Kevin stiffened. Molly's heart went out to him as she thought of all the questions she'd had over the years about her own mother. Slowly he turned.

Lilly clutched her hands. She sounded breathless, as if she'd just run a long distance. "His name was Dooley Price. I don't think that was his real first name, but it was all I knew. He was eighteen, a tall, skinny farm kid from Oklahoma. We met at the bus station the day we arrived in L.A." She drank in Kevin's face. "His hair was as light as yours, but his features were broader. You look more like me." She dipped her head. "I'm sure you don't want to hear that. Dooley was athletic. He'd ridden in rodeos-earned some prize money, I think-and he was convinced he could get rich doing stunts in the movies. I don't remember any more about him-another black mark you can chalk up against me. I think he smoked Marlboros and loved candy bars, but it was a long time ago, and that could have been someone else. We'd broken up by the time I discovered I was pregnant, and I didn't know how to find him." She paused and seemed to brace herself. "A few years later I read in the paper that he'd been killed doing some kind of stunt with a car."

Kevin's expression remained stony. He wouldn't let anyone see that this meant anything to him. Oh, Molly understood all about that.

Roo was sensitive to people's distress. He got up and rubbed against Kevin's ankles.

"Do you have a picture of him?" Molly asked because she knew Kevin wouldn't. The only photograph she had of her mother was her most treasured possession.

Lilly made a helpless gesture and shook her head. "We were only kids-two screwed-up teenagers. Kevin, I'm sorry."

He regarded her coldly. "There's no place for you in my life. I don't know how I can make that any clearer. I want you to leave."

"I know you do."

Both animals got up and followed him as he walked away.

Lilly's eyes glistened with fierce tears as she spun on Molly. "I'm not leaving!"

"I don't think you should," Molly replied.

Their eyes locked, and Molly thought she saw a faint crack forming in the wall between them.

Half an hour later, as Molly slipped the last of her apricot scones into a wicker basket, Amy appeared to announce that she and Troy would be staying in the upstairs bedroom Kevin had abandoned when he'd moved into Molly's cottage. "Somebody has to sleep here at night," Amy explained, "and Kevin said he'd pay us extra to do it. Isn't that cool?"

"That's great."

"I mean, we won't be able to make noise, but-"

"Get the jam, will you?" Molly couldn't bear hearing any more details of Amy and Troy's Super Bowl sex life.

But Amy wouldn't give up, and the buttery late-afternoon sunlight splashed her love-bitten neck as she regarded Molly earnestly. "It looks like things with you and Kevin could still work out if you just, maybe, tried a little harder. I'm serious about the perfume. Sex is real important to men, and if you'd just use a little-"

Molly shoved the scones at her and made a dash for the sitting room.

Later, when she got back to the cottage, Kevin was already there. He sat on the droopy old couch in the front room with Roo lolling on the cushion next to him. His feet were propped up, and a book lay open in his lap. Although he looked as if he didn't have a care in the world, Molly knew better.

He glanced up at her. "I like this Benny guy."

Her heart sank as she realized he was reading Daphne Says Hello. The other four books in the series lay nearby.

"Where did you get those?"

"Last night when I went into town. There's a kids' store-mainly clothes, but the owner sells some books and toys, too. She had these in the window. When I told her you were here, she got pretty excited about it." He tapped the page with his index finger. "This Benny character-"

"Those are children's books. I can't imagine why you'd bother reading them."

"Curiosity. You know, there are a couple of things about Benny that seem kind of familiar. For example-"

"Really? Well, thank you. He's entirely imaginary, but I do try to give all my characters qualities that readers can identify with."

"Yeah, well, I can identify with Benny, all right." He gazed down at a drawing of Benny wearing sunglasses that looked very much like his silver-rimmed Revos. "One thing I don't understand… The store owner said she'd gotten some pressure from one of her customers to take the books off the shelf because they were pornographic. Tell me what I'm missing."

Roo finally hopped off the couch and came over to greet her. She leaned down to pat him. "Have you ever heard of SKIFSA? Straight Kids for a Straight America?"

"Sure. They get their kicks going after gays and lesbians. The women all have big hair, and the men show too much teeth when they smile."

