David gave him the finger. “It was for charity.” A wink at Molly from his uninjured eye, the other one ringed by a deep blue-black bruise. “Also, koalas aren’t bears, you genius, they’re marsupials.”
“Shut your trap, Rainbow Boy.” Fox pointed a finger at Noah. “Explain.”
Shoulders rising under the black of his sleeveless sweatshirt, the hood flipped up to conceal his hair, Noah spread his hands. “What was I going to do? They saw me sneaking out.”
Fox thought of these men as his brothers, but they’d just ruined his one chance to be with Molly like a normal guy on a date with his girl. Before he could snarl at them, Molly stepped forward. “I have an idea,” she said with the smile that had hit him like a roundhouse punch that first night and showed no sign of decreasing in potency. “I’ll be your assistant.” She hefted the little multi-zip travel bag she’d slung across her body. “I’ll buy all the drinks, tickets, etcetera, and everyone will see what they expect to see.”
“She’s smart,” Abe said to Fox. “You should try not to f**k it up with her.”
Fox narrowed his eyes. “Just for that, you get to sit in the back. All three of you. Molly gets the front passenger seat.”
Much whining and complaining later, the three men somehow folded themselves into the back of the SUV. Then it began. The one-liners, the zingers back and forth, the insults, the jokes. Molly laughed until she protested that her stomach hurt, and Fox had to forgive the others then, didn’t he?
“Christ,” Abe groaned when Fox brought the car to a stop at the wildlife park. “I think my joints are permanently frozen in place.” Stepping out, he began to stretch his heavily muscled body.
Fox turned to Molly after they got out, held out his credit card. When her lips parted, he dropped his tone. “Don’t argue with me. I might’ve agreed to let you play assistant, but you’re not paying for anything today.”
Those clear brown eyes, so beautifully expressive, told him the instant she decided to listen. “Does it have a PIN code so you don’t have to sign for it?”
“Yeah.” He gave it to her, eyes on her lips. One day soon, he was going to have the right to kiss her anytime he pleased, in daylight and in darkness. “You look so pretty, Molly. Like sunshine.”
Her blood alight in joy, Molly began to walk toward the ticket booth, aware of Fox falling in behind her with the other men.
It was a fun, lighthearted afternoon.
The men had more privacy than they’d expected—the park was spread out, and with the majority of the clientele being families, even when people recognized them, they only requested an autograph and a photo, then let the band be. Molly took many of those photos, and each time she did, she marveled at the men’s patience. Clearly, this was an unusual day, an unusual circumstance, but they were in a great mood and didn’t turn anyone down.
She could understand, however, why Abe had punched out a reporter during his divorce, and why Noah had once infamously smashed a photographer’s camera. It must get wearing to be constantly under scrutiny, never able to let down your guard.
“We have to remember most people aren’t out to tear us to pieces,” Fox said when she shared her thoughts with him. “Fans like this,” he continued, “they don’t have a hidden agenda. No comparison to the tabloid reporters who want to make money off our backs by manufacturing gossip.”
They reached the koalas a few minutes later, and Molly watched as all four of the big, hardcore rockers fell in love with the shy animals. She took more photos, this time with her personal camera and those belonging to the men. Her favorite was of the four of them, arms around one another in front of a eucalyptus tree on which sat two koalas nonchalantly snacking on the leaves.
Fox was at one end, Noah on the other. They had their faces turned toward each other, laughing at something that had both David and Abe grinning.
“Hey!” Fox called out when Molly would’ve put away the cameras. “Our lovely assistant needs to be in this shot.”
“I’ll do it if you like,” said the middle-aged woman next to Molly who’d stood by indulgently while her teenage son and daughter snapped pictures of the group.
“Thank you.” Molly stepped into the space Abe and David had made for her between their bodies and was immediately enclosed in a heated wall of male flesh. Laughing as David whispered the word “memo” to her, she caught Fox’s dimpled grin, and then the camera clicked.
The resulting photo, Molly thought when she looked at it, would live forever on her bookshelf.
A number of the amateur shots from the park were already online by the time they took their seats in the Chinese restaurant they’d ducked into for dinner, several of the photos part of an article that had made the front page of a local news website.
“It says,” David read out for the other men after Molly pulled it up on her phone, “we were ‘refreshingly devoid of bodyguards and shepherded only by a cheerful local guide.’”
“And”—Noah’s golden hair glittered under the restaurant lights as he scrolled through several other sites on his own phone—“Molly’s face isn’t in any of the shots posted online.”
Relieved, Molly was able to enjoy the delicious dishes served by waitstaff too harried to worry about who was famous and who was not. Sitting sandwiched between Fox and David, she felt very much a part of the group as they talked and hassled one another in the way only good friends can do. Fox kept his hand on her thigh throughout the meal, and it wasn’t sexual. No, it felt as if he was touching her because she was his.