Daniel's Desire - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,50
phony name.” She grinned. “Sounds intriguing.”
“You just like living dangerously. I knew the whole sneaking around bit would appeal to you.”
She sobered at that. “It’s not that I’m ashamed of what we’re about to do, Daniel. It isn’t.”
He reached for her hand. “I know that. You just don’t want to answer a lot of prying questions.”
“Exactly, and there are bound to be a slew of them. From Retta. From your brother. Even from your folks. We’re not ready for that yet. I don’t even have all the answers for myself.”
He lifted her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “Maybe we can start to figure out a few of them this afternoon.”
“Maybe so.” She grinned, getting into the spirit of things. It had been a lot of years since she’d had to slip out of the house to avoid her grandfather’s questions about some boy. “Wait for me in the parking lot. I’ll sneak out in about five minutes.”
He laughed. “As if that’s going to keep Retta from suspecting a thing.”
“It’s worth a try,” she insisted. “Now go.”
After he’d gone, she slipped into the kitchen and casually picked up a sliver of carrot intended for the vegetable soup Retta was making for dinner. Kendra was dicing potatoes with total concentration.
“Everything okay in here?” Molly inquired.
“Doing fine,” Retta said, glancing up from the biscuits she was rolling out. “Daniel gone?”
“Uh-huh.” She picked up another sliver of carrot. “Do you need me in here? I thought I might go out for a while.”
“Kendra and I will be just fine,” Retta assured her. “You go on and do whatever you need to do.”
“I shouldn’t be too long,” Molly said. “A couple of hours, max.”
“No problem.”
“That’s okay with you, Kendra?”
The girl blinked as if she hadn’t even realized Molly was in the room. “What?”
“I’m going out.”
“Okay, whatever.”
Molly gave them a wave and headed for the door, convinced that no one was the wiser about her intentions. She was just congratulating herself on her subtlety, when Retta called out to her.
Molly glanced at her. “What?”
“I’m gonna want to hear all about that inn when you get back, you hear me?”
Molly regarded her evenly. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Retta laughed. “We’ll talk about you fibbing to me, too. Now go on and have yourself some fun. It’s been a long time coming.”
“It has been, hasn’t it?” she said mostly to herself.
As for Retta and her ESP, Molly had known the woman her entire life. She should have realized she’d never be able to put anything over on her. Maybe it was for the best. Somehow it felt better going to meet Daniel and knowing that she had Retta’s blessing. She knew full well that it wasn’t something Retta was likely to give lightly, which meant she’d seen the same thing in Daniel that Molly had seen—a changed man, who was no longer afraid of love.
Chapter Eleven
Daniel watched Molly emerge from Jess’s, her cheeks flushed, her eyes sparkling with once-familiar excitement. How long had it been since he’d seen her in a carefree mood like this? Maybe she’d had happy times in the years since they’d split up, but he didn’t think so. Nothing he’d heard suggested that she’d allowed herself to do something or to go out with someone for the sheer enjoyment of it. He had apparently robbed her of the free-spirited joy she’d always found in trying the unexpected. It was one more regret he’d have to live with.
He turned on the engine as she climbed into the passenger seat and faced him with pure, uninhibited mischief in her eyes.
“What?” he asked.
“I got caught,” she said, grinning and sounding not the least bit repentant.
“Caught?”
“Retta’s on to us. She figured out what we’re up to.”
Daniel stared at her, not sure he was comprehending what she was telling him, especially since she didn’t seem particularly upset. To the contrary, she sounded like a kid on a lark. “Retta knows we’re going to the inn to sleep together?”
“She does,” Molly confirmed.
“How could she? She never heard a word we said. She was in the kitchen the whole time.”
“What can I tell you? She’s always had a sixth sense about these things.”
“Then I’m surprised she didn’t come charging into the parking lot with a meat cleaver,” he said, barely able to contain a shudder as he glanced worriedly into the rearview mirror, not entirely sure that he wouldn’t see Retta chasing after them, apron flapping, deadly cleaver in hand.
“Apparently she doesn’t disapprove,” Molly said.
He