Vin sat back on his chair outside the saloon and listened to JD relating his story of what happened with Molly that morning. JD had asked her that morning before classes if she wanted to go out riding. Apparently she had told him no and it had crushed the young man. Vin couldn't help but feel partly responsible. He knew how JD felt about Molly, they all did. And on the same level Vin knew Molly felt the same for JD. That's what was so hard for Vin feeling the way he did about Molly, he knew that if he acted on his feelings and she returned them JD would be hurt. Vin had listened to Buck and Josiah try to console the downhearted young man when he realized something.

In the months that Molly had spent in town he'd never seen her on a horse. He had noticed Lily downstairs talking to Ezra. She was starting to spend more and more time back in the saloon. It was good to see her up and around again though she didn't have the same spark that she'd had before losing her baby. He stood and made his way to the pair. Lily gave him a smile.

"Well hello, cherie, what can I do for you?" Vin touched the brim of his hat to her.

"I just wanted to ask, have you and Molly ever been riding together?" The question seemed to catch Lily off guard for a moment.

"No, as a matter of fact we haven't. The opportunity has never risen I suppose. Why do you ask?" she said to him. Vin got a thoughtful look on his face for a moment before once again touching the brim of his hat to her,

"No reason, it's good to see you up and around again," he said before leaving the saloon. She turned to Ezra who just shrugged at her before resuming his conversation about the ledgers. Lily found it hard to concentrate on what he was saying as she thought of Vin and Molly. She wondered what his intentions were in asking about Molly riding and hoped he knew it wouldn't be appropriate to ask her to go out with him alone.

Vin couldn't help the smile on his face as he walked up to where Molly was standing outside of the school. Thinking of her always caused him to do that. He watched now as she watched her students make their way home after school. The late afternoon sun caught her face creating a halo effect around her that reminded him of when he saw her weeks before in the church getting ready for school to begin. His true feelings came to light that afternoon and he'd almost acted on them before Nathan had walked in. He watched now as she turned to make her way back up the stairs to the church and caught site of him. Her smile in greeting at him took his breath away. He made his way up to her.

"Good afternoon, Vin," she said to him shyly. He touched the brim of his hat to her in greeting. He hadn't seen her since the afternoon he'd kissed her at her father's house. That night he'd dreamt about her and he'd done more than just kiss her. As he watched her now his mind was filled with images from that dream, her body underneath his, the look that passed over her face when he touched her as he knew no one else had ever touched her before. He shook his head to clear the images from his mind.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked him. He cleared his throat not knowing how to answer her question, afraid of what she might do if she really knew what was wrong, how being this close to her made him feel. "Vin?" she said to him, a concerned look now on her face. He wanted only to see her smile.

"No, nothin's wrong." he said to her watching her face relax again. "I saw JD this morning," he said to her. Her eyes went to the ground before looking at him again. "He seemed a mite disappointed not to go out riding with you. Any reason why you didn't want to go?" he asked her.

"Well there's a lot to get ready for, for tomorrow I mean," she answered him. She could tell by the look on his face that he knew that wasn't the whole truth. He had a way of doing that, of being able to read her and her thoughts and feelings. It was both comforting and a bit frightening to her. "I don't ride," she said to him. "I never learned how." Her simple reply took him aback for a moment and he wondered at the disappointment he felt, almost as if he had wanted her to say something else, something about him.

"How can that be?" he asked her. To him not knowing how to ride was almost the same as not being able to walk. There would be no way a person could manage. She just shrugged.

"The Island is small and everything is close together. There was never a need to know," she answered him.

"Your father and Colum ride," he said to her.

"Well yes, they do but..." she wasn't quite sure how to explain this to him.

"What?" he prodded gently. He thought he had some idea where this was going. She looked up at him shyly, almost embarrassed.

"You'll think me perfectly ridicules," she said to him, her gaze dropping to the ground. He lifted her chin up with his finger to make her look at him.

"Never," he nearly whispered to her. She took in a breath.

"I don't like horses. I'm afraid of them actually." She turned around out of his touch and walked a few steps away. "It's silly to you I know...when I was little there was a pasture near by our school. One day at dinner break a group of us went to it. It was fenced and there was a horse there. He was the biggest thing I'd ever seen. Some of the older boys were daring each other to climb through the fence and get on the horse. He hadn't been, what's it called, broken in?" Vin nodded to her. She continued.

"My friend Emily's brother took the dare and went into the pasture. He walked up to the horse and I suppose he must have startled it because it turned to David and just started going at him like a mad dog would. It started kicking him and rearing up on its back legs and making this horrible sound. We started screaming and Emily she climbed through the fence to get at her brother and I just went after her and this horse just wouldn't stop. Somehow we pulled David away and the other boys pulled us back through the fence. Someone got the physician for David. He had broken his arm but other than that he was fine. When I turned around the horse was just eating at the grass like he'd been before, as though nothing ever happened. We were very nearly killed and I promised myself that was the last time I'd ever get that close to one. And it was," she finished.

"That ain't silly," Vin said to her. "Those boys shoulda never done that, especially with a horse that wasn't broke yet." Suddenly an idea came to him. "Do you trust me?" he asked her.

