More Than Memories (13 page)

“I’ll drive if you like,” he offered, still
smiling. She hit the gas as he buckled his seat belt. “Or not.”

She ignored his grin, not wanting to talk about
what had happened, or what they were both thinking about now. Instead he shared
more stories about everyone in Ridge City.

They switched once more and then Molly drove the
last small stretch into Redding because she knew the way. She grew nervous as
she pulled into her driveway, wondering what Trent would think of her home
here.

When he remained sitting after the car died, she
gave him a questioning look and got out. He followed after hesitating and said,
“Kind of bland.”

Molly looked from the house to Trent without
comment.

“Just not like you,” he rephrased.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” she said,
unlocking the trunk and pulling her bag out.

“Hey, Molly!” Justin Atwood’s excited voice called
out as he jogged down his front porch steps. Molly sighed. Trent’s right
eyebrow rose as he eyed her neighbor. Justin was dressed in a bright green tank
top, short spiky blond hair, and running shorts.
He
looked like the type of guy who spe
nt the majority of his time at home
working out while watching himself in the mirror that covered the wall in his
weight room.

Molly noticed Justin slowed his pace the moment he
saw Trent.

“Hi. Justin, this is Trent Williams, from Ridge
City.” Knowing the two men were sizing each other up, she stepped closer to
Trent and slipped her hand into his. She hoped it reassured Trent while giving
Justin the polite ‘take a hike’ she’d been looking for the last few years.
Words hadn’t worked. She told Justin more than once she wasn’t looking for a
romance, that she needed a good friend. She could tell he thought she’d come
around though. Truth was she couldn’t imagine feeling anything for Justin even
if she’d considered dating.

Trent and Justin nodded to each other and Trent
said, “Hey, nice to meet you.”

Justin didn’t respond directly but spoke to Molly.
“Met someone that quick?” Justin’s smile wasn’t so friendly.

“I grew up with him. I grew up in Ridge City it
turns out, and left a lot of friends there. People I didn’t know about till I
got there.”

“Well, that’s great,” Justin said without the tone
or expression to back it up. “It’s what you’ve been looking for. I guess I’ll
let you two be.” He shook Trent’s hand and walked quickly back inside. Molly
almost felt bad, but she’d never led him on.

She felt Trent’s eyes on her as she unlocked the
front door, but he waited until they were inside to speak.

“You described him as an annoying neighbor.”

“You didn’t think he was?” She set her keys on the
table by the door. “I told him countless times I wasn’t going to date. I didn’t
tell him this, but I wouldn’t date him anyway.”

“Annoying, yes, but also built like a body guard.”

She rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you see his hair? And
clothes? He’s looking for a pretty girl for decoration. He’s in love with
himself.” She glanced at the window even though she knew it was shut. “I don’t
want to hurt his feelings, but he wouldn’t take a hint. More than a hint.”

His eyes stayed on her a minute. Deep, serious
eyes. “You spent a lot of time with him?”

“A little. I didn’t have people lining up to be my
friend, you know.”

“So do looks matter to you?”

She gave him a funny look. Didn’t he know how
handsome he was? “It’s not about looks. It’s about the feeling you get around a
person. You gotta have that feeling, at least to start with. Then things build
from there.”

“Attraction?”

She breathed out slowly, feeling like he was
teasing her with that one word. “I don’t think you can help who you’re
attracted to.”

“Are you saying we’ve each got a soul mate?”

“I don’t honestly know.” She didn’t want to leave
it that open. “I like thinking people have someone out there that suits them
perfectly, but I don’t like the idea that we might not be able to find that
person.” She turned away from him before she glanced back at his face. She
wasn’t sure about soul mates, but somehow she’d found her way back to him. Did
they have a chance? She felt unsure about life right now so maybe the big
decisions could wait a few days.

She looked around the house. It felt different now
that she’d learned so much about her old life in Ridge City.

“Glad to be home?” he asked.

