Page 22 of 5 Golden Flings

If you searched Molly Blake on the internet you’d get her Facebook page and nothing else. Even then, it was necessary to sift through other Mollys to find her. Beyond social media there was interesting information about other women with the same name as well as a couple of obituaries. Not hers, thank goodness. That was it.

Nothing about her three failed engagements. No posed pictures of her with any of the men she thought she’d loved and then bailed on. She’d only left one of them at the altar. Thank goodness that detail was nowhere to be found on the net. The other two engagements had ended early. For a while the relationships had been so good, so right, and then they weren’t. What was wrong with her? Was she broken?

Every time she believed she was in a forever love it was great, for a while. It felt so right! Then there came a moment when she realized it waswrong. The wrong man. Maybe the wrong Molly.

She heard movement, the scrape of a chair leg, on Ben’s balcony. Leaving her laptop behind she headed that way. He sat in one of the small chairs and looked out at the gulf. For a second, just one or two, the movement of the waves reminded her of her half ornament. She really should just toss the thing. Half a heart. Was that all there was of her, half a heart?

“Okay,” she said as she sat in her own chair, on her own balcony. “I’ll play along but you will not pay me a dime.”

“I’m happy to pay.”

“Consider it a favor for an old friend.”

That’s what they’d been, after all. Friends. She didn’t remember everyone well from those old days, but she had great memories of Nat and a couple of other girls, and she remembered Benjy. Ben. He didn’t look at all like a Benjy, not anymore.

He’d been smart in class, she remembered. He caught on to everything fast, and was never shy about helping those around him who didn’t. He’d been her only close guy friend, but then he’d lived right down the street and their parents had been friends. Well, friendly neighbors. Ben, his parents, and his three brothers had lived three houses down and across the way. There had been backyard cookouts, Halloween parties, and groupgarage sales. Until he’d moved away, Ben had been a part of it all.

Yes, he was a friend. Though back then he hadn’t been six-foot-two and all muscle. “Why can’t you just tell Rosie to go away?”

“She’s Tristan’s sister and he loves her. I don’t want to hurt her feelings or make the wedding weird.”

Molly laughed. “Pretending to be involved with me isn’t weird?”

He had a nice smile. It was real. “It’s not going to be a chore, Molly.” He stood. “Let’s go for a walk on the beach.”

He should ask Molly to convince Natalie that signing a prenup was a good idea. Tristan was so reluctant about protecting himself financially he might not even have asked his bride to take care of this perfectly logical and necessary step.

Love didn’t last. Why not plan for every possible outcome?

Now was not the time to bring it up. Asking Molly to pretend to be his fiancée for the next few days was probably enough of a favor to ask.

Strolling on the beach was more enjoyable than his early morning golf outing had been. He relaxed more with every step. The sound of the waves and the scent of the salt water added to the mix. So did Molly. After all these years, who knew that he’d still feel something when he looked at her?

A breeze caught her hair and made it dance around her face.

“You mentioned staying with your parents for a while. Are they still in the same house?”

“Yeah. They talk about moving now and then, downsizing since they’re empty nesters, but they like where they are soit never happens. I don’t want you to think I’m destitute or anything. I’ve got plenty of savings. I didn’t like my job but it was a good one. Dad insisted that I save. I can’t tell you how many times he told me to put away as much as I could foroldMolly. I just don’t see the need to resettle anywhere until I have a new job. And a plan.” She sighed. “I never plan like I should.”

“I will pay you.”

“I said no. If you mention it again I’ll tell Rosieeverything.”

He couldn’t have that.

“My folks moved back to Huntsville a few years back. Not to the same neighborhood, but when Dad retired that’s where they wanted to be.”

“I had no idea.”

He needed to know… “You never married?” he asked as they stopped to stand before the waves, shoes in hand, and enjoy the view.

“No,” she said. “I came close a time or two. Well, three, actually.”

“What happened?”

She sighed, looked down and stuck her toes deeper into the wet sand. “It just wasn’t right.”

“Did you love them?” The minute the words were out of his mouth he regretted them. The question was too personal, too probing. It wasn’t a question he’d want her to ask him.

---