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The next morning, I make her breakfast and since it’s a nice day, we eat it out on the roof deck.
“How hard was it to not think about all the times we boned up here when you first got here a few weeks ago?” I ask and she laughs.
“Not as hard as it was to be in my mom’s shower,” she says and goes a little pink in the cheeks.
My smile is wide and wicked as I think of the good times we had in that shower.
“Thanks for the reminder, perhaps we will have to recreate some memories in there.”
“Unfortunately, it’s one room that has been untouched by renovation. I guess now, it’s fortunate. But before it was slightly torturous.”
She gets up from the table and lays back on a lounger with her coffee. It’s a warm day, but not quite warm enough for a beach day. The breeze is nice here on the deck, but I can tell it’s windy down on the beach because the white caps on the ocean are intense.
“I’m sorry anything we did made you feel you were being tortured,” I say, pulling the other lounger so it’s right up next to hers and sitting on it, taking her hand in mine.
“It’s not what we did, but that I wasn’t sure what to do with the memory. I was sad for a long time, then angry, then I moved on. Now, I’m moving on again but I still have doubts about where my future is headed.”
I squeeze her hand in mine and lift it to my lips for a kiss. “How about you just live in the present for a while?”
She nods. “Steven called yesterday and we are closing on the house next week. One last piece of my connection to him will be severed. I like the idea of just letting that go and enjoying what’s happening now.”
“It’s freeing really. I’ve been trying my best to do it for a good part of a year and I have to believe that my reward is you,” I say and she turns her head to look at me.
“Damn, I forgot how mushy you were.”
“Only for you,” I say staring back at her beautiful face. Mollie is classically beautiful with her dark blue eyes, full lips, and perfect skin but what makes her irresistible is the light that emanates from her. She’s kind, funny, and I can’t begin to understand how her mind works, but it’s endlessly fascinating to me.
“What should we do today?” she asks. “It’s too nice to stay in and work all day.”
“Dirk texted me earlier and invited us to his house later for an early dinner,” I say.
“I’m down for that but it’s hours away,” she points out. “Do you have a bike?”
“I don’t think I have one that is ride ready. I’d have to do some serious tuning.”
She shrugs. “Well, it’s a good thing I got ole Double Dutch tuned and it was delivered yesterday morning.”
My look of horror must be evident because she laughs. “How is that monstrosity not rotting away in some junkyard?”
“How dare you?” she huffs out in mock outrage. “DD will serve many for years to come.”
After we finish our coffee, she gets me to help her get the enormous and heavy tandem bike from my nightmares out of the storage space and into the driveway.
“There’s no way I’m getting on that thing. It’s a total scam. You persuade me to ride and then do none of the work. I may as well just put you in a kid’s seat on the back of a regular bike. At least then, it would be lighter.”
“Just get on,” she demands, pointing at the back seat. “I’ll ride in front if it makes you complain less.”
“No way, that’s even worse. I’m not doing all the work from the back.”
“When did you become such a whiner, Owen?” she teases and hops on the back seat. I grunt and take the front as she flips the kickstand up.
“The minute I feel you slacking, I’m turning this ship around,” I warn and she laughs.
“What happened to living in the moment?” She asks, smiling so wide I can’t help but smile back.
We take off and the breeze feels nice as we coast down our street, then veer left onto Atlantic, one of the roads that run parallel to the beach. The barrier island is long and narrow with only one road that runs from the top to the bottom but down here where the island is a little wider, there are a few roads that run north to south.
I’m pleasantly surprised when I find myself enjoying the ride, and I can feel Mollie actually pedaling instead of coasting and letting me do it all. We ride to the end of the road, choosing to leave the bike at the beach entrance and walk up and over the dunes. The wind has died down some, and it’s quite pleasant on the beach.
