Page 63 of The Vegas Rerun
We sit in silence for a few moments, the hum of the small air conditioning unit the only sound in the room. It’s strange, being here in Molly’s bedroom like this. It’s intimate and yet it’s not. It feels both familiar and foreign all at once. The silence is still a comfortable one, but I feel like I need to say more.
“Do you need anything?” I ask. “Some groceries? A ride to follow up appointments? Or maybe someone to yell at insurance agents?”
She gives a faint smile.
“You’re offering to yell at insurance companies for me?”
“I’d take a bullet before I’d call Blue Cross again, but yes.”
The smile grows, if only for a second. She looks at her watch and then at the bedroom door and she looks kind of on edge again. I reach out and take her hand. She doesn’t pull hers away and I take that as a good sign.
“I appreciate you coming,” she says. “But shouldn’t you be getting back to the office?”
I laugh and shake my head.
“The joys of being the boss means you can come and go when you please,” I tell her. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be but here.”
She smiles again, but she glances at the door again. I wonder if she’s worried if her mom comes in and catches us close like this, because if her mom is anything like mine, she won’t hear the end of it.
When Molly smiles at me, I realize, that for the first time all day, the anger is gone from me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still angry this happened, but it’s not this internal rage that threatens to spill over and make me do something rash now. And the need to do something has been replaced by something else - something quieter, but no less urgent. I just want to be here by Molly’s side.
Not just to fix what’s broken. But to stay.I want to stay with Molly. Being with her feels like coming home.
I don’t want to drop that on her right now, not when she should be resting and not getting her stressed out, so instead of telling her how I feel, I make her laugh, and within minutes, we have gone back to how we always are when it’s just the two of us. We chat and laugh, and we even flirt a little bit, and the whole time, Molly keeps my hand in hers.
Molly is in the middle of saying something when she stops abruptly, and I hear a door open somewhere in the apartment. Molly’s head snaps toward the door, and she pulls her hand from mine seconds before the door opens and a little girl walks in.
CHAPTER 41
JOSHUA
The girlwho walks into the room pauses for a second when she sees me and looks down at the ground, the perfect picture of shy. She’s small, I think she’s maybe around two or three. A tangle of red curly hair is pulled into two uneven pigtails, one of which is half out. Her cheeks flushed and there is a crease down one, presumably from a pillow, because she is rubbing her eyes like she’s just woke up from a nap. She’s wearing purple leggings and a yellow jumper that’s hanging off one shoulder.
I stare. Who on earth is this child and where has she come from? As in, why is she here? Surely Molly isn’t babysitting when she’s just got out of hospital.
The girl finally looks up from the floor and her eyes immediately lock onto Molly.
“Mama,” she says brightly, dashing forward towards the bed.
Mama? This child is Molly’s child? So, she’s not babysitting then. How have I worked with this woman for so long without even knowing she had a child? We’ve done a lot more together than work too and I’m a little bit disappointed that she didn’t trust me enough to mention she had a child, even if she didn’twant everyone in the office to know, although I can’t for the life of me work out why not. There’s private and then there’s … well, this.
Molly smiles, a smile so wide, warm, and full of love that it lights her whole face up. She holds out her arms to the child. The girl launches herself onto the bed beside Molly, and curls into her mother like they’ve been apart for days instead of hours.
“Hi, my love,” Molly murmurs, kissing the top of her head. “Did you have fun with Nana before your nap?”
“Yep,” she says, nodding enthusiastically. “We went to the store, and I got some frozen yogurt with pink sprinkles.”
“Oh wow,” Molly replies. “That is definitely a good day.”
The little girl nods solemnly.
I remain frozen at the end of Molly’s bed, watching this scene unfold like I’m seeing something I was never supposed to witness. The girl looks over at me, and this time, she holds my gaze for a moment before turning to Molly.
“Who’s that?” she whispers loudly in the way only the very young and the very old can get away with.
Molly gently brushes a strand of hair off her daughter’s face, and she says softly, “That’s Joshua. He’s a friend from work. He came to check on me after my accident.”
“Ohhh,” the girl says, like that answers everything. She looks at me again, evaluating me. Then, after a long pause, she nods like she’s made a judgment call and finds me worthy of her time. “I’m Autumn.”
