Chapter 5
MOLLY
Saying thank you was not a huge deal.
Molly had, in fact, thanked Gavin when he’d shown up at the reception with her dried-out son.
That’s it. Not a big deal at all. She’d said it.
But she should probably stop to get him a fruit bouquet to show her thanks and relieve the nagging itch in her brain telling her she needed to step it up in the gratitude department.
Her sedan made an odd crunching sound from behind the dashboard, but it made sounds all the time.
This was nothing new. She’d decided not to buy a new car, instead socking money away so she could put a nice down payment on a house of her own.
Nearly enough was saved up now that she would be able to start house hunting soon.
Soon-ish. Soon being a relative term instead of concrete.
“Is it supposed to sound like that?” Brady asked from the backseat, where he sat with Kellan and Ollie.
“It’s normal,” she assured him. In fact, it probably wasn’t normal.
She smacked her steering wheel. Not so hard that she caused any damage, but enough to make the sound stop.
“Can we talk about it yet?” Ollie asked.
“Soon,” Molly said. Relative terms came in handy for motherhood as well as homebuying. Besides, once they dropped off the other kids, she had a little news for her son.
Rachel was on her two-week honeymoon. As part of her Gavin gratitude package, Molly had offered to take all the boys out for a fast-food hamburger dinner. Now she was returning them to their dad’s house while contemplating fruit bouquets and stuntman camp.
“Stunt camp is all he thinks about.” Kellan gave a heavy-duty eye roll and flopped back against the seat.
Ollie was definitely on a roll with nagging about the Hollywood Stuntman Summer Camp. She’d crunched the numbers and, actually, she could swing this. Especially if his dad paid his child support on time for the next three months.
“You always say soon,” Ollie retorted, watching the world pass by outside the window. “Soon,” he said, mimicking her tone.
“I always mean it, too,” Molly said with a quick glance in the rearview mirror.
Then she eyed the temperature gauge next to the speedometer. The car had been creeping into overheating lately, but as long as she managed the heat level and pulled over before it hit red, everything worked fine.
Fine being another broad, relative term and not so much a specific one.
“This is important to me,” Ollie said. He crossed his little arms over his chest. “Do you even care what I want?”
That’s when her heart stalled.
“I know stunt school is important to you…” She did. It was the only thing he’d expressed a load of interest in, ever. Which was why she would do everything in her power to make it happen. But she didn’t want to get his hopes up before she knew if he’d even been accepted.
“I want to learn to be safe when I try jumps and stuff,” Ollie said, going right for her motherly jugular. “That’s what the website said they do. They teach students to stunt safely. Don’t you want me to be safe?”
How was she supposed to argue with that?
“Ollie?” she said, ready to make the constant persistence stop.
“What?” He practically huffed out the word.
“I already turned in your application this morning.”
That got her the biggest toothy grin she could’ve ever dreamed of and a whoop from Kellan. Even Brady was all smiles.
“You’re the best mom, ever,” Ollie said, totally changing his tune from before.
She did an internal eye roll since she was driving and it was probably dangerous to actually roll them.
“There’s no guarantee.” She turned down the street that led to Gavin’s McMansion. “We have to wait for admissions to tell us yes or no.”
The entire neighborhood was lined with oversized monstrosities. Gavin’s home wasn’t in-your-face huge, but it wasn’t small either. Not like her comfy little duplex that allowed her to save up for a home purchase.
But what could she expect from one of the heirs to the Puffle Yum Toaster Tart fortune? Nothing he did seemed to be small.
On that note, she was going to stop thinking because she didn’t need to think about Gavin’s size.
“Wait until I stop to get out, yes?” She pulled into the driveway, giving instructions because the boys tended to be three steps ahead of her even if it meant they might get their tootsies run over.
They all made noises of discontent, but they did pause until she came to a complete stop next to a Cadillac parked in the drive.
She could tell it cost the kids to sit tight any longer, what with all the bouncing going on during those last moments. But they waited until she put the car in park.
Kellan and Brady piled out of the car, running toward the front door.
“Can we stay?” Ollie asked, using his puppy dog eyes. The ones that usually got him his way.
“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve got work to do tonight.” A few sponsors to check in with and a new speaking gig that looked promising. “And I need to deliver Agnes’s dinner.”
Agnes owned the duplex where Molly and Oliver lived.
She’d become a mainstay in Molly’s life since Ollie was born, especially since Molly’s parents liked to travel a whole lot.
They were always on the road in their RV, leaving Agnes to be a voice of ever-changing reason in Molly’s life.
