Page 11 of Rufus

Admittedly, she hadn’t realized how much it would hurt for her to be here. To be present but on the outside. Always on the outside.

And God knows she wanted to stay, to continue to be a part of Mia’s, Darius’s, Lilybeth’s, and Rufus’s lives, even if it could only be on the periphery.

“Are you all right?”

Her spine stiffened at the sound of Rufus’s voice behind her. Damn it, she’d wanted a few minutes alone so she could fall apart in private.

Something she shouldn’t—couldn’t—do in front of Rufus without him asking questions she would refuse to answer.

* * *

It had taken Rufus half a minute or so to realize Molly was no longer in the room with them.

The same half a minute when he’d also decided that he should give the newborn baby and her parents some time alone while Lilybeth was being fed.

He and Mia had reestablished a strong father-daughter bond since they were reunited two years ago, but he would rather not intrude right now on such an intimate experience between the new baby and her parents.

That was his own reasoning for coming out into the hallway. He wasn’t sure what Molly’s was.

His gaze narrowed when he saw how pale her cheeks were. “We never did get to eat lunch,” he realized. “Let me buy you something in the hospital bistro.” He’d noticed the signs for the eating area when they first entered the hospital.

It wasn’t the usual type of place he would have chosen for a first date, but?—

What the hell…?

Noting the pallor of Molly’s face and then offering to buy her something to eat as they had both missed out on lunch did not amount to a date, for fuck’s sake!

Molly would probably laugh at the idea of him thinking it was.

“There’s really no need for that,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll want to remain at the hospital for a while longer. I can easily get a bus or call a cab and then eat something when I get back to the shelter.”

“Absolutely not,” he snapped. “Sorry.” He winced at the sharpness of his tone. “Let’s go grab a sandwich in the bistro here. We can discuss what happens next once we’ve spoken to Mia and Darius again after Lilybeth has been fed.”

Merely saying his granddaughter’s name filled Rufus with warmth, a bone-deep sense of rightness he hadn’t experienced since Emily was born.

Which made the young woman standing in front of him a part of those feelings of rightness.

He eyed Molly quizzically, unhappy with the paleness of her cheeks and the haunted look in his eyes. As if seeing Lilybeth had opened up an old wound for her.

Was it possible that’s what had happened?

His initial security check on Molly had been thorough, as it always was on anyone who came near his beloved daughter.

Molly’s life before the age of ten was mainly a mystery, her name only having appeared on any official records when she started attending school at the age of five.

In contrast to the lack of information about those early years, Molly’s life after the age of ten, until she aged out of the system at eighteen, was well documented.

After that Rufus had been able to follow her progress by her job history, as well as establishing she had no criminal record.

He hadn’t looked too deeply into her personal life from the age of eighteen to twenty-seven.

But there was no denying that holding Lilybeth appeared to have triggered something inside Molly, totally destroying her usual cheerfully smiling disposition.

Could that something possibly be that Molly had once had a baby of her own?

Rufus took a gentle hold of her arm. “Is there something you want to share with me?” he prompted softly.

If anything, her cheeks became even paler. Her eyes were wide, the pupils endless pools of black.

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