“At least now I won’t be lying when I tell my mom I sat with a pretty lady tonight.” Gavin gave her a soft look that made her seriously consider raising the arm rest.
Okay. First. Whoa, whoa, whoa. “We aren’t sitting together.”
“We aren’t?”
“We are sitting next to each other, yes.” Molly pulled at a thread from the small supposed-to-be-there tear in her jeans. “But not like that.”
“I can twist the truth a little.” Gavin waggled his brows. “Mom doesn’t need to know.”
“Why are you lying to her in the first place?” Molly scowled. He shouldn’t lie to his mother. As a mother herself, she was required to be patently against this type of thing.
“Because now that Travis and Rachel are officially married, my mother has nothing to do or plan.” Gavin rolled his lips together. “So she’s off to find me a wife.”
“And you don’t want a wife?” Molly asked, careful not to tread into Dakota off-limits territory.
“No.” Gavin shook his head. “I was serious when I said I’m on a break from everything relationships.”
“Then just tell your mom that.” It’d be easier than lying to her and wouldn’t be so messy.
“Have you met my mother?” Gavin asked, and he turned just slightly so she got a good solid sniff of him. Not his cologne. Him. Gavin. And he smelled amazing.
“I like your mom.” She held her breath, breathing only through her mouth.
“My mother is persistent.” His chiseled jaw clamped together like this was a bad thing. “She doesn’t take no for an answer.”
Molly had heard all about Evelyn’s unwillingness to hear that particular word. Rachel talked about it often—especially during the wedding planning shebang.
“So you’re buying time by reading a novel at a coffee shop and telling her you sat next to me?” Molly asked. She could really give him some better tips for fake dating than that.
He nodded. “So far, she’s let it go since I’m”—he made air quotes with his fingers—“trying.”
“But you’re not actually trying?” He shook his head. “Nope.”
Here’s the thing, Molly actually understood Evelyn on some level. So she understood that Evelyn was likely appeasing her son for now, but it wouldn’t last.
“How long do you think you have before she calls you out?” Molly blinked as innocently as she could.
“I’m on borrowed time.” Gavin smirked and lowered
his voice as he said, “But I’ll take all I can get.”
Her stomach did not flutter. It didn’t. That’s all she had to say about that.
“Do you think we should tell them to keep their hands to themselves?” he asked.
She looked over the rows to the boys.
“Not the boys.” Gavin gave a pointed glance to her elderly who were, in fact, getting a tad handsy.
Oh, dear God.
Molly closed her eyes and pressed her palm between her eyebrows.
“Agnes,” she said, loudly. “How’s the date going?”
“Oh, fine.” Agnes said, cheery as all get-out. “We’re
having a wonderful time.”
