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“I have an idea.”
“Then tell me.”
Now this was the tricky part. She couldn’t quite hold his gaze. “Um…I can’t.”
His chocolate eyes went from delicious warmth to black fire in an instant. “What do you mean, you can’t?”
“What the hot line personnel talk about with the kids is confidential.”
“Conf—” His expression incredulous, he didn’t seem able to finish the word.
And Darcie didn’t seem able to think—an odd occurrence given that she was normally a sharp, witty woman. Her cheeks felt overheated and her heart pounded as though someone had injected her with an ampoule of adrenaline.
Oh, no. She recognized this feeling. It had been happening to her with some regularity in the past four months and it meant that she was very close to experiencing one of those weird spells.
And the very last thing she wanted to do was crumple into a heap at Flynn O’Grady’s feet.
Whirling, she made a beeline for the rest room.
Flynn watched as Darcie Moretti disappeared through an inner sanctuary where men normally didn’t trod. It took him a full moment to realize that she’d bailed on him. Again!
This wasn’t acceptable. The clock was ticking. His daughter was in the process of running away to God only knew where.
And the woman who held the answers had apparently thought to escape him by hiding out in the ladies’ rest room.
Well, by damn, she’d underestimated him. He was a man on a thin string. A harried father. No gender sign on a pressboard swinging door would stop him.
Hitching Mary Beth higher on his hip, he slammed his hand against the door and pushed it open. From behind him, he heard approving noises from The Daddy Club guys, and an indrawn breath or two from the older patrons watching from the designer coffee bar in the back of the hardware store.
He ignored it all, allowed the door to swing closed behind him, sealing them away from prying eyes and ears. He focused his attention on the startled, freckle-faced woman staring at him with her back up against the salmon tiled vanity, her dripping wet fingers fiddling with the shiny black buttons on her baggy coat.
Frowning, he noticed that her pale face was also wet. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Her tone wasn’t all that convincing but he let it go. “Look, Darcie, if you’ve got information about my daughter, I expect you to give it over.” It was tough to look menacing and serious with mushy animal crackers decorating his shirt, a squirming baby on his hip and a pink cloth diaper bag slung over his shoulder.
But he gave it a good shot, despite the fact that desperation was climbing and his imagination of what could happen to his daughter was vivid and ugly, sending him into near panic.
One of Darcie’s golden brows arched and her hazel eyes took on a look of censure. She reached for a paper towel and dried her face and hands. “Do you threaten your daughter like that?”
“I’m not threatening—” Appalled, offended, he broke off, tried to gather his wits. Was it the situation or the woman who had him so scattered, so close to the boiling point? It annoyed him that she’d left him, asleep and naked, five months ago. And it annoyed him that she’d just popped up in his life again. All that annoyance was getting tangled up in his panic over Heather. “No, I do not threaten my daughter!”
The baby winced, blinked. Her lip trembled.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Darcie said. She reached out and plucked Mary Beth out of his arms.
“Wait just a—”
“Hush.”
Flynn didn’t know if she’d meant the baby or him, but he was surprised enough to obey. He didn’t normally hand his kid over to just anybody. Actually, he hadn’t really handed her, Darcie had taken her and he hadn’t put up a fight.
He nearly groaned. What kind of a father was he? He couldn’t even hold on to his baby daughter. Could just any old stranger pluck his baby out of his arms?
And what about Heather? She was lost. He’d lost her.
How had that happened? Why hadn’t he known she was that unhappy?
He should have seen it—especially tonight. He’d asked her to baby-sit Mary Beth so he could come to this Daddy Club meeting, but she’d thrown a hissy fit. Frustrated, he’d snatched up Mary Beth and stormed out of the house.
Oh, man. He was such an idiot.
“Hey, it’ll be all right.”
He felt Darcie’s hand on his arm, met her compassionate eyes, noticed that the color had come back into her cheeks.
Mary Beth was happily twisting messy fingers in Darcie’s curly hair, dislodging several unruly strands from its sexy updo. Darcie didn’t seem to notice or to mind. And for some confounded reason, that touched him.
