License to Love (27 page)

That’s when Beverly slipped through the gate and took a
seat. Alicia murmured a “hello” to Bev while Mark talked. He gave Bev a big
smile that Molly couldn’t miss and raised his beer her way.

Everyone was listening to Trent and Mark at this point, and
Molly felt thankful when the topic dried up. She wanted to get to know them
more, not talk about her.

“You’ll call with an update, won’t you?” Alicia asked more
to Molly than Trent.

“Of course. Every day till we’re back.” As she hoped, Alicia
relaxed. They broke out the drinks and soon the food was done. Bev never did
say much to Molly except a soft “hello,” but she kept a watchful eye on her.

The conversation stayed light after that. Mark was full of
interesting facts, some learned from law enforcement, others from personal
experience, like the multicolored egg he found in his refrigerator – he swore
it’d been white when he bought it a year before.

Laughing, Alicia asked, “Don’t you ever clean your fridge?”

“I do. It was one sneaky little egg,” Mark said. Molly liked
his generous smile because it gave him an honest, open look. With his dark
curly hair and skinny, long build, he just had to be funny. There wasn’t any
way around it.

“Did you hear the weather forecast?” Alicia asked all of
them. “We’re going to hit 70 degrees tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be an
awesome day on the coast.”

“Is that an idea?” Mark had a smile on his face already.
“Who’s up for a day trip?”

Molly glanced at Trent to see his opinion. He grinned at
her. “Guess I’m in,” she said. “We can put off the trip to California.”

Everyone raised beers and wine coolers in agreement. They
sat around and talked until they were losing daylight. This time of year, the
night air felt ten degrees cooler just after sunset. Everyone helped pick up
before leaving, and Trent drove Molly back to the hotel.

Almost giggling, Molly told him, “I think I have a buzz.”

“Well, scoot over here. I wouldn’t want you falling over.”
He pulled her over and she rested her head on his shoulder while he drove. She
liked the fresh, outdoor smell that clung to them, along with the charcoaly
smell from the grill. Not to mention his cologne. A potpourri of sentimental
smells.

She told him, “I’m so glad I’m getting to know your
friends.”

“At some point, you’ll have to admit they’re yours, too.”

“I know,” she said. Ever since she found Trent she’d been
forming a mental picture of the person she was before, but she had trouble
stepping into that picture. She wasn’t used to having a lot of friends. He said
she loved being a cheerleader, but she tried to hide now. Or she did in
California. Her mother said she didn’t like drawing attention to herself. Ellen
even talked her into staying home from shopping trips or outings.

Molly had many things she needed to admit, including her
feelings about her parents.
Just not now
. She thought of the happy
afternoon at Trent’s. “I’m glad you have Mark around. He seems like a really
good friend.”

Trent pulled into the hotel parking lot and turned off the
engine. “He listened to me whenever I needed a friend, which was a lot, and he
answered all my questions the best he could.” He took her hand as they slid out
Trent’s side of the truck and walked to her room.

She squeezed his hand. “I can’t
imagine how awful it must have been these last four years.”

“Maybe you can.” He turned toward
he
r as they stood outside her door. She felt herself wondering why it
all had to happen, but she decided to live in the moment, enjoy standing close
to him. Their earlier kiss
circulated through
both
their minds. When Trent put his hand on her back and pulled her close, she
tilted her head expectantly.

Two greedy people had never kissed
so wildly. It pulled the breath right out of Molly.
His mouth on hers
made her tingle and his hands gave her hot chills. She felt his need in his
touch and found herself tightening her hold on him.

Though there was a light above them, she suddenly saw
herself in darkness with Trent, kissing just like this, and looking over his
shoulder. Feelings dove through her. She remembered feeling the hair on his
chest against her bare skin, his arms on her bare back. His hands felt gentle
as they ran over her skin. She’d been excited, nervous.

She jolted back with the strange feeling that she was
remembering them being intimate.

“Are you okay?” His voice sounded throaty and filled with
concern.

