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“Maybe the girl’s parents are no better than ours,” Patrick countered. “Have you considered for one second that she might be better off here with Molly?”
Daniel sighed heavily. “That’s not my decision to make, not without all the facts. And if we’re just going to go round and round in circles, I might as well get out of here. I’m probably wasting my breath, but I’ll ask anyway. Let me know if you see this Kendra Morrow, okay? Try to persuade Molly to get her to talk to me. And warn me if you hear that our brothers are planning to show up on Mom and Pop’s doorstep. I’m not sure Dad’s heart could take it. Do they know he’s had bypass surgery since they were here?”
“I told them,” Patrick said tightly. “I doubt they’re going to come to the front door and shout, ‘Surprise!’ Not that I’d blame them if they did. Turnabout’s fair play and all that. It couldn’t be any more of a shock than what Mom and Pop did to them, letting them come home from school to find an empty apartment.”
Daniel winced at the reminder. He didn’t like surprises any more than he thought his father’s health could tolerate them. “Give me a number. Let me contact them. When they’re ready, I’ll set up a meeting. That way you won’t have to be caught in the middle.”
Patrick scowled at the suggestion. “I’d say this is their call...and mine, for that matter, Daniel. After all these years and everything that happened, I’d say they have the right to set the time and place. You don’t get to control it, the way you like to control everything else in your life.”
Patrick set down his half-filled mug of beer, stood up, then leaned down to look Daniel directly in the eye. “While you’re at it, leave Molly alone. She’s a good woman and you’ve hurt her enough. If it were up to me, you’d pay through the nose for what you did to her, but she’s more generous than I am.”
“If I’d known about the miscarriage, I would have been there that night,” Daniel said, knowing that even that wouldn’t have been enough. “You didn’t call me.”
“Because you didn’t exactly step up to the plate when she told you she was pregnant,” Patrick reminded him, his accusatory gaze unrelenting. “You were the one responsible for putting her in the hospital in the first place. She didn’t want you there. And she doesn’t want you barging in here now. She sure as hell doesn’t deserve to have you harassing her with your suspicions. Either come back with a genuine apology for what you did back then and today, or stay the hell away from her.”
“I can’t do that, not while she’s hiding Kendra Morrow,” Daniel replied. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”
“That’s right—the rules,” Patrick said, his eyes filled with scorn. “If it’s written down in black-and-white, you know what you have to do. When it comes to anything else—our folks, Molly, a baby—you don’t have a clue.”
As Patrick left, Daniel stared after him, sorrow building in his chest. Dammit all, he’d tried to see both sides of this mess with their parents, but sometimes reason lost out to fury. Sometimes he could hate his parents for doing this to all of them. He wondered what his brother would say if he knew that.
He glanced across the bar to where Molly stood, watching him with a wary gaze. He’d do as Patrick asked and steer clear of her, as well...as soon as she admitted that she was hiding a runaway somewhere on the premises.
3
Molly wanted to smash something, preferably over Daniel’s stubborn, hard head. Fortunately, he was gone...finally. And she was left with all sorts of contradictory emotions raging inside.
She went into the kitchen and slammed a few pots and pans around, creating a satisfying cacophony of sound. When she was through, she looked up into Retta’s worried face.
“You done now?” the cook asked.
“For the moment,” Molly said, her expression sheepish as she faced the woman who’d worked for Jess for decades and served as a surrogate mother to her.
“Daniel get under your skin?”
“As if I’d let that man have any effect on me,” Molly said, then sighed at Retta’s disbelieving expression. “Okay, yes. He got under my skin, I’ll admit it. But only because he was being so pigheaded and arrogant. He came in here and accused me of hiding Kendra.”
Retta grinned, clearly amused by her indignation. “Daniel wasn’t exactly wrong about that, you know. You are hiding the girl.”
“Yes, but he didn’t know that, not for a fact,” she said, not willing to be swayed by logic. “As if he has any reason to distrust me. He’s the one who’s not trustworthy.”
“Honey, Joe Sutton saw Kendra right here, and unless Daniel’s not as sharp as he once was, he saw her, too. He wasn’t lying about that,” Retta told her quietly. “He was already through the front door when you sent her flying through here and out the back door.”
Molly frowned. “Are you saying I should have admitted that Kendra’s here and turned her over to him? I don’t know why she ran away, but I do know she’s scared about something and doesn’t want to go home.”
“I’m just saying you can’t blame him for thinking you had her stowed away somewhere.”
Because it was futile to continue arguing the point, Molly asked, “Where is Kendra, by the way?”
