Chapter Forty-Five

Molly had just finished dinner and was clearing up when Jennifer arrived home. As soon as she heard the front door open, she headed over to her bedroom. 

"Molly, are ye gonna keep ignoring me?" Jennifer asked, feeling a little exasperated. The past two days were the longest they'd ever gone without speaking to each other and it made her feel lonely. 

"I thought it'd make good practice for the neighbors for ye," Molly said a little nasty. 

"Molls, don't be like that," her sister objected, feeling horrible about the whole situation. Not horrible enough to change her mind about letting her see the boy from next door, but horrible nonetheless. 

"Y'all started it," was her simple response as she closed the bedroom door behind her resolutely. There was no way she was going to buckle first, even if Molly was the one sneaking around behind her back. But she was only doing that out of necessity, because Jennifer was being the unreasonable one. 

Jennifer sat down at the kitchen table with a sigh, not sure what to do next. She also was determined not to buckle, as she was only trying to look out for her younger sister. 

She ended up eating alone as well and, once it became clear that Molly would not be coming out of her bedroom again tonight, went upstairs to bed early. 

The next day was the first day that Molly would be seeing Hannah again, and her colleague could not understand why she wasn't looking happier when she showed up for work. 

"Y'alright? Did Saturday not go okay?" Hannah asked a little confused, the first opportunity they got to talk a bit. 

Her friend glanced around her to check Chris wasn't looking for either one of them, so she wouldn't get in trouble. Her full-time shifts hadn't started yet and she didn't want him to decide that he'd be better off trying to find someone else. "Saturday did, which I am gonna lecture ye about later, but Jake insisted that we tell Jennifer and that went horrible," Molly answered now, leaving her friend in doubt as to which bit to respond to first. 

"Sorry?" she tried now, actually managing to get a small smile from her before she could help herself. "What happened?" Hannah asked for more explanation, occasionally wiping down the surface in front of her and pretending to stack and straighten the coffee cups by the coffee machine. 

"Ye shouldn't have worked with Beth to get us to San Antonio under false pretenses," Molly started at the beginning, "even if the day did go well and we had the best time." She pulled out a box of serviettes from under the counter to look busy. "But because Jake wanted to do the right thing, I agreed to introduce him to Jennifer on Sunday. She didn't wanna know 'n kicked him out. So now we're still havin' to sneak around, but with Jen a lot more suspicious and we're not talkin' to each other," she continued as she stacked serviettes and filled some of the serviette servers. Her friend gave her a sympathetic look.

"That sucks hon," Hannah said simply in response to all of it, getting a shrug now. "Obviously that's not what we wanted to happen," she started to apologize. "We just wanted ye 'n Jake to get tahm together, make him realize he was bein' stupid." 

"Y'all wanna be careful sayin' that anywhere near him," Molly pointed out, managing a small chuckle. She gave a sigh and turned towards her friend. "I know y'all were just tryin' to help... it just feels like we've taken a step back. Which means I am gonna need yer help," she broached the topic now. Her friend gave her an intrigued look, which she took as permission to keep talking. "Because Jen's gonna be more suspicious about what I get up to, I'll be saying I'm gonna be hangin' out with ye, and Beth, but I'll need ye to come over to mine sometimes too. That way she'll be more inclined to believe me," she explained what Jake and her had come up with yesterday. 

"I'm yer friend. Of course I can come over some time," Hannah said with a smile now, getting a relieved hug in response. "Oh, I know," she continued, getting a surprised look now. Molly had no idea what to expect. "Ye've not had a proper induction into country life until ye've been to a bon fire in the fields. And I happen to know they're plannin' one on Friday night. Ye and Jake can both come 'n spend time together," Hannah explained her idea. 

"Oh yeah, I suppose..." her friend started, not as enthusiastic as she'd hoped. She knew Jake didn't go to those very often, because of the drinking and the fact that he wasn't the type to do what tended to follow. 

"Ye don't have to drink if ye don't want," she guessed her hesitancy. 

"Oh okay," Molly nodded relieved. "Then eh yeah, sure. I'll mention it to Jake."

"Great," Hannah grinned. "Oh Chris," she spotted their boss heading their way and focused on refilling the coffee machine. Molly continued with the serviettes.