Carly Phillips - Sealed with a Kiss

“One and the same,” she told her family. “Like I said, he’s an old friend.” She chose her words wisely.

“He’s gorgeous,” Robin said. “The girls would get together to watch him in my dorm. The man is a genuine hunk.”

“Hubba hubba,” Ollie said, shaking his big green feathers and scattering pellets onto the rug beneath him.

Hunter was a hunk all right, Molly thought, and felt a heated flush settle in her cheeks.

“So he’ll do this for you, right?” Robin asked.

The hope in her voice tugged at Molly’s heart and she wished she could give her half sister the answer she desperately needed.

“I can’t say for sure. We didn’t actually part on the best of terms.” She held no illusions. Hunter would not be happy to hear from her at all.

Molly glanced down, recalling the hurt and devastation in his eyes when she’d rejected him. Her stomach twisted with regret but she couldn’t change the facts. Hunter had grown up in foster care. The little boy who was convinced nobody could love him had grown into a man who believed the same. And Molly had done nothing but prove him right. He’d put his heart in her hands and she’d squashed it.

“You were more than friends with Daniel Hunter, weren’t you?” Edna asked with all the gentle wisdom provided by her years.

Molly glanced up and met her grandmother’s warm gaze, wishing not for the first time that she’d had this kind of compassion and caring during the difficult years she’d spent growing up alone.

“Hunter and I, we were complicated.” But Hunter was nothing if not passionate about his work. She was counting on that passion to help persuade him. “If I can convince him to take the case, he’ll make sure justice is done regardless of his personal feelings. It just depends on whether he’s gotten over things enough to help me.”

“Oh great. It’s not enough that you turned our world upside down by showing up here but now Dad’s life depends on you and some guy you screwed?” Jessie reentered the room as dramatically as she’d left it.

The commander smacked her cane against the floor in response to her rude words.

The young girl flinched but didn’t miss a beat. “Screwed over. Dad’s life depends on some guy she screwed over,” she quickly added.

Robin groaned.

“Hey, it’s what I meant to say but as usual nobody gave me a chance to finish.”

Molly shut her eyes and silently counted to ten.

Then she rose and walked over to where her half sister stood leaning against the door frame. “You and I are going to have to come to a truce of some kind because I’m sick and tired of your bullshit,” Molly said, telling Jessie off for the first time since she’d walked into the house.

Her father had welcomed her into this home and nobody, especially not the youngest, most obnoxious member of the family was going to tell her differently.

The young girl’s eyes opened wide at Molly’s words. “What if I don’t want to?” she asked defiantly.

Beneath the bravado, Molly noticed the shakiness in her tone. That was Jessie’s tell. Her attitude couldn’t quite hide her insecurity and fear, not when her voice gave her away. “You may not want to but you’ll do it anyway. Would you like to know why?”

Edna and Robin remained quiet in the background, but Molly felt their silent support.

“Why?” Jessie lifted her chin a notch.

“For the same reasons you hate me. Frank’s my father, too, and I’m not going anywhere.”

Jessie glanced away, then predictably stomped out of the room.

And that, Molly thought, was that.

Robin applauded without making a sound, while Edna nodded her approval. The knot in Molly’s stomach eased slightly as she realized neither of them would turn their backs on her because she’d taken a stand.

“Good luck,” Edna said. “I’m going to the kitchen.” She made her way out of the room.

“I’ll be in my room studying.” Robin paused and glanced at Molly. “Good luck.” She winked and walked out.

Molly inclined her head. “I’ll need it.” Much more than anyone knew.

“Squawk!”

Molly walked over to Ollie’s cage and looked inside, making eye contact with the bird.

At least she thought she was making eye contact. “You could have a little more faith in me, you know. Hunter might be happy to hear from me.”

“Squawk!” Molly interpreted that to mean when hell freezes over. She scowled at the bird before picking up her bag and heading to her car.

***

DANIEL HUNTER ROLLED and stretched his arm across the width of his king-size bed. His hand hit something solid and he came awake quickly but not easily. His head pounded and his mouth tasted like cotton, but neither of those things bothered him as much as the realization that he wasn’t alone.

He peeled open one eye and glanced over at the brunette in his bed.

Shit.

Allison had stayed over. Although she wasn’t a one-night stand, she was as close as he could get in his small town. No strings would better describe their relationship, such as it was. He’d always made sure she left right after sex, after he’d complimented and cajoled her into taking off. He glanced at her sleeping form and wondered how to keep an easy thing going yet avoid an awkward morning after. He had no damn clue, so he closed his eyes in the hopes she’d wake up and leave in silence.

One hell of a way to wake up, he thought and immediately wondered what the hell he was doing to himself. He worked like a dog by day and pounded alcohol and screwed disposable women at night. It wasn’t a routine he was proud of and when the woman beside him stirred, she merely reinforced the fact that the instant replay of his life in general wasn’t particularly appealing.

A quick glance at the clock told him it was already almost noon. On Saturday. Yeah, things were going to hell and fast, he thought, just as the jarring ring of the doorbell jolted his aching head, preventing what would have been a trip down memory lane that detailed why his life had taken a downhill dive.

He grabbed for the jeans he’d left on the floor by the bed and headed to the door of his Albany-based apartment. Before he made his way there, the doorbell rang again. And again.

Whoever was behind it had the patience of a woodpecker. “Shut up, I’m coming,” Hunter muttered. “What do you want?” he demanded as he swung the door open wide, then stared at his visitor in utter shock.