“I sent her over to my place. Leslie Sue will keep her occupied till I give the word that it’s safe for her to come back. Want me to call over there now?”
Molly nodded. “Make sure Leslie Sue comes back over here with her. If Kendra’s scared because of Daniel’s visit, she could take off. I need to talk to her. I have to get to the bottom of what drove her to run away from home in the first place. I told her she had a week, but it appears we’ve already run out of time. Daniel’s coming back, no question of that, and I need to prepare her for that, too. I can’t protect her if I don’t know the truth.”
“You think she’ll tell you?”
“No,” Molly admitted.
“You could call her folks, tell ’em she’s safe,” Retta suggested.
“I don’t know how to find them.”
“You do know,” Retta corrected. “The name was plain as day on that poster Daniel was waving around.” She picked up a slip of paper from the counter. “I made a note of it right here. Got the phone number, too.”
Molly hated it when anyone called her on an evasion. No one did it more often than Retta. She scowled at the woman who took pride in serving as her conscience. “I can’t betray Kendra like that.”
“Well, honey, you’d better do something unless you want Daniel underfoot every time you turn around. The man’s not going to leave this alone, no matter how uncomfortable it makes either one of you. When it comes to those kids he looks out for, he’s like a pit bull. He doesn’t let go.”
“I know that.”
“Well, then.”
“Fine. Call Kendra and get her back over here,” Molly said. The prospect of trying to pin the girl down was only minimally more appealing than trying to throw Daniel off track day after day after day.
In the meantime, she went back to tend to her long-neglected customers. When she finished making her rounds, she found Alice Devaney sitting at the bar. Molly frowned at her best friend.
“I imagine your husband sent you over here to find out if his brother had turned me into a basket case,” she said.
“Patrick mentioned that Daniel had been here,” Alice admitted. “I figured out all on my own that it would probably be an uncomfortable meeting. Are you okay?”
“I survived the first round, but there will be more unless I give him what he wants,” Molly told her.
“Which is?”
“He wants me to turn over the runaway who’s been staying here.”
“I see. Are you sure you’re doing the girl any favors by hiding her?”
“Don’t you start on me, too. She’s better off here than she would be on the streets,” Molly said defensively.
“No doubt about it,” Alice agreed. “But maybe she’d be even better off at home.”
“Or not. How can I be sure?”
“Maybe this is one area where you can trust Daniel to know what’s right,” Alice suggested cautiously. “I know that goes against the grain with you, but he is the expert.”
“At rules and regulations, not human beings.”
Alice reached for her hand. “Molly, I’m sorry he hurt you so deeply, but it is his job to find and help runaways. From everything I’ve ever heard, he’s very good at it.”
“I’m not letting him take another child away from me,” Molly retorted without thinking.
Alice gasped. “What are you saying? When did Daniel take a child from you?”
“Forget I said that,” Molly said at once. Patrick and Retta were the only two people other than herself and Daniel and the doctor at the local hospital who knew about the miscarriage. It wasn’t something she’d wanted spread around the small town of Widow’s Cove. She’d insisted that Patrick keep the details from his wife. After all, it had happened long before he and Alice had even met.
“You can’t unring that bell,” Alice said forcefully. “I’m your best friend, or at least I like to think I’ve become your best friend since I came back to Widow’s Cove and married Patrick. You can tell me what happened.”
Molly shook her head. “I don’t like talking about what an idiot I was.”
“You could never be an idiot,” Alice said fiercely. “Come on, Molly. Spill it. You’ll feel better if you talk it out. I don’t imagine Patrick’s all that good at listening. His strong suit would be threatening to knock his brother’s teeth down his throat for hurting you.”
Molly grinned. “He did offer once or twice. I turned him down, something I sincerely regret at the moment.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have. Maybe you’d both have felt better if Patrick had taken some action.”
Molly stared at her in shock. “You’re advocating I let the two of them brawl?”
“It might have helped them get back together if they’d worked off some of the anger that’s been between them for the past few years,” Alice said. She waved off the suggestion. “But they’re not the point. You are. Tell me what happened between you and Daniel, Molly. I haven’t pressed you on this before, but I think it’s time you told me.”
Molly sighed, thinking back to her first big mistake. “I thought Daniel loved me.”
“That’s not so awful,” Alice said. “Are you so sure he didn’t?”
Molly weighed her options and concluded that she could use the advice of a woman who’d had her own struggles with a Devaney man and that complicated family history before finally winning Patrick’s heart.
“Okay, here it is in a nutshell,” she said at last. “You know that Daniel and I were together for a while.”
“I gathered that, yes. And I know it ended badly. You’ve made no secret of that.”
