Chapter 27
MOLLY
No matter how much she ignored it, the knocking on her front door was not stopping.
Molly pulled herself out of bed and glanced at the clock. Okay, fine, it was past seven a.m., but it was also one of the days Ollie didn’t have school, so they’d stayed up late while he watched all the old Indiana Jones movies and she recorded a whole slew of new videos for her dating show.
Turned out, even though she had a wreck of a love life, she could still give advice. That was one of the funny parts of life, she figured—when you can’t do, teach. Or something like that.
Four days.
No Gavin contact. Molly’s choice.
He hadn’t texted her. Hadn’t called. She hadn’t, either.
He’d clearly moved on. So, here she was.
The good news? She still held on to first place in the competition and held steady there. Agnes and Charlie and their commitment to each other was a total hit—even if she made her updates without Gavin.
She felt a little bad—a lot bad—that the other couple hadn’t worked out.
Also, the house a street over? It went under contract.
Not with her as the buyer, either.
The numb was such, she didn’t even care. Which meant that eventually she knew she’d start to feel things again, and then she’d care. She’d care a whole lot.
She pulled her hair back in a band and tugged her robe tight around her as she skedaddled down the steps to the front door.
Rachel.
She pulled open the door, and her friend immediately thrust a box of Voodoo donuts at her. “I come bringing donuts.”
Molly snagged the box. She could forgive the wake-up pounding since it meant she got donuts. The good kind, too. Voodoo donuts were worth waking up for.
She snagged a glazed one with strawberry frosting and dried strawberries crushed on top like sprinkles.
“What’d I do to earn this?” Molly asked around her nibbles of gluten-y sugar.
Rachel pursed her lips.
“Oh.” Molly chewed. Swallowed. “Is this the Gavin thing?”
“The Gavin thing?” Rachel asked, unamused.
Molly had two choices. One, break down and cry again. Let all those messy emotions and thoughts and dreams spill over her friend. Or two, keep those assholes locked up tight and move on with life.
Door number two, thank you very much.
“Ollie’s still sleeping?” Rachel asked, making herself at home as she moved through Molly’s living room to the kitchen, and flicked on the coffee pot.
She knew as well as Molly that Molly would’ve prepped it the night before for ease of morning caffeine consumption. That’s definitely the kind of thing best friends knew about each other.
“We had a late night. I was working. He was on a Harrison Ford bender.” Molly sat at the table since Rachel had decided to play barista.
She swiped at the strawberry cream with her fingertip, letting the flavors play on her tongue.
Rachel pulled out a chair and sat at the cramped table. “I’m worried.”
“I’m fine,” Molly said, licking at the rest of the cream. “I’m not worried about you.” Rachel stood to pour a
cup of coffee even though the drip wasn’t done. She dolled it up just the way Molly liked and slid it across the table.
“You’re not?” Molly figured that’s what this morning’s meeting was about. Why else would Rachel be there?
“I mean, I am.” Rachel poured herself a cup, too. “But I’m really worried about Gavin.”
Molly sat up taller. “What’s wrong with Gavin?”
“You’re serious.” Rachel sighed. Deep. That wasn’t good—Rachel didn’t sigh.
“What’s wrong with Gavin?” Molly asked again.
She figured by this point he’d be two dates in with Cassidy and well on his way to a blissful future.
“Other than Travis said he hasn’t shaved in three days and he didn’t go to work yesterday?”
That was not like Gavin. “He never misses work.”
“Yeah.” Rachel crossed her arms. “And if you don’t fix what’s broken, you can look forward to a visit from Evelyn and her pretend cat. I’m the pre-Evelyn visit. Trust me, she doesn’t bring donuts.”
“I like Evelyn,” Molly assured her. “I understand Evelyn.”
“You’ve never seen her on a rampage after one of her kids gets hurt.” Rachel lifted the cup of coffee to her lips. “You think you’re the queen Mama Bear? You have seen nothing until you’ve seen Evelyn on a rampage.”
“She’s going to rampage against me?” That didn’t make any sense. Evelyn wanted Gavin to be happy. Molly wanted Gavin to be happy.
“Gavin hasn’t shaved in three days.” Rachel held up three fingers to make the point. “You still don’t get it? Molly, for one of the smartest women I’ve ever known, you’re being so dense about this.”
Hey. That was uncalled for. Molly opened her mouth to defend herself when Rachel continued, “He fell in love with you. You fell in love with him.”
“I did not.” Molly held up her hey-now-stop-it hand. “He didn’t, either.” No matter what he said. “We just did the free trial.”
“He bought the lifetime membership before the trial was over. The kind you can’t get a refund on.” Rachel stared at her coffee. “And if you’re going to be honest with yourself, you did, too.”
“I didn’t—”
“You can keep saying that, but it’s not true.” Rachel rubbed at her temples. “I know you well enough to understand that you think you’re setting him free. Doing the right thing. But I know him well enough to know he doesn’t want to be set free.”
“You will not believe what happened,” Agnes scooted through Molly’s back door, hands flung in the air. “That other couple? Back together. I think it was a set-up. And they’re in the finals with us. I don’t like it. You break up, you should be out.”
Molly was still mid-digestion of that fact that she could’ve been so very wrong about Gavin and what he needed, that she didn’t quite know what to make of Agnes’s announcement.
Today was finals announcement morning. Of course. Molly totally forgot.
What did that say about the state of her mind? She’d been looking forward to this since she bumped up into first place.
“What’s going on in here?” Agnes asked, taking a quick pulse of the room.
“I…”
“She broke up with Gavin,” Rachel said.
