Page 51 of The Followers

Once they were back in town, Chloe threw her arms around Liv in an exuberant hug. That wasn’t unusual—Chloe was always physically affectionate. But when she detached herself, Liv was shocked when Ella leaned in for a careful hug, too.

Liv’s breath caught. She closed her eyes, soaking up the feeling of her niece’s slim arms around her. She ran her hands along Ella’s dark hair, breathed in her warm sugar scent. When Ella stepped away, Liv stuffed her hands in her pocket and blinked away tears, grateful that her sunglasses hid her eyes.

As she drove away, Liv tried not to think about the fact that her time in Durango was running out. Her temporary position would end when the person she was covering returned from maternity leave at the end of the summer. She had to figure out how to keep Ella in her life, but the situation was complicated—partly because Liv had started to like Molly, almost against her will.

Not to mention: Liv knew secrets about Molly’s husband that Molly maybe deserved to know. But how would that affect Ella? She seemed to have a good life—a mom and dad, a little sister, a home, and a neighborhood. Perhaps the best thing was to remain silent. Not rock the boat. Liv could continue to be friends with Molly; she wasn’t hurting anyone.

Liv told herself this. She repeated it several times, in fact.

She almost believed it.

twenty-five

Women need other women. To laugh with, to cry with, to tell us when our skirt is see-through, to binge-watch Outlander and drink wine and eat too many peanut M&Ms. We need women who show up in our lives, who are present through the best and the worst.

@InvincibleMollySullivan

For the next few days, Molly successfully put the birth certificates out of her mind. She focused on her family, on Chloe and Ella, and on Scott when he was home. Work somehow fit in around that, though it wasn’t going well. Another sponsor pulled out, citing the waning engagement on Molly’s account. She wanted to blame the ever-changing algorithm on the decreased reach of her posts, but her comments were down, too, indicating that her followers were losing interest.

Summer wasn’t even halfway over, and she was already feeling the doldrums. While her Instagram story showed trips to the pool and park and zoo, it didn’t show all the dead time in between. The long, hot afternoons. The bickering between the girls. The forty-seventh time she’d restaked the damn slip-n-slide. Sometimes she wondered how she was going to survive until the girls started school and their beautiful teachers took them away.

Thank heavens for Liv. Molly was ever so grateful to have another adult to hang out with when Scott was gone. Because they were both new in town, it was the perfect opportunity to explore the area together. Liv was quiet and introspective, qualities Molly admired because she’d always been the exact opposite. Plus, she got along great with the girls, especially Ella, who was slowly coming out of her shell.

Today they were lounging at the neighborhood pool together, drinking Diet Coke while watching the girls swim. Liv looked tiny and surprisingly curvy in a black bikini and sunglasses, making Molly feel matronly in her floral one-piece. But she’d recently written a call-to-action Instagram post entitled Dare to Show Up (In a Swimsuit) so she felt obligated to follow her own advice, despite cellulite and spider veins.

“How’s your job?” she asked Liv. She needed someone else to talk to her, about anything. She was tired of listening to her own thoughts. “Is Mr. DeLuigi still trying to look down your shirt whenever you work with him?”

She expected Liv to laugh; she just shook her head. Liv was always reserved, but something in her expression seemed off, like she was miles away.

“Is everything okay?” Molly asked.

“I’m fine.”

She didn’t seem fine, though. “You sure?”

Liv hesitated, then shrugged. “Um, I’m having a little... guy trouble.”

Molly set her Diet Coke down and leaned in, intrigued. “You didn’t tell me there was a guy! What’s going on?”

Liv’s porcelain-white cheeks turned pink. “He asked me out a few weeks ago and I thought we had a good time, but the date didn’t end well. I figured he didn’t like me. Then he showed up at my apartment the next morning, wanting to go on a run with me.”

“You run? You didn’t tell me that, either.” Molly realized how little Liv shared about herself, while Molly felt like she’d blabbed about everything under the sun to Liv.

“That’s how we met. Well, I met him at a coffee shop first, but a few days later we saw each other out on a run.”

“Very cute.” Cute for Liv, that is. Not for Molly, who would only run if a bear were chasing her. “What’s the problem?”

“He hasn’t asked me out again, but almost every morning he meets me for a run.” She paused, sneaking one of her half-glances at Molly before her eyes darted away. Skittish, Molly’s dad would have called her. “But nothing else. Which is fine—it’s fine. I’m probably making a big deal out of nothing.”

“It’s not nothing if it matters to you,” Molly said, filing away that catchphrase for a later live video.

Liv lifted her eyes to meet Molly’s, and Molly could see through the dark glasses to her eyes, so big and round and full of sad, sad hope that it made Molly’s own heart feel swollen.

“It’s not nothing to me,” Liv said in a quiet voice.

And then she glanced away, returning to her carefully constructed expression, which seemed to tell the entire world to back off.

“Well, Liv, here’s the thing.” Molly wondered how to say it delicately. How do you tell a brand-new friend that her face, her demeanor, tells people to stay away? “You’re pretty, and you’re kind, and you’re smart.”

---