Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (43 page)

MOLLY

Kissing Brock, on the ice in public like
that was not like me at all. I thought about that for a few seconds, and then I
decided that if being me meant not kissing him like this I didn’t want to be
that girl. Nothing up to this point in my life had ever felt better than being in
his arms, or feeling his lips on mine. His singing to me as we skated didn’t
make me worry that people were looking; it made me hope that they were
listening. It gave me goosebumps, in a very good way.

I wasn’t always self-conscious I public. I
never cared or even noticed when people looked at me, until after I got sick.
Every time I turned a corner after I’d been sick and went back to school, it
felt like someone was looking at me. They weren’t bad looks, or mean ones. They
were just looks filled with curiosity or pity. Either way, they made me feel
like some kind of side show attraction, and I hated it. That was the best part
about starting college…until I met Brock, of course…but knowing that when I
walked across campus, no one knew my history. No one was saying, “Oh look, her
hair grew back,” or “Poor girl, how much longer do you think she has left?” I
was just Molly, finally. And now…Well, now I’m part of a couple, Molly and
Brock, Brock and Molly. I laughed out loud at myself when I had that thought.

“What are you laughing at?” Brock asked
me.

“I’m just happy,” I told him. It was so
beautiful out here, such a nice night that I felt like the Fates had arranged
it all just for us. I knew at last what those silly women in the romance novels
I used to read had been talking about all of these years. This is where I’m
supposed to be, here with this wonderful man, safe in his arms.

We skated for a while, and then we got
some hot chocolate and took a walk around the park. We talked some. But mostly
we walked in silence, just holding hands and enjoying the fact that we were
together.

When we got all the way across to the far
side of the park he said, “I guess we should turn around.” I started to, but
then he spun me back around to face him and he gave me the most incredibly hot
kiss I’ve ever had, not that I have much to compare it to. It was one of those
kisses thought that made you think, if I died right now…my life would be
complete. But then he took it to another level. He slid his lips across my
cheek and down to my neck. He started with soft kisses, and before I knew it he
was nibbling, and I didn’t want him to stop. My heart felt like a sledge hammer
banging against the inside of my chest it was pumping so fast and so hard. He
ran his hands through the hair that hung out of the back of my hat at the same
time, and when he whispered, “Oh Molly,” in that sexy, bedroom voice of his, it
almost put me over the top. I swallowed hard, pushing the lump in my throat
back into my belly where it belonged and said, “It’s not legal to make love in
a park, right?” Brock laughed and said, “Trust me, if it wasn’t…”

“Are Megan and Jake going to be gone again
tonight?” I asked him.

“Yeah, Jake said one more night,” he said
breathlessly.

“Let’s go home,” I told him. I was suddenly
so bold that I surprised myself, but I had never wanted anyone or anything the
way that I desired this man.

The ride back to his apartment on Suzie
was twice as cold as it was on the way over. I didn’t care though. All I had to
do was just think about kissing him again and all of my senses came alive and
caused comfortable warmth to travel through my veins.

The other thing that is so incredible
about this guy is that we’ve already made love once. Most guys would assume
that to mean we would be doing it again and again. But not Brock. When we got
back to his apartment he told me to sit on the couch and he went and got me a
blanket. Once had tucked me all in, he made me a cup of tea and then he said,
“Do you want to watch a movie?” I wanted to hug him until he couldn’t breathe.
In relatively short amount of time, I think he may have restored all of the
faith in men I had lost when Zack walked out on me.

“Sure,” I told him with a smile. He handed
me a few to look through and to my surprise and delight, there was
Untamed Heart
right in the middle of the
stack.

“This one?” I asked him.

He grinned.

“Somehow I knew you would like this one,”
he said.

“Well, you must like it too, even more
than me. I don’t own a copy of it.”

“Neither do I,” he said with another grin.
“This is Jake’s.”

“Oh, Megan must have left it here,” I
said.

He put it on and sat down next to me and
said, “Why do you think it could be mine, but seem like you can’t even consider
that it might be Jake’s?”

I didn’t know how to phrase it without
making it sound a little like an insult. Finally I said, “I think you’re more
comfortable in your masculinity than Jake is in his.”

He laughed out loud at that and said,
“Like metrosexual or something?”

“Oh God no!” I told him. “Those guys with
nail polish and eyeliner completely freak me out. I just mean you don’t ever
seem like you have anything to prove…to anyone.” That must have been the right
way to put it, because before the little boy who would grow up to be Christian
Slater with a baboon heart passed out on the orphanage playground he had
covered my lips with his and completely obstructed my view. I didn’t care
though. After two or three minutes I couldn’t have even told you what we were
watching, and after five it was doubtful that I remembered my own name. When we
came up for air, he looked at me with those intense blue eyes for about thirty
seconds, and I could barely remember his name.

Brock made love to me again that night,
and it was even better than the first time. Afterwards, as I was drifting off
to sleep, I told myself not to forget to thank Megan and Jake for bringing him
into my life.

I woke up in his arms again the next
morning.

“Good morning,” he said with a sleepy
smile when I opened my eyes.

“Hi,” I said. “How did you sleep?”

He closed his eyes and smiled.

“Fantastic,” he said. “How about you?”

“The same,” I said with a smile.

“Can we stay here like this all day?” he
asked, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in tight.

“You have no idea how much I would love
to,” I told him, honestly. “I have my final in lab today before the Christmas
break. I can’t miss it.”

“Yes you can,” he said. “You can quit
school and be my groupie.”

