Molly woke up when she felt Jake's arms wrap around her from behind as he pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder. She signed contently as she sank into his body, hoping to keep sleeping. But Jake seemed to have other ideas, as he kissed her shoulder again, slowly moving to her neck.
"Molls…" he whispered in her ear as he kissed her neck now.
"Hmm," she made, not opening her eyes or responding in any other way.
"Wakey wakey," he said in a singsong, hugging her closer.
"There's no way it's mornin' yet," she contradicted him now, her voice thick with sleep, still keeping her eyes shut.
"I never said it was," Jake said, nipping her earlobe, kissing her neck again as one hand ran along her hip. "This is much more fun when yer awake," he added now, teasingly drawing circles on her stomach as he leaned in closer and she could feel his member against her. At this Molly tried not to laugh or be offended as she looked back over her shoulder at him. "Howdy ma'am," he smiled and kissed her on her lips. She kissed him back as she turned her body towards him, unable to resist as his hand cupped her breast.
Jake knew it had been cheeky of him to wake her up for more, but as they didn't know when they were next going to see each other with enough time or opportunity or indeed when they'd next have one of their houses to themselves, he felt he needed to make the most of tonight.
The next morning Molly got woken up at 5am by the alarm that Jake had set.
"Why?" she complained, as he reached to turn it off.
"As much as I want ye to stay in bed with me all day, ye can't. Ye need to be home when Jennifer wakes up at 6 to go to work," her boyfriend explained.
"Ye could'a warned me," she said accusingly, stretching for a minute.
He actually thought she might start moving straight away for once, but she snuggled up to him instead. "Molls come on," he tried to get her to move.
"Let her catch me," she mumbled, nuzzling into his neck as she started drifting off again.
"Ye don't mean that," Jake told her as calmly as he could, his heart thumping loudly as he thought of the implications of what she'd just said.
"Why should we have to hide?" Molly responded, half asleep already.
"I agree, but maybe we'd need to go about that better prepared," he said and gave her a nudge. "I'll give ye a piggy back ride over but ye do need to get movin'," Jake tried to entice her to move.
"Hmmm… That sounds tempting," she managed to sound a little seductive as she pressed a kiss to his neck. "I wanna stay here… With you. I'll think of summit to tell Jen when I see her next," she added now. She too wanted to make the most of the time they had together and to do so not sniping or fighting to see them through for a little bit. "I should not have to work this hard to convince ye," she now tried to guilt trip him, pressing kisses to his neck, cheek and lips.
He groaned as he wrapped his arm around her and hugged her closer. "Alright, alright, ye can stay," Jake gave in with a chuckle, pressing a kiss to her hair.
"Yeey," Molly smiled happily, gave him a big kiss and lay her head back to sleep for a bit longer. He chuckled to himself again, earning a small poke from her. He would take all the pokes she could dish out if it meant he could hold her like this for longer, even if she was asleep again already.
They made breakfast together, holding each other close whenever they could, making the most of not having to be proper in front of his sister. It felt so nice not to have to hide what they were feeling for each other for once. And it inevitably made them feel like they could take on the world; that the whole thing would work itself out with Jennifer and they could start to have a normal relationship.
Molly smiled to herself contently when Jake wrapped his arms around her from behind to hold her close, pressing a soft kiss to her neck. She honestly couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so safe or so happy.
"So I hate to sound predictable 'n like a guy, but when can I see ye again so we can… Do all o' that again?" Jake asked softly, pulling her in flush against him and kissed her neck again. She had to stop herself from giggling as she wrapped her arms around his.
"Jen usually works the late shift on Fridays. Ye probably wouldn't be able to stay the night though," she told him, wondering how they were going to wait two whole days.
"We'll work summit out," he said confidently, making her squeal when he turned her in towards him slightly so he could scoop her up. "Maybe just once more in case summit goes wrong?" he said with a wink as he started towards the stairs to bring her back up to his bedroom. She giggled a nod, at which he had to stop himself from trying to run up the stairs with her in his arms.
