Panic was an icy claw that dug straight into my chest, gripped my spine tight, and threatened to tug. "Please never be a coach because that is the worst pep talk I've ever heard."
And I thought that figuring out how to get her to the house would be the hard part. I'd convinced myself up until the current moment that convincing Logan to help me was the hard part. But the hard part was letting go of the edge, one finger at a time, until I could fall back freely into whatever happened next.
In my ears, I could hear the hard pulse of my heart because I knew Rick was right.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I yanked out my phone and sent a text to her brother.
Me: Here's my address. Tell her whatever you need to get her here, but I'll be ready at 8pm tonight.
Logan: Understood.
I let out a slow breath.
Rick smiled. "All set?"
"I have eight hours to get everything set up."
"Plenty of time," he assured me. Then he eyed my face with concern. "You're going to shower, right? Because you look a little ..."
"Homeless," Marty answered. "He looks homeless."
"Will you both shut up? Yes, I'm going to shower. But I have more important things to worry about right now."
Marty's eyes widened. "More than how terrible you look? I highly doubt it."
Rick smothered a smile. "What do you need?"
"Do I have a projection screen?"
He nodded. "Our guy can be here in two hours with everything you need. He'll get all the A/V set up for you. All you'll need to do is hit play."
"Is the mattress idea stupid?"
Marty laid his head down on his folded arms again. "I know now. I know why you didn't get laid for years because you have to question whether a mattress is a good idea."
My exhale was slow and steady. "Fine. Keep the mattress. I just didn't want to be, you know, presumptuous."
"And you're doing the constellation thing, right?" Marty lifted his head. "Stars are some romantic shit, Noah. You can stand behind her, all that touching, show her where to look and everything."
I rubbed my temples. "Yes, Marty, we should be able to see Pegasus pretty clearly. But I thought, I don't know, shouldn't I tie it in? Make some connection to our love story?"
"That's on you, buddy. I'm just here to run the camera."
"Yeah," I said dryly, "make sure you zoom in properly if she breaks my heart."
"She won't," Rick said. "What's the story of Pegasus?"
I grimaced. "It, uhh, sprang from Medusa's severed head. That's how he was born."
Rick swallowed like his mouth was full of sand. "Maybe ... don't use that." He patted me awkwardly on the back. "Why don't we watch the tape from the beginning one last time, all right?"
Marty groaned. "I can't. I can't do it. He's made us watch it eight thousand times in the past two days, Rick. I see them almost kiss one more time, I'm going to lose my mind."
I glared at him. "And whose fault is it that you got it on film?"
"Like I knew what you guys were doing when I came back upstairs! I didn't even realize I caught anything until I got back to the office."
Rick held up his hands. "Okay. Marty, go take a breather. Noah, you and I can take it from the top. But I promise," he said, "it's perfect. She'll love it."
"This better work," I muttered. He started the video we'd made again, and just like I had every single time we watched it, there was an unsettling sense of rightness in every second. The fact that I missed it, from the very first day, seemed impossible now.
We watched quietly, and I found myself smiling when we got to the snippets from the day we did yoga. Marty fought tooth and nail for the scene where I blatantly checked out her ass, and he was right, it was funny. A chink in the armor, a break in my control, almost as though she'd scripted it herself from the very beginning.
There was a brusque knock on the door, and I sighed, punching the pause button on the remote.
"Want me to get it?" Rick asked.
"No. It's probably a neighbor or something. I keep managing to avoid the greeting committee."
I yanked open the door.
And there she was.
"Wha-" I stammered. "Molly?"
Her brother stood behind her, a cunning grin plastered across his face.
She glared over her shoulder at him. "He just ... showed up here and wouldn't tell me why."
When she faced me again, her cheeks were flushed bright pink, her eyes bright with nerves.
The fact that my house was a mess, nothing was ready, no lights were strung, and no soft music was playing under a sunset-dim sky or that I looked like a crazy homeless person didn't matter. There were a thousand details that could have made it the most perfect night in the world, but suddenly, they were completely inconsequential.
The excess boiled away, reducing the moment down to the bare truth, the unbreakable bones of what I needed to know, what I needed to trust in.
She was here. And I loved her.
"Will you come in?" I asked.
Molly blinked. "You knew I was coming?"
I gave Logan a loaded look. "You were supposed to be delivered a little bit later," I said meaningfully, "but yes. Logan agreed to help me."
Her lips curled in a smile. "Then I'm sorry I'm early."
"I'm not," I answered.
The smile widened, and it blew through me like a veritable wrecking ball. That was always what Molly had been to me. A weapon of mass destruction, testing every limit I'd ever given myself. And I didn't want it any other way.
Standing back so she could enter the house, I glared at Logan. "What was that for?" I hissed.
He leaned up to smack me on the shoulder. Hard. "That was for sleeping with my sister, asshole." Then he grinned. "Welcome to the family."
As he ambled back to his truck, he whistled, and I couldn't help but shake my head at how this entire thing had played out. Ten years in the making, an inevitable conclusion that was impossible for me to avoid.
