Walk On The Wild Side Read online

  “How are—”

  “You look—”

  They both stopped, and Dory gave her a sad smile. “I was going to say you look like you’re doing well.” “I’m doing okay,” Molly said, returning Dory’s smile with a faint one of her own. “Ellie’s wedding was yesterday, so I’ve been busy with that.”

  “Of course. Be sure to congratulate her for us.”

  “I will.”

  The conversation stalled again. The urge to ask about Josh and his new bride bubbled up in her chest, the curiosity threatening to overwhelm her. But she didn’t know how to ask without looking needy and pathetic. So she settled for, “How’s Bob doing since Josh left?” Josh’s dad, Bob, ran a successful insurance sales business. Josh had worked for him summers during high school and college and joined full time after he and Molly graduated from Montana State. In recent years, Bob had given Josh more and more responsibility, his thoughts turned towards early retirement as Josh took over the business.

  Dory pursed her lips, the closest she ever came to looking irritated. “It’s been adjustment, for sure, and he’s looking to bring in a younger partner who can eventually take over. But he’s having to work a lot of extra hours in the meantime, making sure Josh’s clients get the attention they need.” She gave a little shrug. “And of course, he’s disappointed, too. It never occurred to us that Josh wouldn’t take over, that he’d up and move to Texas.”

  Molly forced a smile past the bitter taste in her mouth. “It never occurred to any of us.”

  Dory’s eyes suddenly filled with tears. “Oh, Molly.”

  Before she could obey her brain’s urgent command to flee before she started crying right there in the fancy cheese section, Molly was yanked into Dory’s embrace. Dory’s arms were wrapped so tight around her there was no chance of escape, and there was nothing to be done but return the fierce hug.

  Molly gave herself up to it, to the familiar feel of Dory’s slightly plump arms around her, the scent of laundry soap and Shalimar perfume that always clung to her.

  By the time they drew apart both of them were sniffling and wiping their eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” Dory said as she dug through her purse. She pulled out a tissue, handed it to Molly and extracted another one for herself. “I should have kept in better touch, after…” she trailed off.

  Molly blew her nose, shaking her head as she did so. “I should have too.” In the days after Josh dropped the bomb, both Dory and Bob had called a handful of times. Seeing their number on the caller ID, Molly had let it go to voicemail. Eventually she’d returned the calls and left messages of her own, reassuring them that she was doing okay, but ignoring their requests to get together in person.

  As much as she loved them, it felt too pathetic to cling to the parents of a man who had dumped her. And Molly was already feeling pathetic enough.

  “We’ve really missed you, Bob and I,” Dory said, shaking her head sadly. “You were together for so long, we came to think of you as part of the family, the daughter we never had.”

  Molly swallowed hard and nodded, afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak it would come out as a sob. She knew exactly how Dory felt. For her entire adult life, she’d imagined this woman as grandmother to her children, imagined Bob, along with Josh, teaching them to hunt and fish and do all the manly stuff she’d never done with her father.

  Not that she’d really ever wanted to shoot a live animal, and she’d managed to get over her squeamishness enough on her own to bait a fish hook.

  But the point was, she’d looked forward to her future kids having not just a dad but a really cool grandpa around.

  “I should go on the internet and see if Emily Post has any guidelines for what to do when your son is stupid enough to let go of the best girl he’s ever going to meet.”

  Molly smiled faintly. “I don’t know if I’d go that far.”

  Dory put her hand on Molly’s shoulder, blinking hard. “My mother’s china is still yours if you want it,” she said with a faint smile. “Shayna would never appreciate it. Josh sent me pictures of their house, and it’s all metal furniture and white rugs. Oh,” she paused, “I suppose it’s insensitive for me to be telling you about their house.”

  “It’s fine,” Molly said, even as the thought of Josh settling down, furnishing a house with the other woman, sent a stabbing sensation through her chest.

  All those years. All of her dreams. And he’d been able to walk away so easily.

