Page 46 of Homecoming Heartbreaker

“How do you know that, Mack?” Travis asked. “It’s been a long time since she was part of your life and you don’t know her anymore.”

Oh, yes, he did. But doubt, insidious and relentless, mocked his loyalty. “It’snotMolly.”

Did his brothers hear the note of hesitation in his voice? Because he sure as hell did.

“I’d like to believe that,” Grey replied, his voice steady. “I’ve always liked Molly but it would be nice to have some proof.”

“What happened to innocent until proven guilty?” Mack demanded. His hesitancy about her integrity would be something he kept to himself.Always.

“It’s a nice concept but this is real life, Mack. If this gets out, and it will, it will become news. Jameson is hugely popular in Asheville and the press loves him. They will go nuts when they discover that there’s another thief at Moonlight Ridge and that the chief suspect is his protégé and the daughter of the man who embezzled from him before. And we all know that bad publicity is the last thing Moonlight Ridge needs.”

Mack looked at Travis. “What do you think, Travis?”

Travis nodded. “I agree with Grey. It’s been a long time and the Molly we knew could be long gone.”

Mack ran a hand over his face, feeling sick to his stomach. They had, dammit to hell and back, a point. If Molly were any other employee at Moonlight Ridge, they’d put that person on a leave of absence until they could get to the bottom of the mess.

It would take a lot of time, effort and knowledge, forensic accounting knowledge, to find some solid proof, and that leave of absence could be weeks or months. If he did that to her, Molly’s reputation would take a hell of a hit. If she was innocent, she’d feel betrayed and mentally eviscerated. And she’d never forgive him...

His rational, business brain—the part of him that looked at the world without emotion—accepted that his brothers had a point. His intuition, his soul, dammit, was screaming at him to trust Molly, to remember what she told him about why she stole from Jameson before, reminding him how gutted and guilty she felt for her actions as a young adult.

Beth could be the thief; after all, it wasn’t a big jump from blackmail to theft. She was bright enough to make it look like Molly was the thief...but then Mack remembered that Beth hadn’t been at Moonlight Ridge that long and the pilfering had been going on for years. Not Beth then. Damn.

Could it be Molly? Was she playing him? She’d taken money before; she could do it again, if the stakes were high enough. Her reasons would be good; it wouldn’t be for her personal gain. Had her brothers got into some sort of debt they couldn’t repay? Was her mom sick? Was she still paying off her student loans...?

No, none of that felt right. Or was he just wanting her to be innocent? Molly was trustworthy, he was sure of it. But what if he was wrong and she wasn’t?

What then?

Molly ran up the back stairs to her office, feeling light and a little lovely on this bright, early-summer morning. She’d heard Mack rolling out of bed, felt his kiss on her cheek, his murmured instruction for her to sleep in. Happy to listen, she’d rolled over and slid into a deep sleep, the best she’d had for months, maybe years.

Mack returned home extremely late last night and she’d woken to his mouth on the ball of her shoulder, his hand between her legs. She’d tried to talk to him but he’d told her to hush and slowly, thoroughly made love to her. Time and time again she fell apart in his arms. No wonder she’d slept like the dead.

There was magic between them and being together made sense.

It always had.

Molly stopped on the landing, placed her hand against the wall, remembering the first time she felt this sense of “rightness.” She’d been eight and Mack reattached the head of her favorite Barbie Grant decapitated in a fit of rage. There were a thousand little moments from then on—him helping her with math, looking down into the front row from the stage to see his eyes on her, the first time they made love—and, hopefully, there would be tens of thousands of those moments in their future.

She was his and he was hers; they’d always each been one half of a whole.

Maybe it was time to stop fighting that...

Mack loved her, of that she was certain. He knew her and, when she confessed her sins, he’d chosen to believe the best of her, not the worst. It would’ve been so easy for him to judge her actions and paint her with the same brush as her dad, but he’d dug deeper, peeling back the surface to discover her motivations.

And maybe, with his understanding and forgiveness, she could, sometime soon, forgive herself and accept that she’d been pushed into a horrible position; a child who’d felt alone and abandoned.

In showing her compassion, Mack taught her to be compassionate to herself.

As soon as Jameson was stronger, she’d have a chat with him, confess her sins and let go of the guilt. She’d hand him a check, plus interest, and he’d, hopefully, be as understanding as Mack. Jameson, burly, big and gruff, had taught his sons tolerance so Molly was hopeful that everything would be okay.

Oh, she had no idea what the future held, how she and Mack would make this work going forward. Or even if they could. In a few short weeks, he’d be back in Nashville, and then he’d be back on the road, whipping around the country to check on his businesses. Molly was under no illusions that they’d have a traditional relationship, or that a white wedding or 2.4 kids were in her future.

She could drive herself crazy trying to figure out the future. The past was behind her, the future was unknown so all she could do was to give this moment, today, her entire attention.

And yes, let’s be honest here, after being thoroughly loved last night, today she was feeling pretty damn fine.

Molly walked into her office, dumped her laptop bag on her desk, grimaced at the folders she saw there and resisted the urge to walk into Mack’s office and try and talk him into playing hooky with her today. They could hike up to Tip’s Point, make love in the back meadow nobody knew about. Or they could try out the new east-meets-west fusion restaurant in downtown Asheville.

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