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“It can be, with a little trust on your part.” He set her away from him, but kept his hands on her shoulders. “Help me to understand what’s made you change your mind about Reese.”
“I already did. He’s—” she released a choking sob “—perfect.”
Garrett chuckled mildly. “We live in a fallen world. No man is perfect.”
“Reese is,” Fanny whispered glumly. “Even worse, he thinks I’m equally perfect.”
There was that word again, spoken in that same dismal tone. So telling, so illuminating.
Garrett captured Molly’s gaze over Fanny’s head. At his arched eyebrow she arched one of her own. Didn’t he understand what his sister was saying?
Molly certainly did. She understood what it meant to fall short of others’ expectations. And now, she knew what she had to do.
“I want to speak privately with Fanny,” she said, looking pointedly at Garrett then widening the arc of her gaze to include Callie.
Callie immediately started to protest, but Molly cut her off with a firm shake of her head. She expected Garrett to balk, as well. He simply stared at her in measured silence.
Memories settled over her, her mind returning to a time when he trusted her without reservation. What would it be like to have him rely on her again, if only a little?
“Perhaps that’s not a bad idea,” he acknowledged, setting Fanny away from him, “but only if that’s what you want.”
Fanny nodded. “Yes, I want to speak to Molly. Alone.”
Despite being dismissed, he was calm, stoic, full of uncompromising integrity and strength. “If you continue down this path—” he took his sister’s hands in his, held her stare “—others will have to be told of your decision.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
“All right, then.” He released her and settled his gaze on Molly. “Walk me out.”
Before she could respond, he hooked his arm through hers and ushered her onto the third-floor landing. “She’s hiding something from us, something important.”
Perhaps. Perhaps not. Molly would know more once she spoke with Fanny.
“If this is merely a matter of cold feet—”
“It’s more than that.”
“I’m afraid you’re right.” Garrett rubbed the back of his neck, shifted his gaze to meet hers. “Since she’s made it perfectly clear she doesn’t want to discuss this with me or Callie, I’m counting on you to uncover the truth.”
“I’ll get her to talk,” she promised.
“I believe you will.” He turned to go then swung back around. “I’ll expect a full report later this evening.”
“This evening?”
“We’re attending the opera together. With Mrs. Singletary.” He punctuated the statement with a frown.
At his gloomy expression, Molly bit back a smile. Garrett hated the opera. Actually, he disliked all forms of theater, while she reveled in the drama of any production that required a stage and a troupe of performers.
Their vastly different opinions had been the source of their first argument. And, if memory served, the provocation that led to their first kiss.
Refusing to dwell on that thought, she cleared her face of all expression and became graciousness itself. “You’ll get your report. I won’t leave out a single detail.”
His eyes widened.
Oh, honestly. Did he think her completely incapable of agreeable behavior? Even after their unspoken truce?
Insulted, she pivoted around and, without uttering another word, left him to stare after her retreating back.
Let him think whatever he wished about her abrupt departure. Molly had a friend in need. At the moment, nothing mattered more than that.
Chapter Five
Garrett grimaced at the look he caught on Molly’s face, right before she turned her back on him. He’d offended her, somehow, when that hadn’t been his intent.
Rather than demand an apology, as she would have done in the past, she simply walked away from their conversation. Head high, chin tilted at a jaunty angle, she showed no real signs of temper. Yet, when she shut the door behind her with a firm click, her message was unmistakable.
Garrett was dismissed.
Torn between exasperation and amusement, he tunneled his fingers through his hair.
The afternoon was turning out to be a strange one. Indeed, nothing was as expected. There was Fanny with her uncommon tears and drama, Molly with her lack of either. In a matter of hours, his well-ordered, predictable world had tilted slightly off-center.
As if matters weren’t confounding enough, Callie joined him on the landing, a frustrated scowl on her face. “I’ve been banished from my own home.”
“Don’t look so tragic, Cal.” Her annoyance sent a slow smile curving across his mouth. “You earned your dismissal.”
She visibly stiffened. “I most certainly did not!”
“No? You were unusually harsh with our sister. That’s not typical of you.”
With exaggerated dignity, her spine snapped straighter still. “I don’t regret my behavior here today.”
He held silent for effect.
“All right, yes.” She gathered in a tight breath, let it out slowly. “I suppose I could have been more delicate in my delivery.”
“You suppose?”
Her lower lip wobbled. And then—God save him—her eyes filled with tears. Just what the afternoon needed, another bout of unchecked female emotion.
Too much for one day.
If he were a wise man, Garrett would head down the stairwell, exit the boardinghouse and just keep walking.
He remained firmly in place, watching Callie, waiting for her to pull herself together. Unlike Fanny, this sister wouldn’t welcome any outward show of sympathy from him.
After a moment of eye blinking and steady breathing, she morphed into the cagey fighter he knew her to be—and smoothly turned the conversation back on him.
“You and Molly, overly polite with one another, acting as if there’s no history between you. I want an explanation. A real one, this time.”
Holding on to his patience, barely, he rubbed a hand over the stubble of a late-day beard coming in. “Haven’t we been through this already?”