  She gave herself a mental shake. Now was not the time to have another breakdown. Not when she’d done such a good job of pulling herself back together in the last few weeks.

  “You know, of course, you can come to us if you need anything. We still care about you deeply, regardless of Josh’s decision.”

  “That means a lot,” Molly said as she gave Dory a final hug, knowing that she would never accept the china, and unless she was buying an insurance policy, she wasn’t going to call. “I better get going,” she said as she pulled away. “I was supposed to be at Damon and Ellie’s ten minutes ago.”

  “Please tell them congratulations from me and tell your mother hello.”

  “Of course.” Molly left Dory to her shopping and paid for her cheese. She got in the car, struggling to push the wave of sadness down to her toes. The last thing she needed was to show up at the barbecue all puffy eyed and sniffling.

  She cranked the music and put her mind to happy thoughts, like the fact that Brady would no doubt be at Damon’s.

  But she didn’t see his truck parked out front when she pulled up to Damon’s house.

  She felt like the faint glimmer of light in this evening had just been snuffed out.

  Oh no, you are not going to do that. You are not going to let your happiness rise and fall based on a man. Not with him, not with any man ever again. But especially not with Brady.

  Shoving away her disappointment, she did a quick check in the rearview to fix her lipstick and practice a smile with lips that were still a little shaky and eyes that still burned a little. Satisfied she looked normal she retrieved her pan of mac and cheese from the back and headed up the walkway.

  She walked in without knocking. Everyone was gathered in the family room and Molly saw quickly that besides Brady, she was the last to arrive. “Hi!” She smiled at everyone in turn,

  “There you are,” Adele said, looking relieved. “I was getting worried something had happened.” She gave Molly a quick buss on the cheek and took her purse from her.

  “I’m not that late,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Sadie said, “but you’re never late at all.”

  “And with everything going on lately…” Adele’s voice trailed off.

  “What, you think I’m going to drive into the Yellowstone River or something?”

  “More like that you’re home alone crying into a puddle of ice cream,” Ellie said wryly.

  Molly rolled her eyes. “Thanks for your resounding faith in my mental health. I had to go to the store and pick up more cheese for my dish.” She lifted the pan a little to emphasize. “I need to finish putting it together.” She walked across the family room into the adjoining kitchen.

  Ellie and Sadie followed her. Molly set the pan on the counter.

  “Something happened,” Ellie said matter-of-factly.

  “Where’s the cheese grater?” Molly said, rummaging through the drawers as she tried to push away the tight feeling in her chest.

  “Molly,” she said in a warning tone.

  “Ah, here it is” Molly said as she pulled out the pyramid grater and set it next to the cheese. “Are you using the oven? Because this needs to go in for about twenty minutes.”

  The doorbell rang. “Don’t you need to get that?” Molly asked.Ellie shrugged, “It’s just Brady. I don’t even know why he bothers.”

  Molly ignored the little waggle of Sadie’s eyebrows, along with the corresponding leap in her chest.

  “I can tell by the look on your face something ha
ppened,” Ellie persisted.

  “What look?” Molly unwrapped her cheese and started grating.

  “That weird frozen look you get when you’re sad or upset but you don’t want anyone to know.”

  Molly paused in her grating. “I do not look weird and frozen.” She turned to Sadie. “Do I look weird and frozen?”

  Sadie grimaced. “Kind of.”

  “It’s the same look you had my first month at the restaurant, until you decided to stop pretending to like me.”

  The familiar rumble sent a rush of heat through her, and for the first time since she’d run into Dory she felt like the evening might be looking up.

  “It’s like a frozen doll smile.” Brady reached out and tugged at a lock of her hair. She swatted his hand away and tried to muster up a glare for show. He put the grocery bag he’d brought on the counter as Molly finished grating her cheese.

  “Is that the meat?” Ellie said eagerly. “Did you do the marinade?”

  “You think I’m dumb enough to ignore the request of the hungriest pregnant woman this side of the Mississippi?”

