Page 18 of It's Always Been You
“I’ll be sure to do that. Don’t forget your breakfast.”
I hand her the paper bag with the muffins.
“I don’t eat breakfast.”
“Not unless it’s muffins.”
“I don’t eat three whole muffins.”
I smile at her. “Well, no, you usually eat half of each of them since you can never decide which flavor you want.”
“My friends don’t eat muffins. What am I supposed to do with the other halves?”
I give her a wink. “Save them for me. That’s what you always used to do.”
One side of her mouth curls up in a small smile, but she doesn’t take the bag. It’s fine with me. One of these days, she will.
“I’m really glad I got to see you this morning, Rory. You’re still the most beautiful girl in the world.”
She flushes again, and it just does something to me. Before I can say anything to embarrass myself further, I stand and turn back towards the sidewalk.
“Gabe?”
Molly’s voice has me turning back around.
“Yeah, Rory?”
“Give me the muffins.”
I feel the grin explode across my face as I hand her the bag. Then I stand on the sidewalk and watch her car drive away. I’m still smiling as it turns the corner and disappears out of sight.
Chapter Five
Molly
“I’m here!” I call as I fly into my office. “I’m so sorry. I got held up and lost track of time.”
“No sweat, Mol.” Jordan Wyles, pediatric surgeon and the third in the years-long Ben, Jeremy, Jordan best friend trio, stands and hugs me. When he lets me go, I’m mauled by his fiancée, Allie.
“It’s so good to see you!” she squeezes me tightly. “I’m so sorry I missed the adoption turned engagement party yesterday. If it had been anything other than a heart transplant, I would have gotten someone to cover my shift.”
Allie is a pediatric heart surgeon and, after Hallie, Julie, and Emma, is my favorite person on the planet. She’s funny, brilliant, completely badass, and is the kind of effortless cool that speaks to me on a soul-deep level.
When she and Jordan told me they wanted to talk about some estate planning in advance of their upcoming wedding, I was quick to agree. We don’t see them as much as the rest of us see each other because of their insane hospital schedules, so any day I get more of them is a good day.
Seeing them is almost enough to make me forget about running into the former love of my life at my favorite coffee shop this morning. Almost. But not quite.
“Allie, you literally put a new heart into a kid’s tiny body. You’re forgiven for missing a party.” I throw my bags on the couch and flop down in my desk chair, tossing the bag of muffins on my desk.
I look at the two chairs opposite my desk and cringe at the stuff piled on them. I usually have meetings in the office we set up as a conference room to avoid clients seeing my particular brand of chaos, but best friends don’t count as clients in the traditionalbetter hide my messsense.
“Sorry about the mess. Just shove everything onto the floor. I’ll deal with it later.”
“Molly, I love you like a sister, but I have no idea how you function in this office.” Allie starts taking stuff off the chairs and organizing it onto my side table. In no time at all, the mess has been rearranged into orderly piles. I appreciate the effort, but the second I need to find something in one of those piles, they’ll be a disaster again. It’s just who I am. It works for me. My friends are mostly tolerant of it. Or, at the very least, they ignore it since they know I’ll never change.
Unexpectedly, Gabe’s face swims through my mind. He was more than tolerant of it. He embraced it with a cheerful acceptance that no one else in my life ever had. He never once asked me to clean up or to be anything other than what I was. He was good that way.
Ugh, I need to get him out of my brain. I wish fervently for another cup of coffee. I finished my peppermint latte in the car on the way to the office—the caffeine equivalent to eating my feelings.
