By the time the small gold anniversary clock chimed the hour, she'd made up her mind to find Kevin.

She started her search at the beach, where she found Troy repairing some boards that had come loose on the dock. When she asked him about Kevin, he shook his head and adopted the same pitiful expression Roo had just used when Molly had left the house without him. "He hasn't been around for a while. Have you seen Amy?"

"She's finishing the bedrooms."

"We're, uh, trying to get everything done so we can go home early."

Where you'll rip off each other's clothes and fall into bed. "I'm sure that'll be fine."

Troy looked as grateful as if she'd scratched him under the chin.

Molly headed for the Common, then followed the sound of an angry hammer to the rear of a cottage named Paradise. Kevin was crouched on the roof taking out his frustration on a new set of shingles.

She tucked her thumbs in the back pockets of her shorts and tried to figure out how to go about this. "Are you still planning a trip into town?"

"Maybe later." He stopped hammering. "Did she leave?"

"No."

His hammer thwacked the shingles. "She can't stay here."

"She had a reservation. I couldn't really kick her out."

"Damn it, Molly!" Thwack! "I want you to…" Thwack! "… get rid of her!" Thwack!

She didn't appreciate being thwacked at, but she still had enough warm feelings left over from last night to treat him gently. "Would you come down for a minute?"

Thwack! "Why?"

"Because it's hurting my neck to look up at you, and I'd like to talk."

"Don't look up!" Thwack! Thwack! "Or don't talk!"

She sat on a stack of shingles, letting him know she wasn't going anywhere. He tried to ignore her, but he finally blasted out an obscenity and put aside his hammer.

She watched him come down the ladder. Lean, muscular legs. Great butt. What was it about men and their butts that was so enticing? He glared at her when he reached the ground, but it was more annoyance than hostility. "Well?"

"Would you tell me about Lilly?"

He narrowed those green eyes. "I don't like her."

"So I gathered." The suspicion that had been eating at her wouldn't go away. "Did she forget to send you a Christmas present when you were growing up?"

"I don't want her here, that's all."

"She doesn't look like she's going anywhere."

He braced his hands on his hips, his elbows jutting out in angry wings. "That's her problem."

"Since you don't want her here, it seems to be yours, too."

He headed back to the ladder. "Can you handle that damned tea by yourself today?"

Once again the base of her neck prickled. Something was very wrong. "Kevin, wait."

He turned to look at her, his expression impatient.

She told herself this wasn't any of her business, but she couldn't let it go. "Lilly said she's your aunt."

"Yeah, so what?"

"When she looked at you, I got this strange feeling."

"Spit it out, Molly. I've got things to do."

"Her heart was in her eyes."

"I seriously doubt that."

"She loves you."

"She doesn't even know me."

"I've got this weird feeling about why you're so upset." She bit her lip and wished she hadn't started this, but some powerful instinct wouldn't let her back off. "I don't think Lilly's your aunt, Kevin. I think she's your mother."

Chapter 12

"Fudge!" Benny smacked his lips. "I love fudge!" Daphne Says Hello

Kevin looked as though she'd punched him. "How did you know? Nobody knows that!"

"I guessed."

"I don't believe you. She told you. Damn her!"

"She didn't say a thing. But the only other person I've seen with eyes that exact color of green is you."

"You knew just by looking at her eyes?"

"There were a couple of other things." The longing Molly had witnessed on Lilly's face when she gazed at Kevin had been too intense for an aunt. And Lilly had given her clues.

"She told me how young she was when she left home, and she said she'd gotten into trouble. I knew your parents were older. It was just a hunch."

"A damn good hunch."

"I'm a writer. Or at least I used to be. We tend to be fairly intuitive."

He flung down his hammer. "I'm getting out of here."

And she was going with him. He hadn't abandoned her last night, and she wouldn't abandon him now. "Let's go cliff diving," she blurted out.

He stopped and stared at her. "You want to go cliff diving?"

No, I don't want to go cliff diving! Do you think I'm an idiot? "Why not?"

He gazed at her for a long moment. "Okay, you're on."

Exactly what she'd been afraid of, but it was too late to back out now. If she tried, he'd just call her "bunny lady" again. That was what the kindergarten children called her when she read them her stories, but, from him, it didn't sound as innocent.

