Daniel's Desire - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,8
didn’t it?” Retta said. “Now get on out of here. I have work to do and I can’t do it with the likes of you underfoot.”
Daniel left, grateful to be away from Retta’s accusatory looks and harsh words. He deserved all she’d said and more, but that didn’t make it any easier to take.
Molly was behind the bar, pretending to wipe off the already shiny surface, when he emerged from the kitchen.
“Find anyone?” she inquired.
“Just Retta, looking as pleasant as ever,” he admitted.
“She doesn’t like you.”
“She did once.”
“So did I,” Molly retorted. “Times change.”
Daniel kept his gaze steady. “Do you want to hash out our old news here and now, with everyone looking on?”
Molly glanced around and evidently took note of the fascinated gazes turned their way. She shrugged. “Not particularly.”
“Then give me your key.”
She blinked at that. “What the hell do you want with my key?”
“I’m going upstairs to look for the girl. Not ten minutes ago, you said you had no problem with that.”
“Well, I do now. You’ll go upstairs over my dead body,” she said, standing defiantly in his path.
His gaze never wavered. “Your choice.”
The standoff lasted for what seemed like an eternity, but Molly clearly knew him well enough to realize that he wasn’t going to leave until he’d completed his search. She reached in her pocket, then slapped the key in his palm.
“Have a ball,” she said sarcastically. “When you get to the bedroom, be sure to spend a few minutes reliving old times. Of course, things aren’t exactly the same. I’ve managed to rid the room of all traces of you.”
He turned and stalked off before she could see that her jibe had hit home.
Upstairs, he opened the door to her private quarters, then sucked in a deep breath as a million and one memories assailed him. He’d spent some of the happiest nights of his life in this apartment.
It still bore the faint scent of Jess’s pipe tobacco, the more recent scent of Molly’s perfume. The carpet was worn bare in spots, and the overstuffed furniture had seen better days, but Molly had added touches that made the place feel cozy rather than shabby. There were fresh flowers in a vase on the table in the tiny kitchen, another vase beside the bed. There was a gallery of framed snapshots on her dresser, but the space where his had been was gathering dust. She’d tossed a bright red chenille spread across the back of the sofa and added a pile of pillows. A stack of well-worn paperbacks, mostly Louis L’Amour westerns, still sat beside Jess’s favorite chair.
Being here again, absorbing the atmosphere, made Daniel’s heart ache. The pain was deeper because he was here not by invitation, but because he’d intruded. His lack of trust today was just one more thing to be added to the list of his sins he was certain Molly kept in some mental notebook. He doubted there was enough time left in either of their lives for him to make amends.
Worse, there was no sign of Kendra Morrow, so he’d alienated Molly yet again for no good reason. That didn’t mean he believed for one second that Kendra wasn’t around. He had caught a glimpse of her slipping into the kitchen when he’d first arrived—there wasn’t a doubt in his mind about that. If he’d brushed past Molly, he might have caught the girl, but he hadn’t. One of these days he’d try to figure out why. Maybe he’d hoped that, despite everything that had happened between them, Molly would be straight with him. Maybe he’d just wanted an excuse to keep coming around.
But she hadn’t been straight with him and it was plain that she intended to make this a whole lot more difficult for all of them than it needed to be.
“I’ll find her eventually,” he told Molly when he’d completed his fruitless search and joined her again in the bar. “Why not make it easier for everyone and cooperate? I’m not going to snatch her away from here. I just want to make sure she’s okay. She can stay with you until Joe and I check things out at her home.”
Molly evidently didn’t buy the promise. She looked him straight in the eye and said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Have it your way then,” Daniel said with a sigh. “I’ll be back.”
“I’ll look forward to it.” She gave him a blatantly phony smile. “Does this mean you don’t want that chowder?”
Daniel knew