“You did amazing with Theo’s nursery at my place,” I say. She designed the room when she and Theo were living with me. “I’m sure you could have your own design business right now if you wanted.”
“Thanks, but that was just a small project,” she says. “With help from your designer. I don’t know enough to do it all on my own yet. But I will.”
She lifts her chin and pushes her shoulders back, and the confidence is sexy on her. It also doesn’t make my attraction to her any easier to ignore. I want to throw her over my shoulder, carry her to the car, and have my way with her in the back seat.
“Dessert?”
Our waitress is holding out a dessert menu, but Molly waves it away before I can answer and orders us a milkshake to share. It feels a little Happy Days to me, but I’ll do it. Especially if it keeps the smile on her face a little longer.
The waitress goes back to the kitchen to put in our order, and Molly opens her mouth to continue talking but is cut off by the sound of her own name.
“Molly?”
We both turn and see a thin blonde woman with fake lashes and bright red lipstick. Her arm is wrapped around the arm of a man with shoulders as wide as mine but a gut twice as big. It hangs over the edge of his pants a bit, and he has to keep adjusting his shirt to make sure it is covered.
Molly blinks in surprise. “Angela?”
The blonde woman smiles and rushes forward, arms open for a hug. “Holy shit. I haven’t seen you since … high school. Really? Has it been that long? Damn. How are you?”
Molly looks at me over the woman’s shoulder, stunned. When they pull away from the hug, she manages to arrange her mouth into a smile. “I’m good. How are you?”
“You had a kid, right?” Angela looks around like she expects Theo to come crawling out from under the table. “Right after high school?”
Molly nods. “Yeah, Theo. He’s four.”
Angela whistles. “I can’t imagine having a four-year-old. Man, that’s crazy. Who was the dad? There were rumors, but—”
“How are you?” Molly asks, cutting her off.
“Amazing,” the woman says, excited enough to talk about herself that she doesn’t mind the sudden change in conversation. She holds out an arm for her male friend to take, but when he doesn’t, she clears her throat to catch his attention. He jumps forward to take his place. “Brad and I got married a few years ago, so we’ve been living the high school sweetheart dream. “
The woman turns towards me and seems to see me for the first time. She blinks and her cheeks flush. “Who is this? I’m sorry, did I interrupt a business meeting or something?”
“No,” Molly says nervously. “This is … um … my—”
“Her husband,” I finish, standing up to take the woman’s hand. “Viktor.”
Angela flutters her absurdly long lashes at me as I stand and move around the booth to slide into the same seat as Molly. I wrap my arm around her shoulders and gesture. “Join us. Please.”
Molly explains how they all know each other as the two take their spots across from us. “Brad played football for our high school, and Angela was a cheerleader—”
“Head cheerleader,” Angela corrects, pushing her blonde hair back over her shoulder. “I always lobbied for you to make the team, Molly. I just couldn’t get the other girls on board.”
The way her mouth turns up in a smile at the memory tells me Angela probably wasn’t on Molly’s side.
Molly waves it away. “It was a long time ago.”
“You didn’t make the team?” I ask, feigning confusion and tucking her into my side. “But you are unnaturally flexible. Really,” I say, turning towards our stunned lunch guests. “I’ve seen Molly get in positions that you wouldn’t believe.”
Angela’s face goes red, and Molly hides a laugh with a cough into her elbow.
“It was about more than flexibility,” Angela says. “You have to know what to do with that flexibility, unfortunately.”
“Oh, she knows what to do with it,” I purr, wagging my brows at Molly.
Molly grips my thigh under the table. It’s a warning, but it only serves to speed up my heart and spur me on.
Angela lets out a humorless laugh and cuddles up to her husband, who is too busy looking out the window at the parking lot to even pretend he is paying any attention. “Are you two newlyweds? It sure seems that way. Brad and I were the same way after we got married. He couldn’t keep his hands off me. Honestly, he still has a hard time.”
“We got married in Paris last year, but it wasn’t legal, so we just had the small ceremony last week,” I say before Molly can answer.
Angela’s eyes bulge out. “Paris? That’s …”
“Beautiful,” Molly interrupts. “He proposed to me at the top of a mountain in Switzerland, we were married in Paris two months later, and now it is finally official. It has been a whirlwind.”
“Jet setters,” Angela says, bitterness obvious in her tone.
The waitress brings out our shake with two straws, and I’m now grateful for the iconic symbol of cutesy romance. Molly and I both drink from the shake while staring into each other’s eyes and trying not to laugh.
Angela talks about her job as a legal assistant and Brad’s position at the construction company, but Molly and I one-up each of her stories with tales of our fictitious travels and wealth. By the time we finish our shake, Angela is begging her husband to slide out of the booth so they can escape.
“It is late. We should really order and get going,” she says, pinching her husband’s arm. “It was great to see you, though, Molly.”
Molly squeezes my bicep and waves to her high school “friend,” and the second Angela and Brad are out of earshot, she collapses into a fit of laughter, her head on my shoulder.
She stays close to me all the way out to the car, and when I climb into the driver’s seat, she sighs.
“That was amazing. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to stick it to Angela? God. She is unbearable.”
“She seemed it,” I agree.
Molly reaches across the console and grabs my hand, squeezing my fingers. “Thanks for that, Viktor. Even if it was all bullshit, it felt good.”
It did. It felt so good.
I wish I could whisk Molly and Theo off to Switzerland and Paris. I wish I had the time to woo them both the way they deserve, but keeping them safe is my main priority right now. It has to be. As much as I want to daydream about a future where Molly and I are carefree jet setters, I have to be practical.
Right now, I have to be a mob boss above everything.
7
Molly
“We should go to lunch sometime,” Hannah says. “I’m not used to being cooped up in an apartment all day. Maybe tomorrow?”
She volunteered to watch Theo while Viktor and I went to lunch today, but I still feel guilty about using her for babysitting her first whole day in town. “Sorry you felt cooped. You can go explore and do whatever you want, you know?”
“It’s not your fault,” she says, reaching out to ruffle Theo’s light hair. “I enjoyed my time with the little dude.”