An hour and a half later she lay on a flat rock near the edge of the bluff trying to catch her breath. As the heat from the rocks seeped through her wet clothes, she decided the diving hadn't been the worst part. She was a good diver, and it had even been sort of fun. The worst part was hauling her body back up that path so she could throw herself off again.

She heard him coming up the path, but unlike her, he wasn't breathing hard. She shut her eyes. If she opened them, she'd just see what she already knew, that he'd stripped down to a pair of navy blue boxers before his first dive. It was painful to look at him-all those ripples, planes, and smooth long muscles. She'd been terrified-hopeful?-the boxers would come off in the dive, but he'd somehow managed to keep them on.

She reined in her imagination. This was exactly the kind of fantasizing that had gotten her in such terrible trouble. And maybe it was time she reminded herself that Kevin hadn't exactly been the most memorable lover. In point of fact, he'd been a dud.

That wasn't fair. He'd been operating under a double disadvantage. He'd been sound asleep, and he wasn't attracted to her.

Some things hadn't changed. Although he seemed to have worked past his contempt for her, he hadn't sent out any signals that he found her sexually irresistible-or even remotely appealing.

The fact that she could think about sex was upsetting but also encouraging. The first crocus seemed to have popped up in the dark winter of her soul.

He flopped down next to her and stretched out on his back. She smelled heat, lake, and devil man.

"No more somersaults, Molly. I mean it. You were too close to the rocks."

"I only did one, and I knew exactly where the edge was."

"You heard me."

"Jeez, you sound like Dan."

"I'm not even going to think about what he'd say if he saw you do that."

They lay there for a while in silence that was surprisingly companionable. Every one of her muscles felt achy but relaxed.


Daphne lay sunning herself on a rock when Benny came racing up the path. He was crying. "What's the matter, Benny?" "Nothing. Go away!"


Her eyes flicked open. It had been nearly four months since Daphne and Benny had held an imaginary conversation in her head. Probably just a fluke. She rolled toward Kevin. Although she didn't want to ruin the good time they'd been having, he needed help dealing with Lilly just as she needed help dealing with the loss of Sarah.

His eyes were closed. She noticed that his lashes were darker than his hair, which was already drying at the temples. She rested her chin on her hand. "Did you always know that Lilly was your birth mother?"

He didn't open his eyes. "My parents told me when I was six."

"They did the right thing not trying to keep it a secret." She waited, but he didn't say anything more. "She must have been very young. She hardly looks forty now."

"She's fifty."

"Wow."

"She's a Hollywood type. A ton of plastic surgery."

"Did you get to see her a lot when you were young?"

"On television."

"But not in person?" A woodpecker drummed not far away, and a hawk soared above the lake. She watched the rise and fall of his chest.

"She showed up once when I was sixteen. Must have been a slow time in Tinsel Town." He opened his eyes and sat up. Molly expected him to get up and walk away, but he gazed out at the lake. "As far as I'm concerned, I had one mother, Maida Tucker. I don't know what game the bimbo queen thinks she's playing by coming here, but I'm not playing it with her."

The word "bimbo" stirred old memories inside Molly. That used to be what people thought of Phoebe. Molly remembered what her sister had told her years ago. Sometimes I think "bimbo" is a word men made up so they could feel superior to women who are better at survival than they are.

"The best thing might be to talk to her," Molly said now. "Then you can find out what she wants."

"I don't care." He rose, grabbed his jeans, and shoved his legs in. "What a shitty week this is turning out to be."

Maybe for him, but not for her. This was turning out to be the best week she'd had in months.

He pushed his fingers through his damp hair and spoke more gently. "Do you still want to go into town?"

"Sure."

"If we go now, we can make it back by five o'clock. You'll take care of tea for me, won't you?"

"Yes, but you know you'll have to deal with her sooner or later."

She watched the play of hard emotion over his face. "I'll deal with her, but I'm choosing the time and the place."

Lilly stood at the attic window and watched Kevin drive away with the football heiress. Her throat tightened as she remembered his contempt. Her baby boy… The child she'd given birth to when she was barely more than a child herself. The son she'd handed over to her sister to raise as her own.