The woman standing in front of him had to be a ghost or a vision because she sure as hell couldn’t be real. He wondered if he could be hungover and having a nightmare at the same time. Molly Gifford had walked out of his life without looking back.

“Molly?” he finally asked stupidly.

“Hi, there.” She raised a hand before dropping her arm back to her side.

Her familiar voice assured him he wasn’t dreaming. And a thorough once-over told him she hadn’t been suffering during their time apart. She wore tight-fitting jeans tucked into red cowboy boots he remembered well, mostly because he’d envisioned those legs wrapped around his waist as he drove into her moist, slick heat.

Not that he’d had the chance. During the last months he’d decided that he must’ve been the only guy in the history of mankind to fall in love with a woman he’d never screwed.

He cleared his throat and leaned against the wall for support. Between his aching head and cotton-filled mouth, thinking let alone speaking clearly was beyond him.

Her hair had grown longer, the blond strands falling over her shoulders, and a wisp of side bangs dipped over her forehead. She brushed them out of her eyes and studied him, her nose crinkling. “I woke you, didn’t I?” she asked, her normally confident voice tinged with uncertainty.

Suddenly he felt self-conscious, too, and he ran his hand through his messed-up hair. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a long story. Too long to tell from the hallway. May I come in?” She leaned up on her toes, trying to look past him into the apartment.

He was barely awake, his head pounded like a son of a bitch, and now Molly decided to show up for a talk. “Yeah, yeah. Come on in.” Daniel gestured for her to come inside.

She walked past him. Her fragrant, delicious scent smacked him in the face, reminding him like nothing else could of all he’d never have. Of why he was living day to day and not giving a shit about much of anything at all.

She gingerly stepped toward the TV room and he followed, taking in his living space at a glance. “I’d ask you to sit but as you can see there’s no room.”

“I can see that.” She turned toward him, questions in her eyes.

And in her brown eyes, he saw his life for what it had become. Really saw things for the first time. As a teen in foster care and a later a juvy facility, he’d promised himself he’d overcome his past-not just the parents who hadn’t wanted him, but the dirt and poverty surrounding him. Although he lived in an upscale high-rise in Albany, he lived like his parents and foster parents had. Beer cans littered the table, papers legal and otherwise were strewn across the couch and the floor, and an empty pizza box sat open on the pass-through counter separating the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. Nothing like being caught at his worst by a woman he’d once have done anything to impress, Hunter thought. Somehow he managed not to wince.

He straightened his shoulders to face her. He didn’t owe Molly an explanation. He didn’t owe her a damn thing. “Molly, why the hell are you here?”

“Well-” She breathed in deep. His gaze settled on her chest, which rose and fell beneath her tight but unusually bland beige-colored tee. He hated the effect she had on him, hated himself for wanting her though he knew she no longer felt the same. Assuming she ever had.

“Hunter? Come back to bed.”

Allison. He’d forgotten all about her. “Shit.” He glanced upward, seeing his life reduced to nothingness like the lone cracks in the ceiling.

Allison shuffled into the room, his unbuttoned shirt wrapped around her body, secured only by her arms. “It’s cold in here alone, baby.”

“Oh my God. You have company,” Molly said, the stark horror in her voice clear.

“Who’s this?” Allison asked sleepily.

Molly jerked at the sound of Allison’s voice. “You weren’t sleeping. You were…” Her voice trailed off. “Oh God.”

And Hunter stood frozen, staring at Molly’s stricken expression. The pain in his head had nothing on the sudden gut-wrenching cramp in his stomach. He had no reason to feel guilty or feel as if he’d been caught doing something awful, like cheating on her. She’d left him.

“Hunter?” Allison asked again. “Who is she?”

“I’m…nobody. This was a mistake.” Molly pulled her bag closer to her side, turned and ran for the door.

Her sudden movement brought Hunter out of the hangover, out of the fog of the past year and out of the shock caused by seeing Molly again.

He turned to Allison long enough to issue an order. “Get dressed. Please. We’ll talk when I get back.” Then he bolted toward the open door and ran into the hall, following Molly.

He wasn’t fast enough. The elevator doors slammed shut before he could reach her.

“Dammit.” He slammed his fist against the closed metal doors, then headed for the stairwell instead.

MOLLY RAN until she reached her car. Her hands shook as she searched for her keys. Not an easy feat in a bag big enough to carry all the crap she kept with her that normally seemed necessary but wasn’t. Not when all she wanted to do was find her keys and drive far away fast.

Seeing Hunter again, rumpled from sleep yet still so disarming and sexy, had reawakened the woman inside her she’d buried in order to be part of a family instead. She’d looked him over without shame, noticing how he’d left the button on his jeans undone. She’d been torn between staring at his razor-stubbled, handsome face or his bare chest and the light sprinkling of hair running low and disappearing into the waistband of worn denim. The brief glance had set her nerve endings tingling with sensual awareness and her heart pounding with sincere regret.

Yet before she could explain why she’d come or even make an overture of any sort, she’d been smacked in the face with evidence that he’d moved on.

It’s cold in here alone, baby.

Nausea swept through Molly and she shoved her hand into her bag once more, finally stabbing herself in the palm with her keys. She pulled them out and hit the open button on the remote just as she heard Hunter’s voice.

“Molly, wait.”

She shook her head. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d said this trip was a mistake. She’d find another way to save her father. Molly wasn’t a coward but she had no desire to face the man she’d interrupted mid-she-didn’t-want-to-know-what.