Page 29 of Rufus

After he had told Molly the devastating news that her mother was in London.

* * *

Molly hadn’t been back from her early lunch break for longer than ten minutes, and was once again seated behind the reception desk with Angus lying beside her, when she looked out the window and saw Rufus parking his SUV in front of the building.

Tears instantly stung her eyes, and she quickly blinked them away to instead put a politely questioning expression on her face as she looked toward the door. She couldn’t, she simply dare not, show an ounce of weakness to the man she had no doubt she was in love with, but whom she now knew she had to push out of her life.

Last night had been the most wonderful of Molly’s life. Rufus had been so focused on her and her pleasure, and she had never felt so wanted and cared for. Maybe even loved, just a little?

However little or big the emotion Rufus felt toward her, it was destined to die a tragic death the instant he knew the truth about her.

The conversation with her mother, after Molly took that early lunch so they could go up to her apartment and talk privately, certainly hadn’t been a joyful reunion between mother and daughter. Instead, it had consisted of threats on her mother’s side, and reluctant acceptance of the validity of the outcome of those threats on Molly’s.

That conversation was the reason Molly now knew she had to bring forward her plans to leave London. The sooner, the better, like as soon as she had locked up the shelter later this evening.

She also believed she should deliberately distance herself from Rufus in the letter she was going to leave for him and Mia. And in such a way she made sure he no longer wished to see her again, let alone make any effort to come looking for her.

It was the only acceptable outcome for both of them.

Even if it was the most heartbreaking for Molly.

She’d always known she would have to leave, but after her mother’s visit, she had no other choice but to accept her time here was at an end.

The moment she saw the wariness in Rufus’s expression as he entered the building, she knew that perhaps he had guessed at some of what she was going to say. Even if he didn’t know the real reason she was going to say it.

Her emotions felt far too fragile to deal with this situation face-to-face.

But, it seemed, with Rufus’s arrival, she had no choice but to do exactly that.

Angus, the traitor, immediately went to Rufus’s side to be stroked and petted.

Molly wished she could do the same!

Instead, she forced herself to chuckle as she rose to her feet. “He definitely wants to be your dog,” she said affectionately. “Don’t look so worried, Rufus,” she mocked when she saw his expression was still guarded. “This isn’t the Regency era, and I don’t have any family to insist you have to marry me because they think you’ve compromised my innocence.”

He looked startled for a moment before that puzzlement was quickly replaced by a frown. “You didn’t call me when you woke up.”

Molly forced herself not to look surprised by the accusation in his tone. “I’m sure you had more important things to do this morning than talk to me. Just as I did,” she added firmly when he would have spoken. “The shelter doesn’t open itself, you know, and we’re especially busy with Mia not being here.”

Rufus studied her for several long seconds from between narrowed lids before slowly nodding. “I see how it’s going to be.”

“Do you?” she challenged.

“Oh yes,” he confirmed irritably. “Unfortunately for you, I’m not so easily dismissed. Especially when there’s something I urgently need to discuss with you in private,” he added when she would have spoken.

She gave an exasperated snort. “I’ve just given you a way out of any awkwardness between us?—”

“And I heard you, loud and clear,” he rasped.

“Then why don’t you take the hint and leave me alone?” she snapped, inwardly hating herself, but knowing she had no choice. She had to push Rufus away. She had to.

He sighed. “This isn’t about us, Molly.”

“Because there is no us,” she scorned in a hard voice. “I’m going to be leaving here soon, and with that in mind, I now think it best if we don’t start something we can’t finish.”

“A little late for that, isn’t it?”

“Better late than never,” she replied chirpily.

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