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“Don’t touch the desserts I made. I thought it would be fun for her kids to be in charge of icing the cupcakes, so that’s all prepared,” Molly tells me, looking excited and I love that she thought of a way to involve the kids. Something I never would have considered.
I lean in to kiss her, feeling slightly guilty when I taste the minty-ness of the toothpaste she used, but enjoying the dance of our tongues too much to stop. Rolling over on top of her, I press mycock against her thigh, and kiss her forehead before I put a foot on the floor to get a move on.
“Sweet dreams, sugar pop,” I say, tapping her red lips with my finger and enjoying the look she gives me.
Molly
I’m all smiles when Royce pulls away from his mom’s house, even knowing that I’ll have my hands full once I get to the bakery in the morning.
While I still have a great relationship with my niece, it’s what Royce has with his mom and sister that I’ve been missing so much. The tightknit bond between them would be obvious to a blind person, and the curiosity his nephews and niece have about him kept me grinning. Especially when Royce eagerly jumped in to help them decorate the cupcakes.
I stayed out of the way, smiling at how Shannon’s husband quietly snapped pictures of them when they were happily making a mess and goofing around.
“We’re keeping you,” Shannon said sometime after we’d devoured way too much pizza. She had come to sit next to me while Royce was playing Jenga with the kids and his mom, intertwining her fingers in mine. “I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen him this happy.”
“I’m not sure that’s because of me, but we’ll see how our second date goes, alright?”
She laughed at my comment before squeezing my hand. “Don’t you let him off easy if he screws up, you hear me?”
“Oh, I won’t,” I assured her, sticking my tongue out at Royce when he caught my eye.
On the way back to Rowansville, we take turns driving; our bodies working on minimum sleep along with the excitement of the visit. We talk in short bursts, but after meeting his family, I feel more bound to him than I would have ordinarily.
I’m driving the final leg of the trip, listening to him softly snoring in the passenger seat and find myself grinning like an idiot, wondering how our second date could possibly be any better than this. As giddy as I am, my old insecurities about how I’d be viewed if word gets around that I’m sleeping with someone like him, rear their ugly head.
But armed with a newfound confidence, I push those thoughts aside and vow that I’ll take each day at a time with him; enjoying our time together without worrying about the future.
*
As agreed, we drive directly to my bakery, and I’m completely surprised to see both Riley’s truck and Gunner’s bike in the alley where I usually park. When I pull up, they both emerge from her truck, and Riley’s swollen lips and red cheeks tell me that we interrupted a hot and heavy make out session.
“Oh, God! What’s wrong?” I ask, not having driven by the front of the building, suddenly terrified that the window had been busted again.
“Nothing!” Riley immediately responds. “The girls got together yesterday and I realized how tired you’d be today, so I thought I could come and help you get things started.”
I can barely believe the kindness of this offer, and I just look between the two of them. As tired as I am, I can’t understand what Gunner’s here for, but I clap my hands together when I realize this means I’ll be in good shape when I open up in a couple of hours.
“You are the best, Riley! Thank you so much,” I answer as Gunner leans down to give her a kiss before getting on his bike. “Um, I can make you guys a coffee before you leave.”
“Another time, I’m going back to bed,” Gunner says before the roar of his bike cuts through the quiet.
Looking down when I feel a tug on my hand, Royce is trying to extract my key chain from my fingers. “I’m going to do the same,” he says, leaning in to give me a thorough kiss.
Our lips and tongue are the only parts of our bodies that are touching, but it’s enough, for now at least. Perfect even.
When we part, he unclips the car fob from my key chain and gives me a wink before he slides into the driver’s seat of my Civic.
“So, how was your date?” Riley asks as I unlock the door.
“Different,” I answer, drawing the word out. Riley seems to understand that I need time to process it and walks directly to the sink to wash her hands without saying anything else.
I dart into the bathroom to do the same and after a few quick instructions to Riley, we work in companionable silence. I’m absolutely dragging today, so her presence is a godsend. Once we get the majority of things ready, we put the first batches in the oven before I go upstairs to shower and change.
Getting back downstairs, Riley has helped herself to a Diet Coke, but has thankfully turned on the coffee maker.
“I’m sorry, I have no idea how to use this thing, so I didn’t want to do anything other than give the water a chance to heat up,” she explains, sheepishly looking at all the buttons on the face of the machine.
“I appreciate that almost as much as I willforeverowe you for being here this morning!” I assure her. “I can take things from here if you need to get to class today.”
