Richard pushed right past her. He pitched his voice to be heard as far as her bedroom upstairs. “Molly?” Call it a bellow.
She appeared from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a hand towel. “Richard?” she said in surprise.
“Tell me,” he said. “Tell me you aren’t planning to torture us for the rest of our natural lives.”
She went so still, she might have been turned into a statue. Only her eyes were alive, shimmering with emotion, taking in the fury that seemed to be consuming him.
And then even her eyes were shielded. She resumed drying her hands and looked at him with calm professionalism. Ms. Callahan, although barefoot and having shed her jacket. “I take it you’re not a fan of the idea,” she said coolly.
A part of him was aware that Cait hadn’t moved. Cold air was coming in the open door. He advanced on Molly, the muscles in his jaw painfully flexed.
“You couldn’t talk to me about this?”
“I thought I should be clear in my own mind whether I wanted to do it.” She raised her eyebrows, managing icy disdain. “Perhaps mistakenly I believed Cait and I were most impacted by this decision.”
The blow was deadly. It was all he could do not to hunch forward in a much-too-late attempt to protect his vulnerable midsection. His belly. His heart.
“That tells me where I rated in your planning, doesn’t it?” He said that quietly, so quietly he hoped Cait didn’t hear. But then he made sure his voice hardened. “Even if you don’t give a damn about me, make some effort to think about your daughter and my son, will you? And a little less about yourself?”
Her face had bleached pale. That was her main reaction, along with the fact that she’d gone back to being a statue.
He gave her a last, scathing look, turned and walked out.
If he had to stop a block from her house to pull himself together…well, it was dark, and no one would know.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“THERE’S NOTHING TO SAY,” Molly insisted, and tried to escape into her bedroom.
She hadn’t wanted to talk to Cait about Richard last night, and she wasn’t going to tonight, either. There wasn’t anything to say. He’d made his opinion really clear. And he’d done it in a way that left her quite certain there was no going back, even if she’d been willing to give up the idea of raising Cait’s baby in favor of a future with him. A future they hadn’t even discussed, that might or might not have been a possibility.
Her daughter had been trailing her through the house like a yapping dog going for the mailman’s leg. “Mom, you should talk to him, even if you won’t to me.”
Molly finally stopped at the bathroom door and turned, feeling almost frozen inside. “You saw him. You heard what he said. If you were me, would you call him? And what would you say?”
“Well…I don’t know.” Cait faltered. “But I think you hurt his feelings.”
“I hurt his feelings?” Oh, that was funny, considering what he’d done to her. She felt as if he’d stuck several particularly well-aimed skewers in her.
Tell me you aren’t planning to torture us for the rest of our natural lives.
Dear God, was that really how it seemed to him? That she wanted to keep the baby even though its very presence would forever be a torment to Cait, Trevor and Richard?
She hadn’t slept last night. She didn’t know how she’d be able to tonight, either, but she was desperate to be alone.
“He was wrong,” Cait said urgently. “Trevor and I talked about it today. We both like the idea of you keeping the baby.”
That made Molly blink, not a pleasant sensation when she felt as if she had sand on her eyeballs. “Trevor likes the idea,” she repeated slowly. Carefully.
Cait’s flush was a giveaway. “Maybe not like. But he’s getting used to it, Mom. He is.”
Her thoughts had slowed down, too. Her brain felt grainy and thick. “You weren’t so sure you liked the idea.”
“But I do.” Cait nibbled on her lower lip before going on in a burst. “I hated the idea of giving the baby away. This is, well, it’s scary, too, but in a different way. But once I thought about it, I knew it was right. You’ll love the baby, and I always wanted a sister or brother. Plus, I never knew how much you wanted another baby. I can tell you really do want her, and it makes me feel…I don’t know, like I’m giving you a gift. And that feels good.”
A sob escaped Molly. It came from nowhere. She hadn’t even felt it rising to her throat. She covered her mouth with her hand and stared over it with blurry vision.
“Oh, Mom!” Cait flung herself at her mother.