Page 25 of Molly's Mr. Wrong
“We’ll bill you,” he said in such a matter-of-fact tone that Molly believed him. He pushed off the counter, leaving his full cup of coffee sitting next to Molly’s full cup of coffee, and said, “Come on, Chase. We gotta get going before Mike calls looking for us.”
Oh, yeah. He needed to go.
And Molly felt as if she needed a shot of whiskey. Straight up.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BILLHER.
Finn shook his head as he walked head down through the rain to the truck. Oh yeah, Mike would love that. His nerves were still humming a little as he got into the truck. Chase had been all stony-faced when they’d walked out into the rain, but Finn glanced over at him and caught a sappy smile playing on the kid’s face. Molly’s cute little sister had had an effect.
Chase noticed Finn looking at him and his expression went double serious. He cleared his throat, then stared out through the rainy windshield. Finn shifted his full attention back to the road. No sense giving the kid shit if Chase could turn around and give it back.
Molly had a belly ring.
What other secrets was she hiding?
And why had she made such an effort to talk him back into class? She said that it wasn’t guilt, but he didn’t know if he believed her. It wasn’t as if she were comfortable around him. He made her edgy, but she was starting to make him feel edgy, too.
And when had he started to find glasses so sexy?
He smiled as he thought of her reaction to the date do-over, then remembered Chase and blanked out his expression. The offer had been pure knee-jerk response on his part, an attempt to get the upper hand in a situation where Molly had the definite advantage.
He didn’t want to go back to English. Hated feeling stupid, but he’d said he’d try again and he would. That didn’t mean he couldn’t allow himself to be distracted by the teacher...or for him to distract her.
Thanks to the coffee, which he hadn’t touched, they’d get back to the store later than he’d hoped, but he doubted there’d be too many customers on a soggy day like this.
Chase was once again smiling to himself as he watched the road and Finn half wondered if that was the outcome Mike had anticipated when he insisted that Chase accompany him on the snake mission. Was his grandfather trying his hand at matchmaking after the deal with Jolie and Dylan falling for each other at the feed store?
If so...well, he’d have to watch himself, and definitely never let him know about the informal deal he and Molly had hammered out in her kitchen. Yes, he’d step out of his comfort zone and try to improve his writing skills—for a while anyway—but she was going to step out of hers, too.
“Everything go okay?” Mike looked up from his computer as Finn came into the office ten minutes later, carrying his dripping wet coat.
“We got the drain unplugged.” He wasn’t going to say a word about the way that Chase and Georgina had hit it off.
“We should have taken care of matters the first time,” Mike said.
“She didn’t want us to, and it isn’t like you can force a drain-snaking on someone.”
“We could have sneaked over after dark.”
Mike had changed. As the store had become busier and more vibrant, so had he. It was as if he were ten years younger than he’d been when Finn had been deployed. And now he was suggesting late-night plumbing raids.
Mike logged into the computer and started scrolling through his email as Finn hung up his coat next to the heater. It’d taken a bit to get his uncle to embrace the computer age, but once he’d gotten the hang of it, there was no turning back.
“Son of a bitch.”
Mike rarely cursed, so the muttered words stopped Finn in his tracks. When he looked back at his uncle, Mike was shaking his head grimly.
“What?”
“I have a date.”
“Congratulations.”
“No.”
“No?” Finn moved around behind Mike to see the screen, where there was a forwarded message from his friend Cal—the one Mike and Karl had put on the matchmaking site. The message was from a woman who’d agreed to a time and place for their first date. Only the date wasn’t with Cal. It was with Mike.