  “Smart man,” Ellie chuckled. “Ooh, what’s that?” Her eyes lit up as Molly pulled the foil back from her dish and began sprinkling on the last layer of cheese.

  “Butternut squash mac n’ cheese,” Molly said with no small amount of pride.

  “Look at you getting all creative,” Brady said as he took several zip top bags full of marinating steak out and set them on the counter. “Looks delicious.”

  Molly shrugged, hoping no one noticed her cheeks heating with pleasure at the small praise. “We had extra squash from the farm and I found the recipe online.”

  “That does not look like the stuff from the box,” Sadie said and licked her lips.

  “Oh my God that’s a lot of cheese,” Ellie practically moaned. Then she shook her head as if pulling herself out of a trance. “You are not going to distract me with food. Tell me what’s bugging you.”

  Molly sighed, recognizing that her sister would hammer on her until she broke. “I ran into Dory Patton at the IGA.”

  “She wasn’t rude to you, was she?” Sadie asked in a tone that said she was going to go key Dory’s car if the answer was yes.

  “Of course not,” Molly slid her dish into the oven and set the timer for twenty minutes. “When has Dory Patton ever been rude? But it was weird, you know? I went from seeing them several times a week, going to every family function to practically no contact. And I miss them.”

  Sadie poured her a glass of red wine which she gratefully accepted.

  “You were close to his folks?” Brady asked without looking up from his task of patting the steaks dry before putting them on a platter to prep them for grilling.

  Molly nodded. “Very. They’re awesome people.”

  Brady grunted. “If they’re so awesome how come they raised such a douchebag?”

  Molly gave a little chuckle and sipped her wine. “Josh was their only son, and they always wanted the best for him. Probably to a fault. But they were awesome to me.”

  Ellie nodded. “I remember when Damon and I broke up, I missed Frank and Vivian so much, and I was so worried they hated me. At least that’s not the case with Dory and Bob.”

  “I know, but it sucks. I loved going to their house. Everything was always so normal, so stable.”

  “You make it sound like Adele was some kind of deadbeat,” Brady interjected.

  “No not at all,” Molly replied. “I—we—love Mom.” She angled her head toward Ellie, who was meticulously picking up the scraps of gruyere from the counter and shoving them in her mouth. “Mom is awesome, and she did a great job considering she had to do it all on her own after Dad completely dropped out of the picture.”

  Molly’s father had been in the military, and as a result the family had moved half a dozen times before Molly’s eighth birthday. The moves, along with her father’s long deployments had been hard on everyone, especially their mother. But as hard as it was for her mother to be alone for those long stretches of time, after several years it became even more difficult when her father was home. They took turns picking fight after fight, until Molly and Ellie were convinced that the only way a husband and wife communicated was through veiled insults if not outright shouting.

  Eventually it got so bad that when Adele took them on their annual summer trip to Big Timber to visit her mother, she just decided to stay.

  Her father, who had been gearing up for another deployment, didn’t protest. And eventually he stopped calling or writing letters, or returning their calls once he was back in the states.

  Even though it had been twenty years, Molly’s chest still hurt at the thought of how easy it had been for her father to just let them all go.

  “But when I started dating Josh—and Ellie always had this with Frank and Vivian—it was like I got this glimpse into what a normal family could look like, with a mom and dad who loved each other and never told each other to fuck off over the dinner table.”

  “Aunt Molly! You said a bad word,” Anthony yelled from across the family room.

  “Sorry!” She shot Ellie and apologetic look as Sadie tried to stifle her giggles. “How did he even hear me?”

  Ellie rolled her eyes. “I can yell at the top of my lungs for him to put his shoes away, and he doesn’t even blink. But even a whisper of something he’s not supposed to hear? Suddenly he’s got ears like a bat.” She swiped a slice of red pepper from the salad sitting on the counter.

  “Anyway,” Molly continued, “Mom was awesome. And so was Gran until she died. But being with Josh and hanging out with Bob and Dory was like a way for me to have that kind of two parent picket fence kind of family that I always wanted.”

