him really mad at me. But it's not because I think he's going to belt me or anything.' Bryan let out a long breath, then shifted so that he could drape an arm over Connor's shoulders. 'Look, Con, Devin's not like Joe Dolin.'
'He fights.'
'Yeah, but not with girls, or kids.'
'What's the difference?'
Connor was about the smartest person he knew, Bryan thought, but he could be so dopey. 'You just socked me, right? Are you going to go home and whip up on Emma?'
'Of course not. I'd never—' He broke off, brooding. 'Maybe it's different. I have to think about it.'
'Cool.' Satisfied, Bryan rubbed his sore ribs. 'Let's break out a soda, and you can make up a ghost story. A really gruesome one.'
* * *
Because Devin had awakened early, he was up and feeding the pigs when he spotted the two boys crossing from the woods with their gear and bag of trash. He lifted a hand in greeting, then cocked a brow when he saw the scrapes, bruises and ripped shirts.
'Must have been some night,' he said mildly. 'Run into bears?'
Bryan chuckled and greeted the exuberant Fred and Ethel. 'Nah. Wolves.'
'Um-hmm...' He studied Connor's puffy lip. 'Looks like you put up a hell of a battle.' He started to reach out for Connor's chin, but the boy jerked back.
'We lost the baseball in the berry bushes,' Connor said flatly. 'We got tangled up, and I fell.'
'Your mothers'll probably buy that,' Devin decided. 'Your dad won't,' he told Bryan. 'But he'll let it slide.' He emptied the bucket of grain into the trough and had the pigs squealing greedily. 'How'd it go otherwise?'
'It was great.' Bryan stepped onto the bottom rung of the fence to watch the pigs. 'We ate hot dogs and marshmallows and told ghost stories. We even heard the ghosts.'
'Sounds eventful.'
'Thank you for the tent,' Connor said stiffly.
'No problem. Why don't you hang on to it? I imagine you'll use it again before I will.'
'I don't want it,' Connor said, with a lack of courtesy so out of character, Devin only stared. 'I don't want anything.' He dropped the tent on the ground. 'I have to go.' He stood for a moment, chin jerked up, waiting for Devin to show him what happened when you sassed.
But Devin only studied his face, and there was puzzlement, rather than anger, in his eyes. 'Put some ice on that lip.'
Shoulders stiff, Connor turned and walked quickly away, without a word to his friend.
'I'll keep the tent, Devin.' Mortified, and irritated, Bryan shot Connor's back a seething look. 'He doesn't mean to be a jerk.'
'He's ticked at me. Do you know why?' When Bryan kept his head down, his hands in his pockets, Devin sighed. 'I don't want you to break a confidence, Bry. If I've done something to hurt Connor, I'd like to make it right.'
'I guess it's my fault.' Miserable, Bryan scuffed his shoe in the dirt. 'I said something about how you were stuck on his mom, and he went nutso.'
Devin rubbed a hand over his suddenly tensed neck. 'Is that what you fought about?' No answer again, and Devin nodded. 'Okay. Thanks for telling me.'
'Devin.' Loyalty had never been a problem for Bryan before. Now he felt himself tugged in different directions. 'It's just—he's just scared. I mean, Con's not a wimp or anything, but he's scared that if you have, you know, like a thing going with Mrs. Dolin, things'll be like they were. Before, you know. He's got it stuck in his mind that you'd start punching out on his mom the way that bastard—I mean the way Joe Dolin did.' Bryan looked around, but Connor had already disappeared into the woods. 'I tried to tell him he was off, but I guess he didn't really believe me.'
'Okay. I got it.'
'He'll probably hate me for telling you.'
'No, he won't. You did right, Bryan. You're a good friend.'
'You're not mad at him, are you, for talking back?'
'No, I'm not mad at him. You know how Jared feels about you, Bryan?'
Pleasure and embarrassment mixed, tinted his cheeks. 'Yeah.'
'I feel pretty much the same way about Con, and Emma. I just have to give him time to get used to it.'
She'd tried not to worry. Really she had. But when she looked out the window and saw Connor crossing toward the inn, the relief was huge. Cassie set aside the flour she'd taken out for pancakes and went to the kitchen door of the inn.
'I'm down here, Connor. Did you have—' She saw the bruised face, the torn clothes, and her heart froze in her chest. She was outside like a bullet, terror seeping out of every pore. 'What happened? Oh, baby, who hurt you? Let me—'
'I'm all right.' Still seething, Connor jerked away from her. The look he aimed at her was one she'd never seen from him before. It was filled with fury and disdain. 'I'm just fine. Isn't that what you always told me after he hit you? I fell down, I slipped. I walked into the damn door.'
'Connor.'
'Well, I'll tell you the truth. I had a fight with Bryan. I hit him, he hit me.'
'Honey, why would you—'
Again he jerked away from her hands. 'It's my business why. I don't have to tell you everything, just like you don't tell me everything.'
It was rare, very rare, for her to have to discipline the boy. 'No, you don't,' she said evenly. 'But you will mind your tone when you speak to me.'
His swollen lip trembled, but he kept his eyes steady. 'Why didn't you ever tell him that? Why didn't you ever tell him to mind his tone when he spoke to you? You let him say anything he wanted, do anything he wanted.'
Her own shame at hearing the bald truth from her son swamped her. 'Connor, if this is about your father —'
'Don't call him that. Don't
She made some sound as tears sprang to her eyes, but she couldn't speak.
'You're going to let it happen again,' Connor raged on. 'You're just going to let it happen.'
'I don't know what you're talking about, Connor. Come inside and sit down and let's straighten this out.'
'There's nothing to say. I won't stay if you marry Sheriff MacKade. I won't stay and watch when he hits you. I won't let you make me have a father again.'
She sucked in a harsh breath, forced it out again. 'I'm not going to marry him, Connor. I'd just started to think about it, but I would never have made a decision on sometnmg that important without talking to you and Emma. And I'd never marry anyone if you were against it. I couldn't.'
'He wants you to.'
'Yes, he wants me to. He loves me and wants us to be a family. He deserves a family.' When she said it, she realized how true it was, how selfish she'd been to ask him to wait. 'He cares for us. I thought you cared for him, Connor.'
'I don't want a father. I'm not ever going to have one, no matter what you do. Everything's good now, and you're going to ruin it.'
'No, I won't.' She blinked the tears back. 'Go upstairs now, Connor, and get cleaned up.'
'I won't—'
'Do as you're told,' she said sternly. 'However you feel about me, I'm your mother and I'm in charge. I have to fix breakfast down here. You clean up and keep an eye on Emma until I'm finished.'
She turned and walked back into the kitchen.
Somehow she got through it, the cooking, the serving, the conversations. When she'd finished clearing up, she checked on the children, suggested that they play in the yard while she tidied the guest rooms.
She refused Connor's stiff offer to help, and left them to play. She was changing the linens on the bed in Abigail's room when she heard the front door open and close.
