Hot Winter Nights
Page 19Molly smiled. “Sounds nice.”
Again he looked over at her. “You and Joe are close.”
She shrugged.
“I’ve seen you smack him upside the back of his head so hard that he nearly swallowed his tongue,” Lucas said. “I’ve also seen the look on your face when he’s hurt. Like on that job last year when he took a bat to the skull, you lost it. Understandably, of course.”
It’d been one of the scariest moments in her life, and that was saying something. He’d fully recovered, but there for a while it’d been touch and go, and the memory of that, the gut-clenching, heart-wrenching fear that her brother might die and leave her alone in this world with no one but her dad, had terrified her to the bone. “Yeah, we’re close,” she said. “But it’s a different kind of close. It’s like we’ve had to be in order to survive.”
He glanced over at her. “I get that. More than you might think.”
It was her turn to look at him, but he was concentrating on the road. He made a few quick turns and ended up on a street that was well lit and lined with older Victorian homes, well lived in but all extremely well taken care of, many of them decorated for the holidays in holly and garland and twinkling lights.
Lucas stopped in front of a house that was lit up from top to bottom, complete with reindeer cutouts on the grass. The driveway held six cars. Two more were parked on the lawn with the reindeer. The street was filled with cars.
“Holy cow,” Molly said.
Lucas squeezed in between the reindeer and the cars. “Family game night’s pretty popular.”
She stared at all the vehicles. “How many people are in your family? All of San Francisco?”
“Not quite, but still way too many.” He looked over her. “I’ll be two seconds, tops.”
The message was clear. Stay here. Instead, she got out with him.
He grimaced. “Listen, you heard my mom and sister on the phone. My entire family is like that. Certifiable, really. It’s too late for me, but save yourself and wait here.”
The front door opened and people spilled out. A woman in her fifties was the leader of the pack, looking a lot like Lucas with his dark eyes and dark hair, though hers was sprinkled through with gray. Two younger women flanked her, also dark hair and dark eyes.
“My mom, my sister, Laura, and cousin Sami,” Lucas said to her. “Brace yourself.”
“What for—” Before she could finish the sentence, Lucas’s mom had bounded down the walk and engulfed him in a hug. The other two women each hugged Molly in turn, smiling and saying how nice it was to meet her.
Then the Knight women all switched spots and it was Lucas’s mom’s turn to hug Molly while his sister and cousin pounced him. An arm full of each, he turned to catch his mom hugging Molly. “Mom, stop abusing my coworker’s space bubble.”
“Oh.” His mom looked so disappointed as she pulled back from Molly. “I was hoping she was your girlfriend.”
Lucas blew out a breath, grabbed Molly’s hand and rescued her from his mom. “We work together.”
“Is there a policy at Hunt that forbids coworkers from dating?”
“Don’t answer that,” Lucas told Molly when she opened her mouth. “Trust me.”
“There’s not!” his mom said gleefully.
Laura and Sami both laughed.
“It’s because we’re both married, you see,” Laura said to Molly. “And I’ve even provided a grandchild.” She waved a baby monitor, which presumably would lead to a sleeping kid. “Now Mom’s luckily focused in on Lucas to provide more grandchildren.”
“Do you like children?” his mom asked Molly. “Are you single?”
“We’ve talked about this, Mom,” Lucas said. “You were going to stop accosting strangers and trying to recruit them to marry me.”
“Yes,” Molly said. “You’ve met Joe?”
“Only briefly when I made Lucas stop by a few months ago and Joe was with him. I fed him. He appreciated my food.” She shot a mock glare at Lucas. “Unlike some people.”
“Mom, I appreciate your food so much I have to run four miles every morning.”
Lucas’s mom slipped an arm around Molly and turned her toward the front door. “You’re chilled. Come in with me, I have—”
“Mom,” Lucas said. “Back away from her. We’re working.”
“Well you have to eat.”
“We’re not hungry.” He handed his mom the game and then wrapped his arms around her in a very warm, loving hug, brushing a kiss to her temple. “Love you, you crazy person.”
Her arms squeezed him tight. “Someday I’m going to be dead and you’re going to be sorry you were so mean to me.”
Lucas just laughed and kissed her again. He hugged Laura and Sami, gently patted Sami’s baby belly and then took Molly by the hand. “Good night,” he said firmly.
They headed back to the car, Molly deep in thought. Her family wasn’t anything like Lucas’s warm, loving one. She and Joe had been raised by a single dad who suffered from war PTSD. He hadn’t been able to hold a job for long, which left them perpetually scrambling for a roof and food. Safety and security had been in short supply. She’d learned early to count on herself and no one else.
And God knows, that had certainly stuck with her as she’d gotten older. There’d been lots of bumps along the way and she’d been bruised and scarred, inside and out, literally and figuratively. Her trust issue was a fifteen-foot-thick brick wall around her heart, and not much penetrated.
But Lucas, who also had been bruised and scarred, didn’t seem to have that brick wall, and it wasn’t a comfortable realization.
He cranked over the engine and met her gaze. “You survived that pretty well. Thanks for being so nice about it.”
“Crazy. I know.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. Not even close. She could still feel their warmth, their closeness, their unconditional love. “They’re . . .”
“Nosy, manipulating, pushy . . . ?”
“Stop,” she said on a laugh, knowing he was teasing by his fond tone. He knew what he had, how wonderful they were, and her smile faded. “You’re lucky, Lucas.”
His smile faded too. “I know. I take it you aren’t as lucky?”
“No, I’m lucky too,” she said, thinking of how much Joe and her dad meant to her. “Just in a very different way.”
Chapter 10
#UnderTheMistletoe
Molly took in the sight of the Christmas Village as Lucas pulled into the lot. It had been constructed on a part of a large parking lot at the marina and was lit within an inch of its life with an old-fashioned feel to it. She wasn’t sure if that was on purpose or if the decorations and lights had just been around for half a century.
Lucas parked and turned to her. “We’re going in as paying customers. Just a couple out on the town, having a good time,” he instructed.