She had t
rouble talking herself.
“I’m alright. So many feelings just hit me.” She kissed him once softly on the
lips before saying goodnight and turning inside.

The sky looked pink on the horizon
when Trent and Molly pulled into Alicia’s driveway the next morning. Molly
realized how serious Alicia and David were about starting their family when she
saw their second vehicle was a minivan big
enough to hold everyone for
the trip. She imagined Alicia had talked about babies while they grew up, and
wondered if she had, too.

She didn’t understand why seeing Alicia didn’t bring her
memory back. And Trent. She hoped they didn’t think they weren’t important
enough to her to spark her memory.

Mark loaded an ice chest into the back of the van as they
got out. “Morning!” he called.

Molly saw Bev inside the van already and quietly asked
Trent, “Does Beverly have a grudge against me?”

His overly surprised look said everything.

“For how long?” she asked. “Since I got back or has it been
long standing?”

His look hardened as he peered at Bev’s back inside the
vehicle. “You know how it is when two girls are in the same grade and so
different from each other. She was the quiet type. You were where things were
happening. Bev was on the pep band while you were cheerleading. I’m just
surprised she held onto it after school. And after you’ve been gone for so
long.”

“Seems she’s mad I’m back.” Molly wished she hadn’t noticed
Bev’s attitude toward her.

He grabbed her hand. “Don’t take it personal. She’ll warm up
to you.”

She didn’t before
. Molly tried to smile, deciding to
drop the topic since Alicia and David came outside, bags in hand. Molly, too,
had packed sweats to keep warm or in case she got wet.

“I’m ready,” Alicia announced, jumping in the front
passenger seat. They laughed and followed. Mark joined Bev in the back, and
Molly felt the urge to crack a high school joke and tell them not to make-out
back there. That’s where it ended, an urge. She almost laughed, wondering how
Bev would react to that. So she sat, silent, beside Trent in the middle seat.

“How often did we go to the coast before?” she asked Trent
when the van reached the edge of town and started on the coast highway.

“It’s only an hour away,” he said. “You went with your own
parents and with Alicia and me when our family went for a weekend.”

Alicia turned in her seat. “We’d spend several days driving
from town to town, playing on the beach and junk shopping.” She paused to laugh
before continuing. “You and I got stuck on a big rock one time when the tide
came in, scared the tar out of us. We were rock climbing. You could see miles
of beach from the top. We didn’t pay any attention to the water coming in. It
got real deep and we were too scared to try to swim in it, so we sat there till
the tide went back out.”

Trent said in her ear, “I was at camp or I’d have come out
and got you.”

Molly wasn’t sure if she was picturing the story as Alicia
told it or remembering that day.

“Mol?” Trent asked.

Molly looked at him and back to Alicia. “I remember the
waves.” So dark blue, mad, crashing into the rock below them. It looked so
steep and far down once the ocean engulfed them. She saw Alicia’s childlike
face, those fine features on perfect cream skin and her blue eyes sparkling
with tears of fear.

“Just the waves?” Bev’s flat voice asked from behind them.

Molly didn’t want to share the rest. “And Alicia.”

“Well, hey, isn’t that your second memory?” Alicia asked
excitedly while she grinned. Yeah, it was, sort of. Molly had a few unclear
pictures now and a few actual memories. Many memories were feelings about
Trent.

“You told Alicia about your first?” Trent asked. Molly hid
her smile because she knew what he was thinking.

“I told her about seeing you with flowers in your hand.”
Molly turned to Alicia again and said, “Keep going, what else did we do?” Maybe
all these feelings and pictures would start mending themselves together into a
memory of her life.

Bev and Mark were quiet in back while Alicia and Trent took
turns sharing stories about trips, summer vacation, or times in school.
Sometimes Molly could see pictures from the stories, but again she wasn’t sure
if it was imagination or memory. Still, it felt good to piece together her
past. Before she knew it, they arrived at the coast and drove on a road beside
the beach.

Mark pointed a road out to Molly. “There’s a great park up
there by the lighthouse. We usually grill up there after going on the beach.”

Trent added, “It’s got a small lake that’s great for
swimming in the summer.”

