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 scene 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."