Page 34 of 5 Golden Flings

“Well, why don’t you tell me.” She tried not to snap, she did, but he’d put her on defensive with that smile.

Ben put his arms around her and kissed her briefly. In the middle of the kiss her mom walked into the room. Being a smart woman she just said, “Oh, never mind,” and returned to the kitchen, calling out as she disappeared, “I thought it was for me but apparently not.”

“You danced with her, you smiled, you looked so damnhappy,” Molly said without moving out of Ben’s embrace.

“All true.”

“How can I not think…”

“When I was dancing with Kayla the truth hit me. That’s why I smiled. I was so relieved. I swear, it was as if the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders.” He moved in even closer, placed the tip of his nose against hers. “You’re not a substitution for my ex, she was a pale substitution foryou. I never saw it, not until that moment. It’s you, Molly. It’s always been you. I’ve been in love with you since I was twelve years old. That sounds weird.”

“It does,” she agreed with a smile.

“Maybe we should keep that to ourselves.”

“Sure.”

All those times she’d believed she’d found love, only to have it evaporate, had she been looking for Ben? Waiting for him to come back into her life?

“I bolted from the wedding four days ago. What took you so long?”

“I had to go see my Granny.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a worn velvet box. Inside sat an old fashioned diamond ring in yellow gold. It was beautiful. “It never occurred to me to give this ring to anyone else. It was always meant for you. I love you.”

She took his face in her hands and kissed him, deeply this time, completely and with her whole heart. It was too fast, but, “I love you, too.”

He slipped the ring on her finger.

She held Ben’s hand and led him into the living room. “Now comes the hard part. We have to explain this to my parents. Oh, what about yours? They’ll be shocked.”

“No, they won’t. I told them where I was headed and that I wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Don’t be a stalker,” she teased. “I’ll have to start calling you Rosie.”

He stopped in his tracks, there by the tree. She tugged, trying to lead him into the kitchen, but he was an immovable object.

“Cold feet already?” She looked back at him. Unsmiling, he stared at the tree. Not just at the tree, at her half-heart. Did he actually pale a little? “Are you okay?”

“Wait right here,” he said, releasing her hand and bolting for the front door.

Not a good sign. Was he having second thoughts already? That thought came and went quickly. No. No second thoughts,no running away. This was the real love she’d been dreaming of and searching for. No cold feet allowed.

Ben was back a minute later, a white box Molly recognized too well in his hand. “This has been in my glove compartment for more than two weeks. I kept meaning to do something with it, but then I’d forget it was there.” He opened the box and gently lifted the other half of her ornament. A half-heart with blue and green swirls that seemed to come even more alive as he placed it on the tree next to hers.

“A older hippie woman in an Airstream, brightly colored clothes, white hair…” Molly began.

“She was dressed all in white when I met her, but yeah. Otherwise that sounds right. Ms. Tinsel. The Tinsel Trailer.”

“I thought it was a taco truck,” Molly said, and then she laughed a little, thinking about that unexpected detour and the way she’d misread the sign.

Ben didn’t laugh. “She told me the rest of my life was in the hands of the woman who possessed the other half of this heart, that if I found and claimed her I’d be the luckiest man on the planet. I thought it was a sales pitch but she was nice and I figured she needed the money if she was hawking Christmas ornaments in a gas station parking lot.”

She could see it in her mind. Ben stopping at her gas station, or another one somewhere else along the road. Ms. Tinsel, waiting. Waiting for Ben just as she’d waited for her.

“This isn’t happening too fast,” Molly said. “We’re actually a little tardy.”

Ben put his arm around her, and together they watched the two sides of the heart swirl and dance until all movement stopped. The halves hung perfectly aligned, side by side and yet still one.

“Remember how you told me there was no Santa?” Ben whispered.

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