A Second Chance

Molly tasted the same; she smelled the same, too. It was as if the years between had never happened.

"John?" Molly mumbled uncertainly when John finally broke the kiss.

John realized what he had done and froze in horror. Without saying a word, he stood up and moved toward the washrooms. Red, who had witnessed the whole scene, followed his father immediately.

Molly watched John disappear into the men's bathroom and she just sat there, her mind so awash with a confusion of emotions she could hardly think.

What the hell had just happened?

CHAPTER 12

When John came out of the bathroom, he went back to his table. Fortunately, Molly was waiting for him, and Jack was nowhere to be seen.

"Molly, I need to leave," John said in a quiet voice.

"Okay, but...," she began.

"If you want to stay, I'll ask someone else to drive me home," John offered. "But I would prefer if you come with me. I need to talk with you."

"Okay, but...," Molly tried again.

John turned around and started to say his goodbyes. After a while, Molly stood up and followed him.

They went out and Molly helped John to get inside the truck, then she started it, and drove away.

"Does your sudden hurry to leave have anything to do with Jack?"

"In a way, it does."

Molly bit her lip.

"You shouldn't be jealous of Jack. He was only dancing with me because Laura told him to make sure I had a good time."

John grumbled at Molly's words.

"I know exactly what kind of 'good time' he wanted to give you."

"Your point is?"

"He was seducing you! He was preparing the way to bed you."

"Of course, he was. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"What?" John asked incredulously. "Are you planning to sleep with him?"

Molly kept her eyes on the road.

"I'm thinking about it. I'm tired of living like a nun. Don't you miss sex, John? I miss sex a lot."

John grunted. "I have sex."

"I mean with a woman."

John's face turned red.

"As far as I know, you haven't dated since your divorce, John," Molly added. "It's only natural if you do. You've been too long without."

John nodded without comment.

"It's been a very long time since I was with a man too," Molly whispered.

"Can you explain to me why are we talking about this?" John said. His conversation with Molly wasn't going as he had planned.

"I'm tired of living together like brother and sister."

John looked at Molly with his eyes opened wide.

"The kiss you gave me at the party wasn't exactly a friendly peck, was it?" Molly smiled.

John let out a soft grunt. It was not a memory he would forget soon.

"Please, say something! I'm practically throwing myself in your arms and all you do is grunt like a hog. God, I'm so pathetic!" Molly exclaimed. Tears started falling down her cheeks.

John cleared his throat and said, "I would love to have sex with you, Molly. I'm sure it would be much better than it was with Ginger."

"She wasn't good in bed?" Molly asked with a sniff, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"Or with anything else, for that matter. She wasn't even a good kisser. Not like you. You're still a really good kisser, Molly. The best," John said in whisper, looking into her eyes. "I could kiss you till the cows come home."

Molly snorted a laugh. "There are no cows here, are there?"

"It's just an expression," John murmured. "This was what I wanted to talk with you about. I think we should definitely find out if the spark is still there, don't you? But you'll have to be patient with me." He raised his casts, "I can't do much with these."

She pressed her hand on his crotch and squeezed his hard cock. "There's nothing wrong here." Molly giggled.

"Stop the truck," John asked her.

"Why?" she asked with bewilderment.

"Because I want to kiss you again, and I can't wait till we reach the farm. I'm afraid I'm going to cum in my pants."

Molly stopped the vehicle and found herself staring up into his eyes. She stood perfectly still as John's lips moved over hers, almost terrified that if she moved this would all suddenly fracture and prove to be just another one of her erotic daydreams.

She used to have a lot of them, and each one of them involved John.

"Please God, don't let me wake up this time", she thought.

A torrent of passion immediately rose inside her, and she moaned around his tongue. Molly kissed John back desperately. She slid her hand on his crotch and squeezed his hard cock gently.

"It seems I still have it," she muttered when they broke the kiss. "I thought that after seeing me covered in chicken feathers, egg slime, and overalls, you had started to think about me as another of your workers."

John reached for Molly and his casts scraped her arms. She jumped at the unexpected sensation.

Cursing, he yanked them back. His fingers curled in upon themselves, nails clicking against the casts.

