Книга - The Devaney Brothers: Daniel

The Devaney Brothers: Daniel
Sherryl Woods


www.SherrylWoods.com#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods brings readers the final chapter of the classic tales of the Devaneys…brothers torn apart in childhood, reunited by love. When a runaway teen surfaces at Molly Creighton's tavern, Daniel Devaney's job as a child advocate forces him to investigate…and to confront his tumultuous past with Molly. Though a tragic loss shattered their relationship four years ago, Daniel is now ready to accept responsibility for their breakup and make a fresh start.Their overwhelming attraction is undulled by time, but Molly fears risking her heart again. Daniel vows to banish the shadows from her eyes and prove he is the man she needs him to be. And with his brothers and parents at last reconciled, Daniel's deepest longing–for family–is almost fulfilled….







#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods brings readers the final chapter of the classic tales of the Devaneys…brothers torn apart in childhood, reunited by love.

When a runaway teen surfaces at Molly Creighton’s tavern, Daniel Devaney’s job as a child advocate forces him to investigate…and to confront his tumultuous past with Molly. Though a tragic loss shattered their relationship four years ago, Daniel is now ready to accept responsibility for their breakup and make a fresh start.

Their overwhelming attraction is undulled by time, but Molly fears risking her heart again. Daniel vows to banish the shadows from her eyes and prove he is the man she needs him to be. And with his brothers and parents at last reconciled, Daniel’s deepest longing—for family—is almost fulfilled….


Praise for the novels of Sherryl Woods

“Skillfully introducing readers to the Devaneys, Sherryl Woods scores another winner.”

—RT Book Reviews on Sean’s Reckoning

“Sherryl Woods writes emotionally satisfying novels about family, friendship and home. Truly feel-great reads!”

—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber

“Woods is a master heartstring puller.”

—Publishers Weekly on Seaview Inn

“Woods’s readers will eagerly anticipate her trademark small-town setting, loyal friendships, and honorable mentors as they meet new characters and reconnect with familiar ones in this heartwarming tale.”

—Booklist on Home in Carolina

“Once again, Woods, with such authenticity, weaves a tale of true love and the challenges that can knock up against that love.”

—RT Book Reviews on Beach Lane

“In this sweet, sometimes funny and often touching story, the characters are beautifully depicted, and readers…will…want to wish themselves away to Seaview Key.”

—RT Book Reviews on Seaview Inn

“Woods…is noted for appealing character-driven stories that are often infused with the flavor and fragrance of the South.”

—Library Journal

“A reunion story punctuated by family drama, Woods’s first novel in her new Ocean Breeze series is touching, tense and tantalizing.”

—RT Book Reviews on Sand Castle Bay

“A whimsical, sweet scenario…the digressions have their own charm, and Woods never fails to come back to the romantic point.”

—Publishers Weekly on Sweet Tea at Sunrise


Also by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods



THE DEVANEY BROTHERS: MICHAEL AND PATRICK

THE DEVANEY BROTHERS: RYAN AND SEAN

HOME TO SEAVIEW KEY

SEAVIEW INN

TWILIGHT

A SEASIDE CHRISTMAS***

TEMPTATION

SEA GLASS ISLAND††

WIND CHIME POINT††

SAND CASTLE BAY††

WHERE AZALEAS BLOOM*

CATCHING FIREFLIES*

MIDNIGHT PROMISES*

THE SUMMER GARDEN***

AN O’BRIEN FAMILY CHRISTMAS***

BEACH LANE***

MOONLIGHT COVE***

DRIFTWOOD COTTAGE***

RETURN TO ROSE COTTAGE†

HOME AT ROSE COTTAGE†

A CHESAPEAKE SHORES CHRISTMAS***

HONEYSUCKLE SUMMER*

SWEET TEA AT SUNRISE*

HOME IN CAROLINA*

HARBOR LIGHTS***

FLOWERS ON MAIN***

THE INN AT EAGLE POINT***

WELCOME TO SERENITY*

MENDING FENCES

FEELS LIKE FAMILY*

A SLICE OF HEAVEN*

STEALING HOME*

WAKING UP IN CHARLESTON

FLIRTING WITH DISASTER

THE BACKUP PLAN

DESTINY UNLEASHED

FLAMINGO DINER

ALONG CAME TROUBLE**

ASK ANYONE**

ABOUT THAT MAN**

ANGEL MINE

AFTER TEX

*The Sweet Magnolias

**Trinity Harbor

***Chesapeake Shores

†The Rose Cottage Sisters

††Ocean Breeze

Look for Sherryl Woods’s next novel

Swan Point

available soon from Harlequin MIRA


The Devaney Brothers: Daniel

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Sherryl

Woods






www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)


Dear Friends,

Years ago, I heard a question on Jeopardy! about the most successful Disney movies of all time. It stated that they all had something to do with orphans. Well, who am I to argue with the Disney magic? Thus the Devaneys were born—five brothers, separated for years, thanks to a decision by desperate parents.

As each story unfolds and the brothers are reunited, more and more questions arise about why their parents allowed them to be separated. Readers have debated ever since about whether their reasons were valid or impossible to understand. As you come to know the brothers, I hope you’ll share your thoughts with me, as well. Put yourselves in the parents’ shoes and think about what you might have done under the same circumstances.

In the meantime, I’m delighted that the emotional stories of Ryan, Sean, Michael, Patrick and Daniel are coming back into print. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.

All best,

Sherryl


Contents

Chapter 1 (#uab0ac55d-ec12-57a5-b206-9e857152844d)

Chapter 2 (#u8aad7e56-f09e-5e1a-92f2-fddf1fdd5e69)

Chapter 3 (#u98709100-82ec-5fc5-ac4f-0fc51215e182)

Chapter 4 (#ub3d44819-9202-54e7-8b88-b75326b21745)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

The Sweet Magnolias Cookbook (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#litres_trial_promo)

Mama Cruz’s Recipe File (#litres_trial_promo)

Dulce De Leche Cheesecake Bars (#litres_trial_promo)

Chicken Enchilada Casserole with Speedy Mole Sauce (#litres_trial_promo)

Jacked-Up Tex-Mex Macaroni and Cheese (#litres_trial_promo)

Pico de Gallo (#litres_trial_promo)

Smoky Pork-Filled Tamales (#litres_trial_promo)

Southern Seafood Paella (#litres_trial_promo)

Black Bean Chili (#litres_trial_promo)

Roasted Corn & Mixed Bean Salsa (#litres_trial_promo)

Tex-Mex Appetizer Cheesecake (#litres_trial_promo)

Tres Leches Cake (#litres_trial_promo)

Swan Point Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)

Where Azaleas Bloom Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)


1

It was just past midnight on the longest day of the year for Molly Creighton. Each time this particular anniversary rolled around, it stole another piece of her. Her heart ached, and her soul...well, there were times like this when she thought she no longer had one.

Over the years she’d come to accept the fact that life was unpredictable and sometimes cruel. She’d lost her parents at a very early age, but she’d survived thanks to the love of her grandfather. Jess had been a hard man, but he’d had a soft spot for her, and he’d raised her to believe in herself and to handle just about anything life tossed her way. There had been only one thing that had been too much for her, one loss that she hadn’t been able to push aside so that she could get on with the business of living.

Oh, she went through the motions just fine. She ran Jess’s, the waterfront bar in Widow’s Cove, Maine, that had been her grandfather’s. She had a huge circle of acquaintances and a tighter circle of friends, but she didn’t have the one thing that really mattered. She didn’t have her baby.

She blamed Daniel Devaney for that. Daniel had been the love of her life, though they were about as opposite in personality as any two people could be. Molly had always been—at least until a few years ago—a free spirit. She’d embraced life, because she knew all too well how short it could be. Daniel was an uptight stickler for the rules. He was logical and methodical. Maybe that was even what had drawn her to him. She’d enjoyed messing with his head, keeping him thoroughly off-kilter, almost as much as she’d thrilled to his slow, deliberate caresses.

They’d known each other practically forever, though his family lived in a small town a half hour away from Widow’s Cove. They’d gone to high school together, where Daniel had been the star football player and she’d been the ultimate party girl, dating a dozen different guys before she’d finally gone out with Daniel. One date had put an end to her days of playing the field. One kiss had sealed their fate.

Even though Daniel had gone away to college and Molly hadn’t, they’d been a couple, spending every free moment together. She thought she’d known his heart and his secrets, but she hadn’t known the big one, the one that would tear them apart.

Finding herself pregnant four years ago, Molly had been ecstatic and had expected Daniel to be accepting, if not equally enthusiastic. Barely out of college and already established in a career he loved, he had been a do-the-right-thing kind of a guy, and he’d told her a thousand times how much he loved her. While they’d never discussed marriage, she’d believed that’s where they were heading. If this pushed things along a little faster, what was the big deal?

But instead of reacting as she’d expected, Daniel had been appalled, not because he didn’t love her, not even because they were too young, he’d claimed, but because fatherhood had been the very last thing he’d ever contemplated.

