Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Gabe
T he knock on the front door startles me out of my trance.
I’m sitting in my first-floor office surrounded by computer monitors, studying some code I’ve been working on. I may have stepped down from day-to-day operations of one company and sold the other one, but I’m a tech nerd at heart, and never don’t have some kind of project going on. I’ve always found the zeros and ones of coding soothing. A certainty in a world where there is so much uncertainty. It’s something I can control, when so much of my adult life has felt uncontrollable.
I take off my glasses and toss them on my desk before going to answer the door. When I open it, I’m greeted by four grinning faces. Ben, Asher, Jeremy, and Jordan stand on my front stoop holding beer and takeout bags, looking so pleased with themselves that I can’t help but grin back.
“What are you guys doing here?”
Jordan shoulders his way inside first and the rest of the guys follow. “The girls are all hanging at Jules and Asher’s house, so we decided it was time for a guys’ day.
Ben slaps a hand on my shoulder. “Hope you like baseball.”
“I do, but how did you know where I live?”
Asher grins again. “Julie. My wife knows everything. When she kicked me out of the house today and told me to go play with my friends so she could play with hers, she texted me your address. I think she’s playing matchmaker.”
“Uh, with us?” I wave a hand around at the rest of the guys who are making their way to the kitchen with the food and drinks. It’s nice how they make themselves at home immediately. It’s been a long time since I’ve had friends familiar enough to just show up at my house on a random Sunday. We’ve all hung out together a couple of times in the two weeks that Molly has been living with me, but it’s never been just the guys. I like it.
“Nah,” Jeremy says. “With you and Mol. The girls wouldn’t send us over here unless they thought Molly was interested in going the distance with you. I think it might be their way of giving her a little push towards you. Folding you into our little found family of sorts.”
“Realllllly,” I muse, my smile spreading.
“Look at you,” Jordan says, opening cabinets at random and taking down plates and cups. “I know that look. You’re totally gone for her.”
I sit down on one the stools at my counter and prop my chin on my hand, watching the four guys rustle around my kitchen for everything they need. “I’ve been gone for her for almost fourteen years.”
Ben stops opening takeout bags and gives me a knowing smile. “I know something about that.”
“You and Hallie? It’s strange to think of you guys not together. I know I haven’t known you long, but I’ve never seen two people more meant for each other.”
“Uh, no one is more meant for each other than my girl and me,” Asher says. “I literally only had to hear her voice, and I was done for.”
Ben slaps him on the back of the head. “Quit making everything about you. You’re obsessed with my sister. We know.”
Asher just smiles, unperturbed. “Bet your ass I am.”
“Anyway,” Ben turns back to me. “I’ve been in love with Hallie since we were eighteen. It took me eleven years to finally tell her how I felt.”
I study Ben. Something about him—about all these guys really—makes me want to open up and spill all my secrets. “The ten years Molly and I were apart were impossible. I missed her so much there were times I didn’t think I would survive it.”
“So why didn’t you come back for her sooner?” Jeremy’s serious voice is a far cry from his general lightness and cheer. “She’s been here all this time, and I know from Ems that Molly has never dated anyone seriously. Ems is never wrong, and she’s sure you’re the reason why.”
I’m torn between being happy she hasn’t dated anyone seriously and hating that I’m the reason she didn’t wring every ounce of happiness out of the past ten years.
I blow out a breath, considering how to respond. I could hedge and equivocate, but the truth is, I don’t want to do that. This is Molly’s family, and I want to be honest with them the way I want to be honest with her.
“When my parents died, I was…god, I don’t even have a word for what I was. The grief was so consuming I couldn’t see through it. My sisters were twelve and eight, and all of a sudden, I had to be a surrogate parent and sift through the wreckage that our lives had become. I was too broken to accept the help Molly was offering, and that broke us. I broke us.”
I look around at the guys, and all I see is patience and acceptance. It pushes me to tell them the rest. “I never stopped thinking about her. I never stopped loving her. Ever. But by the time I had my head above water again, I realized I was stuck where I was. If it was just me, I would have dropped everything and moved to where Molly was. Begged her for another chance. But it wasn’t just me. I had my sisters, and I wouldn’t uproot them again. I searched around to see what Molly was doing. She was in law school by then. She was editor of the law review, and was winning all sorts of awards, and had really prestigious internships. If I came back for her, I would have been asking her to give up the life she was building to, what exactly? Help me raise my sisters? I wouldn’t do that to her.”