Molly looked at him, her brown eyes held confusion at his question but not at her answer. Almost without any hesitation she said, "Of course."

He took her hand. He noticed how easily it fit into his, almost as though they were made to go together. Her skin was soft and as he closed his hand over hers he took note of how delecate it was and found himself wondering if the rest of her body were like that. He forced himself to forget that thought as he led her to the livery. He took her to the back door and then turned to face her.

"Close your eyes," he said to her. Molly wanted to question him but thought better of it and instead closed her eyes. He gently led her into the livery to the stall his horse was at. Upon seeing his master the horse came up to the stall door. Vin let go of her hand for a moment, taking the reigns of the horse and leading him to Molly. He took her hand again, "Keep them closed," he said to her as he placed her hand on the neck of his horse.

At the contact of the rough hair on the side of the horse's neck Molly's eyes flew open and she let out a gasp. She tried to back away but stepped into Vin instead. "Easy, it's alright," Vin whispered calmly into her ear. He took her hand again and placed it against the horse's neck.

She was trembling. He held on to her, her back pressed into his chest and all of his feelings for this girl threatened to spill forth. He concentrated on her hand in his as he moved her hand over the hair of the horse. The horse stood quietly enjoying the attention he was being given. "He likes you," he said in Molly's ear.

She turned to him and was about to say something but the look in his blue eyes nearly took her breath away. It was the same look he'd given to her when he recited his poem to her. He bent down and hesitated only a second before placing his lips gently on hers. Movement in back of her caused him to open his eyes. Someone had come in the livery. As though she heard it too, Molly stepped back from him, pressing her lips together.

"I should go," she said.

"That'd probably be best," Vin said, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. Molly turned and walked through the livery and out into the late afternoon. Vin had hoped that whoever had come in hadn't seen their embrace. When Chris stepped out from the shadows he knew better just from the look on his face.

"What are you doing, Vin?" Chris asked. Vin could tell his friend was irritated. He also knew that the irritation wasn't just from what he'd just seen, it was only an excuse and Vin wasn't about to have this kind of discussion with Chris when he was like this, just itching for a fight. He just shook his head and walked toward the back door where he and Molly had come in. "You know it ain't right," Chris said to him, walking up to him. Vin spun around.

"Why, cause you say it ain't?" Vin snapped at him.

"Are you thinking about Molly at all?" Chris said to him. "About what would happen if she knew about the price on your head. You know that Eli Jo's still out there and he'd do anything to get at you. You want Molly to be hurt over that?"

"You're a great one to being giving out relationship advice," he said to him. "Have you thought this entire time about Lily, about what she's been put through because you're a stubborn fool." The two men were now nearly nose to nose.

"Lily ain't none of your business," Chris said to him, his tone turning dangerous.

"Yeah well neither is Molly, 'specially after what you did to her," Vin said to him, almost matching his tone before turning to walk away again.

"Then think about JD, about what it'd do to him to know you were sneaking around behind him," Chris called out to him. Vin froze and turned around, instantly on the defensive.

"That ain't what's going on," he said to Chris. Chris shrugged.

"That's what it looked like from here."

"You're outta line and don't know what the hell your talking about," Vin said to him, almost yelling. "Stay out of this." The door opening cut off anything Chris was going to say in remark. The two men turned to see Nathan had come in.

"What's all the yelling about? The two a you can be heard clear up the street," he scolded them.

"Nothin'," Chris muttered, pushing past Nathan and walking out of the livery. Nathan tuned to watch him go knowing he'd been in a sour mood all day and turned back to Vin. Vin wasn't one to get into any kind of fight if he could help it.

"What about you, you wanna tell me what's going on?" Nathan asked him. "I saw Molly leave just before you two started hollering, this have something to do with her?"

"It ain't anyone's business," Vin all but yelled at his friend before turning on his heal and walking out the back door. Nathan just shook his head as he watched him go.

"It has to do with Molly alright," he muttered before he too left the livery.

Molly was almost in a daze as she made her way up the street toward home. She could still feel Vin's hand on hers has he moved it to stroke the neck of his horse and his body so close behind hers. And he had kissed her again. Her thoughts turned to JD. She hated telling him no when he'd asked her to go riding and now wondered to herself why she just didn't tell him her true reason for not wanting to go.

Why was it so easy to tell Vin and not him? Suddenly she felt guilty, almost as if she'd betrayed JD somehow. The thought caused her to stop and turn back from the direction she'd come from. She'd explain herself to JD and it would be fine. She began to walk back into the heart of town. She saw Buck Wilmington sitting outside of the jail. She walked up to him thinking he'd know where JD was. He gave her a warm smile as she walked up to him.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Wilmington," she said to him as she got closer. "I was wondering if you knew where JD was?" she asked him. He smiled even brightly at her wondering if she was going to reconsider his offer to go riding with her.

