Page 53 of The Followers

“Just grabbing the mail.” She stuffed the two envelopes into her purse, then lifted the rest for him to see. There was no reason Scott needed to know about her worries—her paranoid, idiotic worries, she told herself. And looking at his face, she realized how silly she was being.

“I have a surprise for you,” he said.

“You do?”

He nodded, his eyes lingering on his favorite parts of her body, sending heat racing along her limbs. “Sarah’s agreed to watch the girls for a couple days. And we,” he took a few steps closer, “are going to Telluride for two nights.”

“But you have a run this weekend!”

He put his hands on her waist and pulled her closer. “I switched with another guide. It was one thing to work so much when I was single, but now...” He kissed her mouth. “Now I have a gorgeous woman waiting in my bed, and it’s been difficult to focus.”

“Has it?” she asked, smiling.

“So difficult.” He kissed her again. “You know what tomorrow is?”

She shook her head.

“Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the day I showed up on your front porch, terrified out of my mind you were going to open your door and have a boyfriend. Or, worse, you wouldn’t even remember me.”

She put her arms around his neck, leaning back to smile up at him. “I remembered you pretty quickly, as you probably recall.”

He moved his big hands up her back. “Molly girl, I know this summer hasn’t been easy. But it’s just a couple months until things slow down for me. Then I’ll take over on the home front so you can focus on your work for a while.”

She exhaled, enjoying the feeling of his hands on her body. “It’s been lonely without you, I’ll admit. A couple nights to ourselves sounds perfect.”

“I can’t imagine going back to my life without you. I love you, Molly Sullivan.” His voice dropped lower. “And I’m going to make that clear tonight.”

She followed him into the house and packed a bag. Before she left, she took the two envelopes from her purse and stuffed them in the top drawer of her dresser, under the oldest, ugliest stack of underwear she had. Scott would never look there.

And then she went to join her husband.

twenty-six

Here’s what I think about sex: if you’re not being emotionally vulnerable, you’re not doing it right.

—From the IGTV ‘Let’s talk about Sex, Baby!’ @InvincibleMollySullivan

“You’re losing your grip on reality, Livi. Seriously.”

Liv glanced at her brother’s face on the screen. They were on FaceTime, chatting as she got ready for her morning run. No surprise, he didn’t approve of this whole making-friends-with-Molly business.

“It’s the only way I can spend time with Gabriela,” Liv said. “I’m not going to apologize for that.”

He gave a long, exasperated sigh. “What are you going to do at the end of the summer, huh? When your time is up in Durango?”

Liv paused, tightening her shoelaces. “I’ll deal with that when I get there.”

“It’s a matter of time before Molly posts a picture of you online and Scott recognizes you, or he sees you around town, or something. This isn’t sustainable, long-term. You know that.”

Liv’s jaw tightened. Okay, maybe she did. But still. “Don’t judge me. You’re thousands of miles away, avoiding the mess like you always do.”

“Come on. I know you’re lonely, but it’s creepy that you’re pretending to be friends with Molly. Creepy and a little sad.”

Wincing, Liv turned away from the laptop so he wouldn’t see her face. She hadn’t had a friend since Kristina’s death. She’d had acquaintances, classmates, coworkers—but not a real friend, and she didn’t have to dig too deep into her psyche to understand why. Safer to avoid relationships than risk the pain from losing them. But the more Liv opened up to Molly, the more she realized how much she missed that closeness.

Oliver continued, his voice gentle. “Is it because she reminds you of Kristina? You see her as an older sister?”

“Of course not,” Liv said.

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