Daniel's Desire. Sherryl Woods

you’re right. I am the one who’s being a hard-ass, but you don’t make it easy, Daniel, not when you insist on acting as if the folks did nothing wrong.”

      “Dammit, I know what they did was wrong. So do they, if you get down to it. People make mistakes.”

      “This was a helluva lot more than a mistake,” Patrick countered heatedly. “They didn’t just forget to bring in the morning paper or leave an umbrella behind at the office. They forgot three sons and left them to fend for themselves in another state.”

      Daniel frowned. “Don’t you think I know that?”

      Patrick held up his hands. “Okay, let’s not go down this path again. Why are you here? I assume you didn’t come just to hassle me.”

      “Business.” When Patrick regarded him with blatant disbelief, Daniel explained about the runaway he believed was working for Molly. “Have you seen her?”

      Patrick’s expression remained perfectly neutral. “As far as I know, Molly waits on all the customers herself. Always has.”

      “And you wouldn’t tell me if that had changed, would you?” Daniel said.

      Patrick didn’t have to respond. It was clear that Daniel wasn’t going to get any more information from his brother than he had from Molly or Retta. It was as if they’d formed this tight little circle to keep him in the dark. He dropped the subject. An uneasy silence fell again, the kind that had driven him to stay away in the first place. It had been too painful after all the years when he and Patrick had shared everything.

      He regarded Patrick wearily. “When is this going to stop?”

      “What?”

      “The tension between us. I didn’t abandon anyone. The folks did, and we both know they regret it, that they’ve regretted it every day of their lives.”

      “I’ve told you this a million times, but I’ll say it once more. You’re not going to get me to feel sorry for them,” Patrick said bitterly. “They made a choice, dammit. It could just as easily have been us they left behind. Would you be so blasted forgiving if that had been the case?”

      “But it wasn’t the case,” Daniel reminded him. “They gave us a home and their love.”

      “At the expense of three other sons,” Patrick argued. “Have they bothered explaining why yet? Or have you even asked?” At Daniel’s silence, Patrick shook his head in apparent disgust. “Obviously not.”

      “Any explanations they have are owed to Ryan, Sean and Michael, assuming they even care at this late date.”

      “Oh, they care.”

      “Then why haven’t they set up a meeting? I thought they’d want to see the folks when they came up for your wedding, but when I suggested it after the ceremony, they backed off.”

      “Maybe because it’s not so easy working up the courage to confront the parents who abandoned you. Maybe because they’re afraid of what they’ll do when they see the sorry excuses for human beings who walked out on them.”

      Daniel understood his brother’s pain, but he wouldn’t listen to him bad-mouth two people who’d done their best for them, if not for their brothers. Kathleen and Connor Devaney were flawed. They weren’t monsters.

      “Watch it, Patrick. Those two people gave you life and their love for eighteen years. I won’t listen to you talk about them as if they’re the scum of the earth. They deserve more respect than that from you.”

      “Yeah, they gave us everything, all right,” Patrick said, his tone scathing. “But at what cost?”

      “It must be nice to be so perfect that you can pass judgment on other people’s mistakes,” Daniel retorted.

      Patrick gave him a hard look. “While we’re on the subject of mistakes, are you ever going to give Molly the apology she deserves?”

      The sudden shift caught Daniel off guard. He knew Patrick was protective of Molly, but he hadn’t expected his brother to call him on what had happened four years ago, not at this late date. “I tried. She doesn’t want to hear it,” Daniel said. “Besides, what good are words?”

      “Not much,” Patrick agreed. “But she deserves them anyway. She doesn’t deserve you coming in here and hassling her over some runaway. There’s too much history between the two of you. Next time, send someone else.”

      “There is no one else. It’s my job. I’m trying to make sure the girl is safe and gets back to her parents. The fact that Molly has chosen to get herself involved is an unfortunate coincidence.”

      “Maybe the girl’s parents are no better than ours,” Patrick countered. “Have you considered for one second that she might be better off here with Molly?”

      Daniel sighed heavily. “That’s not my decision to make, not without all the facts. And if we’re just going to go round and round in circles, I might as well get out of here. I’m probably wasting my breath, but I’ll ask anyway. Let me know if you see this Kendra Morrow, okay? Try to persuade Molly to get her to talk to me. And warn me if you hear that our brothers are planning to show up on Mom and Pop’s doorstep. I’m not sure Dad’s heart could take it. Do they know he’s had bypass surgery since they were here?”

      “I told them,” Patrick said tightly. “I doubt they’re going to come to the front door and shout, ‘Surprise!’ Not that I’d blame them if they did. Turnabout’s fair play and all that. It couldn’t be any more of a shock than what Mom and Pop did to them, letting them come home from school to find an empty apartment.”

      Daniel winced at the reminder. He didn’t like surprises any more than he thought his father’s health could tolerate them. “Give me a number. Let me contact them. When they’re ready, I’ll set up a meeting. That way you won’t have to be caught in the middle.”

      Patrick scowled at the suggestion. “I’d say this is their call…and mine, for that matter, Daniel. After all these years and everything that happened, I’d say they have the right to set the time and place. You don’t get to control it, the way you like to control everything else in your life.”

      Patrick set down his half-filled mug of beer, stood up, then leaned down to look Daniel directly in the eye. “While you’re at it, leave Molly alone. She’s a good woman and you’ve hurt her enough. If it were up to me, you’d pay through the nose for what you did to her, but she’s more generous than I am.”

      “If I’d known about the miscarriage, I would have been there that night,” Daniel said, knowing that even that wouldn’t have been enough. “You didn’t call me.”

      “Because you didn’t exactly step up to the plate when she told you she was pregnant,” Patrick reminded him, his accusatory gaze unrelenting. “You were the one responsible for putting her in the hospital in the first place. She didn’t want you there. And she doesn’t want you barging in here now. She sure as hell doesn’t deserve to have you harassing her with your suspicions. Either come back with a genuine apology for what you did back then and today, or stay the hell away from her.”

      “I can’t do that, not while she’s hiding Kendra Morrow,” Daniel replied. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

      “That’s right—the rules,” Patrick said, his eyes filled with scorn. “If it’s written down in black and white, you know what you have to do. When it comes to anything else—our folks, Molly, a baby—you don’t have a clue.”

      As Patrick left, Daniel stared after him, sorrow building in his chest. Dammit all, he’d tried to see both sides of this mess with their parents, but sometimes reason lost out to fury. Sometimes he could hate his parents for doing this to all of them. He wondered what his brother would say if he knew that.

      He glanced across the bar to where Molly stood, watching him with a wary gaze. He’d do as Patrick asked and steer clear