“He stopped wearing his wedding band.” Agnes stared into the depths of her coffee. “I watched that man for an entire year walking back and forth in front of my house. Knew his wife had passed. Knew he was a good man. But I didn’t know until he took off that wedding band.”
“Gavin took down the pictures with the zebra in the bathtub,” Molly said. Apparently, that meant something.
“I don’t know what that means,” Agnes said.
“I think it’s like the wedding band thing. His old fiancée painted them. They’re like these pictures—it’s a whole art thing—of animals in various bathtubs,” Rachel said. Molly started tuning her out after the initial description because she just didn’t want to think about Dakota or animals in bathtubs.
“Ah.” Agnes nodded. “Then yes, the bathtub zebra is like the wedding band. I understand now.”
“Bet that’s something you never thought you’d say,” Rachel added, still making her way through the donut.
Agnes sighed. Shook her head. “Charlie loved his wife and still does. But she’s gone. And my Mark is gone. So we can be happy here together with just us while we still have time.”
Molly felt a little fuzzy. She didn’t want Gavin to be miserable. She wanted him to be happy. She wanted everyone to be happy. It’s just… “I’m not sure that I’m ready to move forward.”
“Maybe you just need a little push. Like my Charlie needed a little push.” Agnes reached for Molly’s hand, holding it steady.
“But I think I may have already pushed Gavin far, far away.” In the other direction.
“You won’t know unless you talk to him.” Rachel added her hand to Agnes’s.
Molly wiped at her eyes with her remaining hand.
She wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t do it. Tears were private. Tears were for her alone.
“He said he’s falling in love with me,” she said.
“Then I think it’d take more than a little push to make him walk away for good.” Agnes added another hand on top. Then Rachel.
Then Molly.
Then the horrible bleating started again from upstairs.
Oh, no. Looked like Ollie was up.
“What is that sound?” Rachel asked, pulling her hands to her ears because, uh-huh, the sound was just that bad.
“Charlie is clearing out his garage and gave Ollie his old tuba.” Molly would forgive him for taking Agnes to Minnesota, but she may never forgive him for giving her kid a tuba.
“I guess it’s better than him trying to break his neck with roller blading stunts, huh?” Rachel asked, hands still to her ears.
“I think he’s going to be a stuntman tuba player, myself.” Molly rubbed at her ear.
Ollie hit a particularly off note and she rubbed a little harder.
“To each his own,” Agnes said. “Now,” she shouted louder as Ollie really got into thebum bum bum, “We are finalists. The finalists dinner is tonight. We need to get hopping on our celebration.”
“I brought donuts.” Rachel gestured to the open box. “That’s a good start to the celebration.”
“I…uh…” Molly stood. “I need to…”
“Call Gavin?” Rachel asked.
“I was going to go over there.” Molly should probably get dressed first and do something with her hair, but yeah, she should go over there. Talk to him.
“I’ll stay with Oliver.” Agnes popped out her hearing aids. “The sound doesn’t bother me.”
Molly could be sure of a few things today.