It was gone 12 by the time Molly made her way back to her house with her bike in hand. Jake had tried to convince her to stay for lunch and maybe go for a ride as well, but she knew she had to go home to sort out stuff around the house and prepare herself for when Jennifer came back later.
Except, when Molly came in through her back door, Jennifer's bag was on the table and she could see her sister's feet sticking over the edge of the sofa. She quietly walked over to the sofa, to see if maybe her sister hadn't gone to bed last night and therefore maybe slept through her alarm clock today. But she hadn't counted on seeing her awake, fighting back the tears rolling down her face as she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling.
"Jen, what's happened?" Molly asked concerned as she crouched in front of the sofa. The only time she'd seen her cry before was when their parents had died, so all sorts of fears were going through her mind. They didn't have many relatives left, so she wasn't sure what to expect now.
"Where've you been?" Jennifer asked first, wiping the tears from her eyes before she was willing to answer. She'd expected her younger sister to come home after last night's shift, even if very late.
"Hannah offered me her sofa after havin' gone back to work 'til closing," she answered, a little phased by the demanding tone in her sister's voice, but it was an excuse that made sense. Jake had after all left a note saying she'd been called back into work because one of the others had called in sick.
"Well, I'm glad at least you're getting the extra hours and money, at least one of us will be earning," the oldest girl now said, sniffing and blowing her nose as a fresh wave of tears spilled from her eyes.
"Uh huh, just a shame it's minimum wage 'n tips…" Molly chuckled wryly before the meaning of her sister's words actually sank in. "Wait, what do ye mean, at least one of us will be earnin'? What happened Jen?" she asked as she now scooched onto the edge of the sofa so she could comfort her sister better by rubbing her shoulder.
"I mean that I'm out of a job again," Jennifer sniffed, feeling so pathetic that her younger sister was having to comfort her and be the sole wage earner at the age of 20.
"Why?" she didn't understand.
"You know how the other assistant manager never did proper handovers and I was always having to sort out her crap before I could start my shift properly?" Jennifer asked her, knowing she must've mentioned it once or twice. She saw her sister nod. "Well, they started noticing things weren't running as smoothly as they were supposed to or could be and because she was there first, they went to her first to find out why. She laid the whole blame with me and that she was trying to help me out. They'd already made up their mind before they spoke to me about it, as I'm easier to get rid of still bein' on probation," she continued, fighting back more tears.
"But that's not fair!" Molly responded indignant, not understanding why her sister wasn't more up in arms about this.
"Of course it's not, but better the devil they know than the new girl from Phoenix right?" she managed a sarcastic tone through the tears before hiding her face behind the tissue, wiping her eyes again.
"Oh Jen!" the youngest exclaimed as she leaned over and hugged her sister the best she could in the position they were both in. "We'll work summit out, I'm sure what they've done is illegal," she tried to reassure her, feeling her sister's tears wet her hair as she held her close.
"It probably is, but I never really liked that job anyway," Jennifer finally explained her apathy; it had just been a job to get money in until she found something better. What was the point in fighting to get back a job that she never really wanted to do anyway?
Molly didn't respond to that as she continued to hug her, her mind racing to think of another way for her sister to get a job. They would struggle getting by on what she earned, even when she did move up to full-time hours. After a few minutes, when she hadn't been able to come up with anything, she realized selfishly that if Jennifer didn't have a job, Jake would never be able to come round the house. And she wouldn't be able to use extra shifts as an excuse to explain her absences anymore: Jennifer would expect to see more money coming in for all those extra hours. At present, the lie didn't really matter because they each had their own money. But when her salary was what they were depending on, every extra buck was going to matter a lot more and she would query why the extra hours weren't being reflected in what Molly brought home.
"We'll figure summit out," was all she said again, still hugging her. It was probably best that Jennifer wasn't able to see the look on her face.