It wouldn't be all that difficult to keep him in the dark. With the season over, there was little chance she'd run into him, and she'd simply stay away from Stars headquarters when they started practice in the summer. Except for a few of Dan and Phoebe's team parties, she'd never socialized much with the players. Eventually Kevin might hear that she'd had a baby, but this morning's phone call would make him believe there had been another man in her life.

She gazed through the windows of her loft into the winter sky. Although it wasn't even six o'clock, it was already dark. She stretched out on the couch.

Until two days ago she'd never considered single motherhood. She hadn't thought much about motherhood at all. Now she couldn't think of anything else. The restlessness that had always seemed like a backbeat to her life had vanished, leaving her with the unfamiliar feeling that everything was exactly as it should be. She'd finally have a family of her own.

Roo licked the hand she was dangling over the side of the couch. She closed her eyes and wove the daydreams that had taken over her imagination now that her initial shock had worn off. A little boy? A girl? It didn't matter. She'd spent enough time with her nieces and nephew to know that she'd be a good mother regardless, and she'd love this baby enough for two parents.

Her baby. Her family.

Finally.

She stretched, content to the tips of her toes. This was what she'd been searching for all these years, a family of her very own. She couldn't remember ever feeling so peaceful. Even her hair was peaceful, no longer brutally short and back to its natural dark brown color. Just right for her.

Roo nudged her hand with his wet nose.

"Hungry, buddy?" She rose and was on her way to the kitchen to feed him when the phone rang again. Her pulse raced, but it was only Phoebe.

"Dan and I had a meeting in Lake Forest. We're on the Edens now, and he's hungry. Want to go to Yoshi's with us for dinner?"

"I'd love to."

"Great. See you in about half an hour."

As Molly hung up, the knowledge of how much she was going to hurt them hit hard. They wanted her to have exactly what they did-a deep, unconditional love that formed the foundation of both their lives. But most people weren't that lucky.

She slipped into her threadbare Dolce & Gabbana sweater and a skinny, ankle-length charcoal skirt she'd bought last spring for half off at Field's. Kevin's phone call had unsettled her, so she flipped on the television. Lately she'd gotten into the habit of watching reruns of Lace, Inc. The show was nostalgic for her, a link to one of the few pleasant parts of her childhood.

She still wondered about Kevin's connection to Lilly Sherman. Phoebe might know, but Molly was afraid to mention his name, even though Phoebe had no idea Molly had been with him at the Door County house.

"Lace is on the case, oh yeah… Lace can solve the case, oh yeah…"

Commercials followed the credits, and then Lilly Sherman as Ginger Hill bounced across the screen in a pair of tight white shorts, her breasts overflowing a bright green bikini top. Auburn hair billowed around her face, gold hoops brushed her cheekbones, and her seductive smile promised untold sensual delights.

The camera angle widened to show both detectives at the beach. In contrast to Ginger's skimpier apparel, Sable wore a high-cut maillot. Molly remembered there'd been an offscreen friendship between the two actresses.

The buzzer from the lobby sounded. She turned off the television and, a few minutes later, opened the door for her sister and brother-in-law.

Phoebe kissed her cheek. "You look pale. Are you all right?"

"It's January in Chicago. Everybody's pale." Molly squeezed her a moment longer than necessary. Celia the Hen, a motherly resident of Nightingale Woods who clucked over Daphne, had been created just for her sister.

"Hey, Miz Molly. We've missed you." Dan gave her his customary rib-crushing bear hug.

As she hugged him back, she thought how lucky she was to have them both. "It's only been two weeks since New Year's."

"And two weeks since you've been home. Phoebe gets cranky." He tossed his jacket over the back of the couch.

As Molly took Phoebe's coat, she smiled. Dan still considered their house Molly's real home. He didn't understand how she felt about her condo. "Dan, do you remember the first time we met? I tried to convince you Phoebe was beating me."

"Hard to forget something like that. I still remember what you told me. You said she wasn't entirely evil, just mildly twisted."

Phoebe laughed. "The good old days."

Molly gazed fondly at her sister. "I was such a little prig, it's a wