.
* *
“How am I possibly going to get my own date?” Mollie lamented to her friends Claire and Amanda the next day. The two women had answered Mollie’s SOS text message, agreeing to meet her for lunch at the Main Street Grille.
With Claire’s recent engagement to Matt, and as busy as Amanda was with her new catering business and with her fiancé Ryan Carter, single dad and owner/editor of the local paper, Mollie hated to drag her friends into her problems. If circumstances hadn’t been so dire, she wouldn’t have bothered.
But instead of seeing the problem as an insurmountable issue, Amanda and Claire exchanged eager grins. Amanda scooted her chair closer to the table, her rich chocolate eyes bright as she said, “I’ve been dying for the chance to set you up.”
“Huh.” Wishing she could share her friend’s enthusiasm, Mollie slouched in her chair and picked at her Caesar salad with her fork. “You and Zeke both.”
Claire’s expression turned sympathetic. “I know this isn’t easy, but maybe it’s time for you to move on.”
Everything inside Mollie rebelled at the idea of giving up on the dream that had lived in her heart for so long. “How can you say that? Especially after the way you and Matt reunited after all these years.”
“Matt and I had a history together. A romantic history, so in a way, it feels like our relationship picked up right where we left off. You and Zeke have a history, too, but it’s a history of friendship.”
“So you think it’s hopeless, then. It is hopeless. I’m hopeless.”
“You are far from hopeless!” Amanda argued. “You are a wonderful, amazing person who deserves a wonderful and amazing man in return.”
“Zeke is—”
“A wonderful and amazing man, I know.” Gentling her voice, Amanda said, “But you have to realize, hon, that he might not be the wonderful and amazing man for you.”
“I’ve always thought he was perfect for me.”
“And he is...if all you want is a friend. But if you want more than that, then it’s time to admit what you and Zeke have isn’t enough.”
Not enough...
Mollie had spent her entire life feeling as though what she had to offer was not enough. Her brother, Patrick, had been the firstborn and everything her parents wanted in a child. Outgoing, good-looking, talented, smart—while Mollie had been little more than an afterthought.
Losing Patrick had only made Mollie long even more for a family of her own—one that consisted of at least a few two-legged members. Fostering and training dogs certainly filled a huge part of her life, but she still had an empty spot in her heart.
“I do want to get married someday, to have children,” Mollie admitted.
Zeke’s children...
But he wanted to pawn her off on one of his buddies.
Giving up on eating, Mollie pushed her plate away. “I’m no good at dating. I never know what to say and always end up feeling so self-conscious that I don’t say anything... It’s just a disaster.”
“All you need is a little confidence. Let us fix you up, and you’ll see dating isn’t so bad.”
“I don’t know—” Mollie was about to tell her friends to forget the whole idea when a masculine voice called out, “Hey, sis!”
The three women looked up as Amanda’s older brother, Josh, walked over to their table. Like all of Amanda’s siblings, Josh was blessed with warm olive skin, deep-brown eyes and dimples to die for. He greeted them with a smile before reaching over his sister’s shoulder to break off a piece of her cornbread muffin. Shaking his head sadly after sampling the bite, he said, “They just aren’t the same since you left.”
“Stop! It’s the exact same recipe,” Amanda insisted, but Mollie noticed her friend had to take a taste for herself, just to make sure.
“Quit trying to guilt your sister for following her own dreams,” Claire scolded him.
“Oh, come on! Giving my brothers and sisters a hard time is the best thing about having siblings.” Josh caught Mollie’s eye and broke off suddenly with a quiet curse. “I’m sorry, Mollie, I wasn’t thinking—Patrick was a true hero.”
“Yes, he was,” Mollie murmured around the ache in her throat, as she always did when anyone brought up her brother and his service. Like everyone else in Spring Forest, she was proud of and humbled by her brother’s dedication and bravery.
Patrick had been an amazing man and a remarkable soldier. But the brother she mourned, the brother she missed, had also been human. He’d had his fears, his doubts, and he’d made mistakes.
But her parents, Zeke, the whole town wanted to remember Patrick McFadden as the heroic soldier who had died for his country. For all of them, and for the sake of her brother’s memory, Mollie would do everything in her power to keep it that way.
She held on to her smile despite the sting of tears as she added, “He would be the first to agree with you about how much he enjoyed giving me a hard time.”
Looking slightly relieved at her joke, Josh grinned. “Patrick loved to kid around, but every guy in Spring Forest knew not to mess with you or they’d have a pissed-off soldier on their hands.”
Looking as puzzled as Mollie felt, Amanda asked, “What do you mean, Josh?”
His dark brows rose. “You didn’t know? Before he left for basic training, Patrick had a heart-to-heart with every teenaged dude in the county, making sure they all knew his little sis was off-limits.”
Noticing the look her friends exchanged, Mollie reached for her iced tea, half surprised she didn’t spill it down the front of her shirt as she took a quick sip. “That’s ridiculous,” she muttered into the glass. “I was a kid when he left.”
“You were fourteen,” Amanda pointed out.
Josh nodded. “And Patrick already knew what the rest of us figured out in high school—that you’d turn into a beautiful young woman.” Josh shot her a quick wink that had Mollie’s face flaming. “He was right to warn us all away.”
After Josh excused himself and headed to the kitchen to speak with his brother-in-law, typical sounds still filled the restaurant—the clink of silverware against plates, the waitresses taking orders, the din of conversation all around. But a dead silence had fallen over their table.
“Well, there you have it,” Claire announced finally.
Amanda nodded. “The reason you’ve had such a hard time dating all these years had nothing to do with you. After Patrick warned them off, guys got used to thinking of you as off-limits, and that never changed.”
Was it possible? Mollie thought back to her high school days, when it seemed every girl had a date for Homecoming, Spring Fling, Prom...every girl but her. Mollie had believed she was somehow at fault. She was too shy, too awkward, too plain. Was it her big brother’s warning that had really kept the boys away?
“Why would he do that?”
“You know how Patrick wanted to protect you.” Amanda reached out to squeeze Mollie’s hand. “He was gone so much, he didn’t have the chance to see the strong, confident, beautiful woman you’ve become.”
“Now it’s time for the rest of Spring Forest to take notice,” Claire added.
The idea of anyone noticing her had Mollie ready to break out in hives, and Claire and Amanda wanted the whole town to take note? “I don’t know—”
“You heard what Josh said and—” Amanda’s eyes flew open wide. “Oh, my gosh! I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before, but Josh would