Page 26 of To Win a Rebel

“You asked?” Randy asked.

Molly looked from Randy to Nate, and then she was moved on quite quickly. “I thought we were going to be hanging out with them?”

“We will, but let them, you know, mingle, while they’re alone. You and I are going to dance.”

She had no choice but to laugh as he spun her around and led her onto the dance floor. He seemed to be acting like a crazy person, but the moment they were on the floor, he pulled her into his arms.

It was like he’d bribed the DJ, as the number went slow and spooky. Nate pulled her into his arms, and she tilted her head back to look at him.

“Are you having fun?” he asked.

“Yeah, I am. What was Randy talking about? What do you need to tell me?” Molly asked.

“Soon,” he said.

“Is it bad?”

“It’s not bad.”

“Is it good?”

“I think it is,” he said.

She chuckled, but that didn’t help abate her nerves. Was he going to break up with her? Is that what this was?

Molly rested her head against his chest as the song kept playing. She didn’t know how she felt at the thought of him wanting to break up. She tried to scramble her thoughts, to find any kind of indication he was done with her.

Shut up, Molly.

She tried to calm her thoughts. While she’d been on the verge of telling him she loved him, it would seem Nate was ready to call it a day.

****

The cuff dangled from Nate’s wrist as he looked over the buffet table. It all looked delicious, just as it did every year. The local bakery and diner worked together to create an endless supply of spooky concoctions. Sausage mummies, a coffee cheese spread, complete with disposable spoons so no one double dipped. Mummy hair with spaghetti. There were labels titling each item, and then underneath a small description of what they were.

All looked delicious.

With two plates in his hands, he was about to take an assortment of food. He and Molly were starving.

“Well, hello, handsome,” Rachael said.

Before he even knew what was happening, the plates were pulled out of his hands, and he didn’t have time to react as she pressed him up against the wall.

“What the fuck?”

Women had attacked him in the past, but he’d also been drunk, and he’d been single. He was trying to find the right time to propose to Molly, and Randy, with his stupid big mouth, might have spoiled it.

He knew Molly was nervous about what he wanted totalkabout. Fuck, he wanted to propose to her in an elaborate, story-worthy way. He wanted her to think about her books, and in all honesty, he wanted to put them to shame in how he proposed.

“You’re playing hard to get, I can understand that. You want me to chase you.”

He put his hands on Rachael’s shoulders, and he wished he could smell alcohol on her breath, but there was not a damn thing wrong with this woman, other than she clearly couldn’t accept he was with another woman.

“Stop,” Nate said. “I’m not playing hard to get. I don’t want you. I never wanted you.”

“Please, you and I both know it makes sense, you and I being together. Not you and that fat little bitch.”

“Do not ever call her that!” Nate growled out each word, feeling the anger fill his body. They had already started to gain an audience, and then Rachael suddenly screamed as she was jerked away.