Chapter 16
GAVIN
This wasn’t real.
Gavin had no illusions about the role he needed to play for Molly’s web show.
He’d seen her clicks and views skyrocket on her YouTube channel, so he figured she did okay in the dollars department.
That’s why it didn’t make sense that she’d gone for the patch repairs for her car.
The only thing he could figure was the price tag of stunt camp, which cost an amount that had made him gulp. Hard.
Since she wouldn’t take his money to fix her car, he knew she probably wouldn’t let him pay for Ollie’s stunt camp either. Not being slow on the uptake, he hadn’t offered. One plus two equaled…he had to do what he could to ensure she
won this competition.
Thankfully, Agnes and Charlie made it easy. They joined the two of them for the beginning of the deconstruction of bingo night.
Unfortunately, Peter and Chris were not making it easy. Their latest video was actually taken directly after the date…while they were babysitting Peter’s three-month-old nephew and introducing their new puppy to their home. Even Gavin understood that babies plus puppies equaled lots of upvotes.
To counter, Molly was doing this episode live and unfiltered. She swore that made for better views. Viewers loved watching for the unexpected.
“Oh, hey!” Molly gave her signature start-the-broadcast-hand-wave-slash-peace-sign.
“It’s Molly.” She pointed to herself, like she always did at this point in her show.
“I have something really fun today.” Her lips tucked under as she paused for a dramatic moment to let that news sink in.
“I am here with a new friend. Actually—” She sucked her cheeks in like she was intentionally making a fish face.
Totally on-brand for her online persona.
He’d seen her do this on all the videos—the endearing silliness that was just so unbelievably watchable. But he’d never seen it up close and in person before. She was totally into the character of Molly, who gave dating tips and sass-filled advice.
The persona of Molly was fun. Flirty. Not afraid to be silly.
Wonderful and engaging and someone everyone could relate to. Someone the women who watched her show wanted to be, and the men wanted to take to bed.
Yes, he knew this from firsthand experience as a man.
Not that he’d ever actually considered acting on it.
He’d always enjoyed watching her show. But now, here in this moment, he was quickly understanding that this Molly was not the entirety of who she was as a full package. Molly was—much to her dismay, he’d bet—pretty vulnerable.
He’d not picked up on it terribly often before bingo night.
But flipping back through the memories of the times he’d been in the same space with her, she tossed up smoke and mirrors everywhere she went.
Still, that little chunk of deep-down authenticity seeped out.
And while she threw around the smoke and put up the mirrors, she also tore herself down a tiny chip of brick at a time.
The real Molly was afraid. He wasn’t sure exactly why she was fearful. He had a hunch she didn’t know either.
But there it was, deep down in the microscopic self-deprecation. Things no one would notice unless they were really looking.
For whatever reason, Gavin found himself looking. And looking twice.
He wasn’t quite sure what to do with what he uncovered. So he did nothing while he figured it out. Played it safe. Collected all the data before making a decision or maneuver. Just like all the best business deals.
“Gavin here is not just a friend.” She went on, upbeat and over-the-top excited. She tilted forward toward the laptop camera she used to record the show. “He’s my boyfriend.”
That was his cue. Gavin gave a small hello-salute he’d practiced in the mirror more times than he’d care to actually admit to anyone—including himself.
Molly waved her hands like c’mere. “Meet…Gavin.”
Persona-Molly wrapped her arm around Gavin’s shoulder and pulled him to her, pressing a smacking kiss against his cheek.
Totally taking his breath away. Absolutely knocking him off his rocker.
Though he liked this woman, this persona Molly used, he wanted the other Molly back. The authentic Molly.
The shock of his realization rendered him unable to do anything but stare awestruck at this woman who was more at home playing pretend than she was being herself.
She segued right into the bingo date night.
“Don’t care for bingo,” Charlie announced, Agnes tucked tight against his side. “Won’t do that again.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Agnes insisted, looking at the camera like she was a professional personality, like Molly.
Gavin was more like Charlie. He tried, but it didn’t come naturally.
Come to think of it, that was pretty much Gavin’s life in a nutshell.
“I walked out of that place with a wallet lighter than when I walked in. All I had to show for it was a handful of torn up papers all marked up.” Charlie harrumphed.
Charlie had come to the interview in a checkered sweater vest with a matching tie and a pair of tan polyester pants that looked supremely scratchy. But what did Gavin know?
Agnes had gone with the matching version of his sweater.
