Free Reckless Heart by Barbara McMahon Page B

She could see his bronzed chest in the deep vee of the short robe; his muscular legs were bare. Why was he here? Why had he banged on her door like there was an emergency?
    He leaned over and kissed her. Startled, Molly slipped her hands up to his shoulders to keep her balance. Then it seemed logical to encircle his neck, thread her fingers through his damp hair. His face was clean-shaven, no scratchy beard against her skin.
    Wait. Damp hair, shaved?
    Somewhere it registered that he'd already had his shower and probably wore nothing beneath his robe.
    As she wore nothing beneath her shirt.
    “Molly.” He pulled back, breathing hard. “Where are my clothes?”
    “What?”
    She snapped open her eyes and stared at him. “What do you mean, where are your clothes? In your—oh no!”
    Whirling, she raced down the stairs and into the kitchen, flicking on the lights as she made her way through the house heading for the laundry room. Oh no, oh no oh no, she chanted, flinging up the lid to the washer. There in damp array sat his jeans and dark shirts. The pile of colored shirts were still on the floor next to the washer. Whites piled next to them.
    She'd forgotten to put the jeans in the dryer yesterday! On the floor before the washer sat the other loads of clothes, all waiting to be washed.
    “Damn!” Josh had followed her and stood in the doorway, his gaze immediately recognizing the situation.
    “I can dry them right away.” She pulled the heavy damp denims from the washer and stuffed them into the dryer.
    “Denim takes forever to dry.”
    “Nonsense, they’ll be dry by the time you finish breakfast,” she said, crossing her fingers as she hit the On button. Putting soap into the washer, she scooped up another load and started that, as well.
    “If you think I’m going to breakfast dressed like this, you’re crazy,” he said.
    She looked at him and her heart melted. Her knees grew weak again and she held on to the washer like a lifeline.
    He looked like he just got up from bed. His hair was mussed from her own hands. His eyes glittered at her and in the uncertain light, it looked like he wanted her. Which just proved her imagination worked even first thing in the morning.
    She pushed away.
    “I’m sorry. I guess I was so caught up in cleaning, I forgot to change the loads. I’ll make sure they are all done today.”
    “Can you keep your mind on it?” he asked with an edge in his tone.
    “Yes.”
    He had a right to be angry. It took less than twenty seconds to load the dryer and push the button. Why hadn’t she thought once about the clothes after she'd gathered them from his room?
    Maybe that kiss had had something to do with forgetting everything.
    It would have been so easy if she’d put the clothes in to dry before going to bed.
    She should have remembered!
    “You’ll excuse me for wondering. How could you forget something so simple?” he asked.
    “I just did, okay? It won’t happen again.”
    “I’m putting my money on that it will happen again. Molly, you’re one strange woman. You go off into your own little world so far the house could burn down around you and I don’t think you’d notice.”
    “So this housekeeper might be the one that just wandered away in her mind?” she joked, trying to ease the tension that shimmered between them.
    “No, sweetheart, this one might be the one I fire,” he said slowly.
    “Please don’t, Josh. I’ll do better, I promise. It’s just my way of coping.”
    “Coping with what?”
    “My dad. He...nothing I did ever pleases him. He wants me to be accomplished like my mother. She left him when I was little. Left us both. So I don't even have a role model. He’s a hard man, expects perfection. So I’d imagine I did things his way. That he liked what I did.”
    Loved me, she wanted to say, but stopped short before revealing that.
    “And imagined a lot of other things to make life more bearable?” he asked with pinpoint accuracy.
    She nodded. “But