Page 7 of Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #2)
Saturday morning we walk down the snow-lined streets of Barnwich to meet Cora and May for breakfast, my gloveless hand safely nestled in Molly’s incredibly thick alpaca-wool mittens.
“I said you could borrow a pair,” Molly says, squeezing what’s left of my freezing fingers. “I mean, I brought four extras.”
“Molly, last time I borrowed something, it was your lucky socks, and I desecrated them. Besides…” I give her a toothy grin. “Mittens are not exactly my aesthetic. ”
“What? Cold?”
“No, no. Cool. ”
She rolls her eyes as we turn into the parking lot of Edie’s Eatery, a small diner decked out in decorations, from a blow-up reindeer and a glowing Santa Claus to a menorah in the window.
There are so many string lights, I have to squint to even catch sight of our friends climbing out of a dented 4Runner at the end of the row of cars.
May waves a hand, then winces as she walks over with Cora to meet us.
“Wow. It went that well—”
Molly pulls her hand out of mine to elbow me in the side before calling out, “You good, May?”
“Yeah, totally! Totally fine. The floor was just a little hard….” She rubs her neck while I shoot Cora a look over Molly’s head. She returns it defiantly as Molly and May plod ahead of us toward the front door.
“Dude,” I whisper.
“What? She offered to sleep on the floor! I panicked!”
I shake my head. “Here I was, thinking you had more game than Molly. I mean, if I recall correctly, you slid your hand onto my leg the first night we met!”
Cora crosses her arms over her chest. “Yeah, well, that was just sex . This is like…”
“Feelings?” I offer, reaching out to catch Molly as she slips on a patch of ice just ahead of us. She gives me a relieved smile, her warm brown eyes crinkling. Once I set her upright, Cora nods in affirmation.
“I get that,” I say as we arrive at the front door.
I know I’ve been giving her a hard time, but I remember our freshman year and how scary everything felt. Going off to college, trying to figure everything out, realizing I was head over heels in love with Molly.
How hard it was to just tell her.
I realize it kind of feels the same now in a lot of ways. Graduation, and “the real world” looming, so much to figure out. How hard it is to just ask Molly if she wants to live together.
“Whoa, sorry,” a voice says as the door swings wide open, the wreath above the handle nearly smacking Molly in the face.
We all freeze as a familiar-looking girl with dark brown hair plus eyeliner that puts my “cool” aesthetic to shame and a girl with strawberry-blond hair in an oversize Columbia sweatshirt breeze past us. They both clutch steaming coffees as they head for a beat-up blue Volvo station wagon.
I’m still thinking about them as we head inside and…
Wait a minute.
“Was that Arden James ?” I hiss as we crowd into a red booth.
“Yeah, and my annoying sister,” a voice says.
All of us whip our heads over to see a girl with curly brown hair pulled into a ponytail juggling four white coffee mugs. She nods hello to May as she dumps the mugs and some menus on our table.
“Hey, Riley.” May grins up at her.
“You here for the pancakes?” She taps a fluorescent paper reading ALL YOU CAN EAT: SANTA ’ S STRAWBERRY SHORT STACKS , $10.99 sitting on top of the menus.
May casts a quick glance around the booth, and all of us nod, our stomachs growling.
“Strawberry pancakes,” Cora says, beaming. “My favorite.”
“Me too. They’re my usual,” May says a little too quickly, and something tells me our trip to Edie’s didn’t just coincidentally fall on strawberry pancake day.
She shoots Riley a thumbs-up, and Riley whips a notepad out of her apron, scrawling our order on it as she heads back to the kitchen.
The second she’s out of sight, Molly leans across the table, her eyes wide. “You know Arden James?”
“Yeah, well, a little. She’s from Barnwich, and everybody knows everybody here.
” She pauses to wave hello to an older couple sitting in a booth at the other end of the diner as if to illustrate the point.
“Levi, her girlfriend’s older brother, was in the grade above me at school.
And you remember that article in Cosmo last year?
