“Ooh, I’d like to know that, too.” Edna walked into the room in her long bathrobe and Ollie on her shoulder.

“Spill the beans,” the macaw said.

“Yeah, spill,” Jessie said, laughing at the bird.

Molly glanced at her half sister who embodied another of Molly’s personal challenges. It seemed her life was full of them. She reminded herself she wanted to reach out to the teen and not alienate her further.

So instead of snapping back that her private life was none of Jessie’s business, Molly leaned forward in her seat and smiled. “Hunter’s getting along great. Thanks for caring,” Molly deliberately misinterpreted Jessie’s question and motives.

“I don’t-” The teen snapped her mouth shut. “I mean, I never said I-” She shook her head, let out a growl of frustration and eyed Molly’s breakfast instead. “Where are the bagels?”

“Right there, beside the fridge in the sealed bag. Why don’t you take both and join me.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” the commander said, laughing.

But Jessie, who had to catch the school bus, glanced at the clock on the microwave.

“You have time,” Molly assured her. “Besides, I won’t bite, snap or bitch at you. I promise.”

Obviously stunned into silence, Jessie made her breakfast, choosing margarine instead of cream cheese and OJ instead of coffee.

They didn’t have to like the same foods in order to get along, Molly mused. “So how was the party last night?”

Jessie flopped into the seat farthest from Molly, taking a bite of her bagel, chewing and swallowing before finally answering. “Actually, it wasn’t too bad. At least not for me. Seth had a bad time.” She downed a good amount of orange juice. “But the girls are starting to mellow out a little. Sarah even said she was sorry she’d been such a bitch and asked how Dad was doing.”

Molly paused, her mug halfway to her lips. Would wonders never cease? Jessie had answered her civilly and revealed something about her personal life. Molly tread carefully so as not to cause her to clam up again. “That’s good. I’m sure it hasn’t been easy for you.”

The teen shrugged. “I can handle it.” Her tone was defensive.

“I never said you couldn’t. I just know how mean kids can be. At least you’ve known your friends for a long time. There’s a bond there that you can each fall back on. When I was your age, I rarely stayed in the same place for more than a year or two, three max. So each time my mother did something stupid or embarrassing, the fallout was worse because I was usually already the outsider.”

Molly felt her grandmother’s compassionate gaze on her, while Jessie was uncharacteristically quiet.

Trying not to squirm, Molly wrapped her hands around her warm mug. “I’m sure that was more information than you wanted to know,” she said, forcing a laugh and privately waiting for Jessie’s nasty retort.

“Wow. That must have sucked big-time.”

Molly raised an eyebrow. Commiseration and not sarcasm? “Yeah, it sucked. And I didn’t have a strong family to fall back on like you do. I also didn’t have a best friend like Seth.” The memories of her emotionally deprived teenage years sent a chill racing through her, one not even the warm coffee could cure.

“What about your mother?” Jessie asked through a mouthful of bagel.

Molly wasn’t about to chide her for her manners now. “If I wasn’t at some expensive boarding school while she was off somewhere unable to be reached, then she was living at home doing the things she enjoyed-which was whatever cost the most money. Either way, same difference. She was never there for me in any way that mattered, and she usually screwed up any decent marriage she had by sleeping with someone. There’d be a scandal, the kids at school would get wind of it, and I’d be there dangling in the wind until she remembered she had to come get me because her husband wouldn’t pay the school tuition any longer.”

Jessie’s mouth hung open wide.

At least she’d finished her bagel, Molly thought, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. She didn’t want to ruin the moment between them.

Neither, it seemed, did the commander, who chose to remain silent and let the truce play out.

“What about your father? Or whoever you thought was your father? Was he a good guy?” Jessie asked, her curiosity about Molly’s past apparent.

“I always thought he was a cold, uncaring man. I’d get an occasional holiday card from him, but not much more. And since he never paid for my school or much else, I assumed it was because my mother had done something to make him hate us and that was that. It was only last year that I realized he had no obligation to me, legal or otherwise. He knew all along he wasn’t my biological father. And he claims he thought my mother’s marriages to rich men meant I was taken care of all those years.”

Molly’s throat ached as it usually did when discussing her childhood, but for once she really didn’t mind. Though she was surprised that sharing her past with Jessie came so easily, she was also glad. When Jessie wasn’t being a teenage brat, she was merely a wounded young girl. That Molly could relate to. She wanted to help her half sister and get to know her better.

“When things with my friends are bad, I always know I have my family.” Jessie looked at her through her big eyes. “I guess I’m luckier than I realized.”

Molly smiled. “That doesn’t mean you haven’t had your share of rough breaks. Losing your mom was an awful thing that shouldn’t happen to any kid.”

Jessie bobbed her head up and down, agreeing with Molly for once. “But Grandma came to live with us right away and Dad was always around. I can’t imagine what it was like for you.”

The commander silently sipped her coffee, her warm gaze darting between both granddaughters. Molly could only imagine how happy Edna was to have them talking civilly for once.

Molly glanced at Jessie and tipped her head to one side. “Don’t start feeling sorry for me or I’ll have to take your temperature and see what’s wrong with you this morning.” She grinned and silently implored Jessie to laugh, to reach out in a way that would mean she acknowledged they’d just taken a huge step forward in their relationship.

“Get over yourself,” Jessie said. And then she started to laugh hard, at Molly and at herself and her brattiness during the past months.

At least that’s what Molly chose to assume and nobody was going to tell her otherwise. Not when she and Jessie were sharing a laugh together.

