Beautiful Tragedy (A Standalone Romance Novel) Read online

  “How old is he?” I asked him.

  He’s ten. He plays rugby already, and from what I’ve seen in the videos my mom sends me, he’s pretty good.” I could see by the way Brock’s eyes lit up that he was proud of his little brother.

  “What about you? No siblings to torment you?” he asked.

  “None that I know of,” I said. “With my mother unfortunately, who knows? She may have five more out there somewhere that someone else is raising. I don’t know who my father is, so he could have a hundred that I’ll probably never meet.”

  I hoped after I said it, that I didn’t sound too bitter. I really wasn’t…most of the time. My mother had left me in a better place than she had ever lived in as an adult, so for that I suppose, I am grateful.

  We talked for another half hour or so and then I helped him clean the kitchen. It was after nine now, and his first class was at ten. I went to put my skirt back on, thinking I would just throw my coat on over and walk home. When I came back out, Brock said, “It’s freezing out there. You’re not walking.”

  “No offense to Suzie, but don’t you find it colder on her?”

  He laughed. “I’m sure she would take none,” he said. “She likes you, and that can’t be said of most women. But I do see your point. I have to go that way anyways, for class. Will you at least wait and walk with me?”

  “That sounds good,” I told him, honestly.

  While he was gone getting dressed, I picked up one of his bottles of medications. I didn’t mean to snoop, I was just curious if it was one they had tried on me. Brock said it was to shrink the tumor. I wondered if it had to be only tumors in your brain, or perhaps it could work for a kidney or two. I put the bottle back before he came back out.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  BROCK

  When I got home from school that day I was still smiling. My class had been boring, but I had smiled straight through it. As I was walking back to the apartment, I got a text from Jake telling me that he and Megan were driving out to see his parents for the day and night. I smiled even broader, hoping that meant Molly and I could spend some more time together tonight.

  I stopped at the sandwich shop before I got home and got myself a sandwich for lunch. As I turned to leave with it, I literally bumped into Tammy.

  “Well hello there,” she said. “Long time no see.”

  Yes, stalking someone else? “Yeah, I’ve been busy. How are you, Tammy?”

  “I’m just peachy,” she said. “I’m getting ready to go home for winter break. I was thinking about one last big hurrah before I do. Are you busy this weekend?”

  Busy staying as far away from you as I can get. “Actually, yes,” I said. “My girlfriend and I already made plans.”

  She raised a freshly waxed eyebrow as she said, “Your girlfriend? The little brunette I’ve seen you with?”

  I really hope that Molly won’t mind. I actually really hoped she would never meet Tammy, just for her own sake. “Yep, that’s the one.”

  “I thought you said she was just a friend.” Jeez this woman should be a cop. She’s practiced at the art of interrogation.

  “It turned into more,” I told her. “Take care Tammy, okay? I have to run.” She stood looking after me as I went out the door. I was still smiling.

  When I got to the apartment it was only one o’clock. Molly was still in class so I didn’t want to call or text and bother her, but I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I decided I could kill two birds with one stone and got out my guitar. As I worked on writing some new songs to add to my portfolio I thought back to the first day I met Molly. I hadn’t let myself admit it right away, but I think as they said on Jerry Maguire, she had me at hello.

  It’s not often that you meet someone who makes you happy by just thinking about them. I get a warm feeling throughout my body when I just picture her smiling face. It’s not a sexual thing, although I couldn’t wait to do that again, it was more spiritual I guess. I felt like we were connected somehow, even before I really knew her.

  The night at the haunted train ride was when I knew that I was probably going to fall in love with her. I didn’t say it out loud, not even to myself but in my heart I knew. Dancing in the rain with her was the most romantic thing I had ever done with a girl. It’s going to be a memory that I have and treasure for the rest of my life.