“I’m at a disadvantage here. You seem to have all the answers—about my daughter…and about where you’ve been for the past five months, why you left…”
His words trailed off, inviting her to pick up the conversational ball. He knew the timing of personal questions was inappropriate, but he felt like an ostrich looking for a hole in the sand to bury his head. Maybe if he stalled long enough, somebody would burst through the door and tell him it was all a mistake, that his daughter was home, safe and sound and happy, and that he wasn’t failing miserably at just about everything he did lately.
“I don’t have all the answers, Flynn.” She shifted the baby so that Mary Beth’s diaper-clad bottom was perched on the shelf of her arm. The baby laid her head on Darcie’s shoulder, and something in Flynn’s chest tightened. It didn’t make sense, but just that simple move made him feel inadequate. That was an emotion he was becoming increasingly familiar with these days.
“As for me,” she said. “I haven’t been hiding.”
“I thought you lived in Philly.”
“Did I say that?”
“No. You didn’t say much of anything.”
“You’d had a lot to drink.” She smiled. “Maybe we should start over.” She held out her hand. “Darcie Moretti, physical address Trenton, New Jersey. Same town I’ve lived in all my life.”
Flynn felt ridiculous exchanging pleasantries in the women’s rest room—especially in light of the fact that they’d slept together—but somehow Darcie Moretti made it seem normal.
He accepted her hand, felt a kinetic jolt that both shocked and worried him. He saw her hazel eyes widen, saw them darken to the color of moss.
“Well,” she murmured. “This is awkward.”
His laughter was both strained and spontaneous—and took him totally by surprise. “You’re a contradiction, Darcie Moretti. You pull a feminine stunt by hiding out in the rest room, then blatantly admit to an attraction.”
“I didn’t blatantly admit to an attraction. I only made a comment.”
“An admission,” he argued. “And along those lines, how about some straight talk about where you think my daughter took off to.”
Her gaze didn’t skitter this time. It held his. “I’d rather not say.”
“And I’d rather that you did. We’re standing in the women’s rest room, for crying out loud. We’ve gone to bed together. If that doesn’t invite confidences, I don’t know what does.” Now her gaze did jerk away, making him think of avoidance and secrets. First things first, he reminded himself. Find Heather, and then get the whole story on Darcie Moretti and her disappearing acts.
“Tell me, Darcie.”
She shook her head. “I’m only as good as my word. I work at the hot line and promise the kids who call me that they’re safe talking to me. If I betrayed that confidence, word would get around on the street. Kids would stop calling and they’d end up in bad situations and it would be my fault.”
Something raw and painful shimmered in her tone, but he told himself to let it go. “I’m not going to spread rumors. We’re talking about my daughter.”
“She may be your daughter, but she called me.”
He felt his frustration rising, tried to tamp it back down. “I’m not such a bad guy. I don’t beat her. I try to give her everything I can.”
“Except your time?”
“Did she say that?”
“Sometimes she does.”
“Sometimes she does?” he repeated. “She’s called you more than once?”
“Yes. I’ve been talking to her for about three weeks. Since just before New Year’s Eve.”
Flynn raked a hand through his hair, dislodged a hunk of sticky animal cracker, and wiped his hand on his coat, uncaring that it left a light brown smear.
“We had a fight New Year’s Eve. She wanted to go to a party and I said no. I didn’t know she was still mad about that.” He heaved a sigh and focused on her reflection in the mirror, noticing that one of the chopsticks shoved haphazardly in her curly hair was slipping.
“According to Heather you claimed it was family night, but a friend came over and Heather ended up baby-sitting Mary Beth while you ignored both of the girls and had drinks with the other woman.”
His gaze jerked back to her face. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have sworn Darcie Moretti’s tone was laced with jealousy.
“I did not ignore her, and I didn’t make her babysit! I was home. And that other woman was Ross Steadwell’s wife, Elaine! Ross was there, too, and so were their kids.”
“Oh.” She didn’t look a bit contrite over her show of jealousy—if it had even been that. “Aren’t Ariel and Jimmy cuties?”
“You know them?”
“Very well. I handle the insurance for Data Ink. where Elaine works. In fact, uh…I’m the one who suggested that she and Ross get you involved in The Daddy Club.”