He made a sound of self-derision. "I want to touch you so badly I'm shaking. But I'm afraid I'll scrape you or bang you or hurt you."

His hands had always excited her. They were big, rough, and strong, yet right now they were nearly useless. An odd surge of tenderness consumed her.

John was a beautiful man, tall and firm, with ridges in all the right places, hard, yet somehow soft. Enticing, but dangerous, too.

Her fingertips stroked his face; he tried to touch her hair and got it snagged at a rough spot on the cast. His curse destroyed a bit of the romance, but nothing could destroy the need she had to be with him.

She lifted the heavy casts, kissed the tips of his fingers, then lowered them back to his sides. "Let me touch you," she whispered. "You won't have to do a thing."

He lifted a brow. "Nothing?"

"Well, one thing. But you won't need your hands."

He laughed; she joined him. Why did she feel as if everything was going to be all right?

Molly kissed John long and hard. "God, I want you."

It all came barreling toward them then, the passionate love they'd felt for each other when they were young and thought it would last forever.

Molly squeezed his cock again. John covered her mouth with his and then broke their kiss to trail his mouth down her throat, over her collarbone, and on to one breast.

Molly unbuttoned her blouse to set her breasts free and cried out as John's lips closed over her nipple.

The need to feel his skin against hers was overwhelming. Molly was no longer able to reason or think beyond the moment.

How many times had she awakened with tears on her face, memories flickering, images of him and her, together, fresh in her mind? Too many to count.

When John let the first nipple slip from his lips and turned to attend to the other, she gasped, "John, please."

Molly reached for her blouse and began to tug it up. She sighed with a combination of disappointment and relief when he stopped kissing her to let her remove it. Then she unbuttoned his shirt and wrapped her arms around his neck, her body arching to press her bare breasts against his chest.

"I need you. Now," John growled

"You just read my mind," she whispered, licking his ear.

Molly undid his pants to set free his hard cock. Then she moved the car seat back as far as possible to maximize the room available.

"Lie back."

John did what she asked. When she straddled him his eyes widened, but he didn't argue. What man would?

Molly climbed on his lap, pulled her panties to the side, and sat on his hardness.

"Yes!" she gasped when his cock's head entered her soaked tunnel.

John entered her slowly, letting her feel his cock expanding her tight walls. Molly clutched his shoulders, and met his gaze, eyes widening as he filled her to the hilt. John was so much hotter, harder than she remembered, she thought faintly as her body expanded to close around him like a tight glove.

Groaning, Molly wrapped her arms around his head and began to move, using her thighs to raise and lower herself. The movement combined with everything else started an overwhelming chain of waves inside her and she groaned and instinctively began to move more quickly as those waves of pleasure built to unbearable levels, mounting one on top of the other and crashing through her head until she thought she would drown in the pleasure.

And then Molly screamed out, hearing John's roar as they came together.

Freely she gave him, her mouth, her skin, her soul.

John consumed her, he surrounded and filled her, and the power of that made her weak.

CHAPTER 13

John opened his eyes to find his son Red peering down at him with a big smile on his face.

Molly was peacefully sleeping at his side, her breathing light and even. At least nothing was showing.

"You have everyone fooled with your grumpy act, you dog!" Red whispered, trying to hold a laugh.

John glanced sharply up at his son. "You shouldn't have come to my bedroom," he growled making an effort to keep his voice down.

"Why? In the last few years, your bedroom has seen less action than a snowplow in July. Besides I come here every morning to help you with your morning routine, remember?" Red replied still smiling.

"Well, things have changed."

"So I see," Red smile got wider. "I'm happy for you, Dad. I like Molly. You two are going to be very happy, so long as you don't muck this up."

John turned his gaze to Molly as she murmured sleepily. The small sound made his heart ache for some reason and he merely stared at her for a moment, wondering how she'd slipped into his heart so easily and quickly.

He could lose himself in her. Having Molly here for the past several weeks had made him feel alive in ways he hadn't since... well, since he was a teen and they were together.

It wasn't the sex, which he acknowledged had been a hundred times more powerful than the sex they'd shared in their youth. That had been... well, mind-blowing frankly. It had certainly fried his circuits. But that wasn't how Molly had slipped under his skin. It had happened before the sex.

