Chapter 19 #2
Molly glanced up. Meeting his eyes with a focus and earnestness that should’ve knocked him over. “But you could be. Maybe you should be.”
“Are you actually trying to get me to see someone else while I’m out with you?” Because he really would prefer to talk about anything else. Focus on the present or, hell, the future. Not the past.
“Maybe.”
Gavin sipped his espresso.
Tasted decent. Not his usual, so not what he was used to, but still good, though. Possibly better than his usual, actually, the way the notes of chocolate and an undertone of hazelnut rested on his tongue after the first swallow.
“I don’t want to be with Cassidy,” he said. “I’m here with you. I’m happy to be here with you.”
Molly used her fingernail to poke at the liner of her paper tea cup. “But you two just had the cutest second chance destined-to-be-together connection.”
The what the what?
“We are not destined to be together.” Of this, he was certain. They’d had their shot. Didn’t work out.
And she wasn’t Molly.
“But how do you know?” Molly asked. Because she was not Molly.
“Because I’m here with you,” he said, instead of what he was thinking. Because what he was thinking might just scare Molly clean away.
“We’veneverhadadestined-to-be-togetherconnection.”
Yet. “Never too late to make that happen.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Didn’t work, though, because Molly glowered at him. “You’re being so frustrating right now.” Molly said this
as though she was the one who was frustrating, not him. Which, to be honest, he could totally agree with.
But in a cute way. In a Molly way. The right way.
“Because you want me to go out there and date another woman while I’m here with you?” Gavin asked, hoping the absurdity of his question would break through whatever wall Molly had built around herself.
“No. I don’t want that.”
Good. Thankfully, she’d admitted it. “But…”
Damn, but was never good.
“…it’s what you should do because you two are adorable together.”
Okay, but Cassidy wasn’t Molly. Did not have the dynamics of Molly. Didn’t keep him awake at night wondering what she was dreaming about.
He splayed his hands on the table. “Is this what Agnes and Rachel were talking about when they said you shouldn’t fix me up with someone else? They were being serious, weren’t they?”
Molly’s expression of utter terror was enough to tell him he was correct.
Damn.
This was real. Another way she took a piece of brick out of the wall that made her Molly.
“I can’t help it. I’m cursed like this.” She shrugged, then sipped at her tea, like this wasn’t a big deal.
Suddenly, he did not particularly care about his espresso.
It all tasted like the dust from Molly’s crumbling wall. “Do you really believe that?” he asked.
“It always happens.” She waved her hand toward the exit. “You’ll go out there. You’ll sit down. You’ll talk about that book. You’ll fall in love and la-de-da, I’m home alone tonight with my nightstand buddy.”
This was nuts. A full bag of nuts.
“First,” he said, “we’re coming back to the nightstand buddy.”
Because that sounded fun and he was intrigued.
“Second, I’m not going out there.” He tilted his head toward Cassidy.
“And third, I don’t want to talk about Cass. I want to talk about you. How was your day, Molly?”
“It was fine, thank you for asking. But this won’t work because you’re not going over there only because you want to stay and argue with me. That’s the wrong reason for not going over there. You’re ruining your entire life by staying here with me. To argue.”
“Or maybe…” He leaned forward across the table, maintaining eye contact the whole time. He touched her hand, careful not to make her jumpier than she already was. She let him, but she made a strangled sound in her throat.
“Maybe,” he continued, “I’m making the choice I want to make because it’s the right choice for me.
And I hope to God it’s the right choice for you, too.
You ever think about that? Think about how all these guys you’ve set up with other women missed out on you.
You took that away from them. You think you gave them a gift, but you kept you from them.
Maybe they met nice ladies and it ended up working out… ” But there were so many buts here…
Molly frowned.
“And maybe you did something good for them. Something altruistic,” he continued as he moved his thumb along her knuckles. “But maybe they wanted you. Maybe they would’ve been just as happy with you.”
The column of her throat moved like she was trying to swallow a whole helping of emotion.
He stood up. Not to go to Cassidy, but to move into the booth next to Molly.
Probably, he should’ve clarified that before making any
movement, because her eyes went wide and there was a definite edge of fear glossed there.
So he wasted no time striding around the table to slip into the booth next to her. She made room for him. He angled his body toward hers. Reached for her hand and linked their fingers together.
She let him. She even squeezed his hand.
“Now.” He leaned in to her earlobe. “I want to hear all about that first point of yours. The nightstand one.”
She choked on a laugh, and her neck flushed red. “I don’t think we’re at that stage of our date yet.”
He trailed his index finger along her jawline. She leaned into it. Leaned into him. Let him take her weight.
“We’ve handled a lot of heavy tonight. Maybe we should get to that stage,” he suggested.
“Maybe.”
“Or, perhaps, we have something to work toward, don’t we?” he asked, resting his cheek against the side of her hair. Letting her take just a little of his weight, too.
“I guess we do.” She looked up, and there may have been a room full of people in that coffee shop, but the only one who mattered to him held him still with big brown eyes and full parted lips.
“Are you going to steal my nose again?” she asked. “Or tease me again with a maybe kiss?”
He held back a chuckle. “No. I’m going to kiss you. You good with that?”
Better to be sure before he went all in.
She nodded, but she asked, “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” He moved in. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t fix me up with anyone else. Please.”
The “please” was added mostly because he didn’t want to be an asshole about the whole thing.
“I promise not to set you up with anyone else.” She turned her face fully toward him.
So he kissed her, soft. Mint and ginger tea and Molly.
A light press of lips that stirred something protective in him. Stirred parts of him he didn’t know existed. Parts that wanted more, but were willing to accept this.
Molly responded in kind, a small sigh releasing as he pulled away.
Their gazes melded, and then Molly—just like she always did—surprised him.
“I’d like my kiss back, please,” she murmured.
And before he could say or do anything—before he could even move, she made her move.
What he gave her was a kiss. She took a full lip-lock. Wrapped her hand around his neck and pulled him in deeper, making little noises as he deepened the kiss. She parted her lips first, tested to see if he might like a bit of French with his espresso.
He did.
Gavin only had the power not to walk away. Everything else went to Molly.
So it was Molly who decided when they’d come to that invisible boundary of PDA in a room full of strangers. Molly who nuzzled his nose. And Molly who eventually pulled away.
He was good with that. Because he wasn’t going anywhere. And neither was she.