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“Whoa!” I say a little too loud. All three of them look at me. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I don’t?” Julian says with a grin.
“No. You don’t.”
“Then you obsessively talking about this girl must have been in my imagination for the past few years?”
“I guess so,” I say as I glare at him.
He turns back to her. “So, you didn’t study in London to become a veterinarian?”
“No, I did,” Molly says.
“And it must not have been you that gave Charlie to our boy?” Aiden adds.
She smiles. “That was me.”
“Guys,” I warn in a sharp tone. “We’re in the middle of something. Leave. Now.”
Julian grins at me. The fucker is loving this.
“Excuse me, but this is a historic moment for us. We’re finally meeting the girl who has our friend by the balls. I have some questions.”
“You’re going to be asking them with no teeth if you don’t get the fuck out of here.”
“Has he always been this grumpy?” Julian asks. “Or has that only been since you left?”
Molly is smiling. She’s having a great time. “He always acted like a grumpy old man in a teenage body, but that’s what I liked about him.”
I’m all tight and edgy as they keep talking. These fucking guys. I can’t believe they told her that I’m still a virgin. I’m going to murder them.
Molly was always so pure and innocent as a teenager. She wasn’t ready to have sex back then and I never pushed her.
Seven years is a long time and she’s probably gotten past all that. I’m not naive enough to think that she’s still a virgin. I know what college is like. I’ve seen the movies.
But I haven’t gotten over her. In all this time, I’ve never met a girl who comes even close to comparing to her. I didn’t want any of them.
“Hey,” I say, interrupting them. “If I buy you a beer will you leave us alone?”
Julian raises his eyebrow. “Possibly.”
I grab the beer at the end of the table and hand it to him. “There. Now go away.”
He stands up and slides his chair back to the other table. “This is not over,” he says as Aiden puts his chair back too. “I still have many, many questions.”
“Half of that beer is mine,” Aiden says as they leave, arguing over the mug.
Molly is giggling as she watches them walk over to the bar. “Should we tell them the bartender spit in it?”
“Yeah, but only after they finish it.”
We both smile as we watch each other. God, I’ve missed her. It’s like having my best friend and my soul mate back.
But… She’s not really back.
She’s not mine anymore.
That fact hits me hard and fast.
I suddenly stand up with my head spinning.
“What’s the matter?” she asks as she looks up at me with concern.
I was doing so well. I didn’t need this.
All these emotions and all this turmoil stirring back up. She’s just going to break my heart all over again.
I wasn’t good enough for her back then and I’m certainly not going to be good enough for her now that she’s about to become a veterinarian.
I’ll have to watch her move on with her life, get married to some jerk off, have kids, and then I’ll have my heart shattered every time I run into her or see her with her happy family on the street.
To her, this is just reminiscing. It’s a beer with an old flame.
But to me, this is everything.
This is what I’ve been longing for. To see her again. To be in her presence. To be reunited in our love.
But now that she’s here, I’m realizing it’s all been in my mind.
She’s not mine.
No matter how I view her, she doesn’t belong to me.
And I don’t think she ever will again.
“I have to go,” I say as I look at her one last time.
“Okay,” she says as she grabs her purse. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“No,” I say as my heart clenches and squeezes into a tight little ball. “I guess I’ll see you around, Molly.”
She’s about to say something, but I turn around and leave.
I have to get out of here before she can see on my face how much I need her. How much I still care.
I don’t turn around as I burst out the door and hurry to my truck.
She let me go all those years ago and now it’s time for me to let her go.
It’s time to try.
It’s time to get over Molly Bryant for good.
Chapter Four
Molly
“You’re going to have to call the property manager today if you want the place,” my mother says as I close my eyes and take a deep breath. She’s at the stove cooking eggs while I’m sitting at the table eating cereal and my dad is reading the newspaper. “The storefronts on Main Street don’t last long and it’s a great location for a veterinarian’s office.”
