Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Gabe
“ H e put his hands on you?” Ben’s voice is a growl.
“Hard enough that there’s an outline of his fucking hand on your arm.” Jeremy’s tone is low and dangerous.
We’re all sitting around the living room with plates of food while Molly is telling her story. By the looks of it, everyone in the room feels just as homicidal about it as I do.
Molly shrugs and nods. “Yeah. He got his fragile man feelings hurt because I reminded him how much better than him I am at, well, everything. And I told him if he comes for me, he best not miss.”
“I’m all for telling that douche-bro windbag where to shove it, but Jesus, Molly, that could have been so much worse,” Julie says. She keeps glancing down at the bruises on Molly’s arm with a worried look on her face.
“It could have been, but it wasn’t, because we were in public, and Gabe showed up all growly and told him to get his fucking hands off me or he would cut them off.”
I grin and bump shoulders with Molly. “I don’t think that’s exactly what I said, Rory.”
“Oh, no,” Allie says from her perch on the couch across from us. “I already missed the grand entrance. I won’t miss anything else. Leave nothing out, Molly.”
“I hate you,” she hisses at me.
I just grin at her. Angry, irritated Molly turned me on faster than anything else when we were together in college. Looks like nothing has changed. “You really don’t, Rory. You really, really don’t.”
“It’s the best, right?” Asher’s voice is low. I turn to where he’s sitting on my other side.
“What is?”
“When they get mad. Sometimes I piss Julie off on purpose because it’s so fucking sexy.”
I chuckle because I just fucking love it here. “It sure is.”
“If you’re done with your little sidebar, we have a story to finish.” Asher and I both look up into Julie’s narrowed eyes, and Asher mutters, “See?” under his breath. “Hot as fuck.” I smother a laugh.
“Well, what did he say?” Hallie asks. “We’re not doing half stories here.”
“Ugh, fine,” Molly groans. “His exact words were, if you don’t take your hand off my fiancée right the fuck now, I’ll cut it off .”
The room is quiet for a full ten seconds before Hallie breaks the silence. “You told asshole Brad, nephew of Molly’s biggest client, the guy who is trying to steal said client from her, that you were her fiancé?”
“It’s fine,” Molly says, waving her away. “It got Brad to back off, and if he tells his uncle, I can just tell Mr. Randall that Brad misheard. Brad’s due for some light gaslighting anyway.”
Hallie cackles. “I’m sure it’ll be fine, but seriously, that’s the kind of shit I thought only happened in romance novels. Gabe Sullivan, you are a real-life book boyfriend.” She gives me a look of admiration that has me laughing.
“I’d settle for being any kind of boyfriend, honestly.” I give Molly a cheeky grin, and I can see her biting the inside of her cheek to hide her smile.
“Oh, my god,” Allie breathes, a hand over her heart. “He’s just as swoony as the rest of you.”
“Bite your tongue, baby girl. No one is as swoony as me,” Jordan says, hooking an arm around Allie’s neck and kissing her.
“Uh, not true,” Asher says. “You once called me the president of simp-town. That makes me the swooniest of all.”
“Nope, I win,” Jeremy says, wrapping an arm around Emma. “I taught Maddy how to cook and we read together every single night. I’ve got the whole hot dad thing going on. Maddy’s our daughter,” Jeremy tells me, a dreamy, deeply satisfied sort of smile on his face. “She’s eight and the absolute best.”
“Uh, I’ve got the coffee thing, and I make breakfast. Every day.” Ben tips Hallie’s face towards him and gives her a kiss far better suited to a dark room than a living room full of people. When they break apart, she looks a little dazed and he gives a satisfied nod, like he’s confident he’s got everyone beat.
Not to be outdone, I lean down and whisper in Molly’s ear. “They can try, but no one beats me, Rory baby. I won the swoon Olympics ten years ago, and imagine how much I’ve learned since then. I’ll give you so much swoon you won’t know what to do with yourself.”
Molly’s face turns red, she clears her throat, and I can see her press her thighs together. I am completely delighted by her. And now I’m also hard. Fantastic.
“Okay, this has all been sufficiently gross and pathetic, so back to me. I still think it’ll be fine. Mr. Russell is all family first and everything, but I think I can convince him that Brad didn’t hear what he thought he heard.”
Emma looks at Molly thoughtfully. “It’ll probably work, but you said he’s going to be at the meeting next week. I don’t love the idea of you working with him. He’s obviously unhinged, and we now know he can be violent.”
“Hard agree,” I mutter, leaning forward on the couch, elbows resting on my knees.
Molly leans into me a little and lays a hand on my back, running her fingers back and forth along my spine. I think it’s meant to be a calming gesture, but it’s the first time she’s touched me unprompted like this since I’ve been here, and it has unexpected emotion rising in my throat. Watching all the couples in this room who are obviously wildly in love has made me realize how much I missed it. The casual familiarity, the little touches, the way Molly and I used to be able to read each other’s thoughts, anticipate each other’s needs. I want it back. Badly.
Patience , I remind myself.
You broke it.
It’s on you to fix it.
Give her as long as she needs.
All of these things are easier in theory than in reality.
Before Molly has a chance to answer, my phone dings and I lift a hip to pull it out of my pocket, giving everyone an apologetic look. “Sorry about this, I have to grab it. My sisters are in Washington D.C. and Boston, and even though they’re not kids anymore, old habits die hard.”
Molly gives me a reassuring nod. I click my phone on and see that it is, in fact, the family group chat. As soon as I open it though, I really wish I hadn’t.
Team Sullivan
Ames
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK GABE!! WHY DOES EVERY NEWS SITE ON THE INTERNET SAY YOU’RE ENGAGED?
