Letters to Molly (Maysen Jar, #2)
Devney Perry
Prologue
Finn
“Miss?” I snagged the waitress’s attention as she walked past our booth. “Could I get another beer?”
“You got it.” She smiled and hurried away as I downed the rest of my first Bud Light.
Drinking was necessary when my sister was cuddled up on the other side of the booth, lips locked with this new guy she was dating. Jamie. There wasn’t anything quite as uncomfortable as watching your little sister kiss a man with tongue.
I looked over my shoulder, searching the crowded restaurant for our waitress. If this was how the night was going to go, I needed to order two more beers instead of one. The waitress had disappeared. Damn.
“So, Jamie.” I forced myself to say his name nicely as I turned back to the booth. “Poppy tells me that you’re from a ranch around here.”
He and Poppy broke apart—thank fuck—as he nodded to me. “That’s right. It’s about forty-five minutes from here. You guys should come out there with me one of these days.”
Jamie stretched his arm behind her and rested it on the back of the booth. And there it was, the dopey grin. Clearly Jamie was just as infatuated with Poppy as she was with him.
I tipped the beer bottle to my lips, frowning when I remembered it was empty. As I set it down, I studied Jamie from the corner of my eye.
He was two years younger than I was but just as bulky, probably from growing up on a working ranch. He wore his hair too long and too shaggy. His green and white pearl-snap Western shirt was unsnapped one too many. And the guy was wearing flip-flops in September.
Despite his strange cross between surfer and cowboy, Poppy was enamored. She’d gone out with him three times already. Wasn’t that too much? It seemed like too much.
When she’d invited me along tonight to meet Jamie and her new roommate for burgers, I’d had no choice but to say yes. Poppy was already in deep, and I had to know what kind of guy we were dealing with here.
“You’re a senior?” Jamie asked. I guess he hadn’t completely forgotten I was in the booth too.
“Yep.” I nodded. “Landscape design. What are you studying?”
“Education. I figure working until I’m sixty-five will be a hell of a lot more fun if I get to hang out with kids all day.” He flashed Poppy a wide, white smile. Then he took the unopened straw on the table and ripped the paper free from the plastic.
With a spin of his fingers, he balled up the paper. I knew before he was finished that it was going into one end of the straw.
Sure enough, he loaded the ball, grinned at me and brought the empty end to his lips. Then he took aim. One hard puff and the paper ball went flying toward Poppy’s nose.
“Jamie!” She swatted the straw as they both laughed.
This guy was a goof. No wonder he wanted to be around kids all day. He’d fit right in.
I’d only met him one beer ago, but I’d already pegged him as the class clown. The guy cracking jokes and playing games. The guy who’d make a fart noise just to lighten a somber mood. He was the guy who always had a smile and made sure everyone else did too.
I liked that for Poppy.
Which meant I was going to have to get used to them kissing.
Poppy could use a good-time guy. She’d gone home to Alaska for the summer to live with our parents. She’d worked hard for three months to save some money for the upcoming school year, which meant there hadn’t been much in the way of fun.
If I took a black light to Jamie’s forehead, I was sure I’d find the word fun written in invisible ink.
“Where’s this new roommate?” I asked Poppy, hoping to keep her mouth busy with conversation instead of, well . . . Jamie.
“She called to tell me that she was running late.” Poppy checked her phone. “That was about fifteen minutes ago, so she’ll probably be here soon.”
“What’s her name again?”
“Molly,” she and Jamie said in unison, then smiled at one another.
“And I haven’t met her before?” I’d met quite a few of Poppy’s friends but I didn’t recall a Molly.
“Nope. She lived in the coed dorms last year.”
Our waitress walked past the table with a tray of waters but stutter-stepped when she spotted me. “Oh, shoot. I forgot your beer. Give me a few minutes.”
“You know what? It’s okay.” I held up a hand, already sliding out of the booth. “I’ll just go to the bar and grab one.” Or two. Maybe three.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yep. No problem at all. You guys want anything?” I asked Poppy and Jamie, but it was too late. In the ten seconds I’d stopped watching them, they’d returned to whispering in each other’s ears and I was all but forgotten.
I walked away from the table, taking a necessary break from the happy couple. Along with watching them attempt to conjoin themselves in public tonight, I was also going to have to play nice with the roommate.
Poppy had assured me this evening wasn’t her arranging some sort of blind double date. This was simply dinner and a chance to meet Jamie and Molly before I got too busy with my last two semesters of school.
Though even with a heavy class load and part-time job in the evenings and weekends, I had a feeling I’d be seeing a lot of Jamie.