“Do you want me to stay?”
She shook her head. “I know you need to work this off.” She peered around Finn’s head to Austin. “Just… be careful if you’re going to the cages with him, okay?”
He gasped. “You don’t think I can take Austin? I’m wounded.”
“I think Austin could break you with his death stare alone.”
Austin chuckled. “I’ve got him. Just my home gym, not the cages. I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything too crazy.”
Molly cocked an eyebrow. “Too crazy?”
Austin shrugged. “If he wants to get an ‘I love Molly’ tattoo across his ass that’s his business.”
Despite everything, Molly giggled. “Let’s not, mmkay?”
“No promises. You gonna be okay here?” Finn squeezed her arm.
“I’ll be okay. I’ll Irish-up this coffee, slip on some denial, and stay out of his way.” She nodded, but her insides shriveled. “You too, okay?”
He left without as much as a glance at his mom, or her parents. Austin gave her a firm nod before following Finn out the door, taking with him any ounce of chill she had left.
“What if Will never talks to me again?”
“It’ll make for some awkward holiday meals to be sure.” Mom tossed her a wink. “He’ll calm down. And like dad said, if he doesn’t, screw him. Everyone deserves a shot at their happy ever after, Molly. Just don’t let your father convince you to let them do what he and Uncle Jack did.”
“Wait…” Molly turned her head between her parents. “Whaaaaaaaaaaat?”
Cleo recoiled at Molly’s screech and covered her ears. “Dial down the drama, llama.”
Molly pointed at her dad. “You… you and Uncle Jack were…” She jabbed her finger at her mom. “And you… with Uncle Jack’s best friend?”
Mom shrugged. “He was big mad at first. Zero chill.”
Molly threw an eyeroll. “No one says that anymore, Mom.” She narrowed her eyes. “What happened?”
Dad chuckled, Mom smacked his arm playfully, Meabh moved closer, like she needed to hear the answer as well.
“They kicked the crap out of each other.” Mom shook her head. “It was in high school. We didn’t fight it like you and Finn did. We waited a couple of months, stolen glances, brushes of shoulders, notes in our lockers – y’know, all that romance movie stuff.”
Molly grabbed her lukewarm mug and sipped. “You didn’t. How do I not know this story?”
“After a while, I couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t not be her man. I couldn’t hide my feelings. So I walked right up to him after school one day and told him straight.” Dad chuckled.
“How did he react?”
“With a mean left hook.”
Meabh gasped, Cleo’s jaw dropped.
“He didn’t!” Molly’s eyes widened.
“He did.” Mom pulled the coffee pot off the counter and topped off everyone’s mugs. “The two of them threw down right there on the sidewalk.”
“So you see, Molly. It probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference if you’d told him then. There’s a weird bond between a brother and his sister. Doesn’t matter if she’s older or younger. By ten years, or ten months.” Dad rubbed his jaw like talking about the past made it ache.
He chuckled and shook his head. “It’s all very caveman-like and wholly undignified. But once he got it out of his system and realized it didn’t scare me away from your mom… he accepted it and we went back to being friends.”
“Back… to being friends?” Was that a possibility? Molly pinched the bridge of her nose. “You had this huge, ugly fight in front of everyone, then everything went back to normal? You stayed with Mom and Uncle Jack and you stayed friends? What in the fucked-up-witchcraft?”