“Yes, and we’ll continue to revisit the topic until I get a reasonable answer out of you.”
Of that, he had no doubt. Once his ornery sister had an idea in her head, she never let go. “It’s just as Molly said earlier. We joined forces for Fanny’s sake.”
“How very noble of you both.”
A portion of his patience edged into annoyance. “Save the sarcasm, Callie, it’s not helping, nor is it productive. In fact—”
She talked right over him. “I can’t think of a time in the past six months since you’ve been home that I’ve seen you and Molly in the same room, much less conversing with one another beyond monosyllables.”
She was right, of course. Since taking the position at Bennett, Bennett and Brand, Garrett had made every effort to avoid Molly, and she him. With both of them working toward a common goal, they’d reaped remarkable success, managing to circumvent one another as efficiently as possible.
That had changed today. Even without Fanny’s situation to bring them together, Mrs. Singletary had tapped Garrett to work with her directly. Which meant he and Molly would cross paths far too often.
He exhaled sharply.
“Garrett, I asked you a question.”
Another ripple of annoyance shred what little patience he had left. “No, you made a statement.”
She rolled her eyes. “I see you’re going to be difficult. So let me speak frankly.”
“Never a good idea,” he muttered.
She ignored the barb. “Why—no, how—did you and Molly end up arriving here together? The truth, Garrett. I won’t accept anything less.”
Short of muzzling her, he might as well give his tenacious sister what she wanted. “It’s not complicated,” he explained. “When you and I couldn’t talk Fanny out of her room, I went in search of Molly.”
“Because?”
“I wanted answers and I thought she had them.”
“Why would you think Molly knew any more than we did?”
“I believed she’d been the one to influence Fanny’s decision.”
Callie gasped. “You didn’t actually accuse Molly of such a terrible thing?”
He shrugged. “Her history speaks for itself.”
“Garrett, Garrett, Garrett.” Callie shook her head in obvious disapproval. “You really don’t know her at all.”
Oh, he knew her. Or rather, he thought he knew her. He wasn’t sure anymore. And that left him even more agitated than before. If he’d been wrong about Molly in this situation, was he wrong about her in other ways as well? Was he prejudging her unnecessarily without gathering all the facts?
“Maybe I don’t know her as well as I thought,” he conceded.
With far too much perception in her gaze, Callie studied him out of narrowed eyes.
Garrett braced for one of her lectures. But she surprised him by switching topics again. “What are we going to do about Fanny? I can’t bear to watch her ruin her life.”
This abrupt change of subject gave Garrett pause. Callie was trying to tell him something, something personal, perhaps. But what? What was going on inside that complicated mind of hers? He could simply ask, but he suspected she wouldn’t answer him candidly.
Besides, the day was slipping away and he had a lot of work still to do.
“We can’t help Fanny until we know more,” he said reasonably.
“I guess not.” Callie released a resigned sigh. “Let us pray Molly can convince her to see reason.”
He nodded.
But then Molly’s words came back to him with alacrity. If Fanny doesn’t love Reese enough to want to marry him, then maybe, maybe she’s making the right decision.
Pulling out his watch, he flipped open the lid and read the time. “I need to get back to the office.” He refocused on Callie, then glanced around the darkened landing. “Will you be all right if I leave you here alone?”
Her withering glare was answer enough. Right, his mistake—Callie was a grown woman of twenty-three, more than capable of taking care of herself in her own home.
“I’ll try to stop by again soon,” he said. “If not later this afternoon, then tomorrow at the latest.”
“Will you speak to Reese after you return to the office?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps.”
Her eyes went cool, accusatory.
“Stop looking at me like that. For all I know, he might have already left for the day.” Though Garrett doubted it. Reese was nothing if not dedicated to his work.
Maybe she’s making the right decision...
He heard Callie say something more, something about his duty as an older brother to his hurting sister, but Garrett had already started down the stairs. He waved a hand in farewell, exited the boardinghouse. And just kept walking.
* * *
“It occurs to me,” Molly said to Mrs. Singletary as they awaited Garrett’s arrival in the blue parlor later that evening, “that a night at the opera is an odd place to begin your business association with Mr. Mitchell.”
The more she thought on the matter the more she realized how truly out of character the request had been. There could be no opportunity to discuss their plans, or any other business for that matter. That left one glaring reason for the invitation.
Mrs. Singletary was, indeed, playing matchmaker. With Molly and Garrett as her current victims, er...beneficiaries.
Molly stifled a groan. She couldn’t fall for Garrett again. She’d given far too much of herself to him once before, only to suffer unspeakable heartache. There’d been no letters once he’d gone away to school, no contact when he’d come home on breaks and certainly no cause to hope he’d change his mind about them.
As time and distance had brought healing, Molly had moved on with her life. Or so she’d always thought. Today had shown her that a part of her would always belong to Garrett. He’d been her first love, her first kiss, her first everything. There was no erasing that sort of shared history.
However, that didn’t mean she was willing to open her heart and let him trample on it again.
“Nonsense, my dear, his joining us this evening makes perfect sense.”