I shut the door and tried to regroup because well ... I'd just been blitzed. Outmaneuvered. And I never saw it coming.
Rick was grinning as he greeted Molly. "He's been an absolute terror to put up with since you left."
"Is that your way of saying you missed me?" she asked. Marty stormed up the stairs when he heard her voice and wrapped her in a massive, rib-cracking hug that had her laughing. "I guess that answers my question."
"Don't leave us alone with him," Marty begged.
Molly tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and gave me a shy glance that had my heart thudding—big, big, bigger—until it felt stretched over my entire body. "I'll see what I can do," she said.
I smiled.
It was so right having her here. This was what made it feel like my home. Her.
Her gaze tracked over the space, and even with how messy it was, she looked happy. Then the smile froze, her eyes widening as she caught sight of the TV screen. "That's us," she said numbly.
Rick and Marty shared a look. Rick gave me a thumbs-up and disappeared downstairs. Marty picked up his small camera and moved back into the kitchen, so he could be out of the way and still catch what needed to be caught. It was our compromise.
Just far enough out of earshot that if she and I spoke quietly, they'd struggle to hear us. The other cameraman flicked off his machine and followed Rick downstairs. He nodded encouragingly too. Maybe I ought to learn his name before it was all over.
"It is us," I said, coming up behind her. "It's ... hell, this is not how I wanted to do any of this."
She reached down to the coffee table and carefully picked up the remote. Before she hit the play button, she let out a shaky breath.
But my brave girl, not knowing what she'd see, or what I'd intended, she lifted her chin and started it over.
I'd seen the film enough, the blossoming of our love condensed into eight minutes, so I could unabashedly watch her.
One minute in, she was smiling at the sc
ene where she knocked me on my ass by telling me I could be better.
Two, she had a hand covering her mouth as she breathed out a laugh at the sight of me storming out of the tiny house.
Three, and I caught the sheen of happy tears during our yoga session.
At four minutes, the realization that Marty caught our almost first kiss. She pressed a shaky hand to her mouth.
It was impossible to be so far away from her, so I approached quietly from behind, letting out a slow breath before my palms coasted up the sides of her upper arms. I cupped her shoulders, warm and firm, and her soft hair tickled my fingers. She leaned back against me, giving me her full weight, and I exhaled my relief, wrapping my arms around the front of her chest as she watched the footage from South Dakota.
This was subtle to anyone else watching, but to Molly and me, it was bright and obvious, a spotlight on everything we'd been denying. The camera caught me constantly watching her off the screen. Everything I couldn't understand was right there in my eyes.
I tightened my arms, and her hands came up to grip my forearms. With her tucked against my chest, I could set my chin easily on the top of her head. She dropped her mouth and laid a soft kiss on the tender skin of my wrist.
"I was such an idiot," I whispered.
She kissed me again, just above my thumb. "Only a little."
The laugh was out before I could stop it.
"Shhh, I'm still watching," she chided gently.
I closed my eyes and breathed her in. How had I ever thought I could live a full life, a satisfying life, if I didn't have this in it?
What a fool I'd been.
She sniffed when she watched the blank, robotic version of me after she pulled away. It was the part I hated most—what I would have accepted, what I did accept, as a normal, healthy life.
Then she laughed when she saw the end. The part Marty caught in his failed attempt at a sprint in the parking lot. The screen went black, and Molly turned slowly in my arms.
"You did this? For me?"
My hand cupped her face, and my eyes feasted on the small details that I'd missed so much. The jut of her chin, the delicate nose, the weight of her body against mine. "I had a little help," I admitted with a smile. "And there was going to be a much better delivery."
"Yeah?"
"A screen in the backyard. Lights. A big bed on the grass where we could watch it."
Her eyebrow lifted, but she was running her hands over my chest, so I figured I wasn't in too much trouble.
"And the stars," I continued. "I found Pegasus and had every intention of trying to make it romantic, but ... it's not. He came from a severed head, so it's probably best that it didn't work out anyway."
The laughter started low in her throat, bubbling out the longer I rambled. Finally, she took pity on me and laid a hand over my mouth. "Stop."
I kissed her fingers. "Okay."
"Why'd you make that?" she asked quietly. "The movie."
"Because there needs to be a record somewhere," I told her. "There should be proof, undeniable proof, of the very best thing I've ever achieved in my life." I wrapped my arms around her back and lifted her up in my arms so I could whisper where no one but us would hear. "Falling in love with you is the greatest thing I've ever done, Molly Ward."
Her arms were so tight around my neck that I felt the way her body trembled. Within the circle of my arms, she let out a sob of relief. "I love you too," she whispered back.
In the next moment, her mouth was on mine, hard and sweet and deep. The fierce fullness of the kiss pulled a groan from my chest, and she wrapped her legs around my waist so she could hold tighter and move more firmly against me.
I wanted her.
I loved her.
She loved me.
And, I thought as I froze, we were being filmed. I pulled back, and she followed with a whimper.