That was when he’d told her about the Devaney secret, the one that had ripped him and his twin brother, Patrick, apart, the one that had caused a rift so deep, Patrick hadn’t spoken to their parents in years now.

As Daniel told the story, Connor and Kathleen Devaney had recklessly abandoned their three oldest sons in Boston and moved to Maine, bringing only Patrick and Daniel with them. For years they had raised the two boys as if the twins were their only children. Daniel had learned the truth only a few years earlier, when he was eighteen. He was still reeling from it.

With a father capable of abandoning three of his sons as an example, Daniel told her, how could he even consider becoming a parent himself? Any child would be better off without a Devaney in its life.

“I see too many kids whose lives are a mess because of lousy parents,” he’d added to bolster his argument. “I won’t do that to my own child.”

Molly had tried to reassure him, tried to tell him that he would make a wonderful father—wasn’t he a child advocate for the state, after all?—but he’d flatly refused to take any role in their child’s life beyond financial assistance. He’d insisted that she—and their baby—would thank him someday.

Rather than continue a fight she knew she couldn’t win, Molly had let her pride kick in. Convinced she could raise the child on her own and stunned by Daniel’s attitude, she had thrown his offer of money back in his face. Her baby would be a Creighton and proud of it.

And maybe it would have turned out that way, if Daniel hadn’t broken her heart and her spirit. It was almost as if her body had understood what her heart had tried to deny, that a life without Daniel would be meaningless. The very night they’d tried to hash it all out, she had miscarried and lost her precious baby.

It was Daniel’s brother Patrick who’d taken her to the hospital on that terrible spring night four years ago. It was Patrick who’d held her hand and tried awkwardly to comfort her. It was Patrick who dried her tears each year on the anniversary of that devastating loss. He’d been by earlier in the evening to check on her before going home to his wife. If she’d asked tonight, Patrick would have stayed.

As for Daniel, he and Molly hadn’t exchanged a civil word since that awful night. She doubted they ever would. She blamed him almost as much as she blamed herself.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean she’d stopped loving him. Not a day went by that she didn’t think about him and what they’d lost—not just a child, but an entire future. Seeing Patrick, who looked exactly like his twin, was a constant reminder. Not that she needed one. Daniel was so much a part of her, she could have conjured him up entirely on her own.

She sighed heavily and took one last cursory swipe at the bar with her polishing cloth.

Suddenly a faint noise in one of the booths caught her attention. Widow’s Cove wasn’t exactly a haven for criminals, but Molly instinctively picked up the nearest bottle as a weapon and slipped through the shadows in the direction of the noise.

She had the bottle over her head and was ready to strike, when a petite, dark-haired girl, no more than thirteen or fourteen, emerged from the booth, alarm in her eyes and her mouth running a mile a minute with a tumble of excuses for being in Jess’s past closing.

Molly’s heart was still slamming against the wall of her chest as she lowered the bottle and tried to make sense of what the girl was saying. The rush of words was all but incoherent.

“Whoa,” Molly said quietly, reaching out, only to have the girl draw back skittishly as if she feared she was still in danger of being hit.

Molly set the bottle on the table, then held out her empty hands. “Look, it’s okay. Nobody here is going to hurt you.”

The girl stared back at her, silent now that the immediate threat was over.

“I’m Molly. What’s your name?”

Nothing.

“I’ve never seen you around here before,” Molly continued as if the girl had responded. “Where are you from?”

Still, the only response was that wide-eyed, solemn stare.

“Not talking now? Well, that’s okay, too. It’s a pleasant change after spending an entire evening with a bunch of rowdy men who can’t shut up, yet have very little to say.”

The girl’s mouth twitched slightly, as if she were fighting a smile. Molly grinned, sensing that she’d found a kindred spirit.

“I see you know exactly what I mean,” she continued. “Are you hungry? The grill’s shut down, but I could fix you a sandwich. There’s ham and cheese, tuna salad or my personal favorite, peanut butter and pickles.”

“Yuck,” the girl said, her face scrunched up in a look of pure disgust.

The reaction made her seem even younger than Molly had originally guessed.

Laughing, Molly said, “I thought that might get a response from you. So, no peanut butter and pickles. You are going to have to tell me what you do want, though.”

The girl’s shoulders finally relaxed. “Ham and cheese, please.”

“With milk?”

“A soda, if that’s okay.”

So, she’d been taught some manners, and from the look of her clothes, she’d been well provided for. They were wrinkled, but she was wearing the latest teen fashions, low-riding designer jeans and a cropped shirt that revealed an inch of pale skin at her waist. Her sneakers were a brand that cost an arm and a leg.

“I have money to pay for the food,” the girl said as she followed Molly into the kitchen.

“This one’s on the house,” Molly told her as she made the thick sandwich and found a can of soda in the huge, well-stocked refrigerator.

The girl took the sandwich and drink, then regarded Molly uncertainly. “Aren’t you going to have anything? You didn’t eat all night.”

Molly regarded her with surprise. “How do you know that?”

“I was kinda watching you,” she admitted shyly.

“Really? Why?”

“I thought maybe if I could pick up on what goes on around here, you’d think about giving me a job.”

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen,” the girl said brazenly.

Molly frowned. “I don’t think so. How about fourteen?”

“Close enough,” she responded a little too eagerly.

“Which means you’re only thirteen,” Molly concluded, sighing heavily. Not that fourteen would have been much better, but thirteen definitely meant trouble.

“But I look eighteen,” the girl insisted. “No one would have to know.”

“I’d know,” Molly said. “I try really hard not to break the law by hiring minors to work in the bar.”

“Couldn’t I at least bus tables or help you clean up after the bar closes? I could mop the floors and wash dishes. No one would even have to see me, and that wouldn’t break any laws, would it?”

Technically, it wouldn’t, but Molly knew better than to take on an obvious runaway, not without having some facts. And something told her this child was so anxious to make herself indispensable that she’d eagerly attempt all sorts of things that would break every rule in the book.

“Here’s the deal. You tell me your name and your story. Then we’ll talk about a job.”

“Can’t talk with my mouth full,” the girl said, taking a bite of the sandwich to emphasize the point.

Molly shook her head, amused by the delaying tactic.

The girl gobbled down the rest of the sandwich, then looked longingly toward the fixings that were still on the counter. Molly made her a second sandwich, then held it just out of reach.

“Your mouth’s not full now, and I’m waiting,” she prodded.

The teen studied Molly’s face and apparently concluded that her patience was at an end. “Okay, my name’s Kendra,” she said at last.

“No last name?”

She shook her head, a touch of defiance in her eyes. “Just Kendra.”

“Where’d you run away from, Kendra?”

“Home.”

Molly grinned. “Nice try. Now give me some specifics.”

The girl sighed. “Portland.”

“Do you have family in Portland that’s likely to be going crazy looking for you?”

She shrugged. “I suppose.” Though she attempted to achieve a look of complete boredom, there was an unmistakable trace of dismay in her eyes.

“Then call them,” Molly said flatly. “If you want to stay here, that’s not negotiable. They need to know you’re safe.”

Huge tears welled up in Kendra’s eyes. “I can’t,” she said, then added with more belligerence, “I won’t.”

The ferocity of her response triggered all sorts of alarm bells. “Did someone at home hurt you?”

Kendra’s eyes widened as Molly’s meaning sank in. “Not the way you mean. No way,” she said.

She sounded so genuinely horrified that Molly couldn’t help feeling relieved. “Then what happened?” she asked, trying to think of other reasons a child this age might take off. Only one immediately came to mind. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

The girl regarded her indignantly. “I’m a kid. Are you crazy?”

Well, that was another relief, Molly thought. “Then what did make you leave home? Experience tells me that almost anything can be worked out, if everyone sits down and talks about it.”

Rather than giving Molly a direct answer, Kendra sent her a considering look. “Did you sit down and talk to whoever hurt you?”

Molly blinked at the question. “What are you talking about?”

“You were crying before, after you locked up. That’s why I didn’t speak to you sooner. People don’t cry unless somebody’s hurt them. Did you talk it out?”

Molly thought of Daniel’s refusal to talk, his refusal to even take her point of view into account. And after the miscarriage, she’d been the one who’d fallen silent. He’d made one overture, one attempt at an apology—probably at Patrick’s insistence—but she’d told him to stay the hell out of her life and slammed the door on him. So, no, she hadn’t followed her own advice and talked it out. What was there to say?

“You didn’t, did you?” Kendra prodded. “So why should I have to? Just because I’m a kid?”

“You have a point,” Molly admitted, impressed by the girl’s quick grasp of things. “But letting you stick around here and giving you a job could get me into a whole lot of trouble. You’re a minor in the eyes of the law, even if you think you’re old enough to be on your own.”

Kendra gave her another one of those too-grown-up looks. “What’s the alternative? You don’t give me a job and I keep running,” she said simply. “Do you honestly want that on your conscience? The next place I stop, the people might not be so nice.”

