Page 87 of Someone to Hold

The groom reaches into the back pocket of his tux and pulls out a wallet, holding out two crisp fifty-dollar bills.

“Oh, no,” Molly says. “You don’t need to do that.”

“Your mom said you helped with the setup too,” he says to the twins, whose eyes have gone wide. “I’m guessing she couldn’t have done it without you.”

“That part is true,” Molly agrees. I meet her gaze and wink. “If you’re sure...”

“Oh, my gosh,” Laurel says. “This is the most money I’ve ever seen.”

Molly arches a brow. “What do you say?”

“Thank you,” the kids shout in unison.

Molly laughs. “Yes, thank you. I’m glad everything came together the way you pictured it.”

“It was better than we imagined,” the man tells her. He looks at me, then at his wallet.

“I’m all good,” I say, holding up my hands.

“Right,” he agrees. “We’re going to have one last dance before things wrap up.”

“Thank you again for trusting me with your big day,” Molly tells them. “It’s been so much fun.”

The bride’s eyes get a little misty. “You know, I felt like my dad was here today. There’s something about this place.” She squeezes Molly’s hand. “He would have loved seeing me get married here.”

“That means a lot to me,” Molly whispers.

As the couple walks away, the twins dance around us.

“We’re rich! We’re rich!”

Molly laughs and draws them close. “Okay, we’re going to talk about how much you want to spend and how much you want to save tomorrow.”

“Spend it all,” Luke says in a demonic voice.

“I want to save it,” Laurel tells her mother. “You can add it to the money we need to buy the farm from Nana.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Molly presses two fingers to her chest. “This is your money. As much as I appreciate that, I’ve got things under control with your grandma.”

“Does that mean we for sure get to stay?”

Molly’s gaze shutters. “We’ll talk about that tomorrow.” She tugs on Laurel’s braid the same way the girl did earlier. “But right now, I do need to finish wrapping up this party. Do you guys think you can put yourselves to bed tonight?”

“Chase can do it,” Luke says. “He’s good at reading stories.”

Am I, I want to ask. I’ve done it a few times over the past couple of weeks, but I figured I was about as good at that as I am at line dancing. I’m going to take the kids’ word for it and ignore how much their confidence means to me.

An emotion I can’t name flickers in Molly’s green eyes. “I think Chase?—”

“Would love to tuck you guys in,” I finish before she can say anything more.

“Okay then.” Molly’s smile is a little wobbly at the corners. “I’ll be in later. Give me a goodnight kiss.”

Both kids do and then turn to me. “You have to read two stories,” Laurel tells me. “We each get to pick one.”

Luke nods. “Eeny meeny miny moe for who gets to go first.”

“Eeny meeny miny moe it is,” I agree.