Chapter Seventy-Five

"Blake, ye low-life," both cousins looked up surprised to hear. Molly had run from her ranch to their stables, once her sister had cried herself to sleep. She had tears of anger rolling down her cheeks and she looked livid. Even Jake was taken aback, having never seen his girlfriend like this either. "I'm gonna kill ye," she said now, heading straight for him to beat him up the best she could on her sister's behalf. 

"Molly, come on," Blake tried to turn on the charm, but quickly seeing that was never going to work. 

"How dare ye treat my sister like that?" she asked angrily, satisfied to see him cower as she raised her fist. She actually grunted when Jake's strong arms wrapped around her waist to hold her back. "Jake, let go of me. I need to teach this scumbag a lesson," she screamed, struggling to get loose. 

"Molly, this isn't who ye are. Ye can't beat him up," her boyfriend held her against him, feeling her muscles strain against his. He knew she'd gotten stronger since riding and helping out on the ranch, but not this strong. He supposed she was being fueled by her anger. 

"Yes. I. Can," she grunted with the exertion of trying to free herself. 

"No ye can't," Jake said simply. "Jennifer should be the one to," he suggested, getting a surprised "hey!" from his cousin when he realized that Jake wasn't saying no one should beat him up. "Besides, he's leavin' anyway," he added. "Come on Molls, ye know ye don't really want to do this," he said softly in her ear. Blake couldn't help but watch on amazed as Molly's labored breathing slowly slowed down as she calmed herself, with her boyfriend's hold turning into a caring embrace. 

She felt drained now, the adrenaline high leaving her with a nasty come down. "Get out of my sight," Molly told the older Rodgers' cousin, trying not to get herself worked up again. "And never contact or see my sister again," she added as a warning, leaving him in no doubt that next time she would beat him up. 

"Ye best go," Jake told his cousin as well. He had to let go of what he thought he knew about his cousin and forget they were family; he couldn't forgive how the older Rodgers had treated Molly's sister. 

"Fine," Blake said eventually with a shrug and headed out of the stables to get his stuff from the ranch. Beth was out with her friends so hopefully he could leave without an embarrassing goodbye with his youngest cousin. 

"Ye okay?" Jake asked his girlfriend softly, his arms now only holding her up and close to support her. He'd felt her muscles slacken as the fight left her as Blake had left the stables. She nodded before shaking her head, not sure how to feel, as she now turned around to bury her face against his chest. She wrapped her arms around his waist to hug him tight. "I'm sorry babe," he whispered as he hugged her back, pressing a kiss to her hair. 

They eventually made their way into the ranch and were relieved to see that all of Blake's stuff and his truck were gone. 

"I probably should go back soon, to make sure Jen's okay," Molly said after they'd been sat on the sofa together for about an hour, her curled up against him with his arms around her. 

"I can probably guess what happened, but what happened?" her boyfriend asked carefully, feeling her muscles tense again before she forced herself to relax. 

"He convinced her to take him back," she answered, clearly frustrated. "They'd been seein' each other for the past couple of weeks," she added, sounding a little frustrated. 

"How? When?" Jake asked curiously. 

"On the weekends, when we went ridin' or otherwise out," Molly answered, feeling like she'd been given a taste of her own medicine. 

"Sounds familiar," he agreed. "I can't believe he'd do this to her... again," he added with a shake of the head. 

"Me neither," she said, sinking back against him, lost in concern over her sister. She wasn't sure if Jennifer's heart could recover from this. 

Remarkably, Jennifer only missed the following Monday from work. She was next to useless that Sunday and Monday, while she tried to rebuild herself from the inside out. Molly kept her distance, hovering only close enough so her sister knew she was there if she needed her. By Tuesday, the older sister attempted to go about her business as usual. She couldn't say it wasn't hard to act like nothing had happened. But, apart from Kayleigh who she'd confided in, no one else at work noticed anything was wrong. Apart from maybe thinking she was under the weather, as there was a bug going around the company. 

Molly kept a closer watch on her sister than her colleagues, knowing that it would take more than a few days to get over this. After three weeks however, even she started to relax a bit. Her job was going well, and her relationship with Jake was only getting stronger. 

With the weather becoming colder and wetter, she helped out on the ranch whenever she could. She spent as much of her free time at the Rodgers Ranch as she did at home.