License to Love (36 page)

Inside the local precinct, Trent met Harry Quinn, the
detective Mark had spoken with, and followed the shorter man toward his desk to
brief him on the case. Harry Quinn had a hard face and a round gut, but he
didn’t waste time.

“Mark Stone didn’t find a Justin Atwood at that address. We
have three
‘Atwoods’ to check into though. I think
Miss Anderson’s neighbor must be using an alias.”

Trent pulled a zip lock bag containing a pair of sunglasses
out of his shirt pocket. “I’m fairly certain Justin left these on Molly’s porch
when he came to greet us. It looks like a good print on the lens.”

Quinn took the bag. “We’ll run the prints.”

“What about extra patrols?”

“We started yesterday after speaking with Stone,” Quinn
said. “This case has had a funny feel to it all along, but we didn’t have any
reason to keep investigating. A dead couple, a girl with no memory. So I
appreciate your notes and information.” Quinn handed him a packet of paper.
“This is your fax, what Stone came up with for Kenneth Webb. I’m also keeping a
copy here in our file. We didn’t have any suspects before, or any reason to think
the accident was foul play. Now we have two persons with some connection.”

“Thank you, sir, and thanks for your time.” Trent shook
Quinn’s hand, agreed to keep in contact, and headed back to the car to look
over the information. So far all of his leads had produced more questions. Why
did the Andersons run? Why did they keep Molly’s past from her? There couldn’t
be any way for them to cause her amnesia, but they sure did everything they
could to keep her in the dark. So he knew they hid things from her and kept her
here, maybe for her own protection from Kenneth Webb.

He waited till he was sitting inside the car to open the
file and instantly saw the resemblance to Molly in the bone structure of her
birth father’s face. He didn’t like calling Kenneth Webb her father. It felt
disrespectful to Arnold.

“Kenneth Webb, who are you?” He muttered under his breath
and started reading. Two pages later he closed his eyes, wishing he could throw
the paper away, make the information it held disappear forever. He wanted to
protect Molly, but he knew how she felt about his protection. As hard as things
had been on her, she didn’t want him hiding anything. Sighing, he turned the
key and started back to her house in the late afternoon light.

He called her on his cell, wanting to prepare her.

“Trent?” she sounded happier now, excited even. “I was going
through the photo albums again and it’s starting to make sense.”

“What is?”

“My life, you know. It’s starting to get in order. My
childhood.”

“Good, good. Remember how Karen said that would come back
first? Maybe the rest will follow soon. And we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
He felt light and suddenly determined, not so lost in all these endless facts
that didn’t answer anything. She didn’t say anything. “Mol?”

“It might. It might come back, who knows.”

Getting her meaning, he decided to back off. “No pressure.
It’ll happen when you’re ready.” That’s where he paused and had to force
himself to speak. “I have that fax. That’s why I called. It’s got a lot to go
over. We can wait if you like.”

“No.” Her answer came quick. “We need to work on this.”

“Alright, I’ll be there in a min.” Their goodbye felt tense.
How could he prepare her for this? Kenneth Webb had been in and out of mental
institutions ever since his divorce to Ellen. She had a restraining order
against him, so that explained why Molly hadn’t known him. He assumed she
didn’t, since she never mentioned Kenneth Webb to Alicia or him before she
disappeared.

Kenneth’s last release date had been a year before Molly
disappeared, and after that he didn’t check into another hospital or leave any
trace at all. He seemed to disappear like Molly. Or with her?

Could the information in this file mean anything to her? And
now she’d pieced together her childhood, maybe she was ready to get past that
final block. Fear of something had kept those last memories locked away. He
almost didn’t want to unlock that door.

He drove slowly and felt heavy as he pulled up to the
garage, and found her alone in the kitchen, waiting. Molly’s eyes gazed into
his an
d he felt sure she
saw what he was
trying to hide.

“Maybe you should sit down to read this.” He held out his
hand and she took it before they walked into the living room together.

