Love in a Small Town (40 page)

Then Molly closed her eyes and gave herself over to the music, the moon, and the man who now held her in his arms. When the music coming from the car stopped, it went on and on inside her.

Tommy Lee whispered in her ear, “I’m runnin’ away, and the only one I have to run to is you, Molly.”

“Then I think you had better come inside.”

They gazed at each other, Molly holding her breath. The cicadas took over for the music, and so did the night birds and the moonlight, all of it wrapping around them. Tommy Lee stepped out, and they walked hand in hand toward the cottage and into it. The moon shone so brightly through the kitchen window that Molly didn’t need to turn on the light.

Tommy Lee pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Pushed her against the sink, held her there with his hard body and kissed her again, hard and demanding.

She took his hand and led the way through the dim cottage. At the bedroom door, Tommy Lee kissed her again, and again in the middle of the almost black room, where he fumbled with the buttons of her dress and she with the buttons of his shirt.

They tumbled across the bed, finding it and each other mostly by feel. She opened her eyes and saw thin moonlight patterns on the wall, thinner moonlight on Tommy Lee’s face. His features were gripped by a desire so fierce that seeing it set Molly on fire.

The sounds of the bed creaking, of their breathing and grasping, drowned out the cicadas. They made love, knowing and giving and taking as only two people can when they know each and every sensitive spot of their bodies. The warm summer breeze blowing soft and silky on her skin, the sheet rubbing cool and smooth on her back, and Tommy Lee pounding hot and hard between her legs, taking her right up there to the moon and beyond.

* * * *

Clean out of breath, Tommy Lee rolled to his back and pulled Molly tight against him, felt her sweat slipping with his and her scent filling his nostrils. He breathed deeply, listened to his heartbeat try to slow back down. The pillow was heaven behind his head, and he held heaven in his arms, and tiny beams of heaven pierced the window screen and sprinkled over their bodies.

Although he would never have given voice to any of those thoughts, he did think they were quite poetic. He thought he was maturing into a very deep thinker and that such thinking seemed to take hold of him at particular times. Molly stretched against him and gave a tremendous sigh of contentment that echoed all the way through him.

“Amen,” he whispered, light enough that she couldn’t hear.

The next instant he thought he heard another sigh out of the darkness. He lay very still, thinking that there couldn’t possibly be anyone else in the room. Peering into the darkness, he saw the faint, tiny patterns of moonlight on the walls. Then, for a heart-stopping instant, he thought he saw the old woman’s face there on the wallpaper. .. and
another.
. . And it seemed the faces
smiled.
He blinked, and they were gone.

He stared at the walls, and then he ran his gaze around the room.

Suddenly music came floating through the window. This startled Tommy Lee, taken as he was by seeing things appear and disappear on the wallpaper. It took him a few seconds to realize the music had been started again out in the Corvette.

Molly giggled into his neck and murmured, “Mama or Rennie is bein’ helpful.”

Embarrassment sliced through Tommy Lee when he thought of his mother-in-law knowing what he was doing, but Molly sliding halfway atop him and kissing him and putting her hands all over him pretty much pushed coherent thought aside.

She said huskily, “Oh, Lordy, that music turns me on.”

She was all the way atop him now, and he began to have fearful doubts about his capabilities. “Ah . . . Molly . . ."

Her kiss stopped his words. A few moments later he discovered to his amazement that he could after all, and he did it until Molly lay limp beside him and was crying and saying, “I love you, Tommy Lee. . . ."

“I love you, Molly.” The words came thickly. He’d very rarely said them aloud, but he felt very good for doing so now. “I do, Molly.”

With that she cried a little more.

Afterward, as they lay tangled and drifting into sleep, Tommy Lee again heard that strange satisfied sigh from around them. He was certain he heard it. It was as if the
cottage
sighed. It occurred to him that, sounds or no sounds, he no longer felt like something was going to fly across the room and hit him. He felt something of a conqueror. He had a strange but profound feeling that he had done a lot more than he realized.

Chapter 28

Heaven in My Woman's Eyes

When Molly discovered that she had done the amazing thing of waking before Tommy Lee, she carefully slipped out of the bed and into Tommy Lee’s shirt and tiptoed to the kitchen, where she hurriedly put together a breakfast tray. If he awoke before she got it done, like as not, he wasn’t going to stay in bed. In twenty-five years, she had never known him to loll in bed once he’d gotten his eyes open. He might loll in his BarcaLounger or out around a car, but not in bed.