Well, hell, Molly thought. She definitely did not want that on her conscience. “One week, max,” she said very firmly. “And you open up to me. I’ll try to help you figure out the best thing to do.”

“If that means calling my parents, it’s not going to happen,” Kendra said stubbornly.

Molly was equally determined to see that it did, but she merely said, “We’ll see.”

Now that her immediate fate was settled, Kendra gave her a hopeful look. “I don’t suppose you have any of that apple pie left, do you? I could smell it when you brought it to those guys in the booth next to me. It smelled awesome.”

“Yes, there’s pie left.” Her cook always baked enough for at least two days, because it was a customer favorite.

“And ice cream? I’m pretty sure there was ice cream on their pie.”

Molly chuckled. “Yes, there’s ice cream. When was the last time you ate?” she asked as she cut a slice of pie and set it in front of Kendra, then added a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.

“A trucker bought me a couple of doughnuts this morning,” Kendra said as she dug into the dessert.

“Please tell me you were not hitching rides,” Molly said.

Once again, Kendra regarded her indignantly. “What? Do I look stupid? I know better than to get in a car or a truck with a stranger, especially some guy.”

“Well, thank heavens for that.”

“This was a lady trucker, and she was in this place where my bus stopped. She must have felt sorry for me or something, ’cause she offered to buy the doughnuts. I could have bought them for myself, but I figured I should hang on to all the money I could, since I wasn’t sure how long it would be before I could get a job.” She gave Molly a thoughtful look. “So, how much are you paying me?”

“We’ll work it out in the morning.”

“Meals are part of the deal, right?”

Molly bit back a grin. “Yes.”

“And I can sleep here, too?”

“Yes. Were you by any chance a negotiator in a previous life?”

Kendra shrugged. “Just looking out for myself. If I don’t, who will?”

Indeed, Molly thought. Wasn’t that a lesson she’d had to learn the hard way?

* * *

The saddest eyes Daniel Devaney had ever seen stared back at him from the latest missing-child poster to cross his desk. Kendra Grace Morrow had huge, dark, haunted eyes. Only thirteen, according to the information on the fax, she looked older and far too wise.

Believed to be somewhere in Maine, she had run away from her home in Portland two weeks earlier, no doubt leaving behind frantic parents and baffled police. Daniel’s heart broke for all of them, just as it did every single time he looked over one of these posters. At least this time there seemed to be no question that the girl had taken off on her own. She hadn’t been kidnapped. She’d left a note that hadn’t said much and packed a bag. There had been a few sightings reported to the police, and in each the girl had been spotted alone.

Still, runaways never seemed to understand the dangers that awaited them, or else the situation they were leaving behind was so desperate, so awful, that anything seemed to be an improvement. He didn’t know the facts of this particular case, but they all had one thing in common—a kid who needed help. And each time he saw one, he wondered if there had ever been posters like this for his three older brothers, the ones he hadn’t remembered until he’d accidently found the old photos in the attic, the brothers his parents had abandoned years ago.

Sometimes when he thought of what had happened, of the choice that Connor and Kathleen Devaney had made to keep Daniel and his twin, Patrick, Daniel’s heart ached. What had Ryan, Sean and Michael thought when they’d discovered that they’d been left behind? How long had they cried? How long had it been before they’d stopped watching and waiting for their mom and dad to come back for them? Had foster care been kind to them? Or had the system failed them, just as their own parents had?

He’d met them all recently, but they’d danced around the tough issues. One of these days they were going to have to face the past together and deal with the mess their parents had made of all their lives. It wasn’t as if he and Patrick had emerged unscathed, not once they’d discovered the truth.

Patrick had taken it even harder than Daniel had. He’d left home and hadn’t spoken to their parents since. Nor had he been in touch with Daniel until recently, when he’d set up that first meeting with Ryan, Sean and Michael. He’d expected Daniel to have explanations by now for what had happened all those years ago, but Daniel was still as much in the dark as everyone else.

Oh, he’d tried his best to make sense of what had happened, but beyond revealing the existence of the three older boys, his parents had said precious little to try to justify what they had done. Even though Daniel had maintained contact with his parents, that didn’t mean he’d worked through his own anger and guilt over having been one of the two chosen to be kept.

He supposed he owed his folks in one respect. Had it not been for the discovery of their betrayal, he might not have found the kind of work that he was doing now—saving kids in trouble, fighting for their rights, mending fences between them and their parents or finding them loving homes. The caseloads were heavy, the hours long, but it was important, meaningful work. And it could break a man’s heart on a daily basis.

He coped by adhering strictly to the rules, by reducing messy emotions to black-and-white regulations. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. Gazing into Kendra Morrow’s haunted eyes, he instinctively knew that this was one of those times it wouldn’t work. The girl was a heartbreaker. He hoped to heaven she was in someone else’s jurisdiction, where she’d be found safe.

He sighed when his phone rang, relieved by the intrusion into his dark thoughts about a world in which kids ran away when they were little more than babies, too young to understand the risks.

“Devaney,” he said when he’d picked up the phone.

“Daniel, it’s Joe Sutton at police headquarters. Have you seen that poster for Kendra Morrow?”

“It’s on my desk now.”

“I was just having lunch over in Widow’s Cove,” the detective told him.

The mere mention of Widow’s Cove was enough to make Daniel’s palms sweat. And there was only one place in town worth going to for lunch...Molly’s. “Oh?” he said as if his heart wasn’t thumping unsteadily.

“I think Kendra Morrow’s hanging out at Molly Creighton’s place on the waterfront,” Joe reported. “You know the one I mean? Best chowder on the coast?”

“Yeah, Jess’s. Are you sure it was Kendra?”

“If it wasn’t her, it was her double. I’d just seen the poster before I went over there.”

“Then why didn’t you pick her up?” Daniel asked, surprised by the lapse from a cop who was usually quick to nab runaways for their own protection. He and Joe had handled more than their share of these cases together, and he respected the older man’s instincts.

“Because I looked through the file earlier, and something’s not quite right. I thought you might want to have a chat with the girl while I do some checking into why she ran away in the first place. You know as well as I do that sometimes these things aren’t as cut-and-dried as they seem at first glance. If I’d thought she was at risk, I’d have brought her in, but she’s not going anywhere. Molly will see to that. I didn’t see any point in uprooting her until I have all the facts.”

This time Daniel’s sigh was even heavier. He and Molly got along like a couple of tomcats fighting for turf. Their relationship had been passionate and volatile for years, even before he’d let her down so damn badly. After what had happened the night she’d told him she was pregnant, the relationship had cooled to a degree that a glance between them could freeze meat. He regretted that, but he’d accepted it. He’d been a stubborn fool, and he didn’t deserve her forgiveness.

Out of respect for her feelings, it had been a few years now since he’d set foot in that bar she’d inherited from her grandfather. He stayed away in part because Patrick tended to hang out at Jess’s, but mostly because he couldn’t bear the look of justifiable contempt in Molly’s eyes.

“Can you take a run over there?” Joe pressed.

Daniel hesitated for just an instant, but when it came to work, he always did what he had to do, no matter how delicate the situation or how uncomfortable it made him.

“I’m on my way,” he promised, folding the fax into quarters and stuffing it into the pocket of his jacket. “I’ll check in with you later. You sure you don’t want me to bring her over, if it is Kendra? If she figures out we’re onto her, she could run again.”

“Just alert Molly, in case she doesn’t know anyone’s looking for the girl. She’ll keep her safe enough.”

“She has a thirteen-year-old working in a bar,” Daniel reminded him, an edge of sarcasm in his voice. It was just like Molly and her soft heart to take in a runaway kid and to hell with the consequences. Had she even once considered how desperate the parents might be or how many laws she might be breaking?

Joe chuckled at his comment on Molly’s lack of judgment. “Loosen up. The kid’s serving chowder, spilling more of it than she’s serving, to tell the truth of it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Something tells me it’s the best place she could be right now while we figure out what drove her to run away. The note she left didn’t tell us a damned thing. I don’t want to turn her back over to her parents and then find out there was some kind of abuse going on.”

Daniel had his own opinion about this bending of the rules, but he bit his tongue. It was Joe’s call, at least until the court got involved. Then Daniel would have quite a lot to say about a woman who put a teenage runaway to work, no questions asked, without reporting her presence to the authorities.

* * *

“The man you were talking to before, he was a cop,” Kendra told Molly, her face pale and her eyes filled with panic. “I can spot a cop a mile away.”

“It was Joe Sutton and, yes, he is a detective, but he’s a good guy,” Molly reassured her. “He drives over every few weeks for my chowder. If he’d been here to look for you, he would have said something. Besides, he’s gone now, so obviously he didn’t recognize you.”

“Maybe he forgot his handcuffs and had to go back for them,” Kendra said.

“Sweetie, he wouldn’t handcuff you. You ran away. You’re not a criminal. You have nothing to fear from Joe.”