Molly brought him out of himself. He became a different guy when he was with her, someone he'd never known he could be, someone he liked.

His life was brighter with Molly in it and fuller too. Being with her had taught him the value of a smile, a joke, a laugh. He had smiled more since she'd begun living with him than he had done in the last several years.

"Since you are here you can help me get dressed," John said. "I still have trouble with buttons."

Red nodded and helped his father to get out of bed.

"How are you handling... with..." Red pointed at his father's casts.

"I seem to knock things over more than I pick them up."

"Well, that's what Molly's here for," Red winked at his father. "She seems to be doing a fine job."

John's face went red.

"I'll start the milking," Red walked to the door once his father finished his morning routine.

"After you're done with the milking why don't we sit down and take a gander at that robotic milking machines?"

Red stopped, shook his head as if he hadn't heard right, and turned.

"What?"

"The more I think about it, the more interesting it gets. I could use my free time to do other things."

Red took a look at his father and said, "You sure could."

***

Molly rolled onto his side in bed and reached for John, then opened her eyes with a frown when she didn't immediately find him. She stared blankly at the empty space beside her, and then sat up, her eyes swinging around the room.

The dress she had worn the previous day was lying at her side of the bed, and there was no trace of John except for the lingering memory of the lovemaking they had shared the night before.

Pushing the blankets aside, Molly stood up and walked to the mirror. No one had ever made her feel as John did. All her life she had craved physical affection. Her father had not been the most nurturing person, work was all he knew.

Since her father forced her to break up his relationship with John, there was forever a hole in her heart that ached to be filled.

Beneath the half-moon, she'd finally found a way to make the ever-present, nagging emptiness go away. With John deep inside her, she no longer felt alone.

"John certainly filled me up, last night," Molly smiled to herself feeling the dampness in her crotch.

When John held her, pressed his lips to hers, as if she were priceless beyond compare, her heart just melted.

Only with John was she truly whole. Because only John understood what they had lost one long-ago night. The best part of themselves.

***

Once Red left, John sat on the porch until well after nine.

He shouldn't have come down on Jack so hard, especially in front of everyone else. But he'd never been very good at holding on to his temper once he reached a boiling point, and since he couldn't do anything by himself, damn near everything grated on his nerves. Of course, when a man had no means of letting off steam...

"Good morning, John," Molly greeted him with a kiss on the lips.

Red had helped him change again into fresh sweatpants and a clean T-shirt.

"Good morning, Molly. Did you sleep well?" John smiled at her.

"I haven't slept so well in years." Molly smiled and looked into John's eyes. He looked rested, very different than his usual self. She placed a tray with two cups of coffee, scrambled eggs, toast, and jam on a small table between the two chairs.

Molly's fingers smoothed his collarbone, dipped beneath his shirt, and stroked his chest. His body responded and he found it hard to think; all he could do was feel. It had been so long since he'd felt desire he'd almost forgotten the flare, the heat, the need. No wonder young men were ruled by it. They kissed again. This time it lasted longer, and it meant more.

Molly sat at his side. John was in a quiet mood doing his best to have breakfast with his casts.

He glanced at Molly and found her watching him with some of the same questions in her eyes. He recalled so many nights, lying awake in his room dreaming of the future when Molly would be his wife and they would share a bed in this house.

"What? Why do you look at me like that?" Molly asked John.

"Just reminiscing," he said.

She could still smell his skin on hers.

"Do you remember how we were always hiding, sneaking?"

John smiled, "Of course, I do."

For her, it had been exciting to hide and sneak. She'd been such a child. However, she could also recall never wanting to let him go, clinging, getting a lump in her throat every time they said goodbye, and waiting for the day they could make love in a bed and then sleep in each other's arms all night long. But that day had never come.

"No hiding anymore," John murmured.

Molly looked at him, saw the love in his eyes, and her heart beat faster in her chest.

The day that had never come was suddenly here.

He smiled as if he understood her need.

"I've wanted us to be together for so long. I'm afraid I'm going to wake up and you'll be gone," she whispered.

