"We both do. But she's an independent woman, and she's made up her mind." Her brow knit with worry. "I suppose all we can do now is support her."
"It happened sometime around the beginning of December." Dan's eyes narrowed. "I promise you one thing, Phoebe. I'm going to find the son of a bitch who did this to her, and then I'm going to take his head off."
But finding him was easier said than done, and as one week slipped into another, Dan came no closer to discovering the truth. He made up excuses to phone Molly's friends and shamelessly pumped them for information, but no one remembered her dating anyone at the time. He pumped his own children with no more success. Out of desperation he finally hired a detective, a fact he neglected to mention to his wife, who would have ordered him to mind his own business. All he ended up with was a big bill and nothing he didn't already know.
In mid-February Dan and Phoebe took the kids to the Door County house for a long weekend of snowmobiling. They invited Molly to come along, but she said she was on deadline for Chik and couldn't stop work. He knew the real reason was that she didn't want any more lectures from him.
On Saturday afternoon he'd just brought Andrew inside to warm up from snowmobiling when Phoebe found him in the mudroom where they were taking off their boots.
"Have fun, pookie?"
"Yes!"
Dan grinned as Andrew flew across the wet floor in his socks and threw himself into her arms, something he generally did when he was separated from either one of them for more than an hour.
"I'm glad." She buried her lips in his hair, then gave him a nudge toward the kitchen. "Get your snack. The cider's hot, so let Tess pour it for you."
As Andrew ran off, Dan decided Phoebe looked particularly delectable in a pair of gold jeans with a soft brown sweater. He was just starting to reach for her when she held out a yellow credit card receipt. "I found this upstairs."
He glanced at it and saw Molly's name.
"It's a receipt from the little drugstore in town," Phoebe said. "Look at the date at the top."
He found it, but he still didn't understand why she seemed upset. "So what?"
She sagged against the washer. "Dan, that's when Kevin stayed here."
Kevin left the sidewalk cafe and began walking along the Cairns Esplanade toward his hotel. Palm trees swayed in the sunny February breeze, and boats bobbed in the harbor. After spending five days diving in the Coral Sea with the sharks that swam near the North Horn site of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, it was nice being back in civilization.
The city of Cairns on the northeastern coast of Queensland was the diving expedition's home port. Since the town had good restaurants and a couple of five-star hotels, Kevin had decided to stay around for a while. The city was far enough from Chicago that he wasn't in much danger of running into a Stars fan who wanted to know why he threw into double coverage late in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship. Instead of giving the Stars the victory that would have taken them to the Super Bowl, he'd let his teammates down, and even swimming with a school of hammerheads wasn't making him forget that.
An Aussie hottie in a halter top and tight white shorts gave him the twice-over, followed by an inviting smile. "Need a tour guide, Yank?"
"Thanks, not today."
She looked disappointed. He probably should take her up on her invitation, but he couldn't work up enough interest. He'd also ignored the seductive overtures of the sexy blond doctoral candidate who'd cooked on the dive boat, but that had been more understandable. She was one of the smart, high-maintenance women.
This was the heart of Queensland's monsoon season, and a splatter of raindrops hit him. He decided to work out at the hotel health club for a while, then head over to the casino for a few games of blackjack.
He'd just changed into his gym clothes when a sharp knock sounded at the door. He walked over and opened it. "Dan? What are you doing-"
That was as far as he got before Dan Calebow's fist came up to meet him.
Kevin staggered backward, caught the corner of the couch, and fell.
Adrenaline rushed through him, hot and fast. He shot back up, ready to take Dan apart. Then he hesitated, not because Dan was his boss but because the raw fury in his expression indicated that something was drastically wrong. Since Dan had been more understanding than Kevin had deserved about the game, Kevin knew it didn't have anything to do with that ill-advised pass.
It went against his grain not to fight back, but he forced himself to lower his fists. "You'd better have a good reason for that."
"You son of a bitch. Did you really think you were going to walk away?"
Seeing such contempt on the face of a man he respected made his gut clench. "Walk away from what?"
"It didn't mean anything to you, did it?" Dan sneered.
Kevin waited him out.
Dan came forward, his lip curled. "Why didn't you tell me you weren't alone when you stayed at my house in December?"
The hair on the back of Kevin's neck prickled. He chose his words carefully. "I didn't think it was up to me. I thought it was Daphne's business to tell you she'd been there."
"Daphne?"
Enough was enough, and Kevin's own temper snapped. "It wasn't my fault your nutcase of a sister-in-law showed up!"
"You don't even know her fucking name?"
Dan looked as if he was getting ready to spring again, and Kevin was angry enough to hope he would. "Stop right there! She told me her name was Daphne."
"Yeah, right," Dan scoffed. "Well, her name is Molly, you son of a bitch, and she's pregnant with your baby!"
Kevin felt as if he'd taken the sack of his life. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about the fact that I've had a stomachful of high-priced athletes who think they have a God-given right to scatter illegitimate kids around like so much trash."
Kevin felt sick. She'd told him there hadn't been any consequences when he'd called. She'd even had her boyfriend with her.
"You could at least have had the decency to use a goddamn rubber!"
His brain started working again, and there was no way he'd take the blame for this. "I talked to Daph-to your sister-in-law before I left Chicago, and she said everything was fine. Maybe you'd better have this conversation with her boyfriend."
"She's a little preoccupied to have a boyfriend right now."
"She's holding out on you," he said carefully. "You made this trip for nothing. She's going with a guy named Benny."
"Benny?"
"I don't know how long they've been together, but I'm guessing he's the one responsible for her current condition."
"Benny's not her boyfriend, you arrogant son of a bitch! He's a fricking badger!"
Kevin stared at him, then headed for the wet bar. "Maybe we'd better start over from the beginning."
Molly parked her Beetle behind Phoebe's BMW. As she got out of the car, she dodged a mound of dingy, ice-crusted snow. Northern Illinois was in the grip of a frigid spell that showed every sign of lingering, but she didn't mind. February was the best time of year for curling up with a warm computer and a sketchbook, or just for daydreaming.
Daphne couldn't wait until the baby rabbit was big enough to play with. They'd dress up in skirts with sparkly beads and say, "Oo-la-la! You look divine!" Then they'd drop water balloons on Benny and his friends.
Molly was glad her speech at the literacy luncheon was over and that Phoebe had come along for moral support. Although she loved visiting schools to read to children, giving speeches to adults made her nervous, especially with an unpredictable stomach.
A month had passed since she'd discovered she was pregnant, and every day the baby became more real to her. She hadn't been able to resist buying a tiny pair of unisex denim overalls, and she couldn't wait to start wearing maternity clothes, although, since she was only two and a half months along, that wasn't necessary yet.