Page 31 of It's Always Been You
“Coming to track down the girl of your dreams who you hadn’t seen in ten years? It’s romantic as fuck. I still can’t believe I missed it.”
Jordan slides his arms around Allie and tugs her back into his chest, kissing the side of her head. “Baby girl, the way he keeps glancing over at Molly tells me there are lots of romantic moments in his future for you to spy on. Even if we did miss the good one,” he grumbles.
Molly is still on the other side of the island watching me talk to the whole group with an expression I can’t decipher on her face. I hope she’s not upset about all the posturing from her friends about whatever future we may or may not have because, holy god, do I want that future. With her. And these people. I’ve only known some of them for five minutes, yet I already knowthis is a family. The kind I’ve been looking for since my parents died.
“I hope we’ll be seeing a lot of you.” Emma’s voice snaps me back to the group, and the look she gives me makes me feel like she can see directly into my head.
Jeremy wraps an arm around her waist and drops a kiss on her head. “Don’t freak him out with the spooky mind-reading yet, Ems. I think Molly wants to keep him.”
Molly appears at my side, her stack of bracelets clinking happily as she links an arm through mine. “I might. I haven’t decided yet.”
“Holy shit, Molly, What the fuck happened to your arm?” Julie pushes past Asher and grabs the arm Molly just linked through mine. The arm that now sports a bruise in the shape of a handprint. Her hand is gentle on Molly’s arm, but when she turns to look at me, her eyes are murderous. Molly jumps in before I have a chance to sayno fucking way.
“No, Jules. Not him. No way. He would never. It was Brad Randall.”
Julie narrows her eyes on the bruise. “Asshole Brad?”
“He needs a new nickname,” I grumble. “Asshole isn’t bad enough.”
Julie gives me a satisfied look, and I breathe a little sigh of relief because she’s scary when she’s mad.
“Okay, well, how the hell did you end up with a bruise in the shape of Asshole Brad’s hand on your arm, and why is he not cooling his heels in a jail cell after you pressed charges for assault?”
Molly sighs. “It’s a long story. Let’s grab food, and I’ll tell you all together.”
Chapter Ten
Gabe
“He put his hands on you?” Ben’s voice is a growl.
“Hard enough that there’s an outline of his fucking hand on your arm.” Jeremy’s tone is low and dangerous.
We’re all sitting around the living room with plates of food while Molly is telling her story. By the looks of it, everyone in the room feels just as homicidal about it as I do.
Molly shrugs and nods. “Yeah. He got his fragile man feelings hurt because I reminded him how much better than him I am at, well, everything. And I told him if he comes for me, he best not miss.”
“I’m all for telling that douche-bro windbag where to shove it, but Jesus, Molly, that could have been so much worse,” Julie says. She keeps glancing down at the bruises on Molly’s arm with a worried look on her face.
“It could have been, but it wasn’t, because we were in public, and Gabe showed up all growly and told him to get his fucking hands off me or he would cut them off.”
I grin and bump shoulders with Molly. “I don’t think that’s exactly what I said, Rory.”
“Oh, no,” Allie says from her perch on the couch across from us. “I already missed the grand entrance. I won’t miss anything else. Leave nothing out, Molly.”
“I hate you,” she hisses at me.
I just grin at her. Angry, irritated Molly turned me on faster than anything else when we were together in college. Looks like nothing has changed. “You really don’t, Rory. You really, really don’t.”
“It’s the best, right?” Asher’s voice is low. I turn to where he’s sitting on my other side.
“What is?”
“When they get mad. Sometimes I piss Julie off on purpose because it’s so fucking sexy.”
I chuckle because I just fucking love it here. “It sure is.”
“If you’re done with your little sidebar, we have a story to finish.” Asher and I both look up into Julie’s narrowed eyes, and Asher mutters, “See?” under his breath. “Hot as fuck.” I smother a laugh.