Liv
Gabriel. You do not propose to a girl without telling your sisters. Especially if that girl is the love of your life who you have been waiting ten years to see again. What the shit is going on there?
My anxiety rises as I click out of the group chat without answering and stab my finger on the internet browser icon. I search for my name and hundreds of articles appear immediately, all with some form of, Tech Wizard Gabriel Sullivan Engaged to Pittsburgh-Based Tax and Estate Planning Lawyer in the headline.
“Holy fuck,” I mumble.
“What’s going on?” Molly asks.
I lift my head slowly and realize that nine pairs of eyes are trained directly on me, but I focus on only one of them. Turning to Molly, I say nothing at first. I consider asking her to go somewhere with me so we can deal with this alone, but then I change my mind. This is her family, so it happens here. I make sure my screen is still on and hand her my phone.
“Please don’t hate me.”
She scans the screen, and I see the exact moment she registers what she’s looking at. Her face pales at first and then becomes a mask of fury. She scrolls for a minute, then slowly lifts her head. If looks could kill, I would be so completely dead.
“Uh, what’s going on?” Julie asks, looking from Molly to me.
“You want to know what’s going on?” Molly’s voice is aggressively calm, and I wonder briefly if she’ll kill me first or skip that step entirely and just bury me alive.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on. This guy,” she says, pointing to me. “This guy called me his fiancée in a restaurant full of people, which would have been fine, except he’s famous , and a billionaire , so people care about what he does. Someone must have overheard and taken a fucking picture, and now every single news outlet in the damn world is running with the story. Who the hell even knows how they identified me so fast. But now the entire fucking world thinks I’m engaged. To him.”
She stabs a finger in my direction, and I think I should feel sorrier than I do because right now, she’s so fucking gorgeous that all I want to do is carry her out of here and kiss her until I can’t breathe.
“Oh, my god,” breathes Hallie. “It really is like a romance novel.”
The room is silent for a full fifteen seconds after that, and then Julie starts to laugh. Once she gets going, everyone falls like dominoes. Molly is the only one not laughing, but her face is marginally less murderous than it was two minutes ago.
“Goddammit, stop fucking laughing!” Molly exclaims, standing up and shooting a glance around the room. “I have an old stogey client I need to impress next week so he doesn’t take his business to his nephew Asshole McRageIssues, and he will absolutely not take kindly to his lawyer being a liar. Which is what he’ll think I am since being splashed all over the press for a false engagement rumor means I can’t tell Dickbag McPoppedCollar that he didn’t hear what he thinks he heard because now the entire world heard it too. I can’t tell him his nephew was a hair’s breath away from all-out assault because then I’m the nagging woman causing issues . Instead, I’ll have to tell him I’m not actually engaged so I’ll be whatever the asshole paints me as, and I’ll also be a liar. Just completely fucking great.”
Molly sucks in a breath and puts her hands on her hips, breathing deeply and squaring her shoulders, glaring around the room as if daring anyone to contradict her.
“Maybe just don’t tell him you lied.”
Molly whips around and stares at Emma. “Fucking what?”
Emma shrugs. “If he asks, just go full romance novel fake engagement and tell him it’s true.”
“It’s not the worst idea, Mol,” Julie says. “I mean, you just have to get past this meeting and the next few weeks. Once you wow him with your brilliance again and he realizes that all he needs is you, you won’t have much to do with him except when he needs something from you, and by then, he won’t care whether you’re engaged or not.”
Molly turns to Hallie, as if begging her to be the voice of reason. I try and send a subliminal message to Hallie to agree with the other girls because being engaged to Molly, fake or not, is suddenly exactly what I want. I get an excuse to be around her, and as a bonus, I can help her beat that asshole and keep her client. All I’ve ever wanted to do was make her life easier. I know I did the exact opposite of that for a while, but now I can do this.
Hallie shrugs. “Don’t look at me. I’ve read too many fake engagement books. I can’t be objective here. I love this idea.”
“Same,” Allie says. “I can’t help it. I’m a slut for conflict and gossip. You need to do this and then come sit by me and tell me every damn detail.”
Molly stares at her friends. “I thought you were the smart girls,” she says, with an accusatory note in her voice.
“We are,” Julie says. “We’re playing the long game. Beat the asshole. Keep your client.”
“And as a consolation prize, you get to hang out with all that, and he is delicious.” Allie waves a hand at me, and I laugh. Did I mention I love it here?
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Molly asks her.
Allie grins. “You can’t be you right now, so I’m being you for you.”
Molly huffs out a laugh. “I must love you, because I followed all of that exactly. Ugh. Fine. Fake engagement. What the actual fuck,” she mutters. “But I’m telling my parents and my sister it’s fake, and Jules, I’m also telling your parents.”
“Wise,” Julie says, nodding. “No one lies to Rachel Parker and lives to tell the tale.”
“You haven’t been Rachel Parker’d yet,” Ben says to me. “But this little scheme guarantees you will be, and probably soon. Welcome to the family.”
“We’re chaotic but loving.” Asher slaps a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll fit right in.”
“Come hang with us one night,” Jeremy says. “Ben and I own a bar on the South Side. We’ll have a guys’ night.”
“Okay, but you all know we’re not actually engaged, right? This is all fake.” Molly’s voice is a little desperate with a side of the lady doth protest too much, and I kind of love it.
I pull Molly down next to me and wrap an arm around her shoulders. “Whatever you say, fiancée.”
She grumbles something under her breath, but I don’t think I’m imagining it when she moves a little closer to me, relaxing her shoulders, tucking herself deeper under my arm, and letting out a quiet sigh. As the room continues to buzz around us, for a minute, it feels like we’re in a little bubble where it’s us against the world, just like it was always supposed to be.