Molly drew in a deep breath, then summed up what had happened in as few words as possible. “It ended because he went ballistic when I told him I was pregnant. The same night we argued, I had a miscarriage and lost the baby.”
Tears promptly filled Alice’s eyes. “Oh, sweetie, I am so sorry. You must have been devastated.”
“I survived,” Molly said grimly. “But I won’t let him take Kendra away from me, not unless we know for a fact that it’s the best thing for her. The kid is hurting. It’s not that I intend to keep her for myself, for heaven’s sake, but I do want to know why she left home before I send her back to the same situation she ran away from.”
“Don’t confuse giving up Kendra with losing your baby,” Alice said gently. “The two things are not the same at all.”
“Maybe not. I just know that Daniel’s involved in both of them,” Molly replied stubbornly.
“Okay, what can I do to help?”
Molly forced a smile. “Nothing that I can think of, unless you want to stand guard at the front door and keep him out of here.”
“I doubt I’m much of a match for Daniel,” Alice said. “Anything else?”
“No, and don’t worry about it. I’ll handle Daniel.”
“You wouldn’t have to handle him if you’d just do as he’s asking and let him see Kendra. I’m sure the three of you could work this out.”
Molly knew it was a reasonable suggestion, but if she was afraid of risking it, how could she convince Kendra to trust Daniel? “I’ll try to persuade her to talk to him,” Molly finally conceded, not even trying to hide her reluctance. “But I won’t force her to do it.”
“Not good enough,” Alice said. “She’s thirteen. That’s too young to be making the kind of decisions that could affect the rest of her life. You’re the adult. You need to be smart about this, for her sake and your own.”
It was good advice and Molly knew it. In fact, when Alice had gone and Kendra emerged from the kitchen, Molly led her directly upstairs where they could have some privacy.
“Stay put,” she ordered. “You and I need to talk as soon as I serve another round of drinks.”
Kendra’s eyes widened with alarm. “Am I in trouble? What did that guy say to you? I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not wanted for anything. I didn’t knock over some convenience store. I never even shoplifted a candy bar. I swear it.”
Molly’s heart promptly melted at the girl’s rush to defend herself. “I know that. But we do have to talk, okay?”
Kendra nodded.
“Watch TV or something till I come back. Whatever you do, don’t come back downstairs tonight.”
“Is that man coming back?”
“I doubt it,” she said, then felt compelled to add, “but Daniel’s unpredictable.” She’d learned that the hard way.
* * *
Even though he was feeling cranky and completely out of sorts, Daniel detoured past his parents’ house on his way home. He told himself he wasn’t going to go inside, not when he was still worked up by his conversation with Patrick and his war of words with Molly, but as soon as he saw that every light in the house was blazing, he changed his mind and pulled into the driveway. Checking on his parents had become a nightly ritual, one he couldn’t break so easily.
Worried by all the lights, he ran up to the front door and let himself in, calling out for his mother and father as he entered.
Inside, nothing more seemed out of the ordinary. The house was filled with the scent of dinner...pot roast, if he wasn’t mistaken. The TV was blaring from the living room, a testament to the fact that his father’s hearing was worsening, though he refused to admit it.
Since he wasn’t up to competing with the evening news for his father’s attention, he wandered into the kitchen and found his mother just removing the roast from the oven. She jumped when he spoke to her.
“Daniel Devaney, are you trying to scare ten years off my life?” she demanded, a hand pressed to her chest. A pink blush tinted her pale complexion and gave her more color than usual.
“Sorry, Mom,” he said, grinning. “I thought you heard me come in. I yelled for you.”
“Who could hear a thing over that racket from the TV?” She brushed a strand of still-black hair back from her face and studied him. “You look tired and worried. Can I fix you something to drink? Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Will you be staying?”
He shook his head. “I’ve already eaten. I had a bowl of chowder over at Jess’s.”
Her blue eyes filled with curiosity. “Oh? What were you doing there?”
“Business,” he said, but he could see that she didn’t believe him any more than Patrick had. “It’s true. Molly’s got a runaway hiding out over there.”
“Seeing Molly must have been awkward for you,” she said, watching his face intently.
“And then some,” he admitted. If she’d known the whole story, she would have realized just how awkward. He’d never told her the reason behind the long-ago breakup, most likely because he’d been too embarrassed and ashamed of his part in Molly’s miscarriage, to say nothing of the fact that he’d inadvertently left Patrick to deal with the fallout.
“I don’t suppose...” she began wistfully, avoiding his gaze.
He knew what she was asking. “Yes, Mom, I saw Patrick.”
