Chapter 67: No End in Sight

Mollie

“Have you ever seen a jukebox?” I asked, sitting beside my hunky cowboy on my new bench at the very top of my farm hill in Wears Valley, Tennessee.

From up here, I could see almost everyone. Lanna and Denny were walking along the riverbank with fishing rods. Eliza and Charlie stood near the old wishing well beside Mirabelle’s place. Natalie leaned against a shipment crate, complaining as usual, while Julia stood there stuck listening.

I never realized how much I could see from up here until now. God, this bench was the greatest idea Vaughn ever had. Other than kissing me for the first time, of course.

“Uh,” he said, “you mean like a record player?”

I snickered. “Seriously, how old are you again?”

“If it plays music, it’s a record player.”

“No,” I corrected. “If it takes records, it’s a record player. This hooks up to music online and plays from there.”

He smirked. “So it’s basically a fancy computer.”

“It’s a jukebox.”

“Whatever,” he chuckled. “Why are you talking about jukeboxes anyway? You finally gonna sing for me or something?”

I looked down at the dirt beneath my boots and scuffed it, carving little trenches. “No,” I mumbled.

“I don’t see why not,” he said. “I know just about everything else about you. Might as well belt one out for me.”

He didn’t know everything. If he did, he never would have said he loved me last night.

If he knew everything, we wouldn’t even be sitting here. This bench wouldn’t exist. He wouldn’t be here.

I had promised Lanna I would tell Vaughn about Baby, but I decided right then that I wasn’t going to. Not knowing was better. I wasn’t lying. I was just leaving things out.

As for singing, I told Paisley I wouldn’t until I knew what I wanted. Confessing my love didn’t mean I knew if I wanted marriage and kids.

Especially when he didn’t want kids. And I did.

Was that a sign it wouldn’t last?

“I don’t even know if I remember how to sing,” I said, protecting myself. “It’s been a year.”

Vaughn leaned back, relaxed. “You don’t forget something you’re talented at.”

“How do you know I’m talented?”

“I don’t,” he said. “I can just tell.”

My stomach growled. “I’m hungry. Let’s go to the diner.”

“Sure.”

The Diner

We walked hand in hand into town. Well, he walked. I kind of skipped. Vaughn turned me into a love-sick teenager, and I hated how much I liked it.

“Look,” I said, opening the diner door. “There it is.”

“The record player,” he muttered.

I rolled my eyes and flipped through the songs. “Pretty cool, right?”

“It is. Pick one.”

There were too many familiar songs. Songs I had covered. Songs that were overplayed. Songs sung by artists long gone.

“I can’t,” I said.

“Close your eyes and pick.”

I did.

A laid-back rock song filled the diner.

Vaughn leaned against the jukebox, one hand in his pocket, the other tracing the screen. His hat shadowed his face, boots crossed casually.

He looked like he stepped straight out of the wild west. Like the kind of man who could draw a pistol if needed.

I had never noticed how damn cool he was.

“You’re pretty cool,” I said.

“What?”

“I mean… you look cool.”

“What’s cool about me?”

I looked him over. “The boots. The hat.”

“Is that so?”

“And you’re sexier than you are cool.”

He blushed hard. “You’re weird.”

“You don’t think you’re hot?”

“Not really.”

I pushed his hat back so I could see his face. He smirked.

“Well,” he said, “I don’t find you sexy at all.”

My stomach dropped.

Then he tilted my chin up, violet eyes locked on mine.

“Sexy is an understatement,” he whispered. “You’re the most mesmerizing thing I’ve ever seen.”

I flicked his nose hard.

“What the hell?”

“Try that again and I’ll punch you,” I whispered.

“That wasn’t bullshit,” he said. “That’s the second truest thing I’ve ever said.”

“What’s the first?”

“That I love you.”

He hugged me and slapped my ass just hard enough to sting.

I froze.

And somehow, it made him hotter.

Vaughn

I didn’t want to leave.

I watched Mollie’s bare toes scrape against the wooden boards on the dock.

“You’re gonna get splinters,” I said.

She shrugged. “Worth it.”

She was stronger than anyone I knew. Even when she lied to herself, she always pulled through.

I had to tell someone about the orphanage. Gray was right. You can’t pretend that kind of past didn’t happen.

“I see your boat,” she said softly.

“It always comes too fast.”

“The week crawls,” she said. “Then the two days you’re here disappear.”

“I hate it too.”

She thanked me again for the bench. I told her I liked spying on everyone with her.

She held out her hands, scarred and blistered. “I work my ass off.”

It twisted my gut. Hands like hers shouldn’t be that worn.

But that’s why I admired her.

And wanted her.

The boat horn sounded.

I kissed her forehead. “I love you, Mollie.”

“I love you too.”

I walked away even though every part of me screamed not to.

Julia

“I miss Vaughn,” I told Mom at the kitchen table.

“He’s happy,” she said. “That’s what matters.”

“He’s changed,” I said. “Mollie did that.”

Mom looked sad.

“They’re promoting him,” she finally said. “He’ll only be home a couple days a month.”

My heart dropped.

“He won’t have a choice,” she added. “If he says no, he’s fired.”

I felt sick.

Money was Vaughn’s life.

And this would destroy him.

And her.

Mollie

Mirabelle inspected my sheep while I rambled nervously.

“Stop,” she said. “You’re doing everything right.”

She chose Cloud for the festival.

That night, I went to supper at Mirabelle’s.

Pizza. Salad. Awkward smiles.

Mirabelle asked casually, “What if you only saw Vaughn two days a month?”

I couldn’t even breathe.

“I couldn’t handle that,” I admitted. “He’s the one thing that could break me.”

And that’s when I realized how deep this went.

Vaughn wasn’t just part of my life.

He was the thing that could destroy me if he left.

And there was no stopping it now.