She seemed almost apologetic. Still, Flynn didn’t like people going behind his back, orchestrating his life. Never mind that his life seemed to be out of control lately and he could probably use some coaching. He still didn’t like it.
“Does Heather think I’m that bad?”
“No. She’s just a confused young girl.”
“What about me? I’m confused, too. I’m trying my best, but it doesn’t seem to be good enough. Look at me. I’m a mess. I’ve got animal crackers and baby slobber all over me. I nearly charged out of Hardware and Muffins without my baby. My other daughter is mad enough at me to run away and I don’t know why! And you claim to have answers that you won’t give.”
“I can’t betray Heather’s confidence, Flynn.”
The roiling in his gut was so powerful, he thought he might explode. Or cry. When she reached out to touch him, he jerked back. He didn’t know which emotion would rule, and he couldn’t chance letting her accidentally push him over the edge.
The woman was stubborn, but she smelled of apples and cinnamon and radiated compassion and capability. She made him think of home and hearth and family—all the things he wanted most. She made him think of intimacy and fun also, two things that had been sorely lacking from his life for quite a while now.
Or at least since that night five months ago.
Even though he’d had more to drink than he should have, he remembered it clearly. Remembered Darcie clearly, her passion, her verve, her wholehearted giving.
Right now, though, she wasn’t willing to give. She held the key to his daughter’s whereabouts. How could he make her understand how torn up and frightened he felt at the thought of something happening to his daughter?
“Heather’s had it rough this past year. Her mom left right after Mary Beth was born, then ended up getting killed in an accident. My mom moved in with us, which really helped the girls over the hump, but she recently had to leave for Vermont to take care of my aunt who had hip surgery—and I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.” Saying it out loud made him realize how many women in his life had abandoned him. Some intentionally, some not so intentionally. God, he’d failed as a husband, and now his incompetence had him failing as a dad.
He was the one who’d wanted so desperately to be a father…but he hadn’t dreamed he’d have to do it as a full-time, single parent.
And failing dismally after the first three weeks of being on his own.
“You’ve got no reason to trust me, Flynn, but will you?” she asked softly.
“Trust you how?”
“Let me go find Heather.”
“I can’t…. That’s my job.”
“You’re going to stand on what you think is expected of you in a situation like this?” She shook her head, heaved in a breath. “As her parent you can force her to come home, but you can make it worse, too. And what’s to say she’ll stay put? She’s gotten up the nerve to make a move. The next time it won’t be as hard. Are you going to stay up all night watching her to make sure she doesn’t run again?”
“If I have to.” He’d do whatever it took, stick to her like glue, quit his job, rent a secluded cabin in the Pocono Mountains and force her to…To what? he wondered.
“I’m trying to tell you it might not be necessary. You need a mediator.”
“And you think that’s you?”
“I’m the one she’s been talking to. I’m the one she seems to trust right now.” She stroked the curls at the back of Mary Beth’s head, absently pressed a kiss to the baby’s hair. “Heather’s had a lot of upsets in her world lately.”
“I don’t need you to tell me the sorry happenings in my life,” he said tightly.
“See there?”
“What?”
“You’re not in the right frame of mind to successfully deal with Heather right now.”
Resentment made him edgy and sharp. “Don’t tell me how to deal with my—”
“Hold it right there, buddy.” Darcie jiggled and soothed when Mary Beth looked like she was going to cloud up again over the squabbling. “I’m trying not to judge you. I’m trying to help Heather. I’m trying to help you. I didn’t tell your daughter to run away—or to call me, for that matter. But she has and she did. I’m involved whether you like it or not. And because I’m an outside party, I can be more objective. If you go blazing after her, your emotions are going to come across as anger and you’re going to make it worse. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”
Her impassioned words seemed to echo off the tiled walls of the rest room. For a long moment, Flynn didn’t comment. He just watched her, making her squirm, making her forget why they were there…making her want.
“Did you run away?” His voice was soft and deep.
“No, but a close friend in school did.” Darcie didn’t want to think about that outcome. But her heart clenched anyway. “And we’re wasting precious time.” She juggled the baby as she reached for a piece of paper.
