“We love you too,” Molly says, wrapping her arms around me. Amelia hugs me from behind, and for a second the three of us are tangled together, and it’s everything I need.
“Want to tell us what’s wrong?” Amelia asks. “Because I think maybe these tears are about more than babies.”
“You think?” I say through a watery laugh. They both step back, and Molly sits on the bed, pulling me down next to her. Amelia sits on my other side, and they each take one of my hands. “I don’t know.” I shake my head, blinking hard and trying to avoid ruining my makeup even more than I already have. “I just have a lot going on.”
“It’s not the gala, is it?” Molly asks. “Because you’ve been prepping and cooking for days, and your menu is incredible. You even came up with a signature cocktail, which is a new thing for one of these events. Trust me; I know. I’ve been to like twenty of them at this point. You’ve done all the hard parts. Jeremy hired an amazing staff for tonight, and everything is going to be perfect. You just have to enjoy it.”
“Strangely, no. Even though I’ve never cooked for an event this big, the gala is, in fact, the last thing on my mind.”
“Is it Italy?” Amelia squeezes my hand. “Six months is a long time to be away, but you’re so ready. You’ve earned this, Liv. You’re going to be amazing.”
I take a long, slow breath, trying to get my shit together. I know Brian and I decided not to tell Gabe about us until after the gala, but if I don’t tell someone, I think I might explode. And these are my sisters. If not them, then who? “It’s kind of about Italy, in a tangential sort of way.” I pause, looking at Molly and then Amelia before I spill my big secret. “I sort of…started seeing someone a few weeks ago.”
“I knew it!” Molly exclaims, beaming at me. “You’ve been weirdly hard to pin down the last couple of weeks. I knew something was up.”
“Same,” Amelia says, bumping my shoulder with hers. “You’ve been super evasive every time I ask you what you’re up to. That screams new relationship to me. So, who is it? How did it happen? How did you meet? Tell us everything.”
“Of course you both did.” I laugh. “So, the thing is, I didn’t have to meet him, because I kind of already knew him. It’s Brian. I’m dating Brian.”
“Brian?” Amelia asks. “Like, Gabe’s best friend Brian?”
“Jeremy’s Brian?” Molly leans forward, eyes wide, her entire expression givingtell me everything, and I can’t help but laugh again.
“The very same one. The night of that big, unexpected snowstorm a few weeks ago, I was at Fireside meeting Jeremy, and stayed afterwards to do some work. The snow got bad fast, and Brian was there, so I ended up crashing in one of the spare bedrooms in the loft so I didn’t have to drive home. We had a kind of weird moment before I went to bed, and I kept thinking about it. Of course that meant I couldn’t sleep, so I raided his kitchen to make cookies because, snow. He apparently couldn’t sleep either, and one thing led to another, and all of a sudden, hewas kissing me in his kitchen in the middle of the night. That led to more, and we’ve been hanging out a lot since. Like, every day a lot.”
“Oh my fucking god, I love this so much,” Amelia exclaims. “My little sister with the hot, broody older man. Have you slept with him? Was it amazing? He seems like the kind of guy who would know his way around a woman’s body. All that intense focus. I bet he would be really…thorough.” She gives me a sly grin.
“I’ll say,” I mutter, feeling my cheeks heat.
“No way,” Molly says, pointing at me. “We need details. So, so many details. No holding back.”
I let out a breath, feeling lighter now that my secret is out. “It’s been amazing. He’s amazing. And not just in bed, although, wow, best sex of my life and all that. But everywhere. He’s so much fun to be around. We have the best time together, and he listens to me, you know? He hears what I say and what I don’t say, and he gets me. Aside from you guys and Gabe, I don’t think I’ve ever felt as deeply myself as I do when I’m around him. It’s like I can just be me, and who I am is enough for him. He sees me, and he likes that person, and I like who I am when I’m around him. He told me he’s had a thing for me for, like, three years, and I don’t know how I didn’t see it before, but I sure see him now. He’s been through so much, and he’s still this amazing guy who loves his brother and his friends and all of their kids, and he built himself this whole new family that he’s so caring and protective over, and it’s incredible to see. It’s just…” I pause, trying to figure out how to sum up all of my feelings, and all I can think to say is, “It’s been a really good month.”
“You’re in love with him,” Molly says.
It’s a statement, not a question, and my heart beats wildly at her words.
“No,” I say immediately, even though everything inside me screamsyes. “I can’t be. It’s only been a few weeks. That’s way too fast. Isn’t it?”
Molly shrugs. “It took me less than two weeks to fall in love with Gabe. I was eighteen years old, and I didn’t know anything, but I did know that he was it for me.”
Amelia grins. “I fell in love with Elliot in the time it took to fly from San Francisco to Boston. Took me some time to realize what had happened, but those six hours changed my entire life.”
“Love doesn’t operate on a timeline, Liv,” Molly says quietly. “It happens when it happens, and when it’s right, you know.”
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Nothing in my life has ever felt this right.”
“And Italy?” Amelia asks.
I shrug. “It’s my dream. Nothing in the world could make me give it up. The timing sucks, but we’re going to try to make it work. The distance is a little daunting, and six months is a long time, but he wants to figure it out and so do I.”
“Then you will,” Molly says firmly, squeezing my hand. “You will absolutely make it work, and then you’ll come back here and have the hottest of all age gap romances. I love everything about this so much.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s ten years, not decades.”
Molly waves that away. “Let me have my fun. My baby sister, in love with an older man. A really, really good man. Nothing in the entire world could make this night any better.”
“Not to be the wet blanket over all of this or anything, but when are you planning on telling Gabe?” Amelia asks.
