Read Online Forever This Time by Maggie McGinnis - Free Book Online Page A

we?”
    â€œNot nice, Mols.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “I’m not paid to be nice.”
    â€œActually, I pay you quite nicely to be nice.”
    â€œNot here you don’t. I use up all my nice at Avery’s House. This pub is my territory.”
    â€œAnd besides, you’re a Bellini?”
    â€œExactly. Nice is practically a liability in this family.” Molly motioned him farther into the booth so she could perch on the edge. “So really, how’s it going?”
    â€œAre you asking as the town gossip? Or as my friend?”
    Molly put her hand to her chest in mock insult. “I am not the town gossip!”
    Pops looked up and grinned. “No, that job’s already taken by her mother.”
    â€œYou be quiet, Pops.” Molly pointed a French fry his way.
    â€œIt’s fine,” Ethan finally answered. “Fine, but weird.”
    â€œWhat has she been doing? Is she in the office with you? She’s not in the office, right?” She shook her head. “No, that would be beyond awkward.”
    â€œShe’s been … out in costume both days.”
    â€œIn costume? In this heat? Are you trying to kill her?”
    â€œI think it’s mutual avoidance at this point.”
    No need to point out that he’d engineered said avoidance with creative scheduling.
    â€œYou planning to use that strategy till she leaves?”
    â€œMaybe. It’s working so far.”
    â€œSo no come-to-Jesus meetings? No confessions? No late-night apologies for dropping you like a hot potato and disappearing in a puff of smoke?”
    Ethan raised one eyebrow. “Not that we’ll be dramatic.”
    â€œI’m just asking.” Molly shrugged. “I mean, how do you spend two days with your former fiancée and not discuss things? I don’t get it.”
    â€œShe’s barely spoken since Friday, Mols.” He dipped a fry in his ketchup, trying not to give away how painful it’d been to not talk to the woman he’d once envisioned his entire future around. “It’s in the past. Talking about it now won’t change what happened. There’s no point.”
    Right. Maybe if he said it enough times he could force himself to believe he meant it.
    She shook her head. “I still don’t buy it. It never made sense. One day things were all roses and sunshine, and then Avery, and then boom! Gone.”
    â€œWe both know her life was hardly roses and sunshine. She had a lot to handle that summer. Maybe she finally just broke.”
    â€œWell, you handled it.”
    â€œI wasn’t dealing with the kind of stuff she was dealing with.”
    â€œNo.” Molly’s jaw went tight. “You were just dealing with an injury that changed your entire life plan. And then Avery.”
    â€œYou know that doesn’t begin to compare. But talking about it isn’t going to change what happened. It’ll just bring up a lot of—stuff that neither of us wants to relive. There’s no point.”
    Molly sighed, shaking her head. “I have been training you for years, and still you are nothing but a hopeless man. Sure you don’t want to marry me and show her you haven’t been waiting around for her to return?”
    â€œSorry. I’ve heard you’re off the market. Newest wonder on Italian match dot—ow!” Ethan ducked as Molly whacked his head with her order pad.
    She slid out of the booth, stealing one last fry as she did so. “That’s it. I’m putting your singles profile live as soon as I get out of here tonight.”
    As she flounced back to the kitchen, Ethan turned back to his dad, who was shoveling the last of his lasagna into his mouth. Of course he wanted to sit Josie down and see if he could finally understand what had sent her flying off in the middle of the night. Of course he thought he deserved an explanation after all this time.
    But even though it’d been