Agnes was getting older and sometimes she forgot to eat dinner.
So Molly had grabbed an extra burger for her favorite landlady.
Evelyn—Gavin’s mother—met the boys at the front door.
Molly really liked Evelyn. “Maybe we can stay for just a minute.”
Ollie let out a whoop to rival Kellan’s from earlier and chased after his friends.
Molly followed behind. “Hey, Evelyn.”
Evelyn’s eyes lit when they saw her. “Miss Molly.”
“The boys had a good time,” she said, absolutely not looking around Evelyn to see if Gavin was home. “They had a little too much ice cream for dessert, but you know how it is.”
“I do.” Evelyn moved to let Molly through. “Come in. Come in.”
Molly shook her head. “I just wanted to say hi. We’ve got to get home.”
Evelyn made a tsk sound. “Nonsense, come in and have a cup of tea.”
“I don’t want to intrude.” Molly brushed away a stray curl as the wind blew across her face.
“Gavin won’t be home for a bit yet.” Evelyn leaned in like she was ready to share a state secret. “He’s on a date.”
Oh, well. That was nice. Good for him.
Molly ignored the feeling like she was a balloon with the air being let out because that was an absolutely ridiculous way to feel about not seeing someone she was only mildly tolerating at this point. It’s not like she’d actually stopped to get him a fruit bouquet, anyway.
“That sounds fun,” she said, keeping her tone light and perky and oh-so very fun.
She’d bet that he didn’t set the woman up with someone else while they were out. That probably wasn’t something he did. Just something she did.
“So you’ll stay.” This was not a question from Evelyn; it was a statement. The kind of statement that did not allow for debate.
“Sure,” Molly said, following her inside.
Ollie and his friends took off to the backyard, two golden retrievers following in hot pursuit.
Even though she’d been invited in, a feeling along her spine that she shouldn’t be there tickled.
She’d never been past the front foyer of Gavin’s house. This was by choice. Picking the kids up and dropping them off never necessitated diving further into the home of her best friend’s ex.
Also, he’d never asked her in.
Probably because she’d always been bristly around him. Truly, she was working to soften those bristles, considering recent information and heroics.
“What are you up to tonight?” Evelyn asked, moving deeper into the house to a lush gourmet kitchen.
A huge white marble countertop island stood in the middle of the giant room with an oversized commercial refrigerator, three sinks, and two ovens.
The stove even had its own sink—the kind used to fill up pots right on the stovetop.
The set-up made Molly’s mouth water. She loved to cook. Unfortunately, her little kitchen didn’t allow for her to let her colors fly. Of course, she cooked there, but not with the extravagance she wished she could. Like, say, filling a pot straight on the stove. Think. Of. All. The. Pasta.
Her gaze caught the portrait on top of the refrigerator—a portrait of a zebra in a red bathtub. She held back her gag.
His ex-fiancée painted that. She was well-known in the animals-in-bathtubs art world.
Uh-huh. That was a thing.
A ridiculous thing. Yet…
“Tell me what’s going on in the world of Molly,” Evelyn said, pouring a cup of tea and sliding it across the countertop.
“Not a lot.” Molly lifted the cup to her lips. “Work. Kid. Rinse. Repeat.”
“You’re happy with this?” The look Evelyn lanced her with pierced straight to her core.
Molly gave what she hoped was a sly smile. “Of course.”
Evelyn made a sound in the back of her throat that did not sound like she agreed this was anything to be thrilled with.
“Why don’t you think that’s a good thing?” Molly asked. “Routine is good.”
Evelyn squirted a dollop of honey into her cup and stirred. “Routine is good. Mundane is not.”
She had a point there. Molly sighed. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Always.”
“I don’t quite know how to get out of the mundane.” The car trouble, house hunting, kid issues, and the need to cook dinner every night—dinner that she mostly only ate because Ollie would suddenly develop an intense aversion to spaghetti and meatballs or chicken taquitos.
“Then you have come to the right place.” Evelyn smacked the counter.
Molly lifted her eyebrows. “Gavin’s kitchen is the right place?”
“My dear.” Evelyn pointed to herself. “You’ve come to me.”
Well, not technically. Technically, she dropped off Gavin’s kids. But…whatever.
“We need to find you a hobby.” Evelyn snapped her fingers.
Molly could do a hobby. Something other than cooking meals her son refused to eat.
“Do you play bingo?” Evelyn glanced at Molly’s cup filled with herbal tea like she should get started on it.