"I'm real, Molly. I'm not going anywhere."

They were no longer teens. She was here by choice. She wanted him. He wanted her. Simple as that.

John thought that, maybe, if he took her, and took her, and took her again, he might at last rid himself of his desire for her. But then, he would never be able to rid himself of the love he felt for Molly.

Molly found herself enjoying the simplicity of the morning. She smiled, and she saw what life might have been like if she'd stayed instead of run way, and it wasn't bad.

"Where is Red?" Molly asked.

"Taking care of the cows."

CHAPTER 14

The wireless phone rang interrupting their conversation.

John answered, almost knocking down his coffee in the process, he listened for a short while, and then passed it to Molly. "It's your niece."

Molly grabbed the receiver.

"Good morning, Auntie. The doctor's office just called to inform you your results are back. You have an appointment in one hour," Laura informed Molly.

"Oh shit! One hour?" Molly took a look at her watch.

"There was a cancellation and I took it in your name. Is that alright?"

"You did well, Laura. I'll be right over. Thanks, Sweetie."

"Everything okay, Molly?" John asked.

"I'm fine. It's just a checkup. There's nothing to worry about," Molly explained to John.

Then she returned her attention to the phone. "All right, Laura. I'll meet you at the doctor's office in one hour. Later"

"Later," Laura echoed.

Molly ended the conversation and John asked her.

"So, are you going to the doctor?"

"Yes, the Ladies doctor. I... I'll get groceries on the way back. What would you like?"

"Surprise me."

***

One hour later, Molly left the doctor's office with a prescription and the truth. Life as she knew it was over. She was shaking all over.

"Thanks for being here with me, Laura."

"I'm glad I came, Auntie. I'm worried about you."

Molly didn't want to talk right now, she just wanted to cry. She climbed into the driver's seat, but made no move to start the car.

How was she going to tell John? How would he react to the news? Would he find her less attractive? Sadness took over her and a tear rolled down her cheek. She tried to be strong, but emotion took over her. It was heart-wrenching to think she would never have children of her own.

Laura turned toward her. "Auntie, explain to me what's so terrible about menopause. I really want to know."

"Besides feeling crazy half the time?"

"The meds should take care of that. You'll feel good as new in no time at all."

"But I won't be as good as new."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm defective and old."

"Old? You're in your mid-forties," Laura shook her head. "And defective? Where do you get this stuff? Menopause is a natural occurrence."

"John isn't going to think so."

"What does this have to do with John?"

"When cows can't have calves, what does he do with them?"

Laura rolled her eyes. "You're not a cow. You are a very beautiful and lovable person."

Molly shook her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if John goes out and finds a younger model the minute he hears the news."

"You're being irrational. John loves you."

"He told you this?"

Laura's brow creased. "Well, not in so many words."

"That's what I thought."

"But I can tell he staked his claim on you for the way he acted at the party."

"Well, we made love," Molly muttered with dreamy eyes.

Laura clapped her hands over her ears. "Too much information, Auntie."

Molly reached over and pulled Laura's palms away from her head. For an instant, she felt like a mommy, and the longing made her dizzy.

"You wanted to talk about this. Well, let's talk about how it feels to have one of the most important things in your life taken away and there's nothing you can do about it."

Laura gave her a wary look. "What's been taken away?"

"I'll never have kids of my own. I'll never be a mother."

Silence fell between them. Molly laid her head back against the seat and closed her eyes.

"You believe that the only thing you have to offer is being someone's mother? You're really pissing me off, Auntie."

Molly's eyes snapped open. She glared at Laura, but her niece had always been beyond any evil eye

Laura muttered, "What's really troubling you, Auntie?"

Molly flinched. "I'm wondering what happened. The proverbial, 'where did the time go'? Yesterday, I was a young woman traveling around the world. Now, I'm an old bag."

"Well, an old bag who will have her hands full of babies. You have Lily, Red Junior, and Maggie. Maybe we could set up a daycare nursery. You'll have more babies than you can handle!" Laura laughed and Molly smiled at her.

Laura held out a hand. Molly took it, and squeezed it tight. She almost forgot her life was over because something wonderful had just begun.