“Does Heather think I’m that bad?”
“No. She’s just a confused young girl.”
“What about me? I’m confused, too. I’m trying my best, but it doesn’t seem to be good enough. Look at me. I’m a mess. I’ve got animal crackers and baby slobber all over me. I nearly charged out of Hardware and Muffins without my baby. My other daughter is mad enough at me to run away and I don’t know why! And you claim to have answers that you won’t give.”
“I can’t betray Heather’s confidence, Flynn.”
The roiling in his gut was so powerful, he thought he might explode. Or cry. When she reached out to touch him, he jerked back. He didn’t know which emotion would rule, and he couldn’t chance letting her accidentally push him over the edge.
The woman was stubborn, but she smelled of apples and cinnamon and radiated compassion and capability. She made him think of home and hearth and family—all the things he wanted most. She made him think of intimacy and fun also, two things that had been sorely lacking from his life for quite a while now.
Or at least since that night five months ago.
Even though he’d had more to drink than he should have, he remembered it clearly. Remembered Darcie clearly, her passion, her verve, her wholehearted giving.
Right now, though, she wasn’t willing to give. She held the key to his daughter’s whereabouts. How could he make her understand how torn up and frightened he felt at the thought of something happening to his daughter?
“Heather’s had it rough this past year. Her mom left right after Mary Beth was born, then ended up getting killed in an accident. My mom moved in with us, which really helped the girls over the hump, but she recently had to leave for Vermont to take care of my aunt who had hip surgery—and I don’t know why I’m telling you all this.” Saying it out loud made him realize how many women in his life had abandoned him. Some intentionally, some not so intentionally. God, he’d failed as a husband, and now his incompetence had him failing as a dad.
He was the one who’d wanted so desperately to be a father…but he hadn’t dreamed he’d have to do it as a full-time, single parent.
And failing dismally after the first three weeks of being on his own.
“You’ve got no reason to trust me, Flynn, but will you?” she asked softly.
“Trust you how?”
“Let me go find Heather.”
“I can’t…. That’s my job.”
“You’re going to stand on what you think is expected of you in a situation like this?” She shook her head, heaved in a breath. “As her parent you can force her to come home, but you can make it worse, too. And what’s to say she’ll stay put? She’s gotten up the nerve to make a move. The next time it won’t be as hard. Are you going to stay up all night watching her to make sure she doesn’t run again?”
“If I have to.” He’d do whatever it took, stick to her like glue, quit his job, rent a secluded cabin in the Pocono Mountains and force her to…To what? he wondered.
“I’m trying to tell you it might not be necessary. You need a mediator.”
“And you think that’s you?”
“I’m the one she’s been talking to. I’m the one she seems to trust right now.” She stroked the curls at the back of Mary Beth’s head, absently pressed a kiss to the baby’s hair. “Heather’s had a lot of upsets in her world lately.”
“I don’t need you to tell me the sorry happenings in my life,” he said tightly.
“See there?”
“What?”
“You’re not in the right frame of mind to successfully deal with Heather right now.”
Resentment made him edgy and sharp. “Don’t tell me how to deal with my—”
“Hold it right there, buddy.” Darcie jiggled and soothed when Mary Beth looked like she was going to cloud up again over the squabbling. “I’m trying not to judge you. I’m trying to help Heather. I’m trying to help you. I didn’t tell your daughter to run away—or to call me, for that matter. But she has and she did. I’m involved whether you like it or not. And because I’m an outside party, I can be more objective. If you go blazing after her, your emotions are going to come across as anger and you’re going to make it worse. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”
Her impassioned words seemed to echo off the tiled walls of the rest room. For a long moment, Flynn didn’t comment. He just watched her, making her squirm, making her forget why they were there…making her want.
“Did you run away?” His voice was soft and deep.
“No, but a close friend in school did.” Darcie didn’t want to think about that outcome. But her heart clenched anyway. “And we’re wasting precious time.” She juggled the baby as she reached for a piece of paper.
“Here, let me take Mary Beth.”
Darcie kissed the baby’s cheek and passed her back to Flynn, deliberately ignoring the flash of heat that streaked up her arms as their hands bumped and tangled.
Why, oh, why did she have to be so crazy about this guy?
With fingers that trembled slightly, she wrote down the address and telephone number of her parents’ house and handed it to Flynn.
“This is where my folks live. Are you familiar with the area?” The address was in a blue-collar section of Trenton called the burg. Her family had lived there for more than thirty years. At one time Flynn O’Grady had too.
“I can find it,” Flynn said.
“Good. Give me an hour head start and then meet me there.”
“I don’t like this.”
She softened, placed her hand on his arm and gave a compassionate squeeze. The jolt was there, as she’d expected. But she couldn’t not touch him. This man needed. Needed badly.
And that’s why she’d suggested her family’s home to meet. If she had any hope of staying out of trouble with him, she needed people around her.
Added to that, her mother had plenty of experience soothing the ruffled feathers of a rebellious teen. It was a knack. Between her mother and her grandmother, they would feed Heather back into good humor. And if Darcie’s guess was right, Flynn would come away from the evening a winner, too. Nobody left the Moretti house without a meal or dessert or a week’s worth of leftovers.
“I know you don’t like it, Flynn,” she said softly, making herself remove her hand after one final squeeze—that one purely for herself. “But please let me try with her first. I want the best for all of you.”
He nodded, his nicely tapered fingers absently stroking his baby daughter’s silky blond curls. “I’ll meet you in an hour.”
She hoped to God that was long enough.
And she hoped she’d find the nerve somewhere along the way to tell him he was going to be a daddy. Again.
Chapter Two
Heather O’Grady sniffed and wrapped her gloved hands around the chain of the swing, pushing off with her feet. The canvas strip hugged her thighs like a soft horseshoe cradle as the metal chains creaked against the swing set crossbar. It was dark in the playground, and quiet.
Snow started to fall again, the flakes dropping and melting against her coat. Absently she wondered if they would pile up in her lap if she stayed real still. Would they freeze her to death? Would anybody find her frozen body? A kid, maybe?
Oh, that wouldn’t