she’s ready. Maybe something like this could make her feel…supported.”
“And maybe,” Molly said slowly as the realization hit, “I’m involving you and Trevor when I shouldn’t be. You wanted to be kept in the loop. That’s, um, a courteous, long-distance relationship, not an up-close and personal one.”
“I like up-close and personal.”
Her pulse tripped. “You’re being nice,” she said lightly.
“No.” His voice deepened some. “I almost asked you out once.”
“Once?” she repeated stupidly. “During one of our congenial little chats?”
Richard chuckled. “High school dance.”
Oh, God. That’s why he’d loitered beside her, hands in his pockets, making pointless conversation? He was waiting to get her alone?
Her heartbeat had rocketed now. “I didn’t have a clue.”
“I noticed. And realized I’d picked a really stupid time and place to ask. Pretty poor month and year, too, when we were bound to be dealing with each other over Trevor. I decided to wait until he’d graduated.”
“Oh.” Brilliant. I am so out of practice. Then, Do I want this? “Instead, we may be cograndparents.”
“Not quite what I pictured,” he admitted. “Anyway, I thought it was fair to tell you.”
A panicky fear that the subject might be closed for good had her speaking up. “I…don’t know what I would have said. You’d gotten tangled up in my mind with Trevor. By the time of the dance, I guess I knew you weren’t the irresponsible parent I’d imagined you, but…”
“You were still mad.”
“Yes.”
“If you hadn’t been?”
No question there. “I’d have said yes.”
“Ah.” His quiet satisfaction was apparent. “Well, why don’t we hold the thought? Or bring our kids on our first date.”
He made her laugh so easily. “Let’s do that. I’ll sound out Cait. You do the same with Trevor.”
“Got it.” The smile was there again, which warmed her. “Did we talk out your mood?”
“Yes, I think we did. Thank you. You’ve been a lifesaver.”
“When I wasn’t threatening you with my buddy the superintendent.”
“Do you know him?” she asked, curious.
“Yes, he put an addition on his house a couple of years ago. I’m not so sure he’d agree that the fact that I wired it made us best buds, though.”
The call ended on another laugh. Molly was left wondering what she would have said that night, if Richard had taken her by surprise the night of the dance and asked her out.
* * *
TREVOR STOOD IN THE DARK, looking up at Cait’s bedroom window. Her blinds were closed, but not tightly. He could see that her light was on.
He’d expected to have to climb over their back fence, but found he had been able to reach over and unlatch the gate. Light poured through the kitchen window and the French doors, so he’d had to move carefully to reach the back of the house without getting spotlighted like a deer by night hunters. Now he cautiously eyed the possibilities.
They had an arbor, too. Not as sturdy as Dad’s, but doable. It didn’t reach quite underneath Cait’s window, either, but he thought he could knock on the glass. If she’d open up, he could grip the sill and swing himself up.
Assuming she didn’t freak, of course. Scream. He’d left the back gate open for a quick getaway, in case.
Was this a totally dumb-ass idea?
No. He had to talk to her. As far as he was concerned, she’d chosen the time and place. Dad said she’d checked out adoption agencies last weekend—without telling him a word about it. He especially wanted to talk before they both got to participate in the nice, civilized dinner party put on by her mother. Because that would relax him and Cait, sitting down to eat under their parents’ eagle eyes.
Do it, he decided, crouched and jumped. Easy as a slam dunk, his fingers locked over the rough wood of the crosspiece. He dangled for a moment, swung and, when the momentum was right, levered himself up. He sat atop the beam for a moment, then rose to a crouch, toed over to the house and braced an open hand on the siding. Okay, now, if he leaned…stretched… Yeah. He rapped lightly on the glass.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the blinds were parted and he saw her face. He waggled his fingers. Blinds snapped shut. He waited, until finally they rose and then she opened the window.
“Trevor?” she whispered.
“Yeah, can I come in?”
“Are you nuts?” Her hair was tousled, her face scrubbed clean, making her look even younger than usual and she wore… Wow. Some kind of saggy-baggy T-shirt thing.