Molly tossed her a glare. “Agnes doesn’t need to be involved.”
“Since when doesn’t Agnes need to be involved?”
Agnes asked, clearly appalled.
Since Agnes decided to move away with Charlie, maybe? For starters.
Molly was having a really hard time keeping it together.
The last thing she needed was to feel worse about things. “You broke it off with Gavin?” Agnes asked, forehead
scrunched up to her no-longer-gray hairline.
Molly nodded.
“When?” Agnes asked, firm.
“Right after you announced you’re engaged and moving to Minneapolis,” Rachel not-so-helpfully supplied.
“Is nothing sacred to you?” Molly asked her. “Not when I’m trying to help you fix your mess.”
“Oh, dear.” Agnes helped herself to a cup of coffee and pulled up another chair. “Baby girl, the reason I can go to Minnesota is because you have Gavin.”
“What?” That made no sense.
“But if you don’t have Gavin, that changes everything.” Agnes looked like Gavin had eaten one of her kittens for breakfast.
“Why?” Molly asked. “You made a decision. I respect your ability to make that decision.”
Agnes studied her for a long beat.
“You respect my ability to make that decision?” Agnes asked, slower than slow. And, oh dear, there was a storm brewing behind those words.
“Agnes, you made it clear what matters, and I get it. You’ve got Charlie now. You’ll have his son. You’ll have grandkids.” She’d have a whole ready-made life in Minnesota.
“I also have Oliver,” Agnes said. “I have you. I thought
we could both go on ahead and live our lives happy with our choices, but I can’t leave you here by yourself. Who will make sure you remember to water your flowers in the summer?”
“I can help with that,” Rachel volunteered, pausing from noshing on the chocolate, graham cracker, marshmallow glazed donut in her hand.
“I sent Gavin off into the world to go find his future,” Molly said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
“You’re both miserable because of that,” Rachel pointed out, really unhelpfully.
Though she wasn’t wrong. Molly was miserable. But it was easier to be miserable for the right reasons than to be happy for the wrong ones.
“How do I know?” Molly asked. “How do I know that Gavin’s meant for me and not someone else?” Not Cassidy? These two women…both of them had figured out the answer to that question. She gave all kinds of tips, all kinds of advice, but in the end, she didn’t know the answer to that question.
“How do you not know?” Rachel threw the question back at her. That was a very Rachel answer, Molly had to give it to her.
“How did you know?” Molly asked Agnes. Agnes probably wouldn’t do the rhetorical question thing. It wasn’t her style.
“He stopped wearing his wedding band.” Agnes stared into the depths of her coffee. “I watched that man for an entire year walking back and forth in front of my house. Knew his wife had passed. Knew he was a good man. But I didn’t know until he took off that wedding band.”
“Gavin took down the pictures with the zebra in the bathtub,” Molly said. Apparently, that meant something.
“I don’t know what that means,” Agnes said.
“I think it’s like the wedding band thing.
His old fiancée painted them. They’re like these pictures—it’s a whole art thing—of animals in various bathtubs,” Rachel said.
Molly started tuning her out after the initial description because she just didn’t want to think about Dakota or animals in bathtubs.
“Ah.” Agnes nodded. “Then yes, the bathtub zebra is like the wedding band. I understand now.”
“Bet that’s something you never thought you’d say,” Rachel added, still making her way through the donut.
Agnes sighed. Shook her head. “Charlie loved his wife and still does. But she’s gone. And my Mark is gone. So we can be happy here together with just us while we still have time.”
Molly felt a little fuzzy. She didn’t want Gavin to be miserable. She wanted him to be happy. She wanted everyone to be happy. It’s just… “I’m not sure that I’m ready to move forward.”
“Maybe you just need a little push. Like my Charlie needed a little push.” Agnes reached for Molly’s hand, holding it steady.
“But I think I may have already pushed Gavin far, far away.” In the other direction.
“You won’t know unless you talk to him.” Rachel added her hand to Agnes’s.
Molly wiped at her eyes with her remaining hand.
She wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t do it. Tears were private.
Tears were for her alone.
“He said he’s falling in love with me,” she said.
“Then I think it’d take more than a little push to make him walk away for good.” Agnes added another hand on top. Then Rachel.
Then Molly.
Then the horrible bleating started again from upstairs. Oh, no. Looked like Ollie was up.
“What is that sound?” Rachel asked, pulling her hands to her ears because, uh-huh, the sound was just that bad.
“Charlie is clearing out his garage and gave Ollie his old tuba.” Molly would forgive him for taking Agnes to Minnesota, but she may never forgive him for giving her kid a tuba.
“I guess it’s better than him trying to break his neck with roller blading stunts, huh?” Rachel asked, hands still to her ears.
“I think he’s going to be a stuntman tuba player, myself.” Molly rubbed at her ear.
Ollie hit a particularly off note and she rubbed a little harder.
“To each his own,” Agnes said. “Now,” she shouted louder as Ollie really got into the bum bum bum, “We are finalists. The finalists dinner is tonight. We need to get hopping on our celebration.”
“I brought donuts.” Rachel gestured to the open box. “That’s a good start to the celebration.”
“I…uh…” Molly stood. “I need to…”
“Call Gavin?” Rachel asked.
“I was going to go over there.” Molly should probably get dressed first and do something with her hair, but yeah, she should go over there. Talk to him.
“I’ll stay with Oliver.” Agnes popped out her hearing aids. “The sound doesn’t bother me.”
Molly could be sure of a few things today.
First, she’d messed up with Gavin, and she wanted to make it right.
Second, she was really going to miss Agnes. And third, she was going to be okay.