Page 84 of Molly's Mr. Wrong
“Now I’m blind.”
“So I can take you where I want you to go.” He brought his hands up to push her silky hair back over her shoulders. “Will you come?”
“Loaded question,” she said softly.
He took her face in his hands, held it as he kissed her, waited for her to make her decision. It took only a matter of seconds for her to answer his question, pull him closer, deepen the kiss. She wanted him. Didn’t trust him, or maybe didn’t trust herself, but wanted him all the same.
He swung her up in his arms, and still her lips clung to his. She wrapped her arms around his neck, hanging on as he carried her down the hall to his room.
“A real bed?” she murmured. “Uptown.”
“I’ll show you uptown.” He nudged the door open with his toe and then kicked it shut behind them.
* * *
AFTERMOLLYLEFT, Finn pulled a beer out of the fridge and settled on his sofa. He didn’t bother with the lights or the television. He needed the quiet and didn’t mind the darkness.
He was a D student.
An honest to goodness D student...unless Molly had been amping up his grades even more than she let on.
Why would she do that? To encourage him? Because she liked him? Because she felt sorry for him.
The last thought made his stomach twist a little, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Women like Molly didn’t sleep with guys they felt sorry for. So was he going to become a teacher with Ds in English? He probably wouldn’t be the first.
But what if he couldn’t handle the other English classes he needed for his degree? What if, as a teacher, he had to write long reports and evaluate...things? Like student writing? Molly had told him that writing was becoming more and more important in all aspects of education. His weak point was the new buzzword.
Finn took a long pull on the beer. Did he want a career that made him feel inadequate? Wasn’t that why he was trying to get out of the feed store? So that his specialty in life wasn’t lifting grain?
At least if he fabricated metal, he’d have a specialization, a name for what he did. There was nothing wrong with owning a business. It was damned tough work, but a person was either wired for business or he wasn’t. Finn wasn’t. He wanted to work with his hands and he wanted to pass those skills along.
It now appeared that he needed to get real and accept that he’d be working with his hands only. He needed to shift his goal and move forward with Plan B. It wasn’t as prestigious in his mind as Plan A—Finn Culver, teacher, but it was still a career he could be proud of. He could hone his skills, take a couple fabrication classes or maybe finish an entire course, since his skills were for the most part self-taught. He was good, but there were still things to know.
He brought the beer can up to his forehead, pressing the cold aluminum against his skin. There was no shame in shifting and adjusting goals. His real goal, as he saw it, was to do something he felt good about while at the same time becoming the kind of dependable nine-to-five guy that Molly was looking for. He could fit into her Mr. Right mold...and as crazy as it was after only a matter of months, that was exactly what he wanted to do.
* * *
“WHYDOEGGSnever peel right when you need them to?” Georgina asked as she picked off tiny bits of shell, trying to make deviled eggs for Mike’s barbecue.
“Something to do with a guy named Murphy and his law,” Molly murmured. She was half looking forward to the barbecue and half dreading it. Allie would be there, with her husband-to-be, whom Molly knew of but had never met, as would Jolie and Dylan and Elaine. A nice group of people. A nice reason to relax and enjoy one of the last pretty fall weekends before winter set in, but she still felt unsettled about it.
She’d obliterated Finn’s name on several examples of his work—the least differentiated. She’d included his final essay, which was short, but not bad. His latest research paper. Again, short but not bad.
But she had been generous on the grades, to make up for the way she’d treated him before. That wasn’t what she was supposed to do, but she’d discovered during her first years of teaching that encouragement and praise worked better than punitive measures for students who were willing to work to improve themselves. And damn it, Finn was trying.
He might also have sunk her.
She wasn’t going to allow her thoughts to go that way. Not today.
“What time is Chase coming by?”
Georgina looked up from the eggs. “He’s not coming. He has some family issues. One of his little brothers got into trouble and he’s dealing with it.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Underage drinking.”
“Ah.” Molly sat down to help peel eggs. “Where’s the mother?”