  I loved talking to her. I felt like I could tell her anything. I never told any of the other girls that I dated about Paul, my little brother. I was super proud of what a great kid he turned out to be, and I liked talking about him, but not to just anybody. I watched the animation in Molly’s face this morning when I was telling her about him. She genuinely cared what I was saying about him, and before we left the apartment she actually asked to see a picture of him. I had one in my wallet that I showed her and she smiled and said, “Lucky guy, he looks just like you.” That had made me feel good because Molly was saying that I looked good, and because I liked the idea of my little brother looking like me. I said something about maybe Molly going out with me the next summer to visit him. She had actually seemed enthusiastic about that. If she was just faking it for my benefit, then she was pretty darn good.

  I strummed my guitar and wrote down a few notes as I thought about her. She was good for my music, shaping it without even being aware that was what she was doing.

  I looked at the clock again…only one more hour until she’s out of class.

  I killed some more time cleaning up the apartment and changing my sheets. Just in case she stayed with me again tonight, I didn’t want her to think I was a slob. When my phone finally rang before I even looked at it I thought, “If this isn’t her, I’m not even going to answer it.” It was her.

  “Hey,” was how I answered. It’s no wonder women want me.

  “Hi,” she said. “I’m out of class and on my way home. I just called to see how your day was.”

  “Productive,” I told her. “How was yours?”

  “It was long and excruciating, and I’m glad it’s over,” she said.

  “Oh…but it’s not, even close,” I said. While I was cleaning house, I’d had a brilliant idea.

  “Oh it’s not?”

  I could see her smiling, and even over the phone it gave me chills.

  “Nope, I have big plans for you. That’s if you can stand another evening with me, and a little bit of cold.”

  “The evening with you sounds great…but, the cold, not so much. What do you have in mind?”

  “They have an outdoor skating rink set up in the park in town. I thought I would make us a picnic and we could go skating and have a picnic dinner under the stars. What do you think?”

  “I think the cold can be damned,” she said. “I’m there.”

  I arranged to pick her up in a few hours. She wanted to shower and change and I still had to plan a picnic for two people on a strange diet, and I realized I would have to run down and buy a picnic basket since I didn’t have one of those either.

  I went to the super center in town and picked up things to make a Caesar salad, some fruit cups, some yogurt covered strawberries and some organic juices in plastic containers. I got two bottles of water too. I had become obsessed with her drinking enough water. I couldn’t stand the thought of her getting sick again. When it was time, I had Suzie’s saddlebags all packed up and ready to go.

  Molly’s dorm mother Debbie called up for her and then sat and waited with me until she came down. That was fun. She kind of reminds me of the talk show hostess Ellen, only on steroids. Debbie is a big girl, and by big, I don’t mean fat. I mean she could probably bench press me. She cross-examined me while we waited, “Where are you from? How do you know Molly? How old are you? Have you met her grandmother?” Like I said, it was fun, and when my beautiful Molly came down the stairs I was sad that it had to come to an end…Not at all.

  We said good-night to Debbie…I think. Molly mesmerized me with her beauty. I know that sounds clichéd or over-the-top, but it’s true. She ha
d on another one of those cute little knit hats like she wore to the football game, only this one was white. She also had on a fuzzy white sweater and a pair of jeans that looked like they had been made just for her…I swear. She put on her coat and gloves before we got on Suzie, and I think I may have glanced around to make sure Debbie wasn’t watching, and then I kissed her. She kissed me back, and I hope I’m right, but she seemed to be as happy to see me as I was her.

  I drove slow, knowing she was cold. I was thinking I might have to get a car for the winter months. Not that I’d ever give Suzie up, but a car for when I had Molly with me, to keep her comfortable and warm, would definitely be worth the investment. Well, okay my dad’s investment until I started making a little more money. But Dad was cool like that, I knew he’s help me out.

  When we got to the park, I parked Suzie in a well-lighted lot, right underneath a lamppost. Molly got off and as she was taking off her helmet, she said, “Is Suzie afraid of the dark?” She smirked when she said it. She’s lucky she’s her because no one else gets away with making fun of my Suzie.

