Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 83718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Teagan snorts. “A guy smiling during sex. I’m sure.”
“No, not like that—like he can’t help himself. Like he’s trying to process the wonder of being with me. It would be easy to think I am special. With him, I could believe it.”
Teagan squeezes my arm. “You are special, Molly. And I’m glad you found someone who can make you believe it.”
My eyes flick to my lap and away from the stars. Do you think someone like me could have something real? I don’t ask. Because she’s my friend, and I know what her answer will be. It doesn’t matter how much my friends believe in me; hearing them say it won’t change how screwed up I am.
“Noah seems to really like him,” she says.
I snap my eyes to hers. “What?”
Her expression is tender, and she adds, “I don’t think anyone else knows. They suspect. Especially Shay. But . . .”
“Who . . . How?”
“We all see how you look at him. How he looks at you. I just thought it was a crush, though. I didn’t realize the two of you were . . .”
“It’s not a relationship. He knows I can’t do that. I can’t offer that.” I attempt to smile. “So don’t kick me out of your hot-singles club just yet.”
Sadness pulls on her features. “Why can’t you offer that? Because he’s your boss?”
I sigh. “No, I don’t really care about that. Not anymore, at least.” I take a breath, searching for the words to explain something that’s been less and less clear to me by the day. “I don’t want anything serious. I just want to focus on Noah and work. Brayden knows all this, so stop looking at me like I’m kicking a puppy.”
“Is that really what you want, Molly? I mean, when you think of your future, you truly want nothing more than a series of meaningless hookups? You don’t want . . . more?”
“Girls like me don’t get more.”
Teagan bumps her shoulder against mine. “I didn’t ask for your predictions, oracle. I asked what you wanted.”
I wrap my arms around myself and tip my head up to study the cloudy night sky. “I want not to be so damn afraid.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? Falling for him?” She’s staring at me and waits until I meet her eyes before adding, “Isn’t it too late for that?”
Brayden
“Uncle Levi said Molly can’t keep her eyes off you, and you should be a man and stop ignoring her.” My niece just grins up at me, as if she’s completely oblivious to the pot she’s stirring by delivering Levi’s message.
I know better. That little pest is about to star in her second wedding in three months, and she’s made it her personal mission to marry off all her uncles and her aunt Shay so she can wear more “princess dresses.” Poor Levi and Ellie haven’t even been back together a full week, and Lilly is already asking when they’ll get married. A seven-year-old playing matchmaker is pretty hilarious when it’s not you, but the last thing I need is her scaring away Molly.
Despite that, my gaze drifts to the woman in question, who’s sitting in a booth at the back of Jackson Brews and having a beer with my sister. They’re laughing and carrying on about something, and the sight of her here—laughing with Shay, hanging with my family, one of us—makes my chest ache. She worked all day, but tonight, for Ethan and Nic’s rehearsal dinner, she gets to celebrate with us. I want to enjoy it, enjoy her, and pull her into my arms and kiss her until she knows just how much I love having her here, to let everyone else know she’s mine. But those damn rules of hers keep my feet planted a good distance away, like they have been all night. I’m close enough to watch her but not so close that she’s within reach. Because that might be too much temptation.
“Hey, stranger. A little birdie told me I might find you here tonight.”
I pull my gaze off Molly and meet Sara’s hazel eyes. I wait for that old hurt to hit. The feeling of my world being ripped out from under my feet when I never thought it was possible. That feeling lingered long after she left me. Every time I heard her name or smelled her perfume on my sheets. Every time I saw the professor she fucked.
That ache of betrayal and loneliness lasted too long. Until eventually I didn’t trust the world beneath my feet. Until I let go of the idea of happily-ever-after for myself. For too long I thought that losing that with Sara meant losing it forever.
But the hurt doesn’t come. The earth is steady beneath my feet, the air still filling my lungs, and I can only stare at her and marvel at how much I’ve changed. I guess time heals after all. But maybe I shouldn’t give time all the credit. “What are you doing here, Sara?” Jackson Brews is open to the public tonight, but it’s the last place I thought I’d run into her—she likely came here to seek me out.