Page 56 of Molly
“He said he was held up with something or other, but that he’d be here shortly.” Drew encircled Chloe’s waist in his hands and hauled her up on his shoulders. She squealed, then buried her hands in his hair. He winced but didn’t ask her to change her hold as he pinned her lower legs to his chest. “In the meantime, I’m going to take this princess to get her bounce on.” His knees bent and straightened several times. “There’s a bench over there where you can sit and eat while we jump.”
I followed him to the epicenter of delighted laughter and took another bite of my corn while he wrangled off his and Chloe’s shoes.
I set my food on my lap and reached for Chloe’s wrist. “Let me hold onto your balloon while you jump.” The slip knot widened, and she pulled her hand out. The string settled onto my wrist as Drew winked at me then entered the inflated castle of primary colors with all the other kids. He was no better than a modern-day Peter Pan.
Maybe I should introduce him to—
What in the world?I scooted forward on the bench, and the corn on the cob rolled off my lap and into the dirt. I didn’t spare it a glance.
Is that…I squinted against the afternoon sun, but the man coming toward me wasn’t a mirage. Neither was the towering beast he led behind him.
The corners of my lips twitched as Ben drew closer, and then I couldn’t hold in my laughter as people tripped over themselves when he passed, eyes wide and conversations halting in the middle of sentences. A man leading an honest-to-goodness unicorn in the middle of a crowd tended to have that reaction.
I stood and started walking toward him. “Chloe is going to completely lose it when she sees this.” The white, sparkly horse with rainbow-colored mane and tail and a spiral unicorn horn attached to its head pulled to a stop in front of me when Ben tugged on the lead line. I reached out in awe and ran my hand down its elegant neck, my palm coming back painted with glitter. “She looks remarkably like Princess Sparkle Cupcake.”
“I know.”
The low, husky register of Ben’s voice caused my gaze to find his. My breath hitched. His eyes weren’t laughing. They weren’t dancing with the merriment of his daughter’s expectation at seeing a real-life unicorn. Instead, his pupils dilated as he stared at me. A serious, almost yearning ache etched across his brow, and I could feel an answering tautness extend across my breastbone.
“Don’t go.”
The words were spoken so softly I thought I’d misheard. “What?”
“Don’t go to Japan. Stay here. With me.” He took a step forward and so did the unicorn, the horse’s muzzle grazing my stomach and knocking me off balance. Or was that Ben’s words?
“The unicorn isn’t for Chloe. It’s for you.”
I stroked the horse on his forehead. “You brought me a unicorn?”
“That first day you started working for me and you brought the lunch I’d forgotten to the hospital; do you remember that?”
I nodded but didn’t speak, afraid if I said anything my words would somehow make this dream disappear.
“Drew gave me a hard time about you, and I told him that when Chloe’s stuffed unicorn came to life, that would be about the time I’d be ready to date again.”
Princess Sparkle Cupcake. This horse-turned-unicorn in front of me. Did that mean…
“Molly, I’ve been merely surviving from day-to-day for so long that I’d forgotten what it was like to thrive. To stop worrying about the current threatening to tip my canoe and begin harnessing its power to sail.”
The horse snorted and shook its head.
Ben’s chuckle held a note of chagrin. “Yeah, okay, Cupcake, point taken. Don’t use sailing metaphors when I don’t know the first thing about boats.”
His smile fell, and the earnestness in his gaze returned. He took half a step closer, fully entering my personal space, and raised his hand to cradle my face. The warmth of his palm against my cheek flooded me with an almost painful awareness. My gaze slid to his lips.
“The point is, Molly, that I don’t need a stuffed unicorn to come to life to know that I want to be with you. I’m not going to be passive and wait for destiny to come around when the woman who re-awoke life in me is standing before me right now.” His thumb moved across my cheekbone in a caress. “Please stay and be a part of Chloe’s and my lives.”
My head tilted into his touch. “I was never going anywhere, Ben. A lesson I learned early on as a military brat—home is wherever your loved ones are.” My hand rose to his chest. “My home is right here.”
His eyes flashed, and then his mouth curved into a sensuous smile. “In that case, I’ve done some studying to impress the teacher.” His voice and head both lowered, his face a breath away from my own. My pulse kicked up speed as his nose lightly grazed the side of mine. “Did you know that Polynesians and Malaysians show affection by rubbing their noses together like this?”
I swallowed, my belly dipping to my toes.
His warm exhalations flamed the side of my face as his lips hovered over my cheek. “In Switzerland and other parts of Europe a person must greet the other with three kisses.” The distance closed and his lips pressed against my skin. “One.” His eyes bored into mine as his mouth moved from my right cheek to my left. “Two.” Another kiss. My lips tingled as unspoken communication passed between our gazes, and he moved back to my right cheek. “Three.”
He was torturing me, slowly, one teasing non-kiss at a time.
“And in Papua New Guinea—”
