Chapter Eight

Molly had decided to do up the third bedroom after her bath and could hear the siblings through the open window. She tried not to be obvious as she looked out, watching him ride with the dark blond girl. She surprised how quickly she felt jealous, until she realized the girl looked much younger than she or Jake and figured she must be his sister Beth. 

For a horrifying second she thought he'd caught her looking, but before she could give him a small wave he turned his gaze away from their house. She didn't realize that he didn't want his sister to see him looking. 

"Molls you up there?" Jennifer's voice pulled her away from the window. 

"Uh huh," she called back, looking out the window one last time and headed downstairs. "How was town? Did you find anything?" she asked. 

"Nothing yet, but we've only been here a week," Jennifer shrugged, hoping that was the only thing stopping her. "What have you been up to?" she asked, seeing her sister look quite tired in her lounging outfit. She hoped that wasn't all she'd done, lounge around all day. 

"Sorted things out downstairs, had a go at the spare room, went for a long walk and started getting some things ready for dinner," Molly listed, curling up in her favorite corner chair next to her father's bookcase. 

"Oh," her sister responded pleasantly surprised. "That's great, thanks," she said gratefully. "Any plans for tomorrow?" she asked curiously, wondering what else there was left for her to do around the house. 

"Dunno, might head into town or do some more discovering. The land around here is quite something," Molly shrugged, trying not to think about her lessons with Jake tomorrow, as that was sure to put a smile on her face that she couldn't explain to her sister. 

"I never thought I'd hear you say that," Jennifer said with a snigger, just avoiding the cushion she got thrown at her head. 

"Yeah, yeah," her sister conceded grudgingly. "So what are you doing then?" 

"I might go to some of the neighboring towns. See if there's any jobs going there."

"Oh okay, smart move. Good luck," Molly said, thinking it would be good to have the house to herself so she could invite Jake in for some lemonade... that she still had to make. Her mother had taught her how to make one that wasn't too bitter or too sweet before she passed away. She always felt like it brought her mama and even her daddy closer to her again, so she usually made sure she had the ingredients she needed in the house. "I'm going to make some of mama's lemonade after dinner, okay? Kind of like a mini house-warming," she said after a few minutes. 

"That sounds good, especially with how warm it is," Jennifer nodded. They were used to warm from Phoenix, but most places there had air con units. Their flat definitely had, whereas the ranch here obviously didn't. "Shall we start doing dinner?" she asked, pleased when her sister nodded. Since they'd been back here and Molly had gotten the first day without wifi or even signal out of her system, it felt much more like they were an equal partnership. More like sisters than one assuming the mother role and looking after the other.