Page 98 of It's Always Been You
I fucking live for the moment she slides into bed next to me and winds her fingers through mine.
Asher puts a hand on my shoulder. “The girls are worried about her, too.”
“It’s not just you,” Jeremy says, walking around behind the bar and handing me another beer. “She won’t talk to them either. Ems says they’ve never seen her like this except when—” He breaks off with a wince.
“I mean, you know you can’t just leave it hanging like that, right?” I say, raising a brow.
“Fuck,” he mutters. “Since they first met her back when they started law school.”
I’m smart enough to put this together. “After I shoved her out of my life.”
“You were twenty-two and grieving,” Ben says. “Give yourself a little grace.”
“And she’s grieving now.” Asher takes the stool next to me. “Everyone is, but it’s different for her. She was there. She went to pick Allie up for a dinner they never got to have. She was the one who broke the news to Jordan. She saw his face in the first moment he realized the love of his life was gone and held him while he broke. It’ll take her some time to work through that.”
I shift my gaze away from Molly and turn to Asher. “You know, for a football player, you’re pretty smart.”
Asher narrows his eyes at me. “I’m not just a football player; I’m a quarterback.”
“Werea quarterback,” Jeremy says, tossing Asher a grin.
“Just like youwerea hockey player,” Asher shoots back.
Jeremy’s gaze strays to Emma. “I sure was. I’ve got a different kind of life now. I wouldn’t trade it for all the unfucked knees and NHL games in the world.”
When Asher glances over at Julie, everything about him radiates contentment and love. I recognize that look because I feel it every time I lay eyes on Molly. “I know just what you mean,” he says, voice quiet.
“I know you love her,” Ben says. “It’s been all over your face every time you’ve look at her since the first moment you walked into their office two months ago. You love her like I love Hal, and like they love Emma and Jules. It’s the huge, unbreakable, forever, don’t know how you ever lived without her kind of love. I know you feel a lot of guilt for the way you guys ended back in college when your parents died, but you’re not that person anymore. You’re not going anywhere this time. You’ll get her through it.”
“Bet your ass I will. I can’t do anything but love her. I loved her when we were in college, but now?” I shake my head, exhaling, turning to look at her, still standing in the corner with the girls but a million miles away. “I would burn down the entire world if it meant she didn’t have to feel the way she’s feeling now. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her. She’s the other half of me. Always has been.”
Asher snickers. “Welcome to the Simp Town, brother. We’ve got T-shirts.”
Jeremy hooks a thumb at Asher. “He’s the president.”
Asher just smiles proudly and sends a dopey grin in Julie’s direction.
Even with how awful the past four days have been, and despite the fact that I can feel the grief and pain radiating from Molly, even from half a room away, I laugh. Because right here is the big, sprawling family I didn’t realize I had been looking for. The one that wraps their arms around you when you’re grieving and broken. That takes you in and loves you and accepts you exactly as you are, scars and all. All they ask is that you love them in return and be there when it's their time to break.
Molly made this family for herself, and then she let me in to be a part of it, and none of us have to get through this alone, because we can get through it together.
“Simp town doesn’t seem like such a bad place to be. Not if I get to be there with her. No matter what life throws at us, I choose her every single day. Thanks for this,” I say to all of them. “You didn’t know me at all, and I basically crashed all your lives so I could convince Molly to give me another chance. It’s very cool of you to accept the parentless, superhero T-shirt wearing tech nerd into your ranks without question.”
“You love Molly, and she loves you. That makes you ours,” Ben says simply.
Jeremy and Asher nod, and maybe it really is just as simple as that.
“Also,” Asher says, grinning, “do you really count as a superhero T-shirt wearing tech nerd when you’re a billionaire a hundred times over and you invented the most popular electronic device in the world?”
“Yes,” Jeremy and Ben say together.
“Hey now. Just for that, none of you are getting your hands on the special edition Redwood Eleven I just got in the mail yesterday. They sent me ten of them.” I smirk at all of them.
Asher gasps. “The one that doesn’t come out for six more months?”
I nod. “The very same one.”
“What was that thing I just said about you being ours?” Ben asks. “I think your family really should have the newest versions of your phone.”
