“Well, it’s the least you could do. Don’t you think?” He shook his head in disgust and walked back to his favorite table. “Of all things,” he muttered angrily to himself. Twenty minutes later, Mr. Jeffries placed his hat on his head and took off for home, leaving the place customer free. Molly slid into a booth and rested her cheek in her hand.
“You okay, sugar?” Eden wiped down the now vacant table. “You look a little glazed over.”
Molly couldn’t disagree. It’d been a rough twelve hours. She’d played back the night prior with Jordan a hundred times and still had very little understanding of how it could have happened. Those thoughts had kept her tossing and turning until it was time to head into work. Now, in desperation, she decided to seize the opportunity to talk it out. “Could we chat a minute in the kitchen?”
“You bet we can. Louise, sweetie, will you watch the counter for me?”
Louise didn’t even glance up from the Pennysaver. “On it.”
Once safely behind the swinging door, Molly pushed herself up onto the counter and stared hard at Eden. “Have you ever done something that you’d give anything to take back?”
A smile spread across her face. “Oh, I think I’m gonna like this.”
Molly exhaled impatiently. “Shut up and focus. This is hardcore serious. Have you?”
Eden thought for a moment. “Sure, sweetheart. Of course I have. Let’s see. I wish I’d never married Carl, the two-timing idiot from Oklahoma who stole my Chevy in the middle of the night.”
Molly shook her head slowly. “I don’t even know what to say to that. I think your life is a perpetual country music song.”
“Call it whatever you will, but the cops caught up with him in Tuscaloosa and threw his sorry ass in jail. Wonder which one of us is crying now?”
“Again, just further proving my point.”
Eden winked and slid herself up onto the counter across from Molly. “I guess you’re right. Now you. What horrible thing do you regret doing?”
“Okay, but if I tell you this, it cannot leave this room. You have a tendency to share things with the free world, and while I love you anyway, this cannot be one of those things. Do you understand me, Eden Young? Top secret.”
Eden seemed to sober at the serious tone in Molly’s voice. “Of course, darlin’. You have my word. This stays between us.”
Molly stared at the floor. “I kissed Jordan last night. Well, technically she kissed me, but then I made it worse and there was lots more kissing.”
Eden’s eyes were wide when Molly looked up and her mouth fell slowly open. “Well, color me impressed. Little Molly Hot Pants.”
Molly pushed herself off of the counter and moved to Eden in a rush. “No, uh-uh. Don’t say that. There can be no glorification in what happened.”
Eden seemed confused. “So it was bad? The kissing?”
“No, that’s not what we’re talking about. I’m a horrible person. That’s the main idea here. She’s Cassie’s little sister, Eden. A cosmic rule has been broken here. You don’t kiss the sister. Ever.”
“What if the sister is wildly attractive? Is there a clause for that?”
“Irrelevant.”
Eden stared at her, clearly confused. “Let me make sure I understand. It’s not that you don’t like Jordan; it’s that she’s related to Cassie. Did Cassie hate Jordan or something?”
“What? No, of course not. It just feels wrong, what happened. And I don’t know how to fix it. Tell me you know how. I need guidance here.”
“I don’t know that you need to fix it. Little sister is hot and Cassie would want you to be happy. Maybe this little spark is something worth exploring.”
Molly couldn’t believe the lunacy of what she was hearing. “You’re crazy. Absolutely zero chance of that happening. But I can’t avoid her forever and I don’t want to. We have fun together, and things feel, I don’t know, better since she’s been home. A lot.”
“Well, then you’re going to have to be a big girl about this. Face her head on. Talk about what happened and get it out there on the table. Take the bull by the horns.”
Molly nodded, marinating on the advice. “Take the bull by the horns. Got it. I just have to summon my courage and face her. Put everything on the table and get things back to normal.”
“Or put her on the table and—”
“Eden!” Molly shouted, appalled.
The door opened and Louise held a ticket in the air. “Delivery called in for the clinic’s staff meeting. Two dozen bombshell brownies. Damon should be back from the high school drop-off soon.”
“Um, that’s okay.” Molly grabbed the ticket from Louise nonchalantly. “I can deliver this one.”
“That-a-girl,” Eden said. “By the horns.”
She nodded and rolled her shoulders, warrior style.
She could do this. It didn’t have to be that big a deal. She’d seen Days of Our Lives . People kissed all the time. She’d survive this.
*
It took a certain amount of patience to work in the medical profession, and it consistently amazed Jordan how her family was able to do it. That morning alone, they’d treated upward of twenty-five patients with appointments, and another eight walk-ins. And instead of scooping up their prescription and heading out, they all wanted to chat about their week, their son, their wife, or how many football games the high school was on track to win this year.
Not only was it exhausting, it was starting to back up the schedule Jordan was put in charge of monitoring. She’d decided that while she was in town she would help out at the clinic as much as possible, and with a missing receptionist, she saw her opportunity. She could hang at the clinic for a few hours each day. She’d missed her family, and this was a great way to maybe reconnect, make up for the time she’d stayed away. So she was a rather successful producer in the film industry, she wasn’t above answering a few phones for the dueling doctors.
“What’s up, tiger?” Mikey asked, after saying good-bye to his latest patient. He pulled her ear as he passed behind the desk. Her brother practiced at a medical group in Andersville, but devoted two days a week to working in their parents’ clinic. Good thing too, as having a third doctor in-house helped alleviate some of the pressure on their parents. Mikey was a good guy that way.
“Ow. Leave my ears alone.”
“No way. As your brother, it’s my job in life to tug on your ears. What’s up next?” He leaned on the counter as Jordan consulted the computerized appointment book.
“You have Mrs. Fitzsimmons’ sore throat at noon and then the staff meeting after lunch. That’s when I make my crafty getaway. Jackson can take the desk.”
“What? You don’t want to hang out for clinic policies and procedures?”
“Sounds riveting, but I’m a volunteer. This right here”—she gestured to the room around her—“is out of the goodness of my heart.”
“So benevolent.”
Jordan grinned proudly. “Get it while you can.”
The bell above the door rang and they turned. Jordan expected to see yet another patient or maybe Damon with the delivery they’d called in for the staff meeting. But she was wrong.
Molly’s eyes held hers only briefly before fluttering to Mikey. “Hey, you two. What’s with all the standing around? Shouldn’t there be some work getting done around here?” She smiled at them, but it didn’t quite take over her face the way Molly’s smiles usually did.
When Jordan had left Molly’s house the night before, she’d walked the neighborhood, working through the sequence of events. As many times as she’d imagined kissing Molly, the reality of it, of her, had been so much more than she’d ever planned on. She didn’t know what had come over her and caused her to actually act on her impulse, but she did know that as their lips met, all bets seemed off.