“Maybe.”
Gavin sipped his espresso.
Tasted decent. Not his usual, so not what he was used to, but still good, though. Possibly better than his usual, actually, the way the notes of chocolate and an undertone of hazelnut rested on his tongue after the first swallow.
“I don’t want to be with Cassidy,” he said. “I’m here with you. I’m happy to be here with you.”
Molly used her fingernail to poke at the liner of her paper tea cup. “But you two just had the cutest second chance destined-to-be-together connection.”
The what the what?
“We are not destined to be together.” Of this, he was certain. They’d had their shot. Didn’t work out.
And she wasn’t Molly.
“But how do you know?” Molly asked.
Because she was not Molly.
“Because I’m here with you,” he said, instead of what he was thinking. Because what he was thinking might just scare Molly clean away.
“We’ve never had a destined-to-be-together connection.”
Yet. “Never too late to make that happen.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Didn’t work, though, because Molly glowered at him.
“You’re being so frustrating right now.” Molly said this as though she was the one who was frustrating, not him. Which, to be honest, he could totally agree with.
But in a cute way. In a Molly way.
The right way.
“Because youwantme to go out there and date another woman while I’m here with you?” Gavin asked, hoping the absurdity of his question would break through whatever wall Molly had built around herself.
“No. I don’t want that.”
Good. Thankfully, she’d admitted it.
“But…”
Damn,butwas never good.
“…it’s what youshoulddo because you two are adorable together.”
Okay, but Cassidy wasn’t Molly. Did not have the dynamics of Molly. Didn’t keep him awake at night wondering what she was dreaming about.
He splayed his hands on the table. “Is this what Agnes and Rachel were talking about when they said you shouldn’t fix me up with someone else? They were being serious, weren’t they?”
Molly’s expression of utter terror was enough to tell him he was correct.
Damn.
This was real. Another way she took a piece of brick out of the wall that made her Molly.
“I can’t help it. I’m cursed like this.” She shrugged, then sipped at her tea, like this wasn’t a big deal.
Suddenly, he did not particularly care about his espresso. It all tasted like the dust from Molly’s crumbling wall.