"Exactly. And right now they're after my bunny."

"What do you mean?" Roo trotted back to Kevin.

"They're attacking the Daphne series as homosexual propaganda."

Kevin started to laugh.

"I'm not kidding. They hadn't paid any attention to my books until we got married, but after all the stories about us appeared in the press, they decided to jump on the publicity bandwagon and go after me." She found herself telling him about her conversation with Helen and the changes Birdcage wanted in the Daphne books.

"I hope you told her exactly what she could do with her changes."

"It's not that easy. I have a contract, and they're keepingDaphne Takes a Tumble off the publication schedule until I send them the new illustrations." She didn't mention the rest of the advance money they owed her. "Besides, it's not as if moving Daphne and Melissa a few inches farther apart affects the story."

"Then why haven't you done the drawings?"

"I've had some troubles with… with writer's block. But it's gotten a lot better since I've been here."

"So now you're going to do them?"

She didn't like the disapproval she detected in his voice. "It's easy to stand on principle when you have a few million dollars in the bank, but I don't."

"I guess."

She got up and headed into the kitchen. As she pulled out a bottle of wine, Roo rubbed against her ankles. She heard Kevin come up behind her.

"We're drinking again, are we?"

"You're strong enough to fight me off if I get out of hand."

"Just don't make me hurt my passing arm."

She smiled and poured. He took the glass she handed him, and by unspoken agreement they walked together out onto the porch. The glider squeaked as he eased down next to her and took a sip of wine.

"You're a good writer, Molly. I can see why kids like your books. When you were drawing Benny, did you happen to notice how much-"

"What's with you and my pooch?"

"Damned if I know." He glared down at the poodle, who'd collapsed over one of his feet. "He followed me back here from the B &B. Believe me, I didn't encourage it."

Molly remembered the way Roo had picked up on Kevin's distress in the garden with Lilly. Apparently they had bonded, only Kevin didn't know it yet.

"How's your leg?" he asked.

"Leg?"

"Any aftereffects from that cramp?"

"It's… a little sore. Very sore. Sort of this dull throb. Pretty painful, actually. I'll have to take some Tylenol. But I'm sure it'll be better by tomorrow."

"No more swimming alone, okay? I'm serious. It was a stupid thing to do." He propped his arm along the back of the cushions and gave her his I-mean-business-you-lowlife-rookie look. "And while we're at it, don't get too cozy with Lilly."

"I don't think you have to worry about that. In case you didn't notice, she's not too fond of me. Still, I think you need to hear her out."

"That's not going to happen. This is my life, Molly, and you don't understand anything about it."

"That's not exactly true," she said carefully. "I'm an orphan, too."

He withdrew his arm. "You don't get to call yourself an orphan if you're over twenty-one."

"The point is, my mother died when I was two, so I know something about feeling disconnected from your roots."

"Our circumstances aren't anything alike, so don't try to make comparisons." He gazed out into the woods. "I had two great parents. You didn't have any."

"I had Phoebe and Dan."

"You were a teenager by then. Before that, you seem to have raised yourself."

He was deliberately turning the conversation away from himself. She understood that, too, and she let him do it. "Me and Danielle Steel."

"What are you talking about?"

"I was a fan, and I knew she had lots of kids. I used to pretend I was one of them." She smiled at his amusement. "Now, some might find that pathetic, but I think it was pretty creative."

"It's definitely original."

"Then I'd fantasize a mercifully painless death for Bert, at which point it would be magically revealed that he wasn't my father at all. My real father was-"

"Let me guess. Bill Cosby."

"I wasn't that well adjusted. It was Bruce Springsteen. And no comments, okay?"

"Why should I comment when Freud already did the job?"

Molly wrinkled her nose at him. They sat in surprisingly companionable silence, broken only by Roo's rhythmic snores. But Molly'd never been good at leaving well enough alone. "I still think you need to hear her out."

"I can't come up with a single reason why."

"Because she won't go away until you do. And because this will keep hovering over you for the rest of your life."

He set down his glass. "Maybe the reason you're so obsessed with analyzing my life is so you won't get depressed thinking about your own neuroses."

"Probably."

He rose from the glider. "What do you say we go into town for some dinner?"