Chapter Thirty-Six

They managed to keep up their routine for a couple more days before Jennifer started getting a little suspicious. 

"Molls, I feel like maybe I'm starting to lose it, but there's been a couple of times where I could've sworn I heard voices coming from your room," Jennifer started the conversation as she sat down to have dinner together on Thursday. 

Her sister tried not to freeze or give the game away before she knew how much she actually suspected. "Really? Ye sure about that?" Molly said with a shrug, as she served dinner. 

"Well no, but it sounded like you were having a proper conversation with someone," she responded with a quizzical look. If she'd scratched her head, it would've completed the bewildered expression on her face. If they'd been in Phoenix, Molly could've said that she'd been on the phone to any one of her friends. She used to think nothing of it to spend several hours on the phone to them after having already spent the day with them. But she couldn't do that here, with no or little phone signal, unless she said she'd used the landline. Which would still earn her a lecture. No, she'd have to think of something else. 

"Well last night I was listening to an audio book," Molly suddenly came up with a plausible excuse. Jake had spent last night at hers again, so she needed an excuse for that without a doubt. 

"That would make sense. Was it good?" Jennifer asked now, thinking she could've heard that. That would be a constant and sound like a conversation from her bedroom upstairs. 

"I've not finished it yet," she answered, giving herself a possible excuse for another night or two. "But so far so good," she added with a nod. 

"Oh good," her sister nodded, digging in properly now. "But… Do I hear the door sometimes as well?" she couldn't get it out of her head. 

"That's probably just when I've gone to get a drink or a snack," Molly shrugged now. That was easier to explain. 

"Maybe."

"You alright? Ye seem a bit tired," she planted a seed of a doubt in her sister's mind. It felt terrible doing that to her. 

"Yeah I guess I am. One of the other assistant manager's never hands over properly, so I feel like I start every shift on the back foot," Jennifer conceded it could be she was making stuff up in her head. Her sister guiltily stuffed some food in her mouth so she couldn't tell more lies. "I feel like I need more sleep but I feel bad that we don't get to do anything fun together," she continued, making Molly feel even worse; she was doing all the lying, yet her sister was the one doing the apologizing. 

"Don't worry. We'll find something to do at some point. There'll be festivals and all sorts over the summer," she pointed out. 

"True," Jennifer nodded, feeling a little better that her sister wasn't annoyed with her for having to work so much. If only she knew how bad her sister felt how she made the most of it whenever she could. 

After dinner, Molly stayed in the living room watching TV with Jennifer for as long as she could, trying to erase some of the guilt. She was sneaking out to Jake's tonight, but she wanted to spend some time with her sister so Jennifer wouldn't feel guilty about her work schedule. That was as much about wanting to make her happy as it was about not wanting Jennifer to shorten her shifts or take time off. That would seriously not help Molly and Jake. 

But because Molly couldn't text or ring Jake to tell him that was what she was doing, he started getting restless and a little worried. So, when Molly looked away from the TV for a second, she was surprised to see him stood by the front window trying to get her attention. Because she was in Jennifer's eye line, she couldn't gesture or wave him away without drawing attention to herself and therefore him. She gave him a frown and tried to tell him to move but couldn't.

"Drink?" she asked as she jumped up and headed to the kitchen.

"I'm alright," Jennifer answered, paying attention to the TV more than her sister. Molly looked back at her as she snuck out the front door. 

"Ye okay?" Jake asked immediately. "I thought ye…" 

"Yeah I know, I am. I will be. Jen was just starting to get a little suspicious so I thought it would be better to stay in for a bit longer until she chose to go to bed," she cut him off to explain quickly. "I'm sorry," she apologized and quickly gave him a kiss. 

"Oh okay, I guess… yeah fair 'nuff. How long d'ye reckon ye'll be?" he asked, sounding a little shell-shocked. He'd clearly thought something was wrong with her and had not been expecting her to be so casual about it. 

"Half an hour or so," she guessed. 

"Okay I'll be on my back porch," Jake told her and gave her a kiss. "Ye'd better get back in," he said now, taking a step back. 

"Sorry," she apologized again, stepped in to kiss him again and snuck back in. Her sister still had her eyes on the TV and didn't seem to have noticed, much to her relief.

Just as she thought, Jennifer decided to go to bed about half an hour later. "Night Molls," she said as she headed up the stairs with a yawn. 

"Night," Molly called back. She listened out for her sister's bedtime routine. Toilet, brushing her teeth and then bed. She gave it five extra minutes before she, loudly, turned the TV off and pretended to head into her room. She turned off the lights and snuck out through the back door. She carefully ran over to the fence and climbed over, making her way to the light she could see on at the back of the house. As promised, Jake was sat on the top step of the porch. She gave him a wave as she walked up towards him. "Hey," she smiled and leant down to give him a kiss but was surprised when he turned his face slightly. "What's wrong?" she asked, sounding hurt, which he hated. 

"Ye could've found a way of tellin' me ye'd be late Molls. I was gettin' really worried," Jake said, now looking back at her again. 

She sighed to herself as she knelt in front of him, putting her hands on his knees. "I know, I'm sorry, I…" she started, cupping his face to make him look at her properly. "I just didn't know how without making Jen more suspicious. I've not used the phone in weeks, so it'd be too obvious," Molly said. 

"D'ye maybe think we need to start thinkin' about comin' clean?" he asked her now. 

"I think it might be too soon still. Soon, I promise," she said, stopping him from leaning away from her. "I promise," she repeated and tentatively leaned in to kiss him. He held back for a second but as she kissed him again, he gave in and kissed her back. He pulled her in closer, going through her hair. Her hands slid from his knees down his thighs as she leaned in to him, wanting to feel him closer. 

"Night ye two, don't stay up too late," Duncan's voice made them pull back and check where he was. They couldn't see him at the kitchen window or the back door, so they figured he'd probably just called out without actually seeing them there. 

"Come on, let's go to the barn," Jake said as he pushed her up and took hold of her hand to lead the way. 

"I'm still not gonna take a roll in the hay with ya cowboy," she told him as she teasingly gave him a nudge. 

"Stop thinkin' 'bout that," he said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He was not that type and all he was thinking about when he suggested it was to get away from his father's gaze. 

"I'm teasin'," Molly said as she wrapped her arm around his waist. 

"Yeah, yeah," he nodded, getting the hint that he was being too serious right now. He led the way into the barn and let her climb up the ladder first, again making sure to look away. 

"Come here," she smiled as she pulled him in for more kisses. 

He went through her hair again as he leaned in. They sat down after a few minutes, but when Molly leaned in to continue kissing him, he held her back. "Molls, don't ye think we need to figure summit out?" Jake asked. "About Jennifer?" he hinted when she didn't seem to get what he was talking about straight away. "Ye said she was gettin' suspicious."

"Yeah, she is. I told her I was listenin' to an audio book coz she thought I was havin' a conversation with someone," she said now. "It should give us cover for a couple more times," she added. She could tell from his expression that he wasn't entirely impressed. "I don't like lyin' to her either," Molly said, taking hold of his hand. 

"Then maybe we shouldn't be," Jake pointed out. 

She sat back for a moment, not sure how to put what she was feeling in words. There was no way her sister would take this well. And Molly wouldn't even know where to start telling her. "Gimme some time to figure summit out," she asked now. "I promise I will tell her soon." 

"Okay. Fine," he nodded.