“Did I miss something funny?” The general walked into the room, causing the chuckles to come to a halt. “Come on now, what are my girls laughing at?”

Molly prayed her father’s words, lumping Molly and Jessie together as his girls didn’t cause the teenager to remember she hated Molly for intruding on her home.

“You didn’t miss a thing.” Jessie rose from her seat, scooping up her half-eaten bagel and juice glass. “It was just…girl stuff. I have to go or I’ll miss the bus.” She threw out the garbage, and rinsed her glass and put it in the dishwasher. “Bye all.” She ran out of the kitchen without looking back.

Molly exhaled a long stream of air and met her father’s surprised gaze.

“Well,” he said, obviously at a loss.

She blinked at the doorway the tornado had blown through. “Well.”

“I guess what they say is true. You do live to see everything,” the commander said.

Still stunned as well, Molly could only nod. Later she’d mull over this morning’s conversation and even savor the warm fuzzy moments between herself and Jessie. For now, though, she had other things to think about.

Like whether or not to ask her father about being with Sonya last night. “How was your meeting?” she asked instead.

“It was okay. John Perlman was honored for his work for the association.” His answer was vague, his gaze never meeting hers.

She pursed her lips, about to call him on his lie when she heard footsteps.

“Morning, everyone.” Hunter’s deep voice set off instant recall inside Molly.

Every moment of being with him last night came flooding back in living color and detail. His scent, his touch, his gorgeous naked body, she thought, just as he strode into the room.

“Morning.” Molly lifted her mug and pretended to drink her now-cold coffee.

“Morning,” the general said. “I hope you’re sleeping well on that couch. Never used it myself so I don’t know if it’s comfortable.”

Hunter poured his coffee and joined them at the table. “I had an excellent night.”

He spoke to the general, but Molly had no doubt his words were meant for her alone.

“Can I get you something for breakfast?” the commander asked their houseguest. “Bagels, pancakes or eggs.”

Molly rolled her eyes at how solicitous her grandmother was being. “Your choice,” she said to Hunter.

“Condom definitely,” the parrot said.

“What did he just say?” Molly’s father asked.

“Repeat that,” Edna said to her bird.

Ever the trained parrot, Ollie complied. “Condom definitely.”

The commander blinked.

The general laughed through narrowed eyes.

Molly, who remembered that exact exchange between herself and Hunter last night, felt her face flame.

And poor Hunter turned to the refrigerator and began rummaging for food.

Before anyone could recover, Jessie ran back into the room without warning. “Forgot my lunch.” She opened the fridge and grabbed a brown paper bag. “Thanks again for picking up me and Seth last night, Commander. I appreciate it.” She kissed the commander’s cheek and then she was gone.

Molly wondered if her father knew Sonya had run into them at the pizza place and told them she was bringing home dinner for her son. A son who they now had public confirmation was at a party with Jessie. From Frank’s bland expression, he had no idea. Then again he was a military man. Keeping secrets had been part of his job.

One thing for certain, Hunter had picked up on the discrepancy just like Molly had when she’d listened to the answering machine last night. He turned away from his hiding place in the fridge and glanced at the general.

Confusion and curiosity were in his gaze. “I thought Sonya brought pizza home for Seth last night. How could he be out?”

“Well…” Frank shifted in his seat, Ollie’s comment obviously forgotten.

Molly closed her eyes and silently asked for forgiveness for what she was about to do. “Sonya knows that kids don’t usually eat at these parties. I’m sure she got the pizza for when he came home.” She cut off her father’s explanation.

She lied for Sonya and her dad.

She lied to the man she’d begged to help him.

Lied to the man she loved.

Because Molly was afraid if she didn’t cover for him now, Hunter would think Frank was lying about a lot more and decide the whole case wasn’t worth his time.

And if she balanced the case versus lying to Hunter, Molly knew she had no choice. Her father’s freedom won because without it, Molly’s life as she knew it didn’t exist.

She had picked her father over Hunter. Now Molly hoped she didn’t live to regret her choice.

CHAPTER TEN

HUNTER AND MOLLY followed Sonya into the family room. He’d brought along a yellow legal pad to take notes and figured he and Molly could compare what they learned later. He wasn’t surprised he was coming to rely on her thoughts and opinions, because she was so closely tied to the outcome of the case. The fact that they worked well together, bouncing ideas off one another, was a bonus. It reminded him of the few times in law school when they’d met up at the library and studied together; he smiled at the recollection. Of course, after last night he had other memories of Molly now.

He’d jolted awake this morning, her scent all over his pillows, the memories of making love to her vivid. Warm and painful all at the same time. Not painful because she’d left him in the middle of the night-that much he’d expected in order to avoid discovery by her family-but because he knew where things stood between them.

They’d had sex. He wanted to believe he’d scratched an itch he’d had for a long time and she was out of his system now, but things with Molly had always been complicated. Though she made him feel more than any woman he’d ever known, he wouldn’t repeat past mistakes. He knew better than to read more into their physical relationship than just sex. They were in close proximity because of her father’s case and they’d both needed a release of sexual tension. That’s all it had been. All it could be.

Even if a part of him wished otherwise.

They seated themselves on the couch. Molly edged her body right beside Hunter’s, her thigh in direct contact with his. Since he’d chosen the spot right beside the armrest, he had nowhere to escape to. She was so close, he broke into a heated sweat, reminders of last night and being buried inside her body overwhelming him.