“You only love her because you’ve never had her as a mother-in-law.” Rachel raised her eyebrows. “I happen to knowallher quirks. Fake cat included.”
“And you don’t love her?” Molly asked. The fake cat Evelyn always talked about in lieu of her emotions was brilliant as far as Molly was concerned.
“Oh, I love her,” Rachel assured. “She wouldn’t have it any other way. But I still can’t believe I’m signing up for this again.”
And, willingly.
Mmm hmm, Rachel was marrying the brother of her ex. Some might think that was unconventional. Molly held a different opinion. She’d seen the spark from the beginning. Thus, this wedding was not a surprise, not to her.
Besides, Gavin—Rachel’s ex—was very…unappealing.
Yes, that was a good word for him. The perfect word.
Molly absolutely understood why Rachel had ditched him. Though ditched might be an extreme assessment. There was no ditching. Their relationship had been like a wet sparkler: the fizzle at the end was spot on, but they’d never really had that initial blaze to push them through for any length of time.
Oh, for sure, Gavin was very attractive—in the carnal sense. Broad shoulders, black hair he kept just long enough to touch his ears, and a face that would make even Calvin Klein want to pan up from the boxer briefs, just to glimpse perfection.
But he was a nonstarter. The kind of guy who was perfectly pretty, but that was about it.
“You look like you’re thinking about Gavin,” Rachel said with a laugh. “Or you accidentally ate a bug.”
“Well, I was. The Gavin part, not the bug, ew.” Thinking of Gavin always made Molly’s mouth pucker like she’d indulged in one of her eight-year-old son Oliver’s Sour Patch Kids gummies.
“While I appreciate your commitment to me”—Rachel closed her eyes as the artist applied eyeshadow—“I have to remind you that Gavin’s not a bad guy. Be nice to him today. Please.”
The bad guy thing? That was debatable as far as Molly was concerned. She dropped her shoulders, shook them out.
“Best behavior.” She made a cross over her heart.
Rachel rolled her eyes.
Fine, Molly hadn’t liked how he relied on Rachel for everything regarding the care of the two kids they had together. Their boys were best friends with Molly’s son, Oliver.
Yes, recently, Gavinhadstepped up. Molly was required as a human being with eyeballs to notice. She was not, however, required to forgive him for the years he had slacked.
Molly didn’t appreciate slacker baby-daddies—seeing as she had one of her own and understood first-hand how hard life could be on a single mom. Exhaustingly hard. Frustratingly hard.
A small child-support check every month didn’t take that hard away.
“He’s been amazing about the wedding,” Rachel continued. “And he didn’t have to be.”
No, he didn’t. He could’ve made the fact that Rachel had fallen in love with his brother a whole thing, and he hadn’t. Point in his favor. That made it, what? Like, two points? Out of a billion?
“I’m glad that the wedding thing hasn’t caused a rift,” Molly said, because she was relieved that Rachel was well on her way to forever future happiness and a wedding that would be worthy of every magazine spread.
She wanted that for herself—forever future happiness, not the princess wedding. Though she wouldn’t object, it’d never been part of her happily ever after dream package. Truly, most of her life wasn’t part of that dream package. She rolled with it.
Even the fancy maid of honor treatment she’d received from the makeup team and the designer gown had been princess worthy. The hair stylist had gone above and beyond with Molly’s unruly black curls. She’d wrangled the beast of a mane into submission, and it actually looked…good. Half pinned up, half falling over her shoulders. She’d really wished she’d made time to go to one of those spray-on tan places so the difference between her dark hair and oh-so-pale skin wouldn’t have been so in-your-face.
There hadn’t been time. And the good places charged a lot. And Ollie had needed new cleats for baseball.
“I want to hear all about you and Dan the Man.” Rachel drew out the name of Molly’s wedding date.
Sort of date. They hadn’t travelled to the location together—he was good friends with the groom, so he was attending anyway. Given that the wedding was a small affair, and he knew Molly from Little League practice where he was one of the coaches, it made sense that they agreed to attend together. Sit together at dinner. Avoid awkward small talk with other people. All that.
She’d agreed to his suggestion without hesitation, even though her track record with first dates was more than a bit of an issue.
“I haven’t even seen him yet.” Molly willed a spark to flash when she saw him today. The sparkler kind with lots of fizzy firework attraction.