It was a good thing Tommy Lee wasn’t much for having a big breakfast, because all she had was toast and coffee, but she thought it looked very pretty on the old wooden breakfast tray. She set the tray beside the bed on the vanity stool. When she went to slip back into bed, she found Ace had come and stolen her place, so she moved him to the foot.

Once more stretched out beside him, she lay there and let herself gaze at Tommy Lee. She took note of his face in repose, how even in sleep his strength was apparent. He had a light stubble of a beard; he never had had a thick growth, and she was just as glad. He slept on his stomach, and the tanned skin of his back and shoulders glowed in the early morning sunlight.

A flood of love washed over Molly, making her heart feel as if it swelled to take up her entire chest. It struck her that she could recall the sweet feeling from long ago. She thought that maybe by giving thanks for it and taking careful note of it, she could hold on to the feeling.

She watched through blurred vision as Tommy Lee started digging his feet in the sheet as he came awake. Then he opened his eyes and looked at her. He smiled and reached for her, pulled her over to him and held her for about five seconds before he started stretching and sitting up and saying he smelled coffee.

“I’ve missed your coffee, Molly,” Tommy Lee said, holding the cup appreciatively.

“Is that all?” She gave him a saucy look and took a bite of toast.

“Don’t go fishin’ for compliments.”

“Why not?” She had never felt quite so bold.

Tommy Lee just smiled. Then he looked around the room. “Is this place always this bright?”

She looked, too. “In the early mornings, before the sun gets up over the trees, I guess it is.”

The expression on his face made her look around for something she may have missed. The room did seem different, although she couldn’t see how.

She got up to adjust the blinds, saying, “The breeze is up. I guess that kind of makes the room feel more open . . . takes away the old scent.”

The room seemed to feel lighter, and Molly realized that she felt lighter, too. As if a weight of sadness had been lifted from her heart. She didn’t feel the need to think about tomorrow or even that night. She was too caught up in enjoying this time with Tommy Lee, eating breakfast in bed, smiling at him and sharing silent secrets of what was between them.

Tommy Lee had never been one to linger in bed, though, and no sooner had he finished his coffee than he was ready to be up and taking a shower. Molly sat and watched him pad naked out of the room. She sat and listened to the water running in the bathroom sink. She felt a sad fluttering in her chest that she tried to ignore but that kept growing.

“I forgot my shavin’ kit in the car,” Tommy Lee called. “Would you get it, Molly?”

She padded out in bare feet and Tommy Lee’s shirt, got the kit from the car, brought it into the bathroom, and set it on the shelf. Then she stopped, looked at the kit, and quietly opened it. Listening to the shower spray behind her, she pulled out Tommy Lee’s shaver, shaving cream, and aftershave lotion and set them out on the sink for him. From the medicine cabinet, she got her toothbrush and paste, put the paste on the brush, and laid it alongside Tommy Lee’s things.

Then she slipped out of his shirt, let it drop on the floor, and stepped into the shower with him. Tommy Lee’s eyes popped wide, and then he grinned and caught her to him. They kissed with the water running in rivulets over their bodies. They washed each other’s backs and then some. Leaving her to finish washing her hair, Tommy Lee got out, and Molly heard him humming as he shaved. Peering around the shower curtain, she saw he was brushing his teeth, with her toothbrush.

He was in the bedroom, looking for his socks, when she came in wrapped in a towel. Molly threw herself over him and began to pester him. He was surprised, but then he kissed her.

“I do have a job . . . and so do you,” he said when he lifted his head.

“Oh, Tommy Lee, I’m not suggesting we should let our
responsibilities
go—heaven forbid—even for one full day.” She dared to boldly caress his chest and willed away the sad, desperate fluttering in her chest.

“But the world certainly will not come to an end if we spent a few hours, or even the entire morning in the bed.”

She looked up at him. “I just want time with you, Tommy Lee.”

Immediately she ducked her head, wishing to hide, feeling that she was asking Tommy Lee for intimacy he wasn’t prepared to give—feeling the familiar sickening terror of need of him and that she was about to fall into the empty abyss.