They sat on the couch where he handed the papers to her.
Trent had purposely put the page containing the picture on the bottom. He
watched her eyes as she read thoughtfully. He hoped she wouldn’t think anything
she read reflected on her or made her different. Most of the pages listed dates
Kenneth had checked into, then out of, different mental institutions, painting
a sad picture. Plus there was the restraining order against him.

Near the bottom of the stack,
he
saw her eyebrows rise as she pulled in a deep breath and turned the page.

“Oh my gosh.” While staring at the
picture, her eyes went hazy. “That’s him,” she whispered.

“
You knew Kenneth?”

“No, he’s that man.”

“But that’s Kenneth Webb.”

“The man at the house.”

“Your house in Ridge City or here? Where, Molly?”

She reached up to her head and mumbled about fighting
downstairs. She seemed to be watching the scene unfold before her, happening
all over again. A second later she gasped.

“Molly?” They sat in a silence that rolled painfully on and
on except for Molly’s shallow and rapid breathing. Her eyes darted around and
he swore he could tell her memories were flooding back.

When he couldn’t take it anymore, he gently touched her arm.
Her head jerked up to look at him, like she had forgotten he was in the room
with her.

With a sharp scream, she was on her feet and rushing from
the room. She ran up the stairs, leaving him staring after her. The bedroom
door shut loudly before he could jump up and follow.

“Molly?” Trent knocked, waited, knocked, and finally opened
the door. She was stretched out stomach down on her bed, her face buried in her
pillow. She raised it enough to say, “I just want to be by myself.”

He didn’t like it and didn’t leave. No, she wasn’t sending
him away now. Instead of leaving, he crossed the room to her bed saying, “I
don’t want you to go through this alone.”

Softly he sat next to her and put a hand on her back. “Damn
it all, I love you and I’m going to be right here with you.”

Molly didn’t move or respond.

“Did you hear me, Molly Anderson? I love you. I’ve loved you
since the second grade and it’s grown stronger every day.”

He felt her shake. Saw her shoulders rise and fall as she
tried to gasp for breath. “Shouldn’t you say Molly Williams?”

He almost laughed. Good old Molly. He knew better than to
remind her they hadn’t legally changed her name yet. That wasn’t the point. She
was Molly Avery Williams, his wife, the only woman he’d ever loved. The only
woman he would ever love. Heck, the only woman he’d ever even kissed. She was
it for him, all he ever needed.

Trent leaned down on his side, his arm around her small
waist, but he didn’t try to get to her talk. Wanting to comfort her, he ran his
fingers through her hair, remembering all the times he’d done so.

She cried for a long time before she turned to him and
nuzzled her face into his chest.

“Are you going to tell me what made you scream like that?”
he asked.

“Yes, but not tonight. I need to think on it a while.”

He could live with that because he trusted her, but one
question he couldn’t wait to ask. “Do you think you’re in danger from Webb?”

“No,” she whispered. “He’s dead.”

“The only thing keeping me alive the last four years was the
thought that I might find you.” Trent broke the long silence as the daylight
outside faded. He brought his face down to the crook of Molly’s neck and
nestled there.

Molly thought maybe she should stay mad about the marriage
and him not telling her, but things between them were so long standing,
connected, and strong. She remembered their childhood teasing and growing
friendship. The awkward times in junior high as they dealt with their growing
attraction. The first time they danced in the seventh grade, how she’d been the
same height as him. She reached to him, thinking of their hungry kisses in high
school. They’d been completely consumed by each other. She wanted to have tha
t love ag
ain. She felt it but she also felt
tentative because they’d been apart.

“I want to go back to Ridge City, to that little pond with
cattails and black birds.”

“You miss our little town?” Trent slowly drew the back of
his knuckles down the soft skin of her cheek.

“Yeah, I do.” Verbalizing it felt good. She reached around
his neck and pulled him closer to kiss him softly and then harder, asking,
meeting him tongue to tongue, and that started a train in motion that didn’t
have a brake.

