This Heart Of Mine

'Kevin didn't have to bring me up here, but he did it anyway because he knew I needed help.' She took a deep breath and reminded herself he'd forgiven her and that she owed him this. 'He's been wonderful, extremely kind and sensitive, and I'd appreciate it if the two of you stopped being so suspicious of him.'

'We aren't-'

'Yes you are. It's put him in a difficult position.'

'Maybe he should have thought about that when he was dragging you into the woods on Sunday,' Dan drawled. 'Or was he too busy being kind and sensitive?'

Kevin got that tight look around his jaw again. 'Exactly what are you trying to say, Dan?'

'I'm saying that if helping Molly was just a humanitarian gesture on your part, you shouldn't be sleeping with her.'

'That's it!' Molly exclaimed. 'You just crossed the line.'

'It's not the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last. Phoebe and I watch out for our family.'

'Maybe you should watch out for somebody else in your family,' Kevin said quietly. 'Molly's asking you to respect her privacy.'

'Is it her privacy you're worried about or your own?'

Antlers were clashing again, but Molly didn't care. 'You keep forgetting that I'm not accountable to you any longer. As for my relationship with Kevin… In case you haven't noticed, we're not even sleeping under the same roof.'

'And I wasn't born yesterday,' Dan said stubbornly.

Molly could no longer hold back. 'How about some simple courtesy, then? I've spent the past twelve years pretending I don't see the two of you grope each other, pretending I don't hear the two of you at night when you make-believe me-way too much noise. The fact is, Kevin and I are married at the moment. We'll be getting a divorce soon, but we don't have one yet, so whatever is or isn't going on between us isn't a topic for discussion. Do you understand me?'

Phoebe was looking increasingly upset. 'Molly, you're not the kind of person who can take sex lightly. It needs to mean something.'

'You're damn right it does!' Dan whirled on Kevin. 'Did you forget that she just had a miscarriage?'

'Back off.' Kevin's lips barely moved.

Dan saw he wasn't getting anywhere there and zeroed in on Molly. 'He's a football player, and it's part of the mentality. He may not intend to, but he's using you.'

Dan's words stung. He understood what it was to love a woman, so he recognized how shallow Kevin's feelings for her were.

Kevin shot forward. 'I told you to back off.'

Molly couldn't let this go on any longer, so instead of crying as she wanted to, she went on the attack herself. 'Wrong. I'm using him. I lost a baby, my career's in the toilet, and I'm broke. Kevin's my distraction. He's my reward for twenty-seven years of being a good girl. Now, do you have any more questions?'

'Oh, Molly…' Phoebe chewed her bottom lip, and Dan looked even more upset.

Molly lifted her chin and glared at both of them. 'I'll give him back when I'm done with him. Until then leave me alone.'

She'd almost reached Lilies of the Field before Kevin caught up with her. 'Molly!'

'Go away,' she snapped.

'I'm your reward?'

'Only when you're naked. When you have your clothes on, you're a cross to bear.'

'Stop being a wise-ass.'

Everything was falling apart. Eddie Dillard was showing up tomorrow, and Kevin had found someone else to run the campground. Even worse, there was nothing that could make him care about her in the same way she cared about him.

He touched her arm. 'You know they mean well. Don't let them get to you.'

He didn't understand that they weren't the ones who were tearing her apart.

Lilly refused to look at the clock as she moved away from the window. The Calebows had finally managed to corner Kevin and Molly, but she couldn't imagine that the confrontation had been productive. Her son and his wife didn't seem to know what they wanted from their relationship, so she doubted they could explain it to her family.

Lilly had liked the Calebows immediately, and their presence these last five days had helped lift her heavy heart. They obviously loved Molly and, just as obviously, saw Kevin as a threat, but Lilly was beginning to suspect that Kevin was as big a danger to himself as he was to Molly.

Nine-thirty… She headed for the armchair in the corner where she'd left her quilting but picked up a magazine instead. She hadn't been able to work on her quilt since Sunday, when Liam had issued his ultimatum. And now it was Thursday.

Come to my house on Thursday evening… If you don't show up, I won't come looking for you.

She tried to build up some resentment against him, but it didn't work. She understood exactly why he'd done it, and she couldn't blame him. They were both too old to play games.

9:34… She thought about Kevin taking over the bedroom downstairs. She liked falling asleep knowing they were under the same roof. When they passed each other in the hallways, they smiled and made small talk. At one time that would have been more than she could have hoped for. Now, it wasn't enough.

9:35… She concentrated on flipping through her magazine, then gave up and paced the floor. What good were life lessons if you didn't pay attention to them?

At ten-thirty, she forced herself to get undressed and put on her nightgown. She got into bed and stared at the pages of a book she'd been enjoying only a week earlier. Now she couldn't remember anything about it. Liam, I miss you so… He was the most remarkable man she'd ever met, but Craig had been remarkable, too, and he'd made her miserable.

As she reached across the bed and turned off the light, her world had never seemed smaller or her bed lonelier.

Eddie Dillard was big, genial, and coarse, the kind of man who wore a gold chain, burped, scratched his crotch, carried a wad of bills held together with a big money clip, and said…

'You duh man, Kev. Isn't he, Larry? Isn't Kev here the man?'

Oh, yes, Larry agreed, Kev was definitely the man.

Dillard and his brother had shown up late that morning in a black SUV. Now they were sitting around the kitchen table eating salami sandwiches and belching beer while Eddie gloated over the prospect of owning his own fishing camp and Larry gloated over the prospect of running it for him. To Molly's dismay, they all seemed to regard it as a done deal.

This would be a place, Eddie said, where a man could put up his feet, relax, and get away from being 'pussy- whipped by his wife.' This last was uttered with a wink, clearly signaling (one man to the other) that no woman pussy-whipped Eddie Dillard.

Molly wanted to throw up. Instead, she jammed a tiny bar of French-milled soap into one of the bird's-nest baskets they used in the bathrooms to hold toiletries. She didn't know whom she disliked more, Eddie or his revolting brother Larry, who planned to live upstairs in the house while he ran the fishing camp.

She glanced over at Kevin, who was leaning against the wall sipping from a longneck. He didn't burp. When Eddie had arrived, Kevin had tried to get rid of her, but she wasn't going anyplace.

'So, Larry,' Eddie said to his brother, 'how much you figure it'll cost to paint these frou-frou cottages?'

Molly dropped one of the tiny, frosted-glass shampoo bottles. 'The cottages were just painted. And they're beautiful.'

Eddie seemed to have forgotten she was there. Larry laughed and shook his head. 'No offense, Maggie, but it's gonna be a fishing camp, and guys don't like fruit colors. We'll just paint everything brown.'

Eddie pointed at Larry with his longneck. 'We're only painting the cottages in the middle, the ones around that whadyacallit?-that Common. I'm gonna tear down the rest of them. Too much upkeep.'