Chapter 14 #2
Rachel heaved a huge breath. “And he’s trying—really, he is. He’s great with the boys and he’s stepped up and…”
She met Molly’s gaze head on.
“Just be kind,” she whispered. “I’m worried about him. Please. He’s making a huge effort to be better. Please don’t hurt him.”
And suddenly the margarita tasted like sandpaper. This was not that. This was just this and nothing more.
“It’s really not like that.” Molly shook her head and set the drink down on the coffee table. Whew, was it getting warmer in the room? “No one has their heart involved—or any other body parts.” Because seriously… “It’s Gavin we’re talking about.”
“At first I thought I needed to take a stand. Ensure he knows he’s not allowed to hurt you,” Travis said. “But then I remembered that you’d have his nuts in a vise quicker than Mr. Peanut if he got out of hand. So, yeah, he’s probably the one we have to worry about. Just know he’s doing his best.”
What topsy turvy, cattawhompas world had Molly willingly walked into?
“No one has to worry about anything.” She reached for her glass, not because she really wanted any more but because she needed something to do with her hands. “I promise. I’ll be good. He’ll be good. Everyone is good.”
“Okay.” Rachel nodded. “I trust you. I trust him.”
“Good,” Molly said. All the good.
“Just know, I’m going to have the same talk with him.” Rachel made enormous eyes at Molly. “Because he is not allowed to hurt you either.”
No. Just a big ol’ Southern heaping of NO.
“Uh, right, because the one thing my counterfeit relationship needs is Gavin’s authentic ex-wife threatening him.” Molly traced a line of condensation as it wandered down the glass. “Maybe let’s rethink.”
Travis seemed to choke on his spit, and Molly swore she heard him say something like, “She’s not wrong.”
“I would not be there as his ex. I’d be there as your bestie.” Rachel rolled her eyes dramatically. “I mean, come on, the whole ex thing is so overrated. Our marriage didn’t even count. And I think there’s a law that says your current best friend status trumps his ex-husband status.”
“Knock knock,” Kaiya said as she opened the door.
She didn’t actually knock—the women were all so far past that in their friendship. They were at the walk-in-and-make-themselves-at-home phase of things.
“Guess who I brought?” Kaiya said, sing-song. April? Molly really hoped it was April.
Though it probably wouldn’t be April. She’d been scarce to their mommy meet-ups since her husband absconded and hadn’t returned.
Still, Molly turned to see.
Not April. But Sadie was not a consolation prize. Sadie was awesomesauce all bottled up with a bow.
“Sadie!” Molly hopped right up. “I thought you had a trial this week?”
“Postponed.” Sadie wrapped Molly in a hug she hadn’t even known she needed. She loved Sadie because she always had everyone’s back. As an attorney and…otherwise.
They did the whole hello thing before they spilled their cocktail party onto the patio.
For the moment, Molly forgot about everything except happy.
Her friends and happiness.
Seriously throwing a wrench into the atmosphere, Molly caught them up on some of the Gavin situation—not all.
The emoji situation. The car situation. The house situation—still way overpriced but she looked at the pictures online and figured she totally had some time to wait for it to drop within a reasonable range.
Then she’d do the tour and let herself officially fall in love with the place.
“I need to know what the heck happened with Dan,” Rachel said, cutting right through the chatter and going for gold.
Kaiya blushed a lot of red.
“Kaiya?” Sadie asked, a sly grin etching her lips.
“Still happening,” Kaiya said, cheeks flushed and bashful. “He’s perfect.”
“Yesssss.” Molly sat tall and flung her victory arms into
the air. “That’s fantastic.”
She’d buy them a new blender for their wedding gift.
One of the fancy kinds that her newest sponsor made with multiple settings.
Yeah, a blender company sponsored a dating show.
Apparently, she spoke to their target demographic.
Also, she got a free blender out of the deal on top of the usual payment, too.
“I can’t believe you did it again.” Rachel pointed to Molly.