"Camera," I said against her lips.
Molly went still, another bright smile spreading over her face. "Oh, yeah."
"But as soon as we chase them out of here …" I promised with a growl.
She hopped out of my arms and called for Rick to come upstairs.
I glanced over at Marty, who was wiping tears from his face unabashedly.
Rick skipped lightly up the steps. "You called?"
"Yes," she said. "You and I have to talk tomorrow morning. But right now, you need to leave."
His face creased in confusion. "Tomorrow morning?"
Molly nodded, herding them gently toward the door. "Yes. I have a job proposal to go over with you. I think you should hire me."
My eyebrows popped up in surprise. So did his.
"He says yes!" Marty interjected as he hastily started wrapping up cords.
Rick gave him a look. "Tomorrow," he promised. "But can't we, I don't know, film a little happy cuddling?"
"No," Molly and I answered.
"We have other things to discuss," Rick said. "A lot has happened this week. You don't even know about our new idea!"
"Out. Or I will start stripping," she warned. "And that will make my future employment awkward. And you'd violate the nudity clause if you film me in any state of undress."
My head tilted back on a booming laugh, and Rick gave me an exasperated look.
In another two seconds, she had them out the door, and the deadbolts flipped decisively. I set my hands on my hips as she turned, her back flush against the door's surface.
"Now," she said, "let's recap."
"Okay." I stepped closer to her.
"I'm your girlfriend."
"Yes." My hands found her hips.
"You're my boyfriend."
"Mmmhmm." My lips found the soft curve of her neck.
"W-we're finally alone. With no cameras. Or microphones. Or family members under the same roof." Her fingers pushed under the soft cotton of my shirt, and I hissed when she trailed them along the edge of my shorts.
"That's correct." I bit down on the delicate line of her collarbone, soothing it with my tongue when she moaned.
"You love me," she said quietly.
I pulled back and held her gaze steadily. "I do."
"And I love you," she finished.
My voice was rough when I was finally able to speak. "Yeah."
"That's good. I like all of that."
I smiled. "How should we celebrate? Every big win needs a big celebration."
"Like …" She dropped her voice like a sports announcer. "You just won the Super Bowl, what will you do next?"
"We're not going to Disneyland, sweetheart," I promised. But the fact that she could bring me to the edge of laughter in a moment so laden with sexual tension, so rife with want and desperation to take, take, take, was how I knew that Molly was the exact right person for me.
She inhaled with a satisfied smile pulling up the edges of her lips. "Take me to your big bed, in your big room, because we are about to break it in, Noah Griffin."
I swept her in my arms, relishing in the happy shriek that left her mouth. "You're the boss."
We stayed there all day and all night, only stopping briefly for food. A shower. And endless conversations. The playbook was probably still lying open in a useless heap on the dining room table. But that was the point.
I couldn't have scripted this, couldn't have planned it, couldn't have controlled it.
Because sometimes, the best things in life come straight from your blind side.
Epilogue
Six months later
Molly
“Oh sweetheart, did you see this one?” Grandma Griffin tossed the Us Weekly into my lap as she passed the couch. “You’re way too pretty for my grandson.”
Noah groaned as I flipped to the article she’d dog-eared. “Another article?”
I elbowed him. “People love us. We’re cute.”
It was a quick mention. Never in a million years would I have anticipated having a corner of a magazine page dedicated to me and my hot boyfriend and our red-carpet style.
It was a picture I’d seen a lot. Instagram users seemed to like that particular one. Noah had his tux-clad arm wrapped tight around my waist, head bent toward me, and his nose pressed against my temple.
I was smiling widely, my shoulders angled toward him, and a hand placed against his chest. The Grecian-style dress that I’d chosen was a vivid scarlet that draped over one shoulder and was cinched tight around my waist with a gold belt. What the camera couldn’t see because the length of the dress swept the floor were the spiky gold heels that had only lasted as long as getting our picture taken.
By the time we were in the theater for the screening of the first episode, I’d slipped into some nude flats.
It was our first night as a couple in the spotlight, and social media exploded with the release of the full season of episodes documenting our love story. Since Rick hired me before I even finished pitching myself, I was involved in crafting the finished product of our story from beginning to end. And it was damn good television, if I said so myself.
The last episode was my favorite, the one we’d shot during their final playoff game, which they lost 28-21. It encapsulated everything about Noah and me that I loved so much. Before the cameras moved to follow us through the game, it caught some sweet, quiet moments when he helped me unpack my things. I loved Isabel, but living with Noah was way more fun.
When the quiet moments were done, and we saw him play his heart out for four quarters, only to have the opposing defense stop us five yards shy of the end zone as the clock ran out. The devastation and disappointment on his face still made me cry, as it had that day. It was still hard for me to watch even though we were a few months removed from it by now. But the viewers loved it.
They loved how real we were with each other. They loved that the footage of me at the end of the game was just as emotional, that my sorrow for him was so obvious as I sat in the stands with the other disappointed Washington fans. It was what made the closing scene so poignant.
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