“The bigger shock is how no one else does. If ever I needed proof that the human race sees only what they want to see, I got it when you and Finn started your not-so-secret dating. I thought Mom knew, but after she mentioned finding you a suitor just now… I guess not.”
Molly smashed her lips closed and shook her head.
“It’s about time.”
Molly’s brows shot up.
“But I think you need to tell Will, Molly. Not because you owe him an explanation or anything. But because Finn is his best friend, and I don’t think any of you would want him to find out from someone else.”
Her stomach lurched and all she could do was nod.
“I get why you’re holding off. Will can be… hot headed sometimes. And we know he’s protective of both you, and Finn. But he’s going to be hurt more because he didn’t know.”
“You’re not mad?”
Dad chuckled, glancing at the two still-hugging mothers. “What do I have to be mad about? Finn is everything we could ever hope for in a partner for you. I knew that from the minute he gave your high school boyfriend a beat down for breaking your heart.”
Molly’s jaw threatened to unhinge with how quickly it snapped open. “Wh-what?”
A confused frown pinched Dad’s forehead and he tipped his head. “Who did you think gave that jerk an ass-whoopin’?”
She didn’t reply, too busy combing through her memories in a frantic bid to figure out whether Finn had lied to her or not. “I thought… I thought Will…”
Dad chuckled again, before pulling her into a hug. “Will couldn’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag, Molly. For all his huffing and puffing about kicking butt if anyone came near you. He’s a lover, not a fighter.”
He squeezed her hand. “Don’t get me wrong, he has it in him if someone were to hurt you. But Finn… he took one look at your tears that night in Chilis and clenched his fist so hard I thought he might break a bone. Can’t say I was surprised when the boy’s parents showed up at the door.”
How had she not known? How had she missed something so huge?
Dad’s laughter wasn’t mocking, but it still crawled under her skin. “I’m not sure how you thought Will beat up that enforcer. He was twice as big as your brother. I guess you always did think of him as a superhero.” His smile was soft, and he sighed, like a wave of nostalgia had hit him square in the chest.
She’d never come right out and told Will she wouldn’t date his teammates. But after he’d run off and beaten up her cheating hockey player ex, she had never wanted to put Will in the position where he could get hurt because of her.
Dad was right, Will wasn’t a fighter, and something deep inside of Molly had shriveled when she’d learned he’d fought because of her. In that moment, she’d vowed to protect him from her, from himself, and stay away from the guys on his team.
Except Will had never thrown a single punch because of her. She’d spent all that time ignoring his teammates and fighting her attraction to Finn to spare her brother. And while Will had been a douche canoe and threatened every hockey player she knew. In front of other people. And while she had every reason to believe he’d fuck someone up if they laid a hand on her, he hadn’t already. Finn had.
“You fought your feelings for Finn for way longer than you should have done, Molly. I thought about intervening, thought about giving you the permission you seemed to need. But then I’d catch a glimpse of something and I’d think, okay, this is it, they’ll stop fighting it and take a chance. But you never did.”
Words jammed in her throat and her surroundings spun. “But Will…”
“But Will nothing, Molly. What gives any man – even your own brother – the right to tell a woman who she can and can’t be with? Or what she can and can’t do with her own body? Didn’t your mother and I raise you to know better than that?”
White noise assaulted her ears as she struggled to process his words. She hadn’t ever wanted to so much as sleep with anyone else on the team but Finn, and she’d never imagined having a chance with him.
But at the same time she’d been running from her feelings for Finn, she’d also enabled her brother to publically control who she could and couldn’t date.
“We need to move inside,” Mom called from behind Dad.
“You two go ahead, we’ll follow behind.”
When Mom’s brows pinched, Molly smiled. “I have to grab something from the trunk.”
The two moms walked toward the entrance of the stadium, and Molly pulled her oversized purse from the trunk of the car, checking her weapon of choice hadn’t escaped during the drive.
“Life is too short to worry about what your brother thinks, Molly Morrison. Sure, he’ll be pissed for a while, but he has no damn right to be. He should be happy for you, for both of you. His best friend and his sister have both found happiness with each other – that’s something pretty special.”
He swung the trunk closed and offered her his arm. She slung her bag over her shoulder, linked her elbow with his, and they made their way to the main entrance.
