“What’s uh-oh?” Kaiya asked.
“Molly is overthinking what they had for breakfast. Which means she’s overthinking what happenedbeforebreakfast,” Rachel said as she monitored the impromptu soccer-slash-rugby-slash-basketball game all the kids had come up with together.
“Nope, can’t have that.” Sadie swooped in with an insulated tumbler of Sunday morning mimosa. She slipped that mimosa right into Molly’s grip.
“Get going on this so you stop with the thinking,” she said. “I want to hear about a different snap, crackle, and pop that doesn’t involve waffles and syrup.” She paused. “You didn’t do anything kinky with waffles and syrup, did you?”
“That would be incredibly sticky,” Kaiya said with a shiver.
“Stop thinking and start spilling,” Rachel said with a double snap of her fingers.
“I can’t stop thinking once it starts…” Unless, of course, Gavin had his mouth between her legs. Then she could stop thinking about all kinds of things.
Maybe she should put him on speed dial?
Rachel slung her arm around Molly and pulled her to her. “Tell me all about what happened.”
“Don’t leave out the pop.” Sadie pointed her index finger at Molly.
Molly eyed her friends, specifically Rachel. She couldn’t talk about anything that had happened with her. For the first time, she couldn’t share something with her best friend in the world.
“You’re his ex-wife,” she said, instead of mentioning anything about pops or crackling.
“This is something we’ve all known since the divorce,” Rachel quickly agreed. “Now, spill.”
Molly’s cheeks heated. “I can’t tell you about having sex with your ex-husband.”
Or how she noted Gavin had removed Dakota’s paintings at some point since she last visited. He’d replaced them with family photos he’d had printed on canvases. Huge photos that fit so much better with the decor than a painting of a zebra in a bathtub.
“Molly.” Rachel squeezed her shoulder. “Can I tell you a secret?”
Until now they’d had no secrets from each other, as far as Molly knew. “Do you even have any secrets I don’t know?”
“Gavin and I didn’t love each other,” Rachel said, gripping Molly’s hand.
“I know that. You’ve said that.”
Rachel squeezed again. “You don’t get it. We just didn’t click. If there’s anything I learned from that time with him, it’s that you can’t make the wrong man work for the right reasons. We tried so hard for the kids, both of us, but Gavin wasn’t the one for me. I’m good with that. He’s good with that. We’ve both moved so far on, we might as well be on a new planet. A planet where you can tell me all about why Gavin is making you put on your scary thinking face.”
“Because I like him,” Molly admitted. “I liked the free trial of last night. I’d like the option to extend it. I just don’t know that I can purchase the entire package.”
“Liking the free trial is good, since you spent the whole night with him,” Kaiya said, most unhelpfully. “Isn’t that like an automatic extension? Do you have to do a formal request?”
Was it? Molly’s heart beat faster. Maybe she didn’t.
“You scared her.” Sadie poured more orange juice into her own cup. “Don’t scare her when she’s not even at the good bits yet.”
“I really like him,” Molly said again. “I also remember that Idon’tlike him.”
“Why don’t you like him?” Rachel asked, all gentle. The tone she used with her kids.
“I don’t remember anymore.” Molly pressed against her still-hot cheeks with the palms of her hands and closed her eyes. “When I try to remember, it makes it worse.”
“Oh man,” Kaiya said, pulling her legs up underneath her. “You’ve got it.”
“Got what?” Molly asked, lifting open her right eye.
“The feelings.” Kaiya said, dramatically. “Don’t worry though, I just went through this with Dan. The shock will fade and then you can enjoy them. The feelings, I mean.”