Ben nods at me in understanding. “And now?”
I shrug and lean back in my chair. “Liv—my youngest sister—is a freshman in college now. I stepped down from the day-to-day operations of my company and sold my other one. There’s nothing tying me to California anymore. Now, I just want to be wherever she is.”
Jordan flashes me a grin. “Your second company. Rory Industries. You started that just so you could sell it to Montgomery, didn’t you? And made up a consulting gig with them when they probably could just deal with the whole thing on their own. So you would have an excuse to be here?”
I grin back. “I thought it was the girls who were the smart ones.”
“Oh, they are,” Jeremy says, chuckling. “They’re way smarter than us. But if your goal was to hide your motives, you should have worked a little harder. My eight-year-old daughter could have figured this one out. Do you even actually have to be in their offices?”
I shrug. “Nope. There isn’t all that much for me to do, and what there is, I can do in my office here. It was a pretty thinly veiled excuse, but I just needed to be here.”
Asher hands me a plate. “It’s romantic as fuck, honestly. Coming back to get her after ten years? Uprooting your life to meet her where she is? I dig it.”
“It’s only romantic if she wants me back. If she doesn’t, then I’m just a guy living in Pittsburgh without much to do.”
Ben shrugs. “It’s a great city. But you forgot about the whole fake fiancée thing. And the temporarily living together thing. And the going to California with you next week thing. One thing about these women, aside from them being smarter than all of us put together, is that they don’t do anything they don’t want to do. Molly is doing these things because she wants to, and I’d say that’s a whole shitload of points in your favor.”
I smile at all of them, because they are so right. She might not be ready yet, but she will be. And when she is, I’ll be here waiting. “Thanks for coming over; it’s been a long time since I’ve had friends like this.”
Jordan smirks at me. “No offense, dude, but that’s kind of pathetic.”
I snort out a laugh. “Don’t I know it. Raising teenagers and running a company doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for, well, anything else.”
“Well, you’re not raising teenagers or running a company anymore, and we’ve got beer and, like, five different kinds of takeout, and the game starts in ten.”
I study the food choices spread out all over the table. “We should probably eat the fries and tacos first. They’re terrible cold and worse reheated.”
When Jordan looks at me, his grin is a mile wide. “Welcome to the family, California. I think you’ll fit in just fine.”
I can’t help grinning right back because…I really think so too.
The next knock on the door comes halfway into the game. We demolished all the takeout and cleared away all the containers. My coffee table is now a mess of empty bowls of ice cream, bags of chips, and, oddly, a couple boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch that Jeremy brought. He insisted I pour it over ice cream, and fuck, was he right. It was amazing.
I pad into the entryway to open the door. Standing on my front porch is a blonde woman who looks to be in her fifties and a little girl with red hair and freckles. The girl is dressed head-to-toe in pink and has what looks like a Harry Potter wand sticking out of her pants pocket.
“Uh, can I help you?”
“You must be Gabriel Sullivan,” the woman says with a sly grin on her face. “I’ve just been dying to meet you.”
“Me too!” says the little girl. “You made the Redwood. It’s so cool. I really want one.” She slides her gaze over to the woman who chuckles and says, “Keep dreaming.”
I have a split second to wonder if this is some kind of stranger danger thing before Ben’s amused voice comes from behind me. “Jesus Christ, Mom, you can’t just show up at someone’s house like this. It’s weird. I told you to text me. Hey, Mads,” he says, bending down and hugging the little girl, who I assume is Emma and Jeremy’s daughter, Maddy.
The woman scoffs. “I show up where I want to. And besides, he’s not a stranger. According to my sources, he’s the reason Molly hasn’t had a serious relationship in all the years I’ve known her. Hi,” she says, turning to me. “Sorry I didn’t introduce myself right away. I’m Rachel Parker, Ben and Julie’s mom, and you are definitely someone I need to know.”
I watch Ben scoop Maddy up and carry her into the house. Then I grin at Rachel, liking her immediately. “It’s really nice to meet you,” I say, putting my hand out.
“Put that hand away, Gabriel Sullivan. In this family, we hug, and I’m pretty sure you’re about to be our newest member.” She folds me into a hug that screams mom . It makes me miss my mom so suddenly and so acutely that a strange bubble of emotion wells up in my throat.
Do not fucking cry all over this very nice woman who you want to like you .