  “Let’s put it this way,” I told her. “I would never leave you standing in a completely dark place for hours. I would be afraid someone would take you, or at the very least, touch you against your will…am I right?”

  She wrinkled her nose and said, “Which one of us do you like best?”

  I pled the fifth, and she laughed. I like her best, of course. I was just afraid if I opened my mouth about it, the big “L” word would come out. I had just got her comfortable enough to go out with me. I wasn’t going to risk scaring her away already.

  We walked across the park hand in hand. It was a little cold, but overall a really nice night for early December. The pond was easy to find. They had it decorated for Christmas with a big tree in the middle and twinkling fairy lights were strung overhead. We rented our skates, but decided to eat first so we found a nice little semi-secluded spot under a big tree. It was close enough to the lights that we could see what we were eating, but far enough away to give us some ambiance.

  “So what were you and Debbie talking about earlier?” she said with a grin.

  “She was getting my life story,” I told her. “If you hadn’t come down when you did, she may have brought out the torture devices.”

  Molly laughed. “My grandmother left me in her care and right before she left me there for the first time, she gave Debbie her scariest look and said, “I’m counting on you.” I know, looking at Debbie it’s hard to imagine, but I think Gran scared her.”

  “I wasn’t scared…much,” I told her, honestly. “I wrote a song for you today. Do you want to hear it?”

  “I’d love to,” she said.

  “You have to dance with me,” I said. She looked around at all of the people in the park and said, “How about we eat, and while we skate you can sing it to me. We won’t stand out so much, dancing on the ice.”

  “You don’t like to be the center of attention?” I asked her.

  “Not at all,” she said. “Do you?”

  I had to be honest here, but without coming off like I thought I was some kind of stud or something. “Well, I wouldn’t say being the center of attention so much as center stage, if you know what I mean?”

  She laughed and said, “No, I have no clue.”

  “Okay,” I told her. “I’m a musician and I like to entertain people with my music. I feel like center stage means you’re giving something back in return for the attention.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” she said. “Are we going to eat? I’m starving.”

  I opened up the basket and started taking things out. I handed her a bottle of water as I did. “My kidney thanks you,” she said with a smile before drinking it. Then she looked at all the food and said, “Wow! My stomach and taste buds are going to be indebted to you too. I can’t believe you did all of this. Thank you.”

  “It was fun,” I told her, honestly. “I like it that we’re both kind of on the same diet. I used to feel so left out when everyone was eating and I had my little healthy portions.”

  “Aw,” she said. It was cute, she wasn’t being sarcastic or anything as she said, “I don’t like thinking of you feeling left out.” I had to lean in for another kiss. She met me halfway. We kissed until we both needed to breathe and then she cleared her throat and said, “Can we eat now?”

  I laughed, “Yes, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” she said. “I want to do that some more. I just want to do it on a full stomach.”

  After we ate and cleaned up our mess, I told Molly, “If you want to put on your skates, I’m going to take the basket back and put it in Suzie’s bag.”

  She grinned and said, “You’re just going back to check on her, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe,” I said, “are you jealous?”

  “Maybe,” she said, with another grin. I kind of liked that idea.

  When I got back, she had her skates on and she was waiting for me on a wooden bench next to the pond. Her little nose was all red from the cold, but her eyes were bright and shiny. I could tell she was having fun. I sat down and put on my skates too and we hobbled the two feet to the entrance, clutching onto each other for dear life.

  Once we were out on the ice though, I realized that in a competition, Molly would have beaten me, hands down. Her moves were so graceful that I was tempted to just sit down and watch her. Instead, I turned her so that her back was against me and I let her lead us across the ice as I sang the silly little song I wrote for her. Last night, while we made love, I thought I was falling in love with her, but sometimes in a man’s brain, love and lust get mixed up. Tonight after I finished singing to her and she turned back towards me and I wrapped my arms tight around her, I knew the difference. I was falling in love with this girl, and I was falling hard.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  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 n
ow…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.