never survive the car ride downtown without touching her.
He’d whistled softly and she actually wagged a finger at him, admonishing him to behave. He laughed, knowing right then and there that he was lost. All the same, he was determined to keep their dinner nice and relaxed. He’d deposit her at home tonight feeling like she’d been out with her best buddy.
Riiiiight.
“What are you smiling about?”
Kelly had her head tilted in a beguiling way. He wanted to slide his hand beneath that sheaf of hair and feel the soft skin of her neck. He cleared his throat.
“I was thinking I will have to buy Matt a Lego set for softening you up toward me.”
Kelly arched an eyebrow in reply. “Really? Don’t you go bribing my son, now. I’ll put you both in a time-out.”
The raised eyebrow made him smile. “You don’t realize the effect you have on a man.”
“Oh, be gone with you. There goes that flirting again.”
He frowned. “Don’t you understand how attractive you are?”
“I have red hair and freckles...everywhere.”
“Yeah, and I could play connect-the-dots all day long.”
She laughed. “Time to change the subject, my friend.”
That’s right. Friends. “Okay. To what?”
She tapped a finger to her mouth. “You told me your parents were immigrants. What brought them over?”
Now that answer would sour any of his amorous thoughts. “Patrick, my mother’s brother, died due to circumstances with the IRA.”
“Was he a sympathizer?”
“No. He worked for the government as an IRA liaison to negotiate for a cease-fire. The Brits refused talks. Patrick got targeted as misrepresenting the IRA and was killed.” Evan expelled a breath. “From what Mom tells me, Patrick died trying to end fighting among his people.”
“How awful.”
“Unfortunately, the militants started threatening Mom’s family. She and my dad had just married. They decided to start a new life here.”
“Looks like they fared well.”
He grinned. “How do you like living here?”
She shrugged. “It’s my life now. Matt is my life.”
He gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. “And it looks like you, too, have fared well.”
* * *
TWO DAYS LATER, Kelly’s world unraveled.
Neverland was in the middle of its midmorning rush when Bunny received a phone call from her sister. Bunny reached for the remote and switched from NCTV to their competitor. It took seconds for the patrons, the waitstaff and Kelly herself to stop everything they were doing to listen to the newspaper reporter, Jay Doyle, airing his case against Presidential hopeful Buzz Campbell, accusing him of being a womanizer.
Doyle sat with Campbell’s disgruntled employee, Helen Thompson. It looked as though they just finished airing a segment on her sexual harassment case.
Doyle continued, “From the years she spent working closely with the senator, Ms. Thompson believes she is not the only woman he accosted.”
Behind him, half a dozen photos of Matt plastered the video monitors, including the photos taken of Evan carrying Matt over his shoulder after they got out of the limo. Close-ups of Matt’s face were set beside childhood photos of Buzz Campbell.
“In an interview with Mrs. Campbell, she showed me these photos of Senator Campbell as a child. Kelly Sullivan was once the Campbell’s nanny, who abruptly left their employ and now has a son who looks suspiciously like the senator.”
The news anchor said, “That is a damaging assumption. Aren’t you concerned about a lawsuit for slander?”
Doyle shook his head like a man delivering a death sentence. “I am so confident of the facts that a lawsuit would only prove the validity of my statements.”
Neverland became silent as a morgue. Kelly raced for the remote and snapped off the television. She turned to Bunny, feeling like she was about to puke.
“I need an attorney now!”
The place erupted in muffled conversation. Her patrons, some of them long-standing customers, stared at her with open shock.
Kelly’s throat was closing. She couldn’t breathe. Bunny pushed her toward the kitchen, but a woman sitting at the counter reached for Kelly’s arm. “Is he telling the truth?”
Kelly glanced around the diner. The woman was asking the same thing as every questioning gaze in the room. Kelly had protected herself from this possibility for so long that admitting the truth would be like peeling the skin from her body. Now wasn’t the time to change direction. “I cannot believe that man singled me out and tied me to the senator.”
Bunny added, “Any child with blond hair and blue eyes could resemble a dozen other children. This guy is off his rocker.”
Like a man on a mission, Evan barreled through Neverland’s doors.