parents know?” She pocketed the cell and moved past Nate. “Why are you following me?” she asked, a little confused to find him two steps behind her instead of moving toward the patio doors off the kitchen that would take him to the backyard.
/> “I’ll come with you.”
“No.” She couldn’t think straight with him in her space right now, and she needed to focus.
“You might need help.”
“No, I…” She thought about it and realized she could use an extra pair of hands, depending on the situation. Molly looked him straight in the eye. “Fine. But we’re not talking about what just happened in there.”
“We don’t need to talk.”
“I mean it, Nate.” She headed out the front door and got into her truck. Before they left, she sent a quick text message to her brother explaining where she was going, and then she drove to the shelter for her kit. By the time they reached the dam, her nerves were jangling, but Nate kept his word and remained silent.
She grabbed her bag and instructed Nate to search the west side of the dam while she did the east. There was thick brush on either side that tumbled down to the river, and the dog, if it was still there, was most likely hidden. She’d been searching for a good twenty minutes or so when her cell buzzed with a message from Nate.
He’d found the dog.
