Daniel's Desire - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,29
push a little harder for the right answers.”
“I don’t think Molly’s going to let you lean on Kendra,” Joe said dryly. “She’s a runaway, not a criminal.”
“And I’m going in there tonight as a friend, not an authority figure.”
“Are you going to try to persuade her to go home voluntarily?” Joe asked. “The last thing I want to have to do is come in there with sirens blaring and haul her out.”
“You’re just worried Molly will ban you from the premises and you’ll be cut off from your chowder fix,” Daniel said.
“No, believe it or not, I’m worried about traumatizing the girl.”
“Then we’ll see to it that it doesn’t go down that way, okay?”
“I’m heading over there at nine a.m.,” Joe said finally. “I’ll expect to find her ready, if not eager to go home.”
“I’ll be right there with you,” Daniel promised. “Thanks, Joe. I know you’ve gone out on a limb for this kid. I’ll back you up in any way I have to.”
Now he just had to convince Kendra and Molly that sending Kendra back home was for the best. He had no idea which of them was going to be the harder sell.
“You go,” Kendra insisted when Molly told her about the dinner plans. “I can stay home and read. I’ve got lots of books. I’ll be fine.”
“You’re missing the point,” Molly said. “Daniel wants to get to know you.”
“He wants to cross-examine me, you mean,” Kendra said knowingly. “Thanks but no thanks.”
“It won’t be like that. I’ll see to it,” Molly promised.
Kendra regarded her skeptically. “The way I see it, the man wants two things out of this dinner…answers from me and a chance to spend a little quality time with you. He ought to be happy with a batting average of five hundred.”
Some men might be, but not Daniel. “I promised him I would persuade you to come,” Molly told her. “Sweetie, he could have turned you in by now, if that’s what he wanted—he or Joe Sutton, either one. They haven’t done it. That should tell you something. They both want what’s best for you.”
“I suppose,” Kendra said with obvious skepticism.
“What will it take to convince you that I’m right about this?”
“Sworn statements that they’re not sending me back to my parents,” Kendra said without hesitation.
“I don’t think you’re going to get that, not until you’ve given them valid reasons why you don’t want to go back there.”
“Who gets to decide what’s valid?”
“For now, they do. The court, if it comes to that.”
“Now there’s a reassuring thought,” Kendra said. “Some judge who doesn’t know me or my parents gets to decide what’s best. Let’s see, the judge would be a grown-up. My folks are grown-ups. I’m a kid. I wonder which way this will go?”
“I’m a grown-up and I’m on your side,” Molly pointed out. “And Daniel and Joe have been on your side, even without all the facts, right? If you believe what you’ve done is the right thing, give us a chance to help you prove it.”
Kendra seemed to weigh Molly’s words for an eternity before finally nodding. “Okay, I’ll come, but I’m splitting if I don’t like the way things are going.”
“Agreed,” Molly said with relief. She had not wanted to spend an entire evening alone with Daniel. The prospect of that scared her at least as much as the prospect of all those questions terrified Kendra.
Downstairs, Molly filled Retta in on the plans and placed a call to her backup waitress and bartender. She wanted to be certain that nothing was left to chance now that Kendra had agreed to go along with meeting Daniel. Once satisfied that everything was in place, Molly called Daniel’s once-familiar number and tried not to react at the sound of his voice.
“It’s me,” she said quietly.
“Hey, you,” he said. “What’s up? Are we all set for this evening?”
She could hear the smile in his voice and felt the familiar pang of yearning. “We’re set. Kendra’s skeptical about your motives and your intentions, but she’s agreed to have dinner with us.”
“Then I’ll see you at six. How about pizza? All kids love pizza, right?”
“So do you, as I recall.”
“This is about putting Kendra at ease,” he insisted. “If I can get a pepperoni and mushroom pizza out of it for myself, so much the better.”
“If we’re going to Giorgio’s, I’d better get upstairs and change,” she said. “The red suit will be a bit much.” She heard his sigh of disappointment with a sense of