Kathleen’s laughter was full-bodied and vivacious. “She’s right, you know,” she said afterward, amber eyes drenched in warmth. “I’d pay to be caught so deliciously in flagrante with a hunk like Fox.” A wrinkling of her nose. “Except not Fox. It would be like sleeping with my spiritual brother. Ew.”
Molly’s face must’ve given something away because Kathleen’s mouth dropped open. “Oh no, you didn’t. You thought Fox and I bumped our bits?”
“You’re stunning, he’s hot, your friendship’s rock solid.” Molly felt like she’d been called up to the principal’s office when Kathleen glared at her. “We’re talking about Fox here.” Gorgeous, talented, wonderful.
Kathleen groaned. “Oh, it is sickeningly cute that you think no woman can resist him.”
Scowling, Molly folded her arms. “Did you just insult the man I adore?”
“As only a friend can.” Kathleen twirled one heel-clad foot, eyes downcast, before raising her head and pointing a finger at Molly. “You ever breathe a word of what I’m about to tell you, and I’ll sell a story to the tabloids saying I caught you doing unspeakable things with and to a goat.”
“Cross my heart.”
It took Kathleen another minute to speak. “The sparks were there—but not with Fox—with My Dick is My Life Noah.” One graceful hand clenched against her leather skirt, she blew out a breath. “We’d never been close, Noah and I, maybe because there was always this tension beneath the surface, but that changed eighteen months ago. The connection…”
The other woman took a long sip of her coffee. “We played chess together.” Her smile was unutterably sad. “No guy had ever spent so much time with me without wanting sex—though don’t get me wrong, the heat was there. Seriously. But we never so much as kissed.”
It was a difficult idea for Molly to process, Noah the most promiscuous member of Schoolboy Choir.
“We talked,” Kathleen said, voice quiet. “Hours and hours, until I felt as if I knew him inside out, as if I could tell him anything. He was the one who gave me the courage to try out for that part in Last Flight.” Trembling voice, jerky breath. “When I was afraid people would laugh at an ex-soap-actress auditioning for such a serious role, he told me I was gifted and perfect for it, then drove me to the casting himself.”
“What went wrong?” Molly’s heart ached at the poignant emotion in every one of Kathleen’s words.
A brittle shrug. “I walked into his hotel room after a concert and found him screwing a groupie.”
Molly had known something bad was coming, but hadn’t expected anything this brutal. “God, Kit, I’m so sorry.”
“The worst thing was,” Kathleen added, eyes shining wet, “I’d been to see him after three previous gigs. He’d cleared it so the hotels would give me a keycard.” She blinked rapidly as if to stave off tears. “We’d always do the same thing—order room service and watch an old movie together on the couch. The bastard knew I’d be coming in.”
Molly wanted to hug the other woman, hurting for her, but Kathleen wasn’t finished. Her fingers gripping her coffee cup so tight that her bones pushed white against the golden bronze of her skin, she said, “I got the message loud and clear. Fox ran into me as I was leaving, took one look at my face and wrapped me in his arms while I cried.”
Kathleen put down her cup on the small counter that held the coffeemaker, flexed her fingers. “That’s when I knew he was a friend I wouldn’t give up, even if it meant I had to see Noah at times.” Breathing deep, she straightened her shoulders and finished her coffee before shaking her head. “I can’t believe I actually told you that. It was the worst moment of my life.”
“Maybe Maxwell’s voodoo is rubbing off on me,” Molly said, sensing the other woman had had enough of heavy emotion for now.
Kathleen’s laugh was surprised, the strain around her mouth easing. “I think it is.” She held out her empty coffee cup. “Please? I think this is a two-coffee morning.”
Molly had just pulled the second cup from the machine when Fox walked through the door, a bakery box in hand. Pushing off the hood of an old college sweatshirt he hadn’t been wearing when he left the suite, he put the box on the counter and dragged Molly in for an unhurried and thorough kiss that made her toes curl and Kathleen whistle.
Releasing her after a smiling nibble of her lower lip, he went over to hug Kathleen with the familiarity of long friendship. Even knowing there had never been anything sexual between the two, Molly found herself envious, because she and Fox, they were still so young, so new. She wanted the stone, the permanent foundations that’d take them through life.
“You weasel.” Kathleen elbowed Fox in the gut. “You told Noah my room number.”
Fox winced, stepped out of reach. “Jeez, Kit, I know better. He probably charmed it out of a desk clerk.” Returning to Molly, he reached back to pull off the sweatshirt to reveal his white T-shirt.
“Where did you get the sweatshirt?” Molly asked as he threw it over the back of one of the dining chairs. “And where’s your Lakers cap?” He adored that cap, treated it like it was an irreplaceable jewel.
“My extra non-signed Lakers cap is on the head of a busboy who’s around my height, and who is currently riding around in my limo,” Fox said, opening the bakery box. “My real cap is safe and sound in the bedroom. As if I’d ever wear that where someone might try to rip it off for a souvenir.”