LITMIR.BIZ

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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 pitbull. 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

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