“Or spring if you’re man enough.” David joked from the
driver’s seat.

“So you’re getting in?” Molly shot back as they pulled into
a parking space facing a sand dune. She followed Trent’s lead and left her
shoes in the van and rolled up her pant legs.

Alicia took off and was at the top of the dune as the rest
of them started up. Molly asked, laughing, “Is she always like that?”

“You used to be right beside her.” They reached the top as
he spoke, and Molly stopped to stare at the ocean stretching out before her. So
blue and endless. The wind whipped her hair and she didn’t care. She almost
didn’t notice the long expanse of sand between them and the water until she saw
Alicia half running, half trudging on it to the water.

“I like your hair today.” Trent said next to her ear, an arm
around her waist.

“I didn’t do anything with it.” She laughed. “I figured the
wind would ruin it anyway.”

“I don’t think it looks ruined.” He was so close his lips
brushed her cheek and she leaned into the caress.

“It’s so absolutely beautiful.” She tilted her head to look
into his eyes, which weren’t on the view of the ocean, but her. A floating
sensation
wafted ov
er her, like she was lying
on the waves, barely touching them, and magically flying there as they rose and
crashed again. The roar, steady and moving, seemed to shout how she felt.
Trent’s lips came down on hers. Soft, sensual, then harder and asking. Her arms
found him and wrapped around his waist
as they
stood, kissing like no one else was around to see, even though everyone on the
beach had a perfect view of them.

Heaven above, she knew this. Maybe didn’t remember, but
knew
.
Kissing Trent filled a craving she hadn’t known about and filled her with a
hot, vicious need that actually hurt. She pushed against him at first before
she gasped in embarrassment and pulled away.

The look in his eyes overtook her.

“Don’t worry, baby,” he whispered. “I want you more than you
can know.”

She wanted him, too. Wordless, thoughtless really, she gazed
up into those eyes until her brain kicked back on. Then she glanced down the
beach to where their friends were already jumping in the waves.

They shared a laugh and started down the dune. Mark, Alicia,
and David were letting the waves chase them, but Bev stood, toes only in the
water, and gave Molly a nasty look when they arrived.

Trent completely ignored Bev. He grabbed Molly’s hand and
charged the incoming waves, jumping over the first one and wading in deeper.
Molly wondered why they’d rolled their pants up when they were now wet up to the
waist.

They were laughing, and falling, and freezing, but it felt
wonderful. She couldn’t get enough. The group made its way down the beach to
the jetty, but they decided they were all too soaked for the walk out and back.

“Wow, I’ve missed you.” Alicia all but fell onto Molly.
“Coming here wasn’t the same.”

“You’re completely wet!” Molly cried.

“So are you!” They tumbled back into a wave and Molly fell
on her butt. Alicia dove into the water with her, so they were both floating in
the coldest water Molly had ever felt. Trent and Mark were having a good laugh
at the girls.

Though they were laughing, too, Molly called out to Trent,
“Save me!”

He came in after her, scooping her up in his arms, and heard
fake coos from Mark and David. Alicia yelled to David, “Don’t you love me
enough to save me?”

“Do I have to?” he said on his way in. His sour comment
killed the laughter a bit.

When they were all standing once again, Bev said, “Okay,
we’re all wet, let’s go back.” She started off without them and Mark hurried to
catch up with her.

Molly shook her head at Bev’s back. What a horrible way to
live life. Why did Mark have such a thing for her? Mark and Bev didn’t link
arms or even hold hands, but it looked like they were having a pretty serious
conversation as the others lagged behind.

Alicia and David held hands and started off. Molly fell in
beside Trent and watched the waves run up the beach, slowly give up, and roll
back out. She pulled him closer as they walked, arm in arm. “I came here
looking for a few memories. I never expected to find you, Alicia, a lifetime.”

“Feel like you bit off more than you can chew?” he said with
a laugh. “Got a lot more than just memories coming here.”

“But I haven’t remembered everything yet.”

“No, but you got everything else you said. We’re all here
for you. The memories might follow.”