The words were barely out of her mouth when the door opened and Daniel Devaney came striding in as if he’d arrived to conquer the world. In her opinion, Kendra had a lot more to worry about with Daniel than she ever would with Joe Sutton. Daniel was a rigid, by-the-book kind of guy when it came to situations like this. How he and his twin brother, Patrick, had come from the same gene pool was a total enigma to her.

“Go in the back,” Molly ordered the teenager, maneuvering in an attempt to keep Kendra out of Daniel’s view. “And stay alert in case you need to get out of here in a hurry.”

Kendra paled at the terse order. “What’s going on? Is that cop back?”

“No. Just do whatever you have to do to stay out of sight. Tell Retta what I said. Tell her Daniel’s here. She’ll understand and she’ll help you. I’ll explain later,” Molly promised, giving the girl’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Trust me. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Kendra followed the direction of her gaze and spotted Daniel. “He’s a cop, too, isn’t he?” she said at once.

“No, worse, in this instance. He’s with a social services agency.”

Understanding and alarm immediately flared in Kendra’s eyes. “Then he’s here for me?”

“More than likely.” She couldn’t imagine anything else that would have brought Daniel waltzing into her bar again, not after she’d made it clear that his presence here was unwelcome. “Just stay out of sight. I can handle Daniel Devaney.”

When she was satisfied that Kendra was safely out of the bar, Molly strolled over to Daniel’s table, order pad in hand, a neutral expression firmly plastered on her face. She ignored the once-familiar jolt to her senses. She would play this cool for Kendra’s sake. If there hadn’t been so much at stake, Daniel could have starved to death before she’d have given him a second glance.

“Fancy seeing you here,” she said. “I thought you preferred classier joints these days.”

Daniel frowned at her. “I never said that.”

“You never had to. Your disdain has always been evident.” And never more so than the night he’d declined to be a father to their child. Though he’d told her about his own father’s failings, she’d always believed that at least some of his reluctance had stemmed from an aversion to her choice to run her grandfather’s bar, rather than going off to some snooty college and pursuing some equally snooty career. Unlike his twin, Daniel was a snob in his fancy shirts with the monogrammed cuffs and his Italian leather loafers that were more suited to the streets of downtown Portland than the waterfront in Widow’s Cove. He was definitely no longer a small-town boy.

He didn’t even flinch as her barb struck him. “Save the judgments. I didn’t come here to fight with you. Just bring me a cup of chowder, please.”

Molly noted the order but didn’t budge. He was acting too blasted casual and innocent. Something besides chowder had brought Daniel into the bar. Given Joe Sutton’s recent departure, there was very little question in her mind that he was here because of Kendra.

“In town to see your folks?”

“No.”

“If you’re looking for Patrick, he won’t be in till later,” she said casually, in an attempt to get him to show his hand.

“I’m not looking for Patrick.”

“Oh?” She sat down opposite him, sliding onto the booth’s bench until her knees brushed his. The little spark of awareness that shot through her was an unwelcome surprise, but she tried not to show it. She couldn’t control the sparks, but she could refuse to give him the satisfaction of seeing that his presence bothered her. Besides, there had been an answering spark of heat in his eyes. She could use that to her advantage, assuming she could manage to avoid choking on her own words. She had to try, though.

“Then it’s my company you’ve come for? You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to hear that one more time.” She dropped her voice provocatively and made herself add, “What can I do for you, Daniel? Have you decided you missed me after all this time? Want to pick things up where we left off?”

He shook his head, clearly not taking her seriously. “As attractive as you make that offer sound, I’m here on business,” he retorted dryly.

Molly stiffened, fighting the sting of hurt, even though the rejection was fully expected. “What business could you possibly have that involves me?”

His gaze swept over her, lingering just long enough to make her toes curl, dammit.

“That girl you’ve got hiding in the kitchen, for starters.”


2

Daniel hadn’t expected his conversation with Molly to go smoothly. Given their past history, he was probably lucky she hadn’t hit him with a cast-iron skillet on sight. It was no more than he deserved after the way things had ended between them. Even so, he wasn’t expecting her to flat-out lie to his face and judging from her expression, that was clearly exactly what she was contemplating.

“Well?” he prodded. “Cat got your tongue?”

He had to give her credit. She didn’t even blink. In fact, she kept her eyes locked with his and managed a look of complete confusion. She never once glanced toward the kitchen.

“What girl?” she asked with all the innocence of someone whose heart was genuinely pure.

“You have a runaway working here,” he said flatly, vaguely disappointed in her for the lie. It would have been more like the Molly of old to throw the truth in his face and dare him to make something of it.

Keeping his gaze on her face, he added, “Joe Sutton spotted her here earlier, and I saw her scurrying out through the kitchen when I came in. She’s thirteen, Molly. Shall I count the number of laws you’re violating by putting her to work in here?”

She visibly bristled, bright patches of color staining her cheeks. “If I had anyone that young working here, they wouldn’t be serving alcohol. Nor am I running a sweatshop with child labor, Daniel, and you very well know it, so get off your high horse.”

He reached in his pocket, pulled out the missing-child poster and slapped it on the table, carefully smoothing out the wrinkles. “Then you haven’t seen this girl?” he demanded, his gaze locked on Molly’s eyes, which always gave away her emotions. They were stormy now, but she didn’t even blink at the challenge. In fact, she glanced at the poster without so much as a flicker of recognition.

Daniel bit back a sigh. She was good at lying. Damn good. She hadn’t been when they were together. Something always gave her away. Was she this good now because of what he’d done to her? Something inside him twisted at the possibility that he was responsible for the hard shell she wore so easily now.

Her gaze never wavered as she said flatly, “Never seen her. What’s she done?”

“She’s a runaway, Molly,” he explained patiently. “That’s plain from the poster, or didn’t you want to take a good long look at it? Were you afraid you might give yourself away if you had to read the fine print?”

“Go to hell, Daniel,” she said, sliding from the booth. “I don’t have to listen to this from you.”

He snagged her hand, felt her stiffen and tried to ignore the slam of regret that hit him. “Then let me see her.”

“You want to go poking around in my kitchen or even in my apartment upstairs, you do that,” she said loudly enough to be heard in the next county. “I won’t try to stop you, but I won’t forgive you.” Her gaze swept over him, cold as ice. “Oh, wait, that’s right. I haven’t forgiven you for a lot of things, have I? I can just add this to the list.”

Daniel wanted nothing more in that instant than to pull her into his arms and kiss her until the ice melted and she molded herself to him the way she once had. He wanted the heat and excitement and passion back, if not the complications.

“Molly, this isn’t personal,” he said quietly.

“Funny, it feels damn personal to me. You’re questioning my integrity.”

“Only because I know what a soft touch you are when it comes to kids,” he said. “You’d hide that girl if you thought it was the right thing to do, especially if you thought it would also tick me off. I’m telling you, it’s not the right choice. She has a family. Think about them for a minute. Put yourself in their shoes. Their daughter’s missing and they’re scared. They’re worried to death about all the things that could happen to an innocent kid out on the streets alone.”

A faint flicker of emotion in her eyes told him he’d hit his mark, but then her expression returned to that neutral, cool one that told him he’d lost his one chance at getting through to her. Maybe Joe would have had better luck with her. Her guard wouldn’t have been up with him. Her natural desire to defy Daniel wouldn’t have been a factor.

“Like I said, you want to search the place, search,” she said.

His gaze clashed with hers. “Do you think I won’t?”

“No. I think you’ll do exactly what you want to do,” she said. “You always have.”

He could have trusted her and let it go, could maybe have redeemed himself just a little in her eyes by walking out, but he turned and walked into the kitchen, because that was his job. Naturally, because of the commotion Molly had caused, the kitchen was empty except for the same cook who’d been working there for forty years. Though they’d once been friends, Retta could be as tight-lipped and taciturn as any female on earth with people she didn’t like. She gave Daniel a look that spoke volumes about what she thought of him, but gave nothing away about any kid who might be hiding in the pantry.

“Have you seen a teenager in here?” he asked, even though he knew he was wasting his breath.

Retta made an exaggerated show of looking around. “Room looks empty to me.”

“And earlier? Was she in here ten minutes ago?”

“I’m too busy cooking to keep track of people coming and going. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re packed out there. Molly’s doing a brisk business these days,” she said proudly.

Daniel almost started to enjoy himself. Retta had an honest streak, and he could see that his questions were testing her innate desire to tell the truth. “Let’s concentrate on the kitchen, Retta. Are you admitting that people have been coming and going in here today?”

“Did I say that?”

“Sounded like it to me. Where’d she go, Retta?”

She shrugged and stirred the chowder. “Like I said, I don’t pay attention to the comings and goings around here.” She frowned at him. “Come to think of it, I did take note of one person going.”

“Oh?”

“That was you, and you broke my baby’s heart.” The look she gave him was fierce. “Don’t go doing it again.”

Daniel sighed. “I never meant to hurt her.”

