Brayden, Melissa - How Sweet It Is

As they made their way back to their spot at the bar, Jordan lifted her eyes to the arctic freeze of Molly’s stare. As she met her gaze questioningly, Molly looked away. Okay. What the hell was that about? Molly was allowed to go on any number of dates, but she wasn’t allowed to enjoy herself with a friend without blatant judgment?

Unbelievable.

Summer turned to her. “Wanna get outta here?”

“Definitely. What do you have in mind?”

“We could go for a drive, but given the drinks we’ve had, maybe it’s better if we just walk to my place. Talk about old times or something.” The sultry look in her eyes made it clear the “or something” was the operative part of that sentence. And you know what? Summer was exactly what Jordan needed tonight. Summer was easygoing, fun, and more importantly, wouldn’t view kissing her as a colossal mistake.

“Let me settle up.”

“Bobby, make that two of us.” Molly leaned over the side of the bar adjacent to theirs.

“Date over already?” Jordan asked.

“Something like that.” But Molly was refusing to look at her and that made her all the more heated.

“Something on your mind, Mol?”

She shook her head once, staring at the wall as she waited for her check. Still no eye contact. “Nope. You?”

“No, I’m great. Better than.”

“Clearly.”

“How’s the little bakery?” Summer asked.

That did it.

Molly turned fully and regarded Summer as if she were a teacher dealing with a not so bright student. The patrons who sat between them watched the exchange like a tennis match.

“The little bakery is fine. You should come in sometime.”

“Yeah, I’m more of a Starbucks kind of girl, but thanks.”

Ouch. Even Jordan cringed.

“Somehow I could have guessed that. Tell you what, Bobby. Keep the change. I have an immediate urge for a shift in scenery.” She dropped two tens on the bar and headed for the door where Annaleigh was waiting. Jordan watched her go. To say she looked devastatingly beautiful when angry was an understatement.

*

In a stroke of great timing, Annaleigh’s cab arrived just as they exited the bar. Shaking off the exchange inside, Molly offered her a smile. “So I had fun tonight.”

“Me too.” Then she seemed to hesitate. “And while I’d love to see you again sometime, Molly, it seems like you might already have a lot on your plate.”

Molly stared back at her curiously, until realization flared. “Oh. If this is about Jordan, it’s nothing. Trust me.”

Annaleigh placed a gentle hand on Molly’s forearm. “I don’t want to overstep my bounds here, but it didn’t seem like nothing. Your eyes were trained on her all night like some sort of gravitational pull.”

Molly’s gaze dropped to the concrete. She felt defeated, exposed. “No. It’s not like that. My partner died four years ago. Jordan is her younger sister. It’s…complicated.”

Annaleigh straightened, her eyes wide. “Yeah, I’d say. Tell you what.” She took a small notebook from her bag and scribbled something on a piece of paper. “Here’s my number. Someday, if you figure it all out, call me. In the meantime, maybe have a conversation with her. Or level with yourself.”

Molly stared numbly at the small blue square of paper. “Thanks. I’ll think about it.” With that, the most promising date she’d had in years slid into the waiting cab and sped back out of her life.

And she was reeling.

The door to The Owl Tree opened and the boisterous sounds from the bar spilled onto the sidewalk along with Jordan and Summer. Molly didn’t even try to hide an eye roll this time. She about-faced and headed down the sidewalk in an attempt to get home and put the whole failure of an evening behind her. And getting the hell away from Jordan was step one.

“Molly, wait up.”

Damn it all. No. She kept walking. Pretend you didn’t hear her .

“Are you purposefully ignoring me?”

She paused and turned abruptly to face Jordan who was only a few paces back. “Apparently not with a lot of success. What is it that you need exactly?”

“Insight, I guess. You want to tell me what happened back there?”

Molly lifted her arm and let it drop. Her anger only growing the longer she looked into those vibrant blue eyes. “I crashed and burned with Annaleigh; that’s what happened. Nice job.”

Jordan narrowed her eyes. “This is somehow my fault?”

She felt her blood pressure shoot up at notch. “Oh yeah, I’d say you had a hand in it. Joining us at our table, gathering as much attention for yourself as you possibly could. It’s what you do. Oh, and then there was the little show on the dance floor. That was a nice touch. Totally sophisticated. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

Jordan’s eyes flashed hot. “Believe it or not, Molly, not everything is about you. It’s not a crime to have a little fun. I was just trying to enjoy the night for whatever it was or wasn’t.”

Molly had to laugh at that one. “Exactly my point. You’re such a player, Jordan. You always have been. Why not just admit it? Speaking of which, isn’t Summer waiting for you?” She craned her neck and peered around Jordan, but the sidewalk was empty.

“I told her I would catch up. Wow. You really don’t like her.”

“Please. She’s been out for me for as long as I can remember. The first day I drove the car my dad got me for graduation, she let the air out of my tires at the movie theater. I had to roller skate home. Good thing I had them in my trunk.”

“Roller skates?” Jordan asked quietly.

“Yeah, roller skates,” Molly shot back.

“That’s…horrible.” But there was the tiniest hint of a smile on Jordan’s face.

“Don’t laugh. It was horrible. I even got a blister.” But damn it, she was smiling now too because it sounded so ridiculous played back now. They stared at each other a moment, the tension somehow cut in half.

Jordan then shifted her focus to a nearby tree as if figuring out what she wanted to say next. Finally, she slid Molly a hesitant look. “Can we maybe admit that there’s something clouding the issue here, something between us?”

Molly was quick to answer because it was easy. “No, we can’t. I’ll see you around, Jordan.” She turned to go. And just when she thought she was home free, she wasn’t.

“Molly?”

She blew out a breath. “Yeah?”

“What if there was no Cassie? Would it be different?”

It was a loaded question and the answer had the power to change everything. There was distance between them on the sidewalk, but she met Jordan’s eyes squarely. She looked so effortlessly beautiful that Molly almost forgot the facts. She could drown in Jordan if she let herself. But the trick was not to let herself. Instead, she answered the question as honestly as she could, because she owed Jordan that. “But there is. There was. And I wouldn’t change that.”

She walked on.

When she got home, she slipped into her pajamas, fed Rover, and crawled into bed. But sleep didn’t come easily, which further annoyed her because if there was one thing she excelled at, it was getting a good night’s rest.

So she stared at the pattern the moonlight shed across her ceiling and contemplated her predicament. She couldn’t admit to Jordan that there were feelings circling, but after what happened at the bar, it was maybe time she admit it to herself.

She was attracted to Jordan and it was affecting her in a way she wouldn’t have thought possible. And acting on those feelings would introduce a myriad of complications into her life that she simply didn’t need.

It was a bad idea, plain and simple.

So she’d tolerate the way her mouth went dry when Jordan walked into a room, or the slow roll her heart did when they laughed together. She would ignore the perfect mouth and the body that looked like it was straight out of a movie. And when Jordan tossed her dark hair, she wouldn’t imagine what it would feel like to run her hands through it and pull Jordan’s lips to hers.