Di
d this ever feel like
home to her? It did before she found the life she used to have. Now it felt
empty and like a big lie. She shrugged to his question, averting her eyes. She
thought he still saw the loneliness she felt. She struggled here in this house
after her parents were gone. The solitude, the quiet. Even though Karen had
been there for her, she still had felt alone. She’d been able to forget that
feeling while in Ridge City.

Trent
tried to
look around the house through detective eyes. It didn’t work too well. He just
saw the house where she’d lived without him, not knowing about him or her life.
He didn’t like to think about her here alone. They faced stairs with the
kitchen off to their left and the living room off to their right. A plain beige
couch faced the front window with a coffee table sitting in between. It wasn’t
the furniture that stuck out as strange.

“Sparse.” Trent commented under his breath. “Not
many pictures.”

Molly’s eyebrows creased together as she gave
Trent a quick look, one that said she hadn’t noticed before. “No, I guess not.”

He wanted to, but didn’t, say that seemed odd
since pictures might have helped Molly. Instead he mentally logged that thought
with all the other information he’d gathered about this case.

“I’ll take you up to the guest room.”

Hmm. She did want to take things slow, not that he
wanted to be anything but a gentleman to her. On the way up, Trent said,
“There’s a guest room? Did you ever have a guest?” That’d tell him a lot and
possibly be a lead.

“It’s really an office with a pull out couch,” she
told him.
That sounded like a negative
. They entered the room and he set
his bag down. “I’ll go call Karen and see if she’d like to join us for dinner.
It sounded like you had some questions for her.”

He nodded as she left to return downstairs.

Dialing Karen’s number, she glanced around again.
Boy, he’d visually gone over every detail of the house, and she wondered what
he saw that she’d missed. After talking to Karen, she dialed Alicia’s numb
er. David answered.

“I wanted to let you guys know we made it
alright.” She’d called wanting to talk to Alicia but decided it might help the
tension between them to talk to David.

“Good to hear. I’ll let Alicia know.”

“Thanks…I’m not going to take all of Alicia’s
time, if that’s what you think.”

After a long pause, he said, “Thanks. Bye.”

Well, at least he hadn’t sounded mad. She heard
Trent walk into the room and smiled at feeling so comfortable with him. His
arms encircled her waist and he pulled her against his chest. She let her head
fall back against him. “It’s hard to believe you’re here. In this house. I
never thought I’d have anyone over here that used to know me besides my
parents.”

He rested his head against her temple. She felt so
safe, warm, wanted there. They remained still for the longest time before he
whispered, “Do you want to start digging today?”

Her heart rate picked up before she took a calming
breath. “Anxious to get started?”

“I thought you would be.”

“Not today,” she said. “I want to know, but not
today.”

“When you’re ready.” He spoke softly, soothingly.
“I’m not sure what we’ll find, either.”

Closing her eyes, she relaxed against him and
whispered, “I’m so glad you’re here.”

When the doorbell rang an hour later, Trent
answered since Molly went to freshen up in the bathroom. The early evening air
felt warm and comfortable.

Karen stood outside dressed in her brightly
colored scrubs and tennis shoes, her hair pulled back in a French braid, and
holding bread and salad makings. Her face struck him as serious, not sad or
mean. A
matter of fact kind of woman.

“You must be Trent.”

“I am, come on in. Nice to meet you in person,
Karen.” He took the food from her and offered a hand, giving her a warm welcome.

Molly gave a soft squeal when she saw Karen, then
ran down the rest of the stairs to hug her.

“Here, let’s take all this to the kitchen.” They
chatted while Molly cut up chicken and Karen made the salad, leaving Trent with
nothing to do so he sat down at the table and listened. Although he felt
awkward, he loved watching Molly’s face light up while she smiled and talked
with her friend, telling her about Alicia and the other friends she had re-met.

“So I guess you really grew up there,” Karen
didn’t look convinced. She glanced at Trent.

“I did. They have pictures and stories and
everyone in town knows me.” Molly looked stricken at her friend’s doubt. “Why
would they ...?”