“But it happened just the same, didn’t it?” Retta said. “Now get on out of here. I have work to do and I can’t do it with the likes of you underfoot.”

Daniel left, grateful to be away from Retta’s accusatory looks and harsh words. He deserved all she’d said and more, but that didn’t make it any easier to take.

Molly was behind the bar, pretending to wipe off the already shiny surface, when he emerged from the kitchen.

“Find anyone?” she inquired.

“Just Retta, looking as pleasant as ever,” he admitted.

“She doesn’t like you.”

“She did once.”

“So did I,” Molly retorted. “Times change.”

Daniel kept his gaze steady. “Do you want to hash out our old news here and now, with everyone looking on?”

Molly glanced around and evidently took note of the fascinated gazes turned their way. She shrugged. “Not particularly.”

“Then give me your key.”

She blinked at that. “What the hell do you want with my key?”

“I’m going upstairs to look for the girl. Not ten minutes ago, you said you had no problem with that.”

“Well, I do now. You’ll go upstairs over my dead body,” she said, standing defiantly in his path.

His gaze never wavered. “Your choice.”

The standoff lasted for what seemed like an eternity, but Molly clearly knew him well enough to realize that he wasn’t going to leave until he’d completed his search. She reached in her pocket, then slapped the key in his palm.

“Have a ball,” she said sarcastically. “When you get to the bedroom, be sure to spend a few minutes reliving old times. Of course, things aren’t exactly the same. I’ve managed to rid the room of all traces of you.”

He turned and stalked off before she could see that her jibe had hit home.

Upstairs, he opened the door to her private quarters, then sucked in a deep breath as a million and one memories assailed him. He’d spent some of the happiest nights of his life in this apartment.

It still bore the faint scent of Jess’s pipe tobacco, the more recent scent of Molly’s perfume. The carpet was worn bare in spots, and the overstuffed furniture had seen better days, but Molly had added touches that made the place feel cozy rather than shabby. There were fresh flowers in a vase on the table in the tiny kitchen, another vase beside the bed. There was a gallery of framed snapshots on her dresser, but the space where his had been was gathering dust. She’d tossed a bright red chenille spread across the back of the sofa and added a pile of pillows. A stack of well-worn paperbacks, mostly Louis L’Amour Westerns, still sat beside Jess’s favorite chair.

Being here again, absorbing the atmosphere, made Daniel’s heart ache. The pain was deeper because he was here not by invitation, but because he’d intruded. His lack of trust today was just one more thing to be added to the list of his sins he was certain Molly kept in some mental notebook. He doubted there was enough time left in either of their lives for him to make amends.

Worse, there was no sign of Kendra Morrow, so he’d alienated Molly yet again for no good reason. That didn’t mean he believed for one second that Kendra wasn’t around. He had caught a glimpse of her slipping into the kitchen when he’d first arrived—there wasn’t a doubt in his mind about that. If he’d brushed past Molly, he might have caught the girl, but he hadn’t. One of these days he’d try to figure out why. Maybe he’d hoped that, despite everything that had happened between them, Molly would be straight with him. Maybe he’d just wanted an excuse to keep coming around.

But she hadn’t been straight with him and it was plain that she intended to make this a whole lot more difficult for all of them than it needed to be.

“I’ll find her eventually,” he told Molly when he’d completed his fruitless search and joined her again in the bar. “Why not make it easier for everyone and cooperate? I’m not going to snatch her away from here. I just want to make sure she’s okay. She can stay with you until Joe and I check things out at her home.”

Molly evidently didn’t buy the promise. She looked him straight in the eye and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Have it your way then,” Daniel said with a sigh. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll look forward to it.” She gave him a blatantly phony smile. “Does this mean you don’t want that chowder?”

Daniel knew that was what she wanted. To be honest, leaving was what he wanted, too. Being around Molly under the best of conditions made him edgy, made him want her in a way that was so ridiculous it didn’t even bear thinking about. But because he never took the easy way out, he met her gaze and said evenly, “Of course I want the chowder. Isn’t it the best in Maine?”

Her gaze narrowed. “We like to think so. I’ll get you a cup. Shall I fix it to go?”

“I’ll have a bowl. And I think I’ll stick around awhile and see who turns up.”

Molly frowned at him, but made no further comment as she headed into the kitchen, no doubt to warn Kendra to stay put wherever she was hiding out.

When Molly finally returned, Daniel regarded her with amusement. “What took so long? Did you have to start from scratch? Maybe go out and dig some fresh clams?”

“Nope,” she said cheerfully. “Had to find the arsenic.”

Before he could comment on that, an expression of genuine relief spread across her face.

“There’s your brother,” she said as if Patrick’s arrival were a good thing, rather than a complication. “I hope you two will play nice. It’s bad for business when there’s a brawl in here.”

Daniel followed the direction of her gaze to where his twin brother stood perfectly still near the bar. Patrick looked as if he’d like nothing better than to flee, but he sucked in a deep breath, then crossed the room and slid into the booth. That, at least, was progress, Daniel thought. A year ago, Patrick would have acted on his first impulse and left. Their one attempt at making peace appeared to be holding, as long as it wasn’t tested too often.

“I’ll get you a beer,” Molly said to Patrick, then gave his shoulder a squeeze.

They sat there in silence until she’d returned with the drink, then hurried away again, clearly relieved to have someone else dealing with Daniel.

“You look good,” Daniel said finally.

“Being in love does that for a man,” Patrick said. “Maybe it’s time you tried it.” He waited a beat, cast a pointed look toward Molly, then added, “Again.”

Daniel didn’t miss the significance of the comment or the look. He wasn’t going to get drawn into that particular discussion, not if he could help it. “Not likely,” he replied. “Too many bad examples all around me.”

Patrick gave him a wry look. “So, how are the folks?”

Daniel hadn’t expected him to be so direct. He answered in kind. “They miss you.”

“The same way they missed Ryan, Sean and Michael?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I think not a day has gone by in more than twenty years that they haven’t missed our brothers. I think we suffered for that. What do you think caused all that resentment we never understood?”

Patrick frowned. “I don’t think about it. Maybe you should get together again with Ryan, Sean and Michael and ask them if they feel any sort of pity for our parents. Trust me, they don’t.”

“I don’t know. They seemed like reasonable men to me.”

“Reasonable, yes,” Patrick agreed. “Not gullible.”

“When are they coming back up here? Mom knows they were here for your wedding. I think it broke her heart that she didn’t get to catch at least a glimpse of them. I think she would have risked coming to the wedding uninvited, if it hadn’t been for Dad. She knew how it would upset him...and you. Maybe she should have, though. Maybe a confrontation then would have put an end to all this.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t encourage her to do it.”

“I might have, if you and I hadn’t just started to make peace. I didn’t want to risk that. I thought it was a first step. Only trouble is, we seem to be avoiding taking the next one.”

Patrick sighed. “You’re right. As soon as I start thinking about the folks, I get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach again.”

“See them. Maybe it would go away. Seeing them for the first time is bound to be hard. It’ll get easier after that. Tell Ryan, Sean and Michael that, too. Ask them when they’re coming.”

“I’m not going to push them,” Patrick said.

“But you are in touch with them?”

“Why not?” he said defensively, as if Daniel had implied disapproval. “I like them. They feel like, oh, I don’t know, family, maybe.”

Daniel ignored the sarcasm. “I’m your family, too,” he said quietly. “Maybe it’s time you remembered that.”

Patrick sighed again. “Okay, you’re right. I am the one who’s being a hard-ass, but you don’t make it easy, Daniel, not when you insist on acting as if the folks did nothing wrong.”

“Dammit, I know what they did was wrong. So do they, if you get down to it. People make mistakes.”

“This was a helluva lot more than a mistake,” Patrick countered heatedly. “They didn’t just forget to bring in the morning paper or leave an umbrella behind at the office. They forgot three sons and left them to fend for themselves in another state.”

Daniel frowned. “Don’t you think I know that?”

Patrick held up his hands. “Okay, let’s not go down this path again. Why are you here? I assume you didn’t come just to hassle me.”

“Business.” When Patrick regarded him with blatant disbelief, Daniel explained about the runaway he believed was working for Molly. “Have you seen her?”

Patrick’s expression remained perfectly neutral. “As far as I know, Molly waits on all the customers herself. Always has.”

“And you wouldn’t tell me if that had changed, would you?” Daniel said.

Patrick didn’t have to respond. It was clear that Daniel wasn’t going to get any more information from his brother than he had from Molly or Retta. It was as if they’d formed this tight little circle to keep him in the dark. He dropped the subject. An uneasy silence fell again, the kind that had driven him to stay away in the first place. It had been too painful after all the years when he and Patrick had shared everything.

He regarded Patrick wearily. “When is this going to stop?”

“What?”

“The tension between us. I didn’t abandon anyone. The folks did, and we both know they regret it, that they’ve regretted it every day of their lives.”