He had a hunch she’d made them. Not that they looked homemade, but he wasn’t entirely certain where one would purchase sweaters with that much personality and a perfect
fit.
“You had a nice time with Agnes.” Molly slipped right
in with that little tidbit. Nudging Charlie along.
“We could’ve had a nice time here at home, watching her programs. Didn’t need to go out to spend money on pieces of paper I tore up anyway,” Charlie said. “Bunch of baloney for television if you ask me.”
“You wouldn’t mind watching my programs with me?” Agnes asked, apparently a little starstruck at the idea of a night in with Hulu.
“As long as I don’t have to play bingo while I do it, I’m happy to do most anything with you, darlin’.” Charlie slathered on the endearment like an old pro.
Well, call Gavin old-fashioned, but it turned out ol’ Charlie had some game left after all these years. As long as it didn’t involve bingo.
“For your next date, we were going to go to a knitting club,” Molly announced, as though it were a trip to Charlie’s Chocolate Factory and they’d found a golden ticket.
Gavin had not heard about the knitting idea. He’d never knitted anything in his life and didn’t particularly feel a pressing need to start now.
“No. We are not.” Charlie looked at Agnes like she hung the moon every night of his life. “We’ll sit in and watch her programs. I’ll make up a batch of chicken paprikash.”
Agnes laughed and smacked his arm. “You cook, too?
This just keeps getting better and better.”
“I couldn’t help but notice that perhaps there were some sparks between you both on this date night.” Molly waggled her eyebrows dramatically. “Would you like to tell us more about that?”
“There are lots of things that Charlie Davenport does,” Charlie said, the grouch back in his voice, “but one of them is not kissing and telling about it. If you get my meaning.”
“I get your meaning, Charlie,” Molly assured him.
“I think we all do,” Gavin added, ready to step into the role she had brought him on to play. If Molly could do it, so could he.
“I don’t mind kissing and telling.” Agnes wiggled her eyebrows up and down and…how did she get them to go a little left and right? That wasn’t possible, was it?
Charlie made a sound in the back of his throat that reminded Gavin of a clogged drain.
“We kissed and now I’m telling everyone about it,” Agnes said with a giggle. “And that’s all I’m going to say.”
“Chicken paprikash is your signature meal?” Molly asked, pivoting the conversation toward what Gavin was sure was a safer topic. A topic that wouldn’t cause more plumbing sounds to come from Charlie.
“It is.” Charlie pulled Agnes in tighter. “On that note, I think we’ll head off now.”
That was not part of the plan that they’d gone over before they started this whole interview process.
“You can’t just leave in the middle of the broadcast,” Molly said, with a light laugh so subtle it felt like it tickled.
“Charlie Davenport does what he feels like doing,” Charlie said somberly.
“That’s the truth.” Agnes’s eyes sparkled and Gavin suddenly felt like an intruder in this whole game.
This wasn’t really about Molly getting her car fixed or Ollie getting his stunt camp ticket. This was about two people finding happiness.
His gaze slid to Molly.
He’d been so intent these past months since Dakota left to get himself back on track before opening up to anyone else again. But here he was, back on track. And there was Molly, searching for happiness.
Agnes and Charlie made a hasty exit, leaving only Gavin and Molly on the livestream.
Molly went along with it, saying her goodbyes and turning her full attention to Gavin. Funny thing about that—he liked it. Liked her attention. Liked her giving it all to him.
“What’s your signature meal, Gavin?” Molly asked. “What will you be making me?”
Gavin didn’t miss a beat as he said, “Well, I know you love meat. You’re definitely a carnivore.”
Huh. That sounded slightly dirty.
“Sometimes.” Molly tilted her head from side to side. “I’ve been known to enjoy a good hamburger.” She said it like it was their own inside joke. Which, to be fair, it was.
Should he go all in? Yeah, he was going all in. “I think I’d make you my special sausage.”
He intended the double entendre, but he did actually have a Cajun spiced sausage and rice dish that was pretty edible.
This was one of the few meals he cooked himself. Though he worked in the food industry, he was more of a takeout kind of guy versus a cook-at-home style chef. But the one thing he did know how to make? And make decently well?
Cajun sausage and rice.
He probably should’ve clarified, but it was more fun
watching Molly open and close her mouth like a guppy searching for oxygen.
“Your sausage?” she asked.
He nodded like he did not know what he’d just said and how it could be interpreted.