Page 129 of October
“One last trip,” Juliet said, and sighed. “Thank God. I’m so ready to be done with this travel.”
“I’mready for you to be done with it, too,” Gwen said, standing up.
Carly jumped up instantly and walked to Gwen’s side as if she’d adopted Gwen as her person, along with Juliet, and she probably already had. Molly looked over at Wells, who woke up, stared at the group of humans and dogs, and lowered her head back to her bed. Molly laughed silently and rested her head on Finley’s shoulder.
“I’d walk you two out, but I don’t want to move,” she said.
“That’s okay. I get it.” Juliet winked at her and held out her hand for Gwen. “Ready?”
“Yeah. Carly needs to go out anyway,” Gwen said after she attached Carly’s leash and took Juliet’s hand in her free one. “See you two later?”
“Yeah, we have beers this week,” Finley replied.
“See you then,” Gwen said.
Juliet and Gwen walked out, leaving Molly with Finley, Wells, and Echo, a boxer-pug mix with light-brown hair, who snored when she slept. Molly knew that because the first night after they had picked Echo up from the shelter, Molly had stayed at Finley’s with Wells. Wells liked her bed, and Finley had bought a nearly identical one for her to have at her place. Wells had claimed it instantly. When they had brought Echo home, though, she hadn’t wanted the bed Finley had picked out for her. She’d preferred Finley’s. That had been a problem because Echosnored like crazy. She was nine years old and had been in the shelter for over seven months after being found walking around by the water. Molly loved that Finley had given her a home, and she loved that Finley and Echo had really bonded. It was also clear that Wells loved Finley, too, which meant that Finley was stuck with Molly because Molly had no intention of ever disappointing her dog.
“So, should we accept defeat?” Finley asked.
“There’s still four minutes left,” she said. “And it’s third down. We’ll get the ball back, and then we need an onside kick, and we’re in business. We haven’t had to use one this season yet, so I don’t know how we’ll do, but there’s always a chance at a recovery.”
When Finley said nothing, Molly looked up at her.
“What?”
“It’s hot how much you know about football. Like, really, really hot,” Finley replied.
She moved until she had Molly under her on the couch.
“Babe, the game’s still on,” she said through her laughter but wrapped her arms around Finley’s neck anyway.
“I know,” Finley said, leaning in for a kiss. “But you’re here, and I’m here, and our friends are gone now.”
“You can’t wait four minutes?” she teased.
“For you? No way. Besides, you know four minutes in football is really thirty, with commercials and timeouts.” Finley’s hand moved under Molly’s shirt, and she asked, “What are you thinking right now?”
She placed her hand over Molly’s heart.
“That therapy went well this week,” Molly replied honestly.
“That’swhat you’re thinking about?”
“You asked,” she said, running her hand through Finley’s hair, loving how she could do that whenever she wanted to now.
Well, notwhenevershe wanted to. They couldn’t do this at work. But everywhere else, she could hold Finley’s hand, hug her, kiss her, and run her hand through her hair. Molly also loved the new thing she’d started doing: she put her hand in Finley’s back pocket whenever she could now. She had never done that with anyone else because it had always seemed silly, but when they’d gone to the bar this week to hang out with Sophie, Jill, Asher, and Enid, she had walked with her hand in the back pocket of Finley’s jeans, and she’d loved it. She’d done it wherever they’d gone ever since.
“It went well? We haven’t talked about it yet. I wasn’t sure if you wanted to.”
“It did,” Molly said. “First session in a while, but it was nice to check in. She told me that it was normal for me to be a little anxious, given my situation, and I told her I was more than a little anxious. She said that was okay, too.”
Finley smiled down at her and said, “Itisokay.”
“You help, you know?”
“I do?”
“You make it feel okay to be this way sometimes.”