He mumbled at first in surprise, and when he freed his
mouth, asked, “You forgive me?”

“I’m reserving the right to be mad.” She pulled his mouth
against hers again, arching to feel her body pressed to his.

He kissed her back, hard, then pulled away. “I’m confused,
Molly.”

“You turned me down because you said I wanted to wait. Well,
we’re married, and, darn it, I’m not waiting. I’ve been alone for too long.”

He met her halfway in a frenzied kiss that brought back the
memory of their wedding night in Reno. He’d gone through high school waiting
for that moment, and being with h
er now fulf
illed
a lifetime of need.

The few days they spent together after their wedding night
poured into Molly’s mind.
They’d forgotten the
world and everything outside of each other, spending their time in bed
expressing their need and love.
She
needed this and needed Trent, and she wasn’t too
proud to admit that, at least not to herself.

Time had played some funny tricks on her before, maybe
because her amnesia kicked events out of order. Now time cycled around. This
felt like their wedding night as she pulled his shirt
up over his head and he pulled her clothing off. They could have those
honeymoon days back, have them again. Touch, explore, and please each other.

“I need you!” she rasped as they pulled and tugged clothes
off, running their hands all over each other.

She was suddenly in ecstasy. Nothing else mattered. Them,
together, this is what her heart wanted. Her arms felt so right wrapped around
him. Their bodies were made to go together. He moved slow and sweet at first as
if to treasure the moment, like she was. She liked making this new memory, one
that took them into the future but also connected them to their past.

“You are worth waiting for, Molly Williams.” He kissed her
and loved her and showed her how he felt. Trent filled her mind, offering a
pleasant escape and amazing adventure at the same time.

When they lay spent, wrapped up in each other, he murmured
into her ear, “I love you, I love you.”

Strands of her hair lay across her face but she couldn’t
move to brush them away. She couldn’t move at all, actually, thinking about how
he’d put her way up on a pedestal and expected her to be the same as before.
What if she couldn’t be his old Molly?

A minute passed before she realized he was waiting for a
response. “Trent, I-” She couldn’t say it. Strange emotions held the words in.
Instead, she listened to her breathing, to his, to the light wind playing
against the house.

She couldn’t believe how much she loved him either, but she
felt this crazy pressure and didn’t know why. She felt so right with him but
scared senseless at the same time. Had she really fixed things by regaining her
memory? She’d reached the prize she’d been chasing these last four years, yet
didn’t know what to do now. She couldn’t panic again. Taking a deep breath, she
realized she just needed space to adjust.

“Trent.” His name was just a breath. “I have to tell you,
this was more about need than anything else.”

“What?” His head lifted. She felt guilty at seeing the
confusion in his eyes.

“I need you, I’ll admit it, but I have so much to think
about. I might still be mad at you.”

“Funny way of showing it.”

“Didn’t I say that before we ...?”

He didn’t speak and she couldn’t hear him breathe. Panic
squeezed her as she thought he must be mad at her.

“Why, Mol?”

“I’m sorry. After all this, I feel—” She didn’t have the
right words to describe everything that had just ran through her head,
but
she said,
“Unstable. I think I might say things I don’t actually mean. Caught up in the
moment.”

“I don’t think we’re in a moment.” He kept his voice quiet.

“I want you to stay here tonight. Stay with me. I’m just
saying don’t expect your old Molly back instantly.”

“You’re scared? It’s okay.”

She exhaled and realized she’d been holding her breath.

In answer, he pulled her closer against him and stroked her
hair as they fell asleep.

“Dead?” Karen repeated the next morning, “And that’s all she
said? So she must have regained her memory.”

Trent and Karen stood in the kitchen by the brewing coffee
pot, both needing some caffeine after a troubled night of wondering about
Molly. Karen had taken the day off from work and came over bright and early.

The pot finished and they each poured a cup. Trent sighed,
rubbed his face, and went to sit on the couch in the living room. “Such a bare
house. No wonder she didn’t remember anything here. Now I’m sure her parents
didn’t want her to.”