“I’ve told you this a million times, but I’ll say it once more. You’re not going to get me to feel sorry for them,” Patrick said bitterly. “They made a choice, dammit. It could just as easily have been us they left behind. Would you be so blasted forgiving if that had been the case?”

“But it wasn’t the case,” Daniel reminded him. “They gave us a home and their love.”

“At the expense of three other sons,” Patrick argued. “Have they bothered explaining why yet? Or have you even asked?” At Daniel’s silence, Patrick shook his head in apparent disgust. “Obviously not.”

“Any explanations they have are owed to Ryan, Sean and Michael, assuming they even care at this late date.”

“Oh, they care.”

“Then why haven’t they set up a meeting? I thought they’d want to see the folks when they came up for your wedding, but when I suggested it after the ceremony, they backed off.”

“Maybe because it’s not so easy working up the courage to confront the parents who abandoned you. Maybe because they’re afraid of what they’ll do when they see the sorry excuses for human beings who walked out on them.”

Daniel understood his brother’s pain, but he wouldn’t listen to him bad-mouth two people who’d done their best for them, if not for their brothers. Kathleen and Connor Devaney were flawed. They weren’t monsters.

“Watch it, Patrick. Those two people gave you life and their love for eighteen years. I won’t listen to you talk about them as if they’re the scum of the earth. They deserve more respect than that from you.”

“Yeah, they gave us everything, all right,” Patrick said, his tone scathing. “But at what cost?”

“It must be nice to be so perfect that you can pass judgment on other people’s mistakes,” Daniel retorted.

Patrick gave him a hard look. “While we’re on the subject of mistakes, are you ever going to give Molly the apology she deserves?”

The sudden shift caught Daniel off guard. He knew Patrick was protective of Molly, but he hadn’t expected his brother to call him on what had happened four years ago, not at this late date. “I tried. She doesn’t want to hear it,” Daniel said. “Besides, what good are words?”

“Not much,” Patrick agreed. “But she deserves them anyway. She doesn’t deserve you coming in here and hassling her over some runaway. There’s too much history between the two of you. Next time, send someone else.”

“There is no one else. It’s my job. I’m trying to make sure the girl is safe and gets back to her parents. The fact that Molly has chosen to get herself involved is an unfortunate coincidence.”

“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.”

“How is he?” she asked. “Is he well? Is he happy? Was his wife there?”

It made his heart clench to hear the eagerness in her voice. If Patrick had heard it, he’d never have been able to stay away as long as he had. “Alice wasn’t around, but he’s well and happy, I think. He still doesn’t say much to me.”

“And that’s our fault, your father’s and mine,” she said with apparent regret. “I’m sorry for that, Daniel. You two were always so close. If I could change things, I would.”

“You could tell him—tell both of us—why you and Dad left our brothers in Boston and brought us here with you.” It was the first time since the night he’d made the discovery that he’d put the question to her so bluntly.

“How would that help?” she said, tears in her eyes. “It was so long ago. You were little more than babies.”

“We could try to understand, at least. Mom, you are going to have to come up with answers sooner or later. Ryan, Sean and Michael will come here eventually, and they’ll insist on it. If you try to stonewall them, it will end any chance of a reconciliation for this family.”

Her gaze turned toward the living room, and worry creased her brow. “Your father...he can’t cope with that, Daniel.”

“He’ll have to,” Daniel said, his own gaze unrelenting for once. “You owe them, and us, an explanation. Maybe once all the secrets are out in the open, this family can finally start to heal. Don’t you want that?”

“Of course I do, it’s just that your father feels so much guilt,” she said. “He blames himself for everything that happened, even though we made the decision together. You can’t possibly imagine how difficult it was, Daniel. No one can.”

“Then tell us. Help us to make sense of it. I always thought you and Dad were such good, honorable people. Is it any wonder that this secret of yours took Patrick and me by surprise? What you did was so completely out of character.”

She shook her head, as stubborn as all of the Devaneys. “It’s up to your father. He’s locked that part of our lives away, and I can’t go against his wishes.”

“But you can talk to him, persuade him that talking about this is for the best. What you did back then is still having repercussions today.”

“You said Ryan, Sean and Michael seemed happy and well-adjusted when you met them,” she said defiantly. “And Patrick’s married now, too. How bad can the repercussions be? They’ve all moved on with their lives. Some of them even have children of their own now.”

“They moved on in spite of what happened, Mom. It’s not as if they made peace with it. And those children are your grandchildren. Don’t you want to do whatever you can to be a part of their lives?”

“I’m sure your brothers would never allow that,” she said, her expression bleak.

“But they might. Isn’t it worth taking a chance? And what about me? I’ve lost four brothers and the woman I loved because of what happened all those years ago.”

She gasped at that. “What does you breaking up with Molly have to do with anything your father and I did nearly thirty years ago?”

“It just does,” he said. “Take my word for it. The decision you and Dad made has cost all of us. Maybe it’s cost the two of you most of all.”

“We’ve learned to live with our choice,” she told him, still not backing down.

“And that means you have no regrets?” he asked bitterly.

“Of course we have regrets. We’ve had regrets every day of our lives since we left Boston, but we can’t go back in time and undo what we did.”

“You can’t undo it, but you can make it bearable for the rest of us.”

She reached out to touch him, hesitated, then drew back. “Talking about it might make things worse. Have you considered that?”

“How? How can the truth possibly be any worse than the explanations that each of us has been forced to consider? Were Ryan, Sean and Michael so unlovable? Or did you just draw straws and choose me and Patrick? Were we cuter than the others? Or less trouble? Maybe you meant to leave us behind, too, but we clung too tightly.”

Tears were spilling down her cheeks as he spewed out all the questions that had tormented him, questions he knew that his brothers must have asked themselves a million and one times, as well. How could boys of nine, seven and five have been expected to cope with being abandoned? It would have been natural for them to have blamed themselves, to have grown up thinking they didn’t deserve to be loved. It was a miracle they’d opened their hearts to anyone.

“Oh, Daniel, don’t do this,” she whispered. “Not to yourself. Not to us.”

“Why not, Mom? You and Dad did it to us.” He pushed away from the table. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Daniel, don’t leave. Not like this.”

“I can’t stay.”

“At least say hello to your father before you go,” she pleaded.

“I can’t. If I do, I’ll say something I’ll regret.”

He left through the kitchen door and went for a walk, too angry and upset to get behind the wheel of a car. Why couldn’t they see that their secrets were destroying their family? What could have driven them to make such a devastating decision all those years ago?

As badly as he wanted answers, he knew that his brothers wanted them even more. They deserved them. He’d tried to warn his mother about that. One of these days, there was going to be a confrontation, and it was going to get ugly. And as much as he loved his parents, as much as he felt he owed them, he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to bring himself to mediate, to be the cool voice of reason in such a volatile situation. At that moment, if he had to choose sides, he was going to be on his brothers’. His parents were dead set on not giving him even the tiniest excuse to be on theirs.

* * *

Molly was bone weary by the time she climbed the stairs to her apartment. She’d meant to get away sooner, but the bar had been busy and Retta had been on her feet too long as it was. Molly hadn’t been able to ask her to fill in waiting on tables.

When she opened the door to the apartment, the TV was on, but Kendra was sound asleep on the sofa, her dark lashes like smudges of soot on her pale cheeks. If Molly wasn’t mistaken, there were dried traces of tears there, as well.

“Oh, Kendra, what’s going on with you?” she whispered as she pulled a blanket over the girl. “I can’t hide you forever, not with Daniel breathing down my neck.”

Not that Molly minded the prospect of going a few rounds with Daniel. In fact, if there was some way she could turn his life into a living hell, she was all for it. It would be downright exhilarating.

And maybe a little too much like the old days, she admitted honestly. That could be dangerous. She wasn’t over Daniel, not by a long shot. If she hadn’t already known that, the sparks flying between them this afternoon would have been a wake-up call. Anyone with any sense knew that hate was the flip side of love, that so much passion could turn on a dime into the opposite emotion. Hating Daniel was a habit, but so was loving him. It was easy enough to hate him deeply and thoroughly from a distance, but proximity had a way of confusing things. Hormones kicked in, and common sense flew straight out the window.

So, she needed to get him back out of her life for her own protection. And the only way to do that was to resolve the situation with Kendra. Easier said than done.

In just a couple of days the girl had stolen a piece of Molly’s heart. She was smart and full of life. She was eager to help, desperate for praise. She was all the things Molly had been when she’d come to live with her grandfather. Jess had been there for her, steady as a rock. Now it was her turn to do the same for another scared child.

Resolved to stand by Kendra, no matter what, she went into her room and tried to see it as Daniel must have seen it earlier. Had he remembered the times they’d spent together in her bed? Had he noticed that his picture was no longer on her dresser?

She reached into a nightstand drawer and found the photo, taken on a rocky cliff overlooking the Atlantic. His hair, normally so neatly trimmed to keep the natural curl tamed, had been caught by the wind and mussed. A navy sweater made his blue eyes seem even darker. And his smile...she sighed just looking at it. It was a heartbreaker of a smile, complete with devastating dimples and a flash of pure mischief in his eyes. This was the Daniel she’d fallen in love with, the one with his guard down and nary a rule book in sight.