She turned to push away from him, but he grabbed her and held her and forced her to look at him. His eyes were deep blue and intent. Then he kissed her long and hard, and he kissed her again.

“I love you, Molly.”

“Oh, Tommy Lee . . . I don’t want you to feel you have to . . ."

“I don’t feel like I
have
to. I want you, Molly. I just have trouble sometimes lettin’ go of all that I know needs to be done. Maybe that isn’t romantic . . . but that’s me. Don’t pull away from me, Molly.”

The panic in his voice caught her. She gazed at him and saw the earnestness on his face. She reached up and stroked his cheek. He ran his hand up her thigh and over her hip. Together they sank across the bed. Tommy Lee held her gaze and caressed her belly. The intent in his eyes and in his touch took her breath.

Then his eyes twinkled. “Are old married people supposed to do this?” He whispered a lewd suggestion in her ear.

“Oh, Tommy Lee!”

“Well, we’re married.”

Then he was kissing her and she was kissing him, and they were having a wonderful time, when into it all the telephone rang.

“Leave it,” he said.

Thinking her mother or Rennie would get the phone, Molly tried to ignore the incessant ringing and let Tommy Lee’s sweet touch take her away. But. “It could be Savannah.”

“Your mother will get it.”

But the telephone kept ringing, so now it was Molly turning away from Tommy Lee in order to answer the telephone. He gave her an annoyed look, and she wondered if either of them would ever get it right.

She followed the cord to find the phone and answer. Stephen's voice came across the line. “Savannah’s started with contractions.”

Molly and Tommy Lee raced around the room, trying to find clothes.

“Oh, this is your sock.”

“Give me my shirt.”

“It’s in the bathroom. Tommy Lee, do you see Mama’s car out there? What about Rennie’s?”

“No. Neither one. Why did Stephen call here? Shouldn’t he call the doctor? Did that idiot say they called the doctor?”

“I didn’t ask. I do think they should handle it.”

“You don’t look like you’re lettin’ them handle it.” Then he added under his breath, “Lettin’ them handle things is how they got at our house, and we got over here.”

“Not at all, Tommy Lee, don’t blow it all out of proportion. You always do that. You exaggerate to make things just how you want them.”

“I’m the calm one, remember?”

He did look calm. He looked calm and annoyed at Molly, who kept telling him to hurry up. “I don’t really know why I’m goin’,” he said.

“To drive, Tommy Lee . . . you’ll have to drive.” The entire time they were dressing they were making their way to the Corvette. Molly was slipping on her Keds while Tommy Lee turned the car around. She had the sudden thought that it was a strange howdo-you-do that their daughter had started into labor just as the future grandparents were enjoying sex. She wondered oddly if it showed and looked down at herself.

“Do I look all right?” She brought sunglasses out of her purse.

Tommy Lee cast her a puzzled frown as he shifted and pressed the accelerator. “You look like you just got out of the shower. I have to say that.” He shifted and sent them forward.

“Oh, dear.” She stuck on her sunglasses and hoped they helped.

“What is it?”

“Well, do we look like we’ve just been havin’ sex?” She thought he did. There was a look about him, his hair on end and just a look, until he looked totally shocked at her question.

Then he frowned. “We didn’t get that far.”

Molly’s thoughts had gone on way ahead by then, though, and she told him to forget it and to honk when he passed the Hardee’s, because she was willing to bet that’s where Mama was.

“See . . . there’s her car.” She waved and called, “Come on, Mama,” just as if her mother could hear her.

* * * *

They found Savannah perfectly composed and Stephen only slightly less so. Savannah was so confident that she was in the bathroom, fixing her hair. Yes, Stephen said to Tommy Lee’s terse question, they had called the doctor.

“I’m not a complete idiot,” Stephen stated, as if reading Tommy Lee’s mind.

Savannah said, “My contractions are twelve minutes apart—there’s plenty of time.”

She had a contraction shortly after speaking, stood and held her belly, and breathed to Stephen, who counted. When the contraction passed, she took a deep, confident breath and told them all she was doing just fine. Then she focused Molly and Tommy Lee with a look and said, “Just where were you two last night, and why didn’t you tell us you were leavin’, Daddy?” She was totally pleased with her proper attitude. Tommy Lee blushed and told her not to be smart.