“What can I say? I have a gift with my first dates.” Molly gave a little shoulder shake she hoped looked convincing.
“Dan is…” Kaiya blew a breath out of her cheeks and fell back against her chair. “I’m so grateful because he’s just…” Her cheeks flamed even more red. She fanned herself and blew out a long stream of air.
What did that feel like? It’d been so long since Molly had even remotely felt the “he’s just…” level of red.
Kaiya did the fish thing—opening and closing her mouth and clearly well out of water.
She needed a life raft. Molly knew how that felt.
They were girlfriends, and they didn’t have many secrets from each other—she was pretty sure—but this was still new with Dan, and Kaiya clearly needed a little time to process her feelings.
Molly couldn’t understand the feelings, but she understood the need for time.
She didn’t mind being the conduit to give Kaiya a break.
“Yeah. Yeah.” Molly gave her friend a look she hoped meant as much to Kaiya as it did to her. “Dan is amazing. We can all agree with that.”
“Oh boy, can we,” Kaiya said, like it wasn’t a big deal.
But the look she gave Molly said it all.
She understood. Molly understood.
It was like a small pinky swear between them.
“I guess everyone’s getting bedroom lucky but me,” she said with a dramatic sigh.
“I’m not.” Gavin’s deep voice came from the general area behind Molly.
Uh.
Oops.
She was pretty sure she turned the same shade of Kaiya
red.
Molly was mid-digesting Gavin’s presence as the patio
door flung open and the blur of dogs and Kellan blew through right to Rachel.
“Mom,” Kellan yelled, flinging himself at her similarly to how Molly did earlier.
Rachel embraced him while, inside, Brady and Travis did some kind of super involved handshake.
Molly and Sadie and Kaiya all held back and let the family do their thing. Until—
It wasn’t a touch. There was no contact. Yet, even without the chaos of the kids and dogs, she knew.
Gavin had moved right behind her. Which meant…
Fake showtime.
“Hey, babe.” She looked over her shoulder, not letting him get to her. At least on the outside.
“Babe?” he asked. “Babe?” Kaiya echoed.
“Is that what you say to someone right before you stab them?” Sadie asked, then she backtracked. “Actually, don’t
answer that. It’ll make it harder for me to represent you in court.”
“Gavin and I are fake-dating.” Molly winked at him. “We get to talk to each other like this. Don’t we, sweet cheeks?”
Gavin made a sound in his throat that sort of sounded like a yes, of course, and sure, all bundled into one awkward, incoherent string of syllables.
“How long do you think you can keep this up before someone gets seriously injured?” Kaiya asked, eyes huge.
“Long enough for the competition,” Molly said with a sigh.
“And until I’m ready to really date someone. Right, pumpkin muffin?” Gavin nudged Molly, clearly rolling with the makeshift endearment. His eyes sparkled like a guy who did not mean to send a “fuck you” emoji.
He probably didn’t know. She was pretty positive he didn’t know.
He’d probably even send his actual girlfriend yellow roses without ever understanding the connotation. Which was, of course, friendship, and not deep desire.
Well, he could send Molly yellow roses. That would send precisely the right message. Much better than a thumbs up emoji. Given all of that, he’d probably send her red roses and therefore the totally wrong message.
Her mind was a mess, and this was getting all kinds of complicated in her brain. Why was nothing making sense?
“For real, the fake aspect of our relationship is on the down-low. So we’d appreciate if you didn’t share it. Especially with his mother or anyone who watches my web show.” She paused. “Except those who are present here,
obviously.”
“Obviously,” Sadie said over the edge of her glass. “Good to see you, Gavin,” Rachel said, still hugging on
her kid. “We haven’t had a chance to say hi.”
No, they hadn’t. What with all the pretend going on around them.
“Good to have you back, Rachel,” he said, like they were great friends. “We missed you.”
And then Molly saw it—the war going on in Rachel’s brain. Should she confront Gavin about Molly and give him the don’t-hurt-her chat? Or should she ask him what exactly his knowledge of emojis came to?
