Page 24 of This Heart Of Mine (Chicago Stars 5)

“Tell me there’s going to be a wedding first.”

Dan’s lips had barely moved, and she was once again reminded of exactly how unbending he could be. If she didn’t hold her ground now, he’d never give her any peace. “No wedding. And no daddy. That’s not going to change, so you need to make peace with it.”

Phoebe looked even more distressed. “I—I didn’t know you were seeing anyone special. You usually tell me.”

Molly couldn’t let her probe too deeply. “I share a lot with you, Phoeb, but not everything.”

A muscle had started to tic in Dan’s jaw, definitely a bad sign. “Who is he?”

“I’m not going to tell you,” she said quietly. “This was my doing, not his. I don’t want him in my life.”

“You damn well wanted him in your life long enough to get pregnant!”

“Dan, don’t.” Phoebe had never been intimidated by Dan’s hot temper, and she looked far more concerned about Molly. “Don’t make a decision too quickly, Moll. How far along are you?”

“Only six weeks. And I’m not going to change my mind. There’ll be just the baby and me. And both of you, I hope.”

Dan shot up and began to pace. “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.”

She could have pointed out that thousands of single women had babies every year and that he was a bit old-fashioned in his outlook, but she knew him too well to waste her breath. Instead, she concentrated on practicalities.

“I can’t stop either of you from worrying, but you need to remember that I’m better equipped than most single women to have a child. I’m nearly thirty, I love children, and I’m emotionally stable.” For the first time in her life she felt as if that might be true.

“You’re also broke most of the time.” Dan’s lips were tight.

“Daphne sales are going up slowly.”

“Very slowly,” he said.

“And I can do more freelancing. I won’t even have to pay for child care because I work at home.”

He regarded her stubbornly. “Children need a father.”

She rose and walked to him. “They need a good man in their life, and I hope you’ll be there for this baby because you’re the best there is.”

That got to him, and he hugged her. “We just want you to be happy.”

“I know. That’s why I love you both so much.”

“I just want her to be happy,” Dan repeated to Phoebe as the two of them drove home that night after a strained dinner.

“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.

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“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.

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