He had done nothing special with himself that day—standard office wear, slacks, white long-sleeved button down, and a red tie. Kellan bought him this necktie last year for Father’s Day.
Molly, however, had her hair pulled back in some kind of impressive twist, and she’d gone with one of those yellow summer dresses he saw in the windows at the Cherry Creek Mall, with a jean jacket. This was, he knew, dressed up for Molly. She was very much a jeans and T-shirt kind of woman.
“What are you doing here, dear?” Mom asked, giving Molly a thorough once-over and clearly sniffing out what was going on.
“I needed to talk to Gavin.” Molly gave him a firm smile. Too firm. Forced.
“Everything okay?” he asked, because she was in his office and she’d never been there before, so it would make sense that the thing to bring her to his office would be something wrong. “Is Oliver okay?”
Aside from his stunt antics, Oliver was the good kid of the three boys. Not the one to shove chewy candy anywhere inappropriate in his body.
“Ollie’s fine.” She waved the thought away like a gnat. “I just had something to discuss.” There it was, that odd smile again. She held her small purse between her hands, and tilted back and forth on her ballet flats. “But I can wait until you’re done, if you have time to talk. Later.” She stilled. Took a breath. Pointed to herself. “To me. Talk to me.”
This was weird. Definitely odd.
Then again, his mother had his high school graduation photo on a hookup app, so weird was truly in the eye of the beholder on this one.
“Sure.” Gavin raised his eyebrows at the mother gaping at Molly like she was a brand-new pet project. “I can talk. To you.”
“By all means.” Mom flapped about between them, removing herself as the barrier. “Talk away.”
Gavin toyed with a pencil, tapping the graphite against the edge of the desk, hoping his mom would take the hint.
She didn’t. Because she was his mom.
“I think she wants to talk to me alone,” he finally said.
“That would be great, actually.” Molly rolled her lips between her teeth, then gave his mom a not-at-all-forced grin. “But could I come see you after?”
That got her a full Evelyn Frank dazzle of acceptance. “Of course. We’ll do that tour I keep promising you.”
“Yay.” Molly tossed up jazz hands, but the feeling wasn’t quite there.
Thankfully, his mom went to do whatever it was she did when she wasn’t checking out hookups for him. She even closed the door behind her.
“Do you want to sit?” He gestured to the two chairs across from his desk and came around the edge to sit in one.
The whole desk thing could be very intimidating. He understood this from all the meetings he’d had with egos who sat at their desk with Gavin positioned across.
Gavin hated the feeling that the big chunk of wooden desk was a barrier. And Molly seemed edgy anyway, with whatever it was she wanted to discuss. So he sat in the chair next to hers.
Unfortunately, when she sat, this meant his knees were closer to hers. Uncomfortably close. It would’ve definitely given the wrong impression if he scooted his chair away, so he didn’t. Though it all felt so…close.
But Molly sat. He sat. Everyone was sitting.
No one spoke, though.
Molly ran her fingers along the strap of her purse. “I have something to ask.” She cleared her throat. “Askyou.”
He’d sort of figured that when she showed up at his office. He nearly said so, but realized he probably shouldn’t poke her when she looked like she might throw up.
Instead, he balanced his pencil on the edge of the desk and gave her all of his attention. “Ask away.”
She shifted in her seat, like it wasn’t the top-of-the-line chair from the office furniture catalogue. But it was, which meant they were actually really comfortable chairs.
“It’s a little awkward,” she said.
He understood all about the awkward. “Trust me, it cannot be more awkward than what just happened in here before you arrived.”