“Hey, Gavin?” Molly asked, turning to him and not allowing the way he filled out his jeans to cloud her mind.
“Hey, Molly?” He mirrored her expression but added a whole spoonful of question.
“What does the thumbs-up emoji mean to you?” Better just find out now if this was going to be a back-and-forth fuck you or a sincere—maybe sweet—unknowing?
“Uh…” He gave her that same expression again, this time with a bowl of questions.
“There’s a right and wrong answer here,” Rachel said into her hand.
“I believe it means…” He held up two thumbs. “All good.”
“Right answer.” Sadie pointed to her chest. “I told you all that he doesn’t even know what sending the thumbs-up to end a conversation means.” She chuckled and Kaiya turned red.
“Let’s go inside.” Rachel turned her son toward the patio door and hustled them through so she could give lots
of love to her other favorite son.
“Maybe he’s faking it.” Kaiya lifted her shoulder like it was no thang. “It doesn’t have to be a big deal. Molly doesn’t care either way, right?”
Did Molly care?
What did it matter if he knew? What if he meant it in the Real Housewives sense?
Somebody pushed pause on the remote control of all things Molly. She couldn’t move.
Was he lying? Did he know? Was he telling her to fuck off but didn’t want to admit it?
That seemed like a remarkably ineffective way to start the fakeness of their relationship.
“I’m lost here. Somebody fill me in?” Gavin asked, placing his hand on Molly’s shoulder like they were for real.
“Sending a thumb means something like screw you,” Sadie said like the badass attorney she was.
“Uh-huh.” Molly and Sadie said at the same time. “Are you serious?” Gavin asked her.
She nodded. “It’s a thing.”
“I just meant ‘all good.’” Gavin gave his own thumbs-up like that clarified anything.
“Didn’t you know that?” Sadie asked, seemingly appalled. But Molly guessed her enthusiastic question was as fake as she and Gavin were.
“Does anyone know that?” Gavin asked, giving them all a get-serious-here look. Everyone except Molly got that look. She got a look that tried to melt her underwear—lace—right off.
She held strong, though.
“Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt,”
Rachel said, moving through the patio door and closing it behind her.
“Anyone who follows pop culture or the Real Housewives knows,” Molly said. Seriously, where was Travis and a cocktail refill?
“I follow neither,” Gavin said, his hand still on Molly’s shoulder. He gave a squeeze. “Is that going to be a problem?” His thumb stroked the edge of her neckline. Thus, she wasn’t quite able to verbalize a response. Thus, there was a decent pause before he ended with, “Babe?”
Molly couldn’t move because, dear heavens, what was this? This little movement of skin against skin on her neckline should not have rendered her unable to form a coherent vowel sound. Instead, she tried, and it sounded like someone was strangling a vocal pigeon.
What was that all about?
She tried again. Nope. Didn’t work. And Gavin’s thumb still traced super close to her throat.
“Why are you touching me?” She gestured to her friends. “They know it’s not for real. You don’t need to pretend.”
“You don’t like it?” Did he purr? He totally said that like a purr.
“I didn’t say that.” She scowled. “I just don’t understand why you’re doing it.”
“I’m just…” He shrugged but did not move his hand. “Practice makes perfect and all that.”
“Man, I really hope you don’t fix him up with someone else,” Rachel said with a sigh. “Please don’t fix him up with someone else.”
“What?” Gavin asked, clearly confused. Because who wouldn’t be?
“I think I need to give you a few lessons in communicating via text with your not-really girlfriend,” Kaiya said. “They’re free lessons and I should probably give them to Dan, too, so he knows. We’ll cover the basics.”
“Do not take her class.” Molly glanced up at him.
In hindsight, this was a mistake because his gaze tangled with hers and stuck there like Gorilla Glue.
“I can’t even right now.” Rachel snort laughed.
“This is going to be so fun,” Sadie said with an extremely unnecessary squeal.
Kaiya pointed between Molly and Gavin. “Who would’ve thought?”
That was for sure. Well…not Molly, anyway.