  “The two parent thing can be overrated,” Brady muttered. Before Molly could ask him to elaborate he gathered up the tray full of meat and said, “I better get these on the grill.”

  As the evening wore on, Molly’s mood lifted considerably, aided by a couple more glasses of wine and the festive mood. And the steamy looks Brady gave her when no one was looking didn’t hurt either.

  She might not have her fiancé (feeling like less of a loss with every second) or his awesome parents (which was likely to sting for a while yet), but she had a great sister and mother and an extended family that included one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actresses.

  Although, she mused as she forked another bite of steak—amazing, as was everything Brady made—right now Jane Bowden was miles away from the A list actress who had been on this year’s cover of People’s 50 most beautiful people issue.

  Right now her trademark blond waves were pulled back in a ponytail and both her green cashmere sweater and her jeans sported smears of cheese sauce and butternut squash, courtesy of her nine-month-old son, Devlin.

  The slightly harried expression on her famously beautiful face was also courtesy of Devlin, who seemed bound and determined to impale his eyeball with a steak knife. He let out a howl as his mother pried the knife from his chubby grip, which earned him a disapproving look from his father.

  “That’s right,” Deck said, “scream at your mama for trying to save your eyesight.”

  “Let me take him,” Deck’s mother pushed back from the table and came to retrieve the baby with outstretched arms.

  Devlin gave her an uncertain look and whimpered a little but settled down when Vivian took him over to the window and pointed out the nearly full moon.

  Ellie started yawning shortly after dessert was served, which everyone took as a clue that they should start clearing out. “No, no, it’s okay,” Ellie said around yawn so wide Molly could see her back molars. Everyone ignored her and started making noise about leaving.

  Molly gathered up the dishes left on the table while Brady and Damon retreated to the kitchen and started damage control.

  “Ugh, if I hadn’t done so much damage last night I’d suggest we go out to the Last Chance for a nightcap,” Sadie said around her own yawn as she fol
lowed Molly into the kitchen carrying a couple of wine glasses. While Sadie rinsed, Molly loaded the dishes and glasses into the dishwasher, then followed as almost everyone migrated toward the front door to say their goodbyes.

  Her phone chirped in her pocket, signaling an incoming text.

  My house. Thirty minutes.

  Her gaze involuntarily darted across to the kitchen where Brady was chatting with Damon as he helped pack the leftovers into Tupperware and store them in the refrigerator.

  She quickly texted back, “OK,” and watched him slide his own phone out of his back pocket. He read her reply without so much as a flicker of an eyelid, but she didn’t miss the way his lips pulled up in a faint half smile.

  “I’m so bummed we didn’t get to hang out more,” Sadie said beside her as she shrugged into her jacket. “One on one, I mean.”

  “Me too,” Molly said, her stomach pinching as she and Sadie exchanged a long, fierce hug. With all of the wedding festivities there hadn’t been time to so much as share a cup of coffee and really catch up. Since Sadie had moved back to San Francisco, they’d kept in touch with frequent texts and near daily phone calls, but it wasn't the same.

  Sadie bent her head so she could whisper in Molly’s ear. “And you know you need to call me this week and give me a full report.”

  Molly laughed and pulled away, forcing her gaze not to wander in his direction. “I don’t know that there will be much more to tell. We’re trying to keep things pretty straightforward.”

  “I know,” Sadie said, her smile fading a little. “But I know how quickly things can veer off track, no matter how straightforward you may try to keep them. Make sure you take care of yourself, OK?”

  Molly rolled her eyes. “This from the woman who just last night told me to go for it?” she whispered.

  Sadie shrugged. “I’m not saying it wasn’t a good idea. I just want to be sure you still know what you’re getting into.”

  Sadie’s words rang in her head as she pulled up to Brady’s place thirty minutes later. It was on the outskirts of town, across the bridge on the other side of the river.

  He’d bought the beautiful piece of land with its unobstructed view of the mountains shortly after he’d moved here last winter. The dwelling was a modest prefab, a quick and cheap solution put in place by the previous owner.