Page 49 of Molly
My nose tingled, and I blinked rapidly against the rush of heat building behind my eyes. She should be here with them. Be the wife she was meant to be and the mother she never got the chance to be. I wished I’d known her. We’d probably have been good friends, she and I. I sniffed. We obviously fell for the same kind of man, so I knew she had good taste.
“She would have liked you,” Suzy said, echoing my own thoughts.
My lips trembled into a semblance of a smile as I handed her phone back. “I think I would have liked her as well.”
The girls’ laughter filtered through from upstairs. Suzy looked toward the risers. “That girl up there already likes you, I can tell.”
My heart spilled over with love for Chloe. “I like her, too.”
Suzy sipped her coffee. “I have to admit something to you.”
Why, yes, we are very much overdue for some rain, I agree.Why couldn’t we talk about the weather?
“I invited you and Chloe over for the playdate because I needed to meet you for myself. For Laura, you understand.”
I didn’t even bother answering with anOh?this time.
“Morgan told me what Chloe said.” Her eyes bored into mine.
I squirmed under her gaze. Did she expect me to know what one specific thing Chloe had said that Morgan had repeated? “I’m sorry. I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”
She leaned a hip against the counter. “You and Ben.”
“Me and Ben?” Not that I didn’t want there to be a “me and Ben,” but as far as I knew there was me and there was Ben. There was not a “me and Ben.”
“The wedding.”
A thud sounded as my brain hiccupped and the hand holding my coffee cup fell to the counter.
“I was surprised because I didn’t even know Ben had started dating again, and he didn’t say anything to me about it at church.” She closed the space between us and enveloped me in a warm hug. “But now that I’ve met you, I can see that you are a kind person and that you obviously love Chloe. Ben deserves to be happy again. I’m so glad he’s found that with you.”
“I…I…” I swallowed and tried again. “Ben and I aren’t getting married. We aren’t even dating.”
Suzy stepped back, her brows lowering in confusion. “But Chloe…”
I sighed and shook my head. “Was mistaken.”
“I see.” She studied me again. The same as the first time. “But you like him, I can tell. Maybe even love him?”
I opened my mouth but wasn’t exactly sure what words were going to come out. Normally, I wouldn’t have paused. Wouldn’t have doubted. The truth and the truth alone would have formed on my tongue and I’d deal with the outcome or consequences later. But I’d already lied once about my feelings. To Chloe of all people. For the first time in as long as I could remember, I wasn’t sure if what I was about to say would be the whole truth, a shard of honesty, or a little white lie.
Suzy waved her hands in the air. “That was too forward of me. I apologize. Maybe I just so want to see Ben happy again—I know Laura would want him to be—that I stepped into business that wasn’t my own.”
“That’s okay,” I whispered. Emotion clogged in the back of my throat, bared its claws and scratched. I pressed my fingers under my jaw to alleviate the pain.
“So.” She smiled at me in that let’s-be-friends sort of way. “Do you think we’re going to get any rain soon? I’m starting to worry about wildfires.”
16
Ben
Twenty-seven.Grunt. Twenty-eight.
My biceps burned as I pushed my body to complete a few more pull-ups. Sweat beaded along my forehead and stung my eyes, but I gritted my teeth and strained to lift my chin above the bar hanging from the frame of my closet. Twenty-nine. Thirty.
The front door opened and closed, the murmur of girlish voices being absorbed by the walls.
I lowered my legs and set my feet on the floor, flexing my fingers to work out the cramps in my hands. With a discarded dirty undershirt, I mopped up the sweat from my brow and across my chest then tossed it into the laundry basket. I swiped the top, neatly folded t-shirt from my dresser drawer and pulled it on over my head. A shower would be in my future, but after I got some hugs and kisses from my girl.
