Wow. That was quite a difference in age. Fifteen years. JJ paused as the math clicked in her head. Molly was pregnant at fourteen. The baby would’ve been born when she was fifteen. Had her parents adopted the kid as their own? Raised it as Molly’s sibling?
She decided not to ask those questions. The answers didn’t matter. Probably.
“Are your parents still married?”
Molly rolled her eyes. “Yes. My dad’s very religious. He says you’ll go to hell if you get married more than once.” She shuffled her feet again. “Or if you have a baby out of wedlock.”
Too bad her dad never told her one of the Ten Commandments wasThou shalt not steal. She figured it was safe to assume that went for stealing people, too.
“He says that?”
Molly nodded, pacing a few steps away. “Yeah. I’m going to hell. He said so.”
If not for that, then probably for this, yeah. Not that JJ was particularly religious. But, hey, if it was something she could use as leverage to get Molly to do the right thing, she was all for it.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like I can really help it. When you love someone, you have sex with them, and if you get pregnant, it’s because God wants you to,” Molly said, as though it was the only logical conclusion.
Wow. That wasoneway to look at it. A crazy way, yes.
“And it’s not okay to be married more than once?” JJ asked, wanting to take the subject away from babies.
“Definitely not. When you get married, you vow to love that person forever. You have to make it work. No matter what.”
Interesting. JJ figured it was safe to say that Molly didn’t realize Baz’s father had been married six times. That would certainly not go over well. Or maybe it would, and she’d change her entire outlook because Molly clearly idolized Baz for whatever reason. To continue to do so, she would have to accept that Baz and his father were very close.
“What about yours?” Molly asked.
JJ shook her head. “They divorced. Neither one remarried.” Not that she knew of, anyway. And if they had, she didn’t want to share that with Molly. She didn’t need to give the girl a reason to cast her into hell by proxy.
“Why’d they break up?”
JJ swallowed, unsure what part of her life history she wanted to share with this woman. There were some parts, like that particular one, that she kept very private. She hadn’t even talked to Baz about her brother yet.
“Did your mom cheat?” Molly asked.
Although JJ’s first reaction was to say no, she decided to take a different tack. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because you cheated with Sebastian when he was with me. You had to learn it from somewhere.”
Hmm.Tread lightly. Land mine ahead.
“Sebastian didn’t cheat on you, Molly. I only worked with him when you and he were…” She couldn’t get the wordtogetherout of her mouth because she knew they hadn’t been. The entire time Baz tried to help Molly, he’d been a broken shell of a man intent on doing the right thing.
“He loves me,” Molly said, her tone firm. “I know you don’t think he does, but he does. He just needs to see me again to remember.”
“Is that why I’m here? So you can see him?”
Molly shrugged. “I don’t know yet. Sonny says it’s the only way for me to get him back.”
“Sonny thinks you should be with Sebastian?”
She shrugged again, poking the toe of her shoe against the concrete floor. “He says it’s up to me.”
“Oh. I kinda thought Sonny liked you,” she said, wanting to gauge Molly’s reaction.
“No. We’re just friends.”
