Almost a Family

Chapter Five

She hung her lab coat back on a hook and threw her gloves in the garbage before going to get Sara. She found the little girl sipping happily on a juice box as the end credits of the movie scrolled through.

"You've been good. You ready to go?"

"Yup. I had a powernap. I'm hungry."

Molly laughed. "Let's talk to Jason. Maybe we can convince him to let us have a treat."

Together they tidied up the room so it was as neat as it had been when they'd arrived. When they went upstairs, Jason was coming out of the kennel room. "You ladies ready?"

"Uncle Jason, can we go to McDonald's?"

His gaze darted to Molly, and she grinned widely. He sighed, clearly outnumbered. "Drive-thru only, kiddo. I'm too much of a mess to go anywhere. We'll take it home, okay?"

Sara jumped up and down, tugging on Molly's hand. "He said yes! Yippee!"

Molly angled an amused look at Jason. "Someone has lots of energy. She had a powernap."

"Let's go, then. She's always quiet when she's eating."

They drove to the McDonald's in Oromocto, and then went back to Jason's house to eat. Molly set Sara up at the table and went to find Jason. She discovered him in the laundry room amid piles of sorted clothes awaiting his attention. Being a single guy with his own business obviously did not leave a lot of time for domestic chores. She could relate to that. Her laundry basket was constantly full, and there always seemed to be a layer of dust on her furniture thanks to fourteen-hour days. If she got her promotion, she was seriously considering getting a maid to come in once a week.

"Aren't you eating?"

He blushed. "I've gotta change first. This shirt's covered in blood and mud." His dirty bottoms were sitting in a heap on the floor; he now wore clean jeans, but the scrub top had streaks of blood and mud in the pattern of doggie toenails. "I forgot to get a shirt."

"Do you want me to get it?"

"Do you mind?"

She'd been looking for an excuse to snoop through his house. So far she'd only seen part of the downstairs. "Nope."

"T-shirts are third drawer down in the dresser."

"I'll be right back." She left him spraying a prewash treatment on his pants.

Upstairs she found his room. It was dark in the late winter afternoon and she flipped a switch, which turned on a bedside lamp. The bed was made haphazardly; the covers thrown over top of the pillows without much precision. Molly ran her hand over the end of the spread before going to the dresser.

Had he said second or third drawer? Molly hesitated, then curiosity got the better of her and she pulled open the top one. It was, as she expected, his underwear drawer. Cotton briefs, a jumble of sports socks and three neatly folded pairs of dress socks looked up her. Rapidly she pushed the drawer back in.

She opened the next drawer. It was filled with scrubs, some green, some dark blue. She pressed her hand down on the pile of shirts, hitting something hard and square with her hand. She dug beneath the clothes, pulling out a black velvet box. It was familiar—too familiar—and her heart began beating a strange tattoo.

With shaking hands she lifted the lid. The hinge creaked softly in the twilight. Nestled inside was the engagement ring he'd bought for her all those years ago.

It winked up at her, a shining, painful reminder of that day years before when he'd offered it to her and she'd turned it away. That was the one fight they'd had that hadn't been resolved. Yet he'd kept the ring all this time.