I laughed, “That sounds like an ambitious
path to take with my life. I don’t know if I can dare to aim that high
though…and then there’s Gran…” He opened his eyes wide then and said, “Okay, go
take your silly final. I’m going to lie here all day and smell your perfume on
my pillow, and wait for you to call.”

“Mmm,” I said, snuggling back into him.
“School is over-rated. Maybe I could pull the band groupie thing off after
all.”

He hugged me again and then he said
something that got me up.

“There is the fact that Jake will probably
be coming home soon.”

I was still not ready to meet Jake at the
breakfast table in one of Brock’s shirts. By the time I finished in the
bathroom, Brock was dressed and ready to take me home. Sometimes I just can’t
believe how amazing he is.

After I showered and dressed, I went to my
class, hoping that I could come down from my cloud a bit, at least long enough
to concentrate on my final experiment. We were paired up, and if one partner
ruined her part of the experiment, we would both fail. I didn’t want to make my
partner, Mai fail. She was a perfectionist, and failure could possibly send her
spiraling down into the dark, cold abyss. While we were setting things up for
our experiment, Mai said, “You haven’t stopped smiling since you got here.
What’s the joke?” I’m tempted to tell her that it’s no joke, but because I just
spent the night with the most gorgeous, incredible man on Earth, but instead I
said, “I’m just happy to be here.”

She looked around the beat up old lab
letting her eyes rest for a minute on Professor Noland. Let’s just say he looks
like Joan Crawford and leave it at that. Then she looked back at me like I was
crazy. I smiled at her again. As I set up for our invisible smoke ring lab she
stood back a little, just in case I really was a little bit crazy. I didn’t
blame her, I was still grinning like an idiot.

When all was said and done, I had come
through for Mai. We got a B on our final. It was no A, but nobody’s perfect. It
proved that I was good at multitasking too, because I still hadn’t been able to
stop thinking about ice-skating in the moonlight with Brock as he sang to me,
or eating a picnic dinner he had packed for me under the stars, or making out,
or making love to him, and I still got a B. Go Me!!

On my way home after class, I had to go by
the coffee shop and get my schedule. Now that I was finished training they were
going to give me a real schedule. It was a good thing, I really needed the
money.

“Hey Cassie, is my schedule ready?” I
asked her as she bustled about. I was surprised that she wasn’t whistling while
she worked. She really liked her job.

“Hi Molly,” She said. “Yeah, I think it’s
in the back.” I started back to get it when suddenly there was a blonde,
cheerleader type standing in front of me.

“Excuse me,” I said. “I didn’t see you
there.” The girl looked familiar, but I didn’t think much of that. I did think
was weird that she was still standing right in my way. She hadn’t moved an inch
one way or the other, and she was glaring at me.

“Is there something I can do for you?” I
asked her, finally.

“Do you know who I am?” she said.

Barbie? Skipper?

“No, I’m sorry. Should I?”

“My name is Tammy. I’m Brock’s
ex-girlfriend.”

The stalker that was it!

“Oh, hello,” I said. I’m not sure what
else I was supposed to say to that. I’ve also never met a stalker. At least I
don’t think I have. I’m not sure what stalker/new girlfriend etiquette called
for in this situation. I tried to step around her again, and again she stepped
in my way. Okay, now I was getting pissed.

“Will you excuse me? Please!” I said, none
too patiently.

“I just thought maybe you and I should
have a talk,” Tammy said.

“Most people walk up and say, ‘Hey can you
and I have a talk?’ They don’t block your path.”

She seemed to realize suddenly that she
had pissed me off. Not that I think she genuinely cared, but she tried to act
like she did as she said, “Oh, I’m sorry. Can we talk?”

I looked at the clock. It was
four-fifteen. I hadn’t seen Brock in over six hours and I was beginning to have
withdrawals.

“I have five minutes,” I told her. She
turned then and walked to a table in the corner, expecting me to follow her. I
did, grudgingly.

“What’s this about? Tammy…is it?” I asked
her.

She smiled. It was supposed to be sweetly
but it looked more like the offspring of Barbie and Attila the Hun.

“Brock is still in love with me. I’m sorry
to be blunt, but I hate to see you get hurt.”

I was speechless. I don’t mean that in the
sense of the old saying, I was truly, literally speechless. Nothing would come
out.

“Did you hear me?” she said, finally. Now
I smiled. It was my own cross between a cheerleader and a serial killer smile
and I found my voice.

“Oh, yes I heard you,” I said, simply. “Is
there anything else?”

She looked shocked that I wasn’t getting
confrontational. She had geared herself up for at least a verbal fight.

“I think you should just back off. Brock
and I were meant to be. He wrote a song for me, you know.”

“That’s nice,” I said with a tight smile.
“I need to go, okay?”

This chick was not right in the head.

“Just remember that I warned you. When he
comes back to me, and he will, I plan on taking him back. I’m letting him sow
his oats with the…waitress-types first.” She really did want to fight. In my
head I could picture myself slapping that snotty look right off of her face.
Don’t give her the satisfaction, Molly. Make
her leave with as much pent up crap as she came in with.

“And I thank you for that,” I said. This
time I said it with a sweet smile. “You take care, Tammy.” I got up, went to
the back got my schedule, said good-bye to Cassie and she was still watching me
as I went out the door. I was expecting to find a boiled bunny on the stove,
very, very soon.

My phone rang as I was walking back to the
dorm. It was Brock, and just seeing his name on my caller ID made me smile. I
took back everything I said about his parents giving him a funny name. I had
been ill-informed. It suited him perfectly.

“Hey!” I said, picking up the call.

“Hi, gorgeous,” he said. “How did your lab
final go?”

“I passed,” I told him. “How was your
day?”

“It was good. I worked on another song for
you.”