Karen shook her head as if to shake herself out of
something. “Oh, that does make more sense.” She stopped right there, leaving
both Molly and Trent leaning forward and waiting. Seeing their looks, she
explained, “I doubted what I heard before, too, when I first heard it, but you
know how it is when you hear a new version of a story.”

Well, there was no denying that the Andersons had
lied. He puzzled over it until Karen turned to him and asked, “So you’re a
police officer?” This was the first of many questions about his work, family,
lifestyle. He politely answered each, knowing he’d grill other people the same
way if they spent time around Molly, plus he was glad someone here was looking
out for Molly the way he would.

Molly finally had to laugh and cut in. “She’s very
overprotective.”

Karen added, “And rightly so.”

“Well, I don’t mind if you’re thinking about
Molly.” He saw the look Karen shot Molly, one that said
wow, that’s sweet.
Maybe he could win her over. He felt he needed to be on good terms with someone
who’d spent the last four years with Molly, because she could help the investigation
and because she was important to Molly.

When they sat down to eat, he asked Karen what
she’d thought of Molly’s parents. Her answers surprised him.

“Both quiet, worried.” She shook her head, looking
down at her plate for a minute. “I didn’t get close to them, and they never
shared much about their lives. I asked about Molly’s childhood, what happened
before her amnesia, but they couldn’t tell me anything helpful. After a while,
I found myself wishing I’d written down what they’d told me because I thought
some of the details didn’t work out.”

Trent jumped on that. “Like what?”

“They said they moved around while Molly grew up,
but I asked them separately and the dates and places they gave weren’t exactly
the same. That’s why I’m surprised to hear you grew up in Oregon.” Karen
glanced at Molly and added, “I wasn’t sure at the time if I should make a big
deal out of it because people can get confused, especially when they lived in
so many places. I guess now I know why it didn’t make sense.”

Molly looked thoughtful as she chewed. Didn’t it
hurt her to know her parents had hid something? She didn’t comment so he asked
Karen, “You felt they were hiding something all along?”

“They were just vague about things. I sensed that
they didn’t want to share.”

“Hmm,” he murmured, keeping his mouth shut about
his opinion. He’d observed in both his line of work and life that people loved
talking about themselves until they had something to hide. Of course, that
didn’t mean this was something illegal. He held onto the hope that while
something bad must have happened, it wasn’t their fault.

Trent offered his help after the meal, but Molly
sent him out of the kitchen, telling him she could handle it.

“You just want to girl talk without me.” He gave
them a knowing smile and stepped out to write down what he’d learned and his
thoughts.

They watched him pull out his notebook as he left
the room.

“The answers aren’t in there.” Molly said quietly.
“We just don’t have all the pieces.”

“I think your parents had all the pieces.” Karen
knew better than to repeat old arguments, if you could call them that. She just
had a strange feeling about how Molly’s parents never warmed up to anyone in
the community. A couple of loners hiding their daughter. “Think he knows?” she
asked Molly, “that we wanted to talk about how hot he is?”

Molly’s cheeks flushed and Karen gave her a nudge.
“How could you forget a guy like that?” Karen asked as she carried dishes to
the counter.

“I wish I knew. It’s not his looks. It’s how much
he cares about me. How he waited four years, not knowing, but believing he’d
find me or I’d come home.”

“And you did. So are things picking up?”

Molly shrugged, but knew Karen wouldn’t settle for
that. “We’re trying.” She rinsed plates and handed them to Karen.

“Problems?”

“No, it’s just hard. He remembers everything. I
don’t. I want to jump in, maybe even forget about trying to remember
everything, but I don’t know what drove my family out of Ridge City.”

“But how could it have anything to do with him?
You trust him, right?”

“Yes, I do.” She suddenly felt so grateful to have
her friend to talk to in person. “Maybe it’s not directly about him. I have no
idea. A tiny part of me is scared that I’ll find out what happened and it’ll
change things, even if it’s not about him. I might find out something horrible
about myself. I might hurt him all over again. I can tell it broke his heart to
lose me before.”