I manage not to, just barely. But when she lets me go and cups my face in both of her hands, looking at me with a soft expression on her face, I get the strange feeling that if I had, my emotions would have been safe with her.
“You lost your parents, didn’t you?”
I just nod at her quiet question, still not trusting my voice.
“And you left your whole life in California to come here for Molly? All by yourself?”
“I did,” is all I manage.
“You love her.” It’s a statement, not a question, but I answer it anyway. I’ve known this woman for three minutes, and I already want to tell her my entire life story. I briefly wonder if she’s magic.
“I’ve always loved her.”
She studies me for a second before nodding, a wide smile spreading across her face.
“Well, Gabe, I think we’ve been waiting for you. You may have come here by yourself, but you’re not alone anymore. If you ever need anything, you come to me. Molly has been ours since Julie first brought her home when they met in law school. Looks like you’re ours now too. We’re happy to have you.”
“Thanks, Rachel,” I say, still trying to swallow down all that emotion and make sense of this whole encounter. The one word that keeps circling around in my head is belonging . Aside from when I’m with my sisters, it’s been a while since I felt like I belonged somewhere. When I first saw Molly, I instantly knew I belonged with her, and it looks like maybe I belong with all these people too. I like the idea of it.
When Rachel and I come back into the living room, everyone else is still scattered around. I plop down on the couch in the empty seat next to Jeremy, who is now sitting with his daughter on his lap. The second I sit down, she taps me on the shoulder. She’s studying me when I turn to her.
“Are you Molly’s boyfriend?”
Jeremy snickers, and I smile at the earnest expression on her face. “I’m not, but I’d really like to be.”
She nods sagely, and it’s so fucking cute. “I think you should be. Molly’s the best. She’s my favorite person.”
“Uh, what about me?” Jeremy asks.
Maddy rolls her eyes. “You’re my dad, so of course you’re my favorite. I’m talking about people who aren’t my parents.”
I see the emotion cross Jeremy’s face. The way his eyes go a little damp when Maddy says dad and parents . Molly told me a little about his and Emma’s story and how Maddy’s adoption was only finalized the day I showed up at their office. I wonder if this is one of the first times she’s said those words.
“Well, Molly is my favorite person too. I hope one day I get to be hers again.”
“You will,” Maddy says confidently. “You’re really nice, and you also invented a phone. That’s so cool. But it doesn’t come in pink. Why not?”
I shrug, trying to look casual. “I didn’t think anyone would want a pink phone, so I didn’t make them in pink.”
Maddy looks at me incredulously. “Who wouldn’t want a pink phone? I definitely would. But I like the purple one too.” She gives Jeremy a side-eye.
“Don’t even think about it, Little Red. No phone for you.”
She crosses her arms and huffs. “It’s so unfair.”
She sounds so much like a teenager, and Jeremy sounds so much like an aggrieved parent that I have to laugh. Have I mentioned before that I love it here?
Before I have a chance to respond, I hear the front door open, and a few seconds later, Molly comes strolling in. Like it does every time I see her, my heart stutters, as if it wants to jump out of my chest and land right at Molly’s feet. I hear Maddy’s excited, “Molly!” but I barely register it as I take Molly in.
Her hair tumbles down her back in the wild curls I love. She’s wearing pink leggings that mold to every gorgeous curve of her legs, striped socks, and a hip length blue sweatshirt that says Smash the Patriarchy . Her lips curve up in a smile as she searches the room, and when her gaze lands on me, her smile spreads. Her eyes light and she makes her way straight to me, plopping herself in my lap, much to my surprise and delight.
“Hey, fiancé,” she says, voice full of humor.
“Hey, Rory,” I answer, and I can hear the smile in my voice. Everything about her proximity lights me up. The strawberry scent of her shampoo surrounds me, and I breathe her in, dipping down to press a kiss to her neck, loving the way she shivers a little.
It takes me a second to realize the room has gone completely silent and every eye is on us.
“Well,” says Rachel, breaking the silence, looking from Molly to me. “It looks like there might be a part of the story no one has filled me in on yet.”
“Rachel, you honestly have no idea,” Molly says.
“Well, I’m certainly about to.” Rachel comes over and sits on the coffee table right in front of us, leaning back on her hands. “Tell me everything.”
Molly and I look at each other and burst out laughing. And then we do exactly what Rachel Parker asked, and we tell her everything.