behind. Can’t you at least give them answers to the questions they’ve had to live with their whole lives?”
His mother reached over the seat and clasped her husband’s shoulder. “We must do this, Connor,” she said firmly. “It’s our chance to make things right, a chance we probably don’t deserve. We failed them back then. Surely now we can give them the one thing they’ve ever asked of us.”
Daniel saw that his father looked tormented. “Dad, it will be okay. They’re good men. They really are. You’ll be proud of them.”
“I have no right to take any pride in the men they’ve become,” his father replied, looking defeated. “They’ve accomplished whatever they’ve made of their lives in spite of me.”
To Daniel’s surprise, Patrick spoke up. “Maybe so, Dad, but there’s Devaney blood running through their veins. If they’re strong enough to overcome the past, it’s because of that.”
Their father sank back against the seat then and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he turned to his wife. “This is what you want, Kathleen? You’re sure?”
She nodded, tears in her eyes. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted, just one more chance to see my boys.”
“Then we’ll go,” he said. He frowned at Daniel, then at Patrick. “Not that I like the way the two of you went about this, mind you. Be warned that I’ll have a lot to say about that later.”
Patrick grinned. “I wouldn’t expect anything less. The Connor Devaney who raised Daniel and me had a powerful sense of right and wrong.”
Their father sighed. “Only because I was trying to make up for a great injustice I did to my other sons. I never wanted you two to be as weak as I was.”
“Connor Devaney, you were not weak,” Daniel’s mother said fiercely. “You made an impossible decision and you did it out of love. I won’t ever let you say otherwise. Maybe it was wrong. Maybe there was another way. But you were strong enough to live with the choice you made every day for the rest of your life. You didn’t turn to drink, as many men would have. You didn’t turn bitter and hard. You were a good father to the two boys we had left, no one here would deny that,” she said, regarding Patrick and Daniel as if daring them to challenge her claim.
“She’s right, Dad,” Daniel told him. “I can’t begin to understand the choice you made or what drove you to it….”
“And I hope to heaven you never have to make such a choice yourself,” his father told him. “But now I’m about to face the consequences.”
Daniel saw the real fear in his eyes and tried to reassure him. “It’s going to be okay, Dad. We’ve all come a long way. I’m not sure if reconciliation would have been possible one minute sooner than this, but it is possible now. I believe that with all my heart.”
“So do I,” Patrick said.
“From your mouths to God’s ear,” his father said quietly.
“Amen,” the rest of them said in a heartfelt chorus.
Chapter Fifteen
Daniel’s gaze sought out Molly the instant they walked into Jess’s. They made quite a little parade, his mother looking pathetically eager, Patrick wary, and their father as if he expected to be pummeled by a trio of outraged Devaney men. Molly gave him a reassuring smile, then came to meet him. She kissed his cheek, then gave his mother a warm hug.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Molly told her, including Connor Devaney in the comment. “There are a lot of people here who are anxious to see you.”
“More likely to lynch us,” his father said in an undertone.
“Dad!” Patrick protested.
“Okay, okay, I’m giving this a chance. I said I would, didn’t I?”
Just then a little girl’s voice piped up. “Is that my grandpa?”
“Hush, darlin’,” Ryan said, trying to maintain his grip on her.
But as he’d told Daniel on the phone, Caitlyn wasn’t going to be put off a minute longer. The three-year-old broke away from her father’s grasp and raced across the room, hurling herself straight at Connor. Startled, he reacted instinctively, scooping her up in his arms, then staring at her as if he wasn’t quite sure where she’d come from.
“Are you my grandpa?” she demanded, gazing at him intently.
Connor drew in a deep breath, and his eyes filled with tears. He blinked hard to fight them. “Yes, I suppose I am, little angel. Who might you be?”
“I’m Caitlyn,” she said without hesitation. “And that’s my daddy and that’s