"Well he's inside there," he said indicating the jail behind him. "Look'n for a telegraph we got from Ridge City." Molly nodded her thanks at him and stepped inside the jail. She heard JD's voice muttering under his breath as he went through a pile of papers on the desk. The desk and the area around it looked like a windstorm had come in and piled every piece of paper in the town on it. She cleared her throat to announce her presents since it didn't seem as he'd heard the door open. He looked up and smiled at her. Forgetting about the pile of papers in his lap he stood to greet her and they all scattered to the floor.

"Aw for..." he cut off what he was going to say as he bent to pick them up. Molly stepped around the desk to him.

"Would you like some help?" she asked, picking up several of the papers.

"I gotta find that telegraph or Chris is going to kill me," JD said, he too knew the mood that Chris was in and didn't want to cross him.

"Well did you put it in the desk?" she asked, kneeling down to the bottom drawer she pulled it out.

"I don't think it'd be in there but you can look," JD said to her sorting through his own pile again. She pulled out the pile of papers that were in the bottom. It appeared to just be an assortment of wanted posters.

Molly shifted through them piece by piece knowing that the telegraph could have gotten shoved in-between them. Near the bottom of the pile one of them caught her attention and she froze. It was Vin Tanner's face and name under large letters that said Wanted For Murder. Her hands shook as she read the poster that declared he was wanted dead or alive for the murder of a man in a place called Tascosa Texas. JD was talking to her but she couldn't hear the words.

"Molly?" he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She shot straight up, nearly upsetting her own pile of papers. Her face was almost pure white. "Are you okay?" he asked her. She could only nod. "I was saying that I found it," he said, holding up the small half sheet of paper. The look on her face scared JD, it was almost as if she was going to pass out. "Maybe you'd better sit down," JD said, moving a chair to her. "I'll get Nathan." Molly put a hand on his arm to stop him from leaving.

"No, no that's not necessary, really I'm fine. I just stood up too fast is all," she said to him. JD wasn't sure whether to believe her or not. "I um, I should go, there's so much to get ready for with the celebration and all," she stammered walking toward the door. She quickly folded the poster she still held and put it in the pocket of her sweater.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" JD said, fearing the worst, that she had come there to tell him she wouldn't be able to join him tomorrow like they had planned. The color was coming back into her face but he didn't like the way she still looked, like something had spooked her.

"Yes, yes until tomorrow," she said opening the door and walking into the early evening.

Molly read and re-read the poster what seemed like a million times. Her heart wouldn't let her believe that what she saw in front of her was true. He was too good of a person for him to ever do anything so horrid. The house suddenly felt too confining and Molly pulled her sweater back on thinking a walk in the night air would help her to clear her head. She made her way slowly up the street. She saw Nathan Jackson coming down the stairs of his clinic. He caught site of her as he made his way down and gave her a wave.

"Good evening Miss Molly," he said to her as she made her way toward him. Almost immediately he knew something was wrong. She seemed upset. He hoped she hadn't heard what had happened with Vin and Chris over her earlier. "Somethin' wrong?" he asked her. Molly thought for a moment of telling him nothing, that everything was fine but she also knew that Nathan had known Vin for long time. She didn't want to get Vin into trouble and felt like she could trust Nathan to not betray a confidence.

"Could I...do you have a moment that I could ask you something?" she asked him.

"Of course you can," he said warmly to her. "Let's sit over here," he led her to the side of the building where there was an old bench. He sat down and patted the seat next to him. Molly sat down.

"You've known Vin, um Mr. Tanner for a while, haven't you?" she asked him.

"Yeah, you could say that," he said to her, wondering where she was going with this. He noticed her hands were shaking. "Molly, what's the matter?" he asked her. She looked up at him and tears were in her brown eyes.

"I have to show you something but you have to promise me, you have to swear that you won't tell anyone," she said to him, her voice almost full of panic.

"Cross my heart," Nathan said to her. She reached into the pocket of her sweater.

"Hay Nathan," Vin's voice came from the street near them. Molly let out a gasp and jumped. "Oh sorry, didn't mean to interrupt," he said, noticing Nathan and Molly seemed to be in a conversation. Molly stood,

"No, no it's fine really," she said hardly able to look Vin in the eye. "I really need to be going, good night to both of you," she said walking back toward her house. Nathan watched as Vin turned to watch her walk away.

"She going with JD to the dance tomorrow?" Nathan asked him.

"Suppose so," Vin said to him.

"You wanna tell me what that was about before in the livery?" Nathan asked him. Vin didn't answer. "Molly seemed pretty upset just now." Vin turned toward him. "That's what it was about wasn't it?"

"I don't know, Nathan," Vin said moving to pace in front of his friend. His mind went back to the dream he had about her, her body underneath his. He felt love for her in that dream. "I know, it ain't right. But I've never known anyone like her before. She seemed to have grabbed a part of me and I didn't know it till just now."

"You tell her this?" Nathan asked him. Vin didn't answer. Nathan took in a breath. "You know, you ain't the only one that feels about her. And there's things about you she don't know."

"What are you sayin'?" Vin asked a little too defensively.

"I'm sayin' to be careful. And I'm sayin' to take care of her," Nathan said standing up. "She don't deserve no less." He slapped his friend on the back before going across the street toward the saloon.