Page 81 of A Line in the Sand
Max glanced at Molly, and the sadness in his eyes was palpable. “But we got bad news and let it ruin the entire evening.”
An oversimplified version of the events, but true nonetheless.
“Bingo,” Opal said. Turtle Beach’s favorite word.
Max moved closer and sat on the edge of the hospital bed. “Are you absolutely sure about this, Opal? I don’t want you to feel at all pressured to fund the aquarium. I’ll figure things out.”
Molly tried to not dwell on the fact that he’d just saidIinstead ofwe. After all, she’d tendered her resignation. She was, once again, an unemployed mermaid. At least it had been by choice this time.
Then why do you feel even more crushed than you did when you got fired?
“I’m totally sure. Four million isn’t even half the money in my bank account. It belonged to my mother, who inherited it from her mother, who inherited it fromhermother. My great-great-grandmother was minor royalty.” Opal shrugged. “Same old story.”
Max’s lips twitched into a grin as he snuck a look at Molly. Molly made a mental note to get Opal a tiara for her next birthday.
“Anyway, the money just keeps getting passed around from generation to generation. No one ever spends it. Who am I supposed to leave it to? I don’t have children, and if I did, I’d still want to give it to the aquarium. My goal is to die a broke woman. It’s going to take some work.” She sighed. “Max, if I fail and I’m still a millionaire when I kick the bucket, the aquarium and sea turtle hospital are welcome to whatever is left after I’m gone. It’s already all written up in my last will and testament.”
“Noted.” Max winked at her as he stood up. “But let’s not worry about that for a long, long time, okay?”
“No more heart attacks,” Molly said. “Real, fake, or any other variety.”
“You two are really bossy, you know that? Sheesh.” Opal swung her legs over the side of the bed, prepared to head back to the island now that she’d said her piece. “This whole episode could have been avoided if either of you had paid attention to me all those times I said the aquarium and sea turtle hospital would be okay. You have only yourselves to blame.”
Max’s gaze locked with Molly’s again. And this time, the loss she felt when she looked at him seemed like it might swallow her whole.
What had she done? How had she allowed things to spiral so quickly out of control?
Opal was right. Whether Molly wanted to admit it or not, there was plenty of blame to go around.
Chapter 21
It took Molly two days to muster up the courage to call her parents and tell them everything that happened—two full days of alternating between wallowing on the sofa in front of an entire season of her baking show and trying to keep Ursula from sneaking out onto the deck so she could spy on Max’s house next door.
Molly wasn’t even sure if Max had been out there all those times Ursula had shoved her tiny face into the narrow spaces between the wooden slats of the railing, angling for the best view of her favorite hot professor. She wasn’t about to take any chances, though.
Their discussion with Opal in the emergency room had been the last time Molly had seen him. Max had promised the doctor he’d give Opal a ride back to the island, and once he’d loaded the patient into his Jeep, Molly announced she’d be riding home with Violet, who’d made a beeline up to Wilmington to pick up the other senior citizens and their accompanying mobility devices in her cupcake truck.
Max had clearly been expecting Molly to climb right into the Jeep, even though it would have been a rather tight squeeze. He might have even hoped that Molly would reconsider her resignation and show up for work the next day in her clamshell bustier and fish tail. He’d looked at her as if he’d just lost his best friend when she told him she was staying back to wait for Violet and her Airstream with the pink spinning cupcake on top.
That couldn’t have been right, though. Molly wasnotMax’s best friend, and she definitely wasn’t his girlfriend or whatever she’d thought she might have been on the night of the Under the Sea Ball. Relationships—realrelationships—were built on mutual respect and honesty. Max had all but admitted that encouraging her to start the dog-training program and write the grant proposal herself had been a mistake. He’d never truly believed in her or taken her seriously.
Just like The Tourist, who’d lied to her face for an entire year.
Just like her mom and dad, who couldn’t stop dropping hints for her to go to grad school.
Just like Molly herself, every time she looked in the mirror lately.
The worst part about wallowing was that she couldn’t seem to stop replaying the most painful parts of her confrontation with Max at the Under the Sea Ball in her head. The memories would hit her out of the blue. One minute Molly would be watching a young British college student assemble a Battenberg cake, and the next she’d hear her own voice echoing in her head.
Are you trying to say that you let charm override your good judgment?
The question hadn’t been remotely fair. Max had been joking around about his uncle manipulating him into all those nutty activities at the senior center the first time he’d used that phrase. And then, in the heat of the moment, she’d turned those same words back on him. In a moment of hurt and shame, she’d twisted his silly little comment and tried to make it into something unkind.
But Max had taken that ball and run with it, hadn’t he?
Yes, I guess I am saying that.
“Ugh, no.” Molly clamped her hands over her ears. She couldn’t stand thinking about it for one more minute. She’d rather face the music and fill her parents in on the mess she’d made of her life than keep dwelling on exactly how she’d done it.