The tree they stole was from my family’s Christmas tree farm. ”
My hand hits the table, the cups and silverware jumping. “No fucking way!”
“Yeah. My grandpa put up a plaque and everything.” She shrugs and takes a sip of her coffee. “That article pretty much saved this place. That, and Arden’s movie that filmed here last summer. The one that just came out.”
“ Here to Stay ?” Cora asks. “I thought I recognized some of the storefronts here!”
When May nods, Molly sighs. “I loved that movie. I didn’t know Arden had it in her.”
“Who didn’t love that movie?” I say, and everyone agrees. Arden without a doubt has a big awards season coming her way.
“Yeah, Barnwich hasn’t looked like, well… this for a few winters. All the people, all the holiday cheer. I know my family was stressed about the Christmas tree farm staying afloat. I definitely worried a bit when I went off to Pitt.”
I nod, understanding all too well what that’s like.
“It’s good to see this place come back to life. And to see it embrace some change, too.” She nods to the glowing menorah in the window.
Before I can even ask what Arden’s really like, an older Korean woman comes over, juggling four overflowing plates of strawberry pancakes. I nearly pass out from how good they smell. “May, I’m surprised you didn’t get your usual! Two eggs, sunny-side up, bacon, hash browns, side of wheat toast?”
May colors and lets out an awkward laugh as she stands to give the old woman a hug. “Edie, you know I love your strawberry pancakes too!”
“Mmm. Sure. You always said that the berries were too squishy,” she says, patting May’s side with a laugh.
I make eye contact with Molly across the table, and she stifles a laugh with her coffee cup. May is probably wishing the tile floor would open up and suck her in, but Cora looks amused and maybe even a tiny bit pleased as she unwraps her silverware.
May rubs at the back of her head. “Never forget a thing, do you, Edie?”
“Of course not! You Swansons practically keep this place afloat. I mean, Lord knows your grandpa is still in here getting a slice of apple pie eight days a week.”
I take a huge bite of the steaming pancakes and nearly melt into a puddle. “These,” I say to Edie through a mouthful, “are incredible. Are you married? Are you looking to get married?”
Molly gives me a very deserved kick under the table as the older woman snorts. “You remind me of my granddaughter.”
“Incredibly charming?”
She gives me a mildly entertained look, her eyebrows ticking up. “Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s one way to put it.”
May points a fork at the older woman as she heads back to the kitchen. “That’s Edie. Arden’s grandma.”
I nearly choke on my next bite. “Babe. Did you hear that? Personality-wise, you’re practically dating Arden James.”
Molly gives me a long look, chewing. “Yeah,” she says, then swallows. “The Temu version.”
May and Cora burst out laughing, and I sigh, shaking my head as I grab the syrup. “So, what’s the plan for the rest of the day? What holiday hijinks will we get up to next?”
As Riley brings us plate after plate of pancakes, Molly lays out the scheme she pitched to me this morning in bed.
We’ll all split up in town for one hour to buy each other gifts with a twenty-dollar cap to exchange tomorrow.
It’ll be a fun way to explore Barnwich and support the town May grew up in.
A fun new tradition, hopefully the first of many.
Speaking of which, maybe I can find something for Molly that will help me finally ask her about moving in together. A cool key chain. Or refrigerator magnets. Or even a pad to write out our grocery lists.
I cast a sideways glance over at her as she talks, thinking about home. Having a home with Molly. A home like I’ve always dreamed about.
I may be scared of things changing, graduation and a job and pretending to be an adult, but Molly? She’s my constant.
Which is why asking her is so scary. Why the chance of a no is so scary.
I tune back into the convo, May rattling off some of her favorite places to check out once we get to town while we finish our meal. Nine whole flapjacks later, I rub my hands together as we head for the door, waving goodbye to Edie in the kitchen.
“That was so good,” Cora says as we push outside. “Squishy berries and all.”
Now, there’s the Cora I know.
Maybe there’s hope for a kiss before retirement after all.