Molly
"You run?" I nod my head looking down at my coffee before lifting my head to face her shocked face "You didn't say a word?" I shake my head still not speaking a word. "That handsome man kissed you and you just run without saying anything. Good lordy girly Women don't run from a fine man like Christian, they run at him, not from him.
She picks up a magazine from the coffee table and starts fanning herself and I can't help but laugh. "Penny, you're naughty." She gives me a cheeky grin while continuing to fan herself. "Oh, how I would be naughty for a man like Christian Bowen." I snort out a laugh that has her laughing and I realize that I feel lighter than I have in days. "Oh, Penny, you are hilarious." She smiles wide as she puts the magazine back on the table. "When you get to my age sweetheart you learn very quickly that life is too short. You need to smile, laugh and love with all you have."
Those are pretty sobering words and hit something inside of me. "I have loved them before. I loved hard and with all I had and then I lost it all. I lost the love of my life and now I find out that he's potentially betrayed me." The light mood I felt just moments ago has quickly faded and the sadness from before is back and weighing heavy on my heart.
Penny leans over the table, reaching out and taking my hand in hers. "I'm so sorry that you have had to live through losing a husband at such a young age. I know what you're going through, even the betrayal your feeling now feelings, but I promise you it will get better. You will forgive and let go and you can find room to love again, Molly. You are young, beautiful, and have so much to give to a man, and any man to end up with you at his side will be a very lucky man."
Tears stream down my face, tears that I can't control. This woman is an angel and having her say these things to me warm something inside of me. I've never had anyone like Penny in my life. Hell, I don't even remember my parents or if they loved me or not. "Your sweet Penny, really sweet but how can you say all of this with such confidence when you don't know me, not really anyway."
She gives me a warm smile before squeezing my hand. "Because sweet child I have met people from all walks of life in my time. I have met good people and bad people and through the years I've learned to read people very quickly and I knew who you was within five minutes of meeting you."
"Wait, you said you know how I feel about losing Archie and being betrayed... How do you know that Penny?" I have a feeling that she has lived through a similar situation but I hope that I'm wrong, she's such a sweetheart and I can't bare the idea of her feeling hurt like mine.
A sad smile spreads across her face while she seems to think about her words. "I lived through something similar many years ago, child, many, many years ago. When I was a young woman it was expected to be married young and I was. I met Arnold at the Saturday night disco at the town hall, he was tall and handsome and that night was the first time I kissed anyone."
"You were married before your late husband?" She nods her head while taking a sip of her coffee. "I was." She steps away from the table and comes back with a tin of biscuits and opens them up offering me one. "So what happened then?" She takes her time eating a biscuit before looking back at me.
"Arnold swept me off my feet with his sweet charm and manly protectiveness. We married six weeks later at Saint John's church surrounded by both of our families and three months later he signed up for the Army and that was the start of his life as a soldier. I moved around with him a lot but six months after we married I found out I was pregnant and we decided it would be best if I moved back to Texas to be close to our families and friends so that I had support around me and we both agreed that it would be better for the baby to be raised in one place instead of moving around."
"He stayed in the army for six years before being discharged after he was injured when a landmine went off close to where he was patrolling. He was one of the lucky ones and walked away with his life but it changed him. He came home and got a job as a travel sales agent and worked that job until he died in a motor accident seven years later."
"Oh. Penny, I'm so sorry to hear that." She pats my hand but doesn't seem too sad, maybe she moved on from the hurt a long time ago. "Anyway, after his death, I found out that he had another wife and four children in New Mexico."
"And that's why he became a travel sales agent after he was discharged from the Army?" She nods. just hearing what she went through tugs at my heart. "What about the baby? What did you have?" Her eyes glaze over and the saddest look I have ever seen appears on her face. "A little girl, so beautiful, so perfect. She died when she was eight weeks old. Cot death they said it was. We tried for more children but after four miscarriages I stopped trying, stopped hoping." Oh, my heart.
I give her hand a squeeze. "I'm so sorry you had to live through that Penny, I can't imagine the pain of losing a baby." She smiles but it's sad. "It happens, sweetheart. anyway, the point of me telling you this is for you to see that even when bad awful things like our situations happen you can still learn to be happy again, to trust again and more importantly to love again."
"Your Steven, he was the person that you loved after Arnold?" She nods and smiles but I don't miss the way her eyes glisten. She's not said much about him yet but it's already clear to see how much he meant to her, how much she loved him. "He was. God, when I met him he was like a dream, he was my dream man, but I couldn't think of having a relationship with another man, not after Arnold but Steven, well, Steven was persistent and after several months I agreed to a date."
Her story is already making me smile. She lets out a little laugh. "I only agreed because he hadn't left me alone. I also assumed that once he had spent some one on one time with boring old me that he wouldn't come around again but I was wrong, very very wrong. That man never gave up even when I did everything in my power to push him away. He still kept going, still stayed close."
"How did you meet him?" I see her face light up at her memories. "I was driving home one night when one of my tires burst out on a narrow country lane. I called a garage for a tow to get the tire fixed and Steven was the one who came to get me and my car. He was a mechanic in the garage, but the guy who usually dealt with the call-outs had called in sick and he was covering. I loved that man so so much, still do and I will continue to love him until my last breath. He taught me how to smile again, to laugh again and to love again, and I'll forever be grateful to him for that. He also gave me forty-two wonderful years of himself and two beautiful children."
"Wow, you did end up having children after all?" She smiles brightly, her blue eyes so bright I swear they go translucent. "I did, we did. Our eldest son Antony is 59 and our daughter Mary-ann is 54."
"That's one incredible story, to have all that heartache and still be able to find it all again." She nods agreeing. "It is, it was. Molly, I know you've been hurt and gone through the heartbreak of being widowed so young, but please don't give up on the chance of finding your happy ever after. Not everyone will leave you or hurt you."
I don't speak the words that are firmly settled in my head and on the tip of my tongue, I can't they are painful and raw and I don't think I have the mental space to deal with them right now. Penny goes quiet and seems to watch me for a few moments. "So, Molly, how about talking about why you run darlin'?" I don't want to but I have a feeling that Penny isn't going to let it go that easy and I also have a feeling that she's going to have me thinking and feeling things that I've been trying to keep suppressed since last night, thoughts and feelings that I'm also scared to admit.