The Daniel who’d barged back into her life today was the hard professional without so much as a glint of humor in his eyes. When he was like that, it was easy enough to pretend that she’d never felt a thing for him. Of course, the pretense was just that, a lie to keep her safe.

Her hand instinctively went to her belly, covering the empty womb where her child—hers and Daniel’s—should have been safe, should have grown until ready to face the world. She struggled against a flood of tears.

“I am not shedding one more tear over that man,” she said staunchly. And she’d shed all she could over her lost child.

But despite her intentions, the tears fell anyway. She sank onto the edge of the bed, still clutching the picture, mentally cursing herself for not having thrown it away years ago.

A whisper of sound had her wiping her eyes before she faced Kendra, who was standing uncertainly in the bedroom doorway.

“Are you okay?” the teen asked worriedly.

“I’m just fine,” Molly reassured her, then patted the edge of the bed. “Come sit here for a minute.”

Kendra sat next to her, keeping a careful distance between them. “I tried to wait up for you. I guess I fell asleep.”

“That’s okay.”

“We can talk now, if you want.”

“Sweetie, I need to know why you ran away from home. That’s the only way I can help you.”

“I can’t say,” Kendra said, her expression apologetic. “I’m sorry. You’re being real nice to me, but I can’t. It will ruin everything.”

What an odd thing to say. Puzzled, Molly studied her. “What will it ruin?”

“Can’t I just stay here a little longer, please? I’m helping Retta. She said I was doing good. She taught me to make chowder today, and the customers liked it. I heard them say so.”

“You are good, and if it were just about a job, you could stay,” Molly told her. “But you have a home, Kendra. You have parents who are worried sick about you. I have to think about them, too.”

“Is this just because you don’t want to keep fighting with that man who came today?”

“No, it’s because I feel guilty standing between you and your parents when I don’t know what’s going on.” She tucked a finger under Kendra’s chin and forced the girl to meet her gaze. “What did they do that was so awful?”

“It’s not what they did,” Kendra said at last. “It’s what they’re gonna do.”

“I don’t understand.”

“They’re going to send me away,” she said, barely choking back a sob. “I’m just saving them the trouble.”

And before Molly could ask a single question, Kendra was out of the room and out of the apartment, thundering down the stairs and out into the night.

Molly raced after her, then stopped when she got to the front door of Jess’s. Kendra was outside, but she hadn’t gone far. Molly pulled a chair over by the door and waited, leaving light from the bar spilling into the street. She wanted Kendra to know that when she was ready, this was one home she could come back to.


4

Daniel tried to spend as much time as possible burying himself in work. Even so, for the next few days he made it a point to stop at Jess’s at various times, and at least once a day. He hoped to catch a glimpse of Kendra, but mostly he wanted to keep Molly rattled and aware that he was not letting her off the hook. He hadn’t quite decided what time to show up today—probably around dinnertime, maybe not until just before closing when she’d be breathing a mistaken sigh of relief that he hadn’t turned up.

In the meantime, he went out to do follow-ups on five cases, checking on at-risk kids to make sure that their situations at home were under control. The unseasonably hot temperatures could escalate tensions, and family members who’d been making positive progress could suddenly revert to old ways. He tried to show up unexpectedly often enough to make sure that didn’t happen.

But as he went from home visit to home visit, he couldn’t shake the image of Molly from his head. Why the devil did she have to be so damned stubborn? Couldn’t she see that she was just prolonging the inevitable? Sooner or later he would talk to Kendra. It would be best if their first meeting wasn’t when he walked through the door with her parents. He liked to make sure such reunions went smoothly, but right now his back was to the wall, thanks to Molly.

He picked up a tuna on rye and a can of soda from the vendor in the basement of his office building in Portland, then climbed the stairs to his office. He found Joe Sutton waiting for him, his feet propped on Daniel’s tidy desk, his chair tilted back precariously, his eyes closed. Though it was barely noon, he looked as rumpled as if he’d slept in his clothes.

“About time you got back,” he said, startling awake when Daniel knocked his feet off the desk.

“Some of us spend our days out in the field checking on clients,” Daniel said.

Joe stared hopefully at the sandwich Daniel was unwrapping. “Is that tuna on rye?”

Daniel sighed. Joe was notorious for always stealing whatever food was around. Apparently there was plenty to be found, because he was at least thirty pounds overweight. That didn’t mean he couldn’t move when he had to.

“Here,” he said, handing the policeman half of his sandwich.

“No chips?” Joe asked, disappointment etched in the lines on his face.

“There’s a vending machine at the end of the hall. You’ll have to buy your own.”

“It’s out. I already checked.”

“Then you’re out of luck.”

“So how’s the Morrow girl doing?” Joe asked Daniel as he chewed.

“Haven’t seen her,” Daniel admitted.

Joe’s eyes filled with surprise. “Why the hell not? It’s not like you to brush off a case.”

“I’m not brushing it off, believe me. I’m at an impasse. A temporary impasse,” he corrected.

“How so?”

“Molly refuses to admit she’s there.”

“She’s there. I saw her.”

“I know that,” Daniel said. “I spotted her, too. But it’s as if the two of them have a sixth sense about when I’m going to walk through the door and, poof, Kendra vanishes out the back.”

“Any idea why Molly’s lying to you?”

“Because she thinks she’s helping Kendra. She’s not giving her up until she knows what’s going on back at the girl’s home. Have you made any progress on that front?”

“I’ve poked around the neighborhood and Kendra’s school,” Joe said. “From everything I’ve seen and heard, they’re a model family. Mom’s a chemist. Dad’s a brilliant physicist. Everybody’s squeaky clean, as near as I can tell. The kid’s some sort of genius. She’s skipped a few grades.”

“Which is probably why she’s been able to run circles around everyone who’s been looking for her,” Daniel concluded, then added, “with a little help from Molly, who’s no slouch when it comes to making up her own rules.”

Joe studied him quizzically. “What’s that about?”

“What?”

“That edge in your voice when you mention Molly? I heard it the other day, too.”

“Ancient history,” Daniel said, trying to make light of it.

Even so, Joe reacted with dismay. “Why the hell didn’t you say something about having a relationship with Molly when I asked you to go over there? I thought you were just reacting to the fact that the kid was serving chowder in a bar.”

“What would have been the point?” Daniel asked with a shrug “You needed someone to go to Widow’s Cove and check things out. That’s my job. Besides, whatever there was between Molly and me ended a long time ago.” Or at least it had, he acknowledged, silently, if you didn’t count his reaction to seeing her again.

Joe shook his head. “There are other people in the department.”

“But you came to me because Widow’s Cove is my turf. Come on, Joe, we’ve got more important things to worry about than my history with Molly Creighton. Are you ready to pick up Kendra?”

“I’ve been thinking about it,” Joe said. “That’s what I ought to do. I ought to call her folks and say I’ve located their daughter and bring on the happy ending.”

Daniel frowned, sensing the unspoken hesitation. “But you’re not going to do that, are you?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Gut instinct. Good kids—smart kids—don’t take off from perfect parents just for the thrill of it. I want to know what’s going on. It’s got to be about more than them not letting her wear lipstick or go out on a date with some boy they disapprove of.”

“The department could have your badge for not acting on this sooner.”

“It’s not my case. And I haven’t actually seen Kendra Morrow close enough to ID her beyond a reasonable doubt,” Joe said. “Have you?”

“No,” Daniel admitted. “But we both know it’s her.”

“Do we really?” Joe pressed.

“Come on, Joe, we’re breaking every rule in the book by not reuniting that kid with her family. You know that. Have you even spoken to the investigating officer and told him you think you’ve located her?”

“I’ve told him. He’s willing to let me do some more digging.” Joe leaned forward, his expression intense. “What’s the goal here? Yours and mine? It’s to keep the kid safe, right? She’s not on the streets. She’s with Molly. She’s safe. We don’t know that she would be if we sent her home. I want to know that, in my gut, before I shake things up over in Widow’s Cove. I’m going to see the parents, see what my gut tells me about them. You keep trying to get close to the kid. Go around or through Molly, if you have to. Just see her.”

Daniel chuckled. “You must not know Molly all that well if you think anybody goes ‘around’ or ‘through’ her. That doesn’t happen unless she wants it to.”

“Want to switch roles? You can go talk to the parents, and I’ll work on Molly.”

“No way,” Daniel said quickly. Too quickly.

Joe gave him a knowing grin. “Didn’t think so. Guess that history’s not so ancient, after all.”

“Go to hell.”

“If I’m wrong about this and everything’s peachy keen with the Morrows, I probably will,” Joe said. “But every time I think I might be wrong, I take another look at that picture. That is one unhappy kid. Could be nothing more than hormones and teen angst, but I won’t rest until I know for sure.”

Daniel trusted Joe’s instincts almost as much as he trusted his own. “Then let’s get to work,” he said, rising to his feet, his own half of the tuna sandwich still untouched. He could always eat at Jess’s.

Joe grabbed the sandwich as they headed for the door. “No need to let this go to waste,” he explained.

“You’re gonna owe me lunch when this case is over,” Daniel said.

“Chowder at Jess’s?” Joe suggested slyly.

Daniel shook his head. “I’m thinking a good steak at the fanciest restaurant here in town.”

“Boy, you do have it bad for Molly, don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m never wrong about these things,” Joe insisted.

“You’re a forty-year-old bachelor, for heaven’s sake.”

Joe laughed. “How do you think I’ve stayed that way? Great instincts.”

“Well, you’re wrong about this,” Daniel said defensively. “There’s nothing between Molly and me. Not anymore.”

“Never said there was. I said you had it bad. I’d have to spend a little time around the two of you together to say how she feels.”

“Trust me, she’s not interested in rekindling an old flame.”

And much as he hated himself for giving a damn, the truth of that still stuck in Daniel’s craw.

* * *

Daniel was about to drive Molly right over the edge. He’d been appearing at the bar more regularly than customers who’d been coming in for years. Midmorning, lunchtime, dinnertime...she never knew when she was going to look up and see him sauntering through the door with that grim, determined expression on his handsome face.

He’d been at it for a solid week now, and she was about to scream from the effort of being polite when what she actually wanted to do was throw a mug of beer in his smug face. At this very moment, he was sitting at the bar toying with the same soda he’d been pretending to drink for the past hour. He wouldn’t even touch a real drink.

Molly braced herself and walked behind the bar. “Are you planning to move in? Given the amount of time you’re spending in here, I should charge you rent, since the cost of that soda hardly compensates for the space you’re occupying.”

He leveled a look straight into her eyes. “You could get rid of me easily enough.”

“Oh?”

“All you have to do is produce Kendra Morrow and let me talk to her.”

“Give it a rest, Daniel,” she said, grateful that she’d sent Kendra off for the day with Retta’s daughter. Leslie Sue had taken a liking to the girl, and Kendra enjoyed spending time helping her out baby-sitting several neighborhood children, especially since it meant avoiding Daniel’s impromptu visits to the bar.

“I can’t give it a rest,” he told her.

“Why not?” Molly asked plaintively. Lying to him was beginning to get to her. Honesty and trust were big issues to her, and Daniel knew it. She was violating her own sense of decency, and it didn’t matter that Daniel didn’t deserve any better from her.

“Because she’s thirteen years old, Molly. She has a family.”

“How much of a family could they be if she felt the need to run away from them?” She very nearly blurted what Kendra had told her, that her parents intended to send her away. Molly hadn’t been able to get the girl to say any more than that, but it was just the kind of thing that might make Daniel leap to Kendra’s defense. After all, who knew more about the anguish of kids being sent away by their parents?

He met her gaze evenly. “Kids make some stupid decisions in the heat of the moment. This one could wind up with her getting hurt.”

“That won’t happen,” Molly said, eyes blazing.

“Because she has you to protect her?” he asked quietly.

Too late, she saw the trap. So far she’d managed to avoid admitting that she’d ever seen Kendra, much less that she’d provided her with a safe haven. She’d kept their conversations about Kendra purely hypothetical, or at least she thought she had. All the lying was getting to be more and more complicated.

She tried to dance around any admission. “Because she’s obviously a smart kid.”

“How do you know that?” he pressed.

“She must be, if she’s eluded you and Joe Sutton for all this time.”

He gave her a wry look. “She’s had help doing that, though, hasn’t she?”

Molly refused to look away. “I certainly hope so. All children should have someone willing to offer a helping hand when they need it.”

“You’ll get no argument from me on that score. Usually that’s what I am, a helping hand. I could be that for Kendra, if you’d stop standing in the way.”

He said it as if there wasn’t a doubt about Kendra being there, so apparently Molly wasn’t half the liar she’d tried to be. Given the number of opportunities she’d had lately to practice, she was bound to be better before this mess was cleared up.

“I have a legal right and the experience to look out for her,” Daniel added. “You have nothing. In fact, quite the opposite. You’re interfering in a police matter.”

Molly felt her temper kick in at his reasonable tone and at the suggestion that he could be relied on to be anyone’s help in a crisis. “I know all about your kind of help,” she snapped. “Believe me, wherever she is and whoever she’s with, she’s better off on her own.”

Daniel actually winced at the cutting words. Molly hadn’t thought he could ever be wounded by anything she said, but it was apparent that he was. Not that she was going to take back her words or apologize for speaking the truth.

“I’m sorry you believe that,” he said quietly. “I won’t hurt her, Molly, and I never meant to hurt you. I was trying to protect you.”

“Is that what you call turning your back on your own baby and on the woman you claimed to love? Protection?” She could hear her voice climbing, so she turned aside before he could see the tears she was trying desperately to blink away.

She heard him move and thanked heaven that he had the sensitivity for once to go and leave her in peace. But before she could even finish the thought, she felt his hand on her shoulder, gentle, comforting.

“Molly, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.

When she finally risked looking at him, there was so much torment, so much emotion, in his eyes that it nearly stole her breath.

“I really am sorry,” Daniel said, brushing awkwardly at the tear that slid down her cheek. He’d never been able to bear making her cry. “What I did was stupid and careless, but I honestly believed I was doing the right thing. I had no idea how it would turn out.”

She sniffed. “It could hardly have had a happy ending now, could it?”

“No, but I never thought you’d lose the baby. I never wanted that.” His hand cupped her chin. “Believe me. A part of me would have given anything for you to have my child, even if it meant watching him or her grow up from a distance. You would have been a wonderful mother.”

Because she so desperately wanted to believe him, because a part of her wanted to block out the past and live in the moment, Molly brushed away his hand. “I can’t talk about this anymore. Go away, Daniel. If you ever cared anything at all for me, stay away.”

“I can’t do that,” he said, a hint of regret in his voice.

“Because of Kendra,” she concluded, resigned.

He shook his head. “Not entirely. Because of you, too. I don’t want things between us to end like this.”

She almost smiled at that. “Like this? Daniel, they ended years ago. This? This is a piece of cake compared to the way they ended then.”

“Maybe they should never have ended at all.”

She stared at him as if he’d started spouting French or some other incomprehensible language. “You can’t mean that.”

He looked uncomfortable, as if he regretted saying it, but he wasn’t taking it back. She waited and waited, but he let the words hang in the air.

Maybe they should never have ended at all.

What was he thinking? Was he crazy? He was the one who’d ended it. He was the one who’d been so insistent that she and their baby would be better off without him. And now, when it was too late to matter, he was saying he’d gotten it all wrong?

She gazed into his dark blue eyes and looked for the man she’d once loved, but she couldn’t find him. Didn’t want to find him. Not at this late date. It would make what had happened such a waste, even more tragic than it had been.

“Leave, please,” she all but begged. “Just for tonight, go.”

He lifted his hand, almost reached for her, then dropped it back to his side. “Good night, Molly.”

“Goodbye, Daniel.”

His lips curved slightly as he noted the hopeful distinction she’d made. “Not goodbye,” he said.

After he’d gone, she sank onto a stool at the bar and rested her head on her arms. How was she supposed to get through day after day of having him around, deliberately goading her, trying to get under her skin, reminding her of what had once been between them?

There was only one sure way to get rid of him. She would have to turn over Kendra. But that was not an option. Molly had made a promise and she intended to keep it, even if she lost her own sanity in the process.

She lifted her head as Kendra quietly slipped onto the stool next to her. Her dark eyes studied Molly intently.

Molly sighed. “I thought you were with Leslie Sue.”

“I was, but it’s late. I came back. Seems to me like I got here just in the nick of time.”

“Why would you say that?”

“The guy was getting to you.”

Molly frowned at her, refusing to admit what was obvious not only to her, but apparently even to a thirteen-year-old. “Daniel can’t get to me,” she insisted.

“Yeah, right,” Kendra said, then fell silent.

The silence stretched out for what seemed like an eternity before Kendra said, “Tell me about this Daniel Devaney.”

Molly knew what she was really asking, but she said only, “He’s a child advocate for the state. That’s all you need to know.”

“He’s not hanging around here just because of me,” Kendra said with confidence. “He’s got the hots for you. And it goes both ways, doesn’t it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Not that I’m any expert,” Kendra said, ignoring her denial, “but it sure looked that way to me. You get all flushed when he’s around. And I saw that picture you were holding in your room the other night. It was him, wasn’t it? He’s the guy who hurt you, the one you never talked things out with.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Sure it does,” Kendra insisted. “If you two had a thing once, it’s no wonder he gets you all worked up.”

“He gets me worked up because he makes me furious,” Molly retorted. “He thinks he knows everything. Have you forgotten that he’s looking for you? He wants to send you home.”





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