Page 34 of Homecoming Heartbreaker

After calling her a thief and a dozen other names—all of which she’d called herself over the years—Mack would reject her and walk out of her life. His dislike and disgust would prepare her for losing Jameson’s love and support.

She hoped.

Should she do it? Could she do it? Molly didn’t know.

After a few minutes more of silence, she looked at Mack, knowing her expression was granite-hard. “If I tell you something, do you promise not to tell Jameson?”

Mack’s eyes darted across her face as if he was trying to judge how serious she was being. “What could be so bad that you can’t tell my dad? He adores you.”

Right now he did. When her secret came out, Jameson would look at her the same way he looked at her father, with confused disgust.

“Jameson can’t handle stress right now so I need you to promise not to tell him.” Once Mack gave his word, he never reneged on it.

“Are you, or is he, in danger or in legal jeopardy?” Mack demanded.

“No.”

Mack nodded. “Then I promise.”

She couldn’t believe that she was finally going to allow her secret to see the light of day. Molly sucked in a deep breath, knowing that her life, from this point on, would change again, that she was all but pushing Mack through the door, ending whatever it was they’d managed to find again.

And that was okay; it was going to happen at some point so it might as well be now, when the pain was anticipated and manageable.

“A few weeks after you left, my mother was out of money and we were about to be evicted. She kept asking me to get the money from Jameson. I was desperate. They were pressurizing me and I didn’t want to have to move again so I stole two thousand dollars from Jameson. It was the end of my shift, he’d gone to visit Travis and I went into his office and took it from the Chinese tea caddy on the windowsill behind his desk.”

Mack’s expression didn’t change. He just looked at her, his face inscrutable. In searching his eyes, she didn’t see disgust or anger, just curiosity.

“That’s my big secret.” Molly shrugged. “My family knows I took the money and whenever I don’t do what they want, that is, when I balk at giving them money, they threaten to tell Jameson.”

“Nice,” was Mack’s only response.

Molly frowned, confused. “Okay, you can start yelling now.”

“Why would I yell at you, Molly?”

Was he messing with her? “Istolemoney fromyourdad, just like my dad stole money from him. I’ve never come clean, never told him, never confessed.”

Mack nodded, obviously agreeing with her. “No, you didn’t do any of those things. But from what Jameson told me, you did refuse to let him pay for college for you, choosing instead to work your butt off to get a scholarship and working as a bartender to put yourself through school. And then, instead of joining a corporate company, you came back to Moonlight Ridge to work for Jameson, to work yourassoff for Jameson.”

His next words nearly knocked her off the deck. “Your actions speak far louder than words, Mol, and they reflect your remorse.”

Molly just stared at him, still waiting for him to castigate her, to yell and scream at her.

“Why didn’t you hunt Jameson down and ask him for the cash? He would’ve given it to you, no questions asked.” Mack bent his knee, placing his forearm on it.

Good question. “He was so stressed, Mack. You’d left and he was so worried about you. Grey was spending more and more time with friends, and Travis was angry and dispirited. And still in the hospital.” She bit her lip. “He looked gray and tired, as if another crisis would drop him to his knees. I tried, for a couple of days, to ask him but he was snappy and brusque and then we were told we were getting kicked out...”

“So you just took it.”

She didn’t want to put lipstick on a pig. “I didn’t take it, Mack, Istoleit.”

Mack acknowledged her words with a slight dip to his head. “Why didn’t you tell Jameson at some point? I mean, with a decent conversation, you could’ve averted a lot of stress and anxiety. And told your brothers to go to hell, which had to be a great incentive.”

Ah, another great question. And one that would be so much more difficult to answer. Molly rested her chin on her bent knee. “I came back to the resort as a penance, I suppose. I wanted Jameson to see how hard I worked, that I could do a good job so that when I told him, because I’ve always planned to, he’d take that into consideration when he was debating whether to fire me or not. But I love it here, Mack. I love working here.”

She really did. Moonlight Ridge was her place, where she belonged.

“I don’t think he would’ve fired you, Mol.”

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