Page 111 of The Birthday List (Maysen Jar 1)

“That’s the plan. Dinner a couple times a month. Trips to the museum. Things where the kids are the focal point and they can see us getting along.”

“Well . . . I guess the paint fight was more of a success than I’d thought. Maybe Jamie was watching down on us and was getting sick of Finn’s attitude too.”

Molly gave me a sad smile. “It definitely helped him open his eyes. But like I said, you’re the one I have to thank.”

“Because I filled the water balloons with paint?”

She shook her head. “Because you invited Cole.”

“I know Finn has a man-crush on Cole, but what does that have to do with his attitude adjustment?”

Molly set the towel aside to look me in the eyes. “Finn’s proud of you. We both are. You’ve overcome more than either of us can fathom. Losing Jamie, you could have lost yourself too. But you didn’t. You could have shut down and pushed everyone away—no one would have blamed you for it—but you didn’t. You put the pieces of your heart back together and are strong enough to trust Cole not to break it again. When Finn came over the night of the paint fight, he told me he wants that too. He wants to put the past behind us.”

Up went my spirits again. I knew it! Finn did want to work things out with Molly. He wanted to put their family back together. He was finally seeing how much he was missing. Molly was downplaying dinner, maybe she didn’t want to have false hope, but I think it was Finn’s way of slowly making amends.

I just wished he’d told me about it. I would have skipped that second glass of water to his face.

Molly read the hope on my face but shook her head. “Finn wants to move forward, but not with me. He told me that he’s ready to start dating again.”

And just like that, the hope I’d been clinging to for months and months was gone, leaving an empty hole inside my chest.

“No.” My voice cracked. Finn and Molly loved each other. They belonged together. “But . . . you’re Finn and Molly.”

Molly’s eyes flooded. “Not anymore. Now he’s single. And I’m a cheater.”

That word. Damn that word! Months and months of restraint—of being neutral and supportive—fizzled with a word I hated just as much as widow. “I hate that word! Why do you always say it? God, you toss it out all the time and it’s driving me crazy!”

“Me?” She jerked back, and the sadness on her face twisted into anger. “That’s your word.”

“My word?” My mouth fell open. “You think I’m a cheater?”

“What? No—”

“So all this time—all this time you’ve been telling me to go for it with Cole, but deep down you really think I’m cheating on Jamie. Nice.”

She’d pretended to be so supportive, but now I knew how she really felt.

I pushed away from the table, tears flooding my eyes, but before I could run for the office, Molly shot her hand across the table. “Poppy, wait! That’s not what I meant.”

My feet stopped as I met her gaze.

“You don’t remember, do you?” she whispered.

What was she talking about? “Remember what?”

“The day I told you that I’d had a one-night stand, you called me a cheater. You said, ‘How could you? I never thought my best friend would be a cheater.’ ”

I gasped and slapped my free hand over my mouth. I’d been so upset, so angry at Finn and Molly both, that I’d said a lot that day I hadn’t meant. And Molly had been holding on to that awful word all this time.

“Oh, Molly. Oh my god. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. You’re not a cheater.”

She shrugged. “Sure I am.”

“No, you’re not. Not even close. You and Finn were all but divorced at that point. And you were so hurt. It was a mistake, not cheating.”

Molly studied my face, taken back by my declaration.

Had she spent all these months wrapping herself in my haphazard label, convincing herself she was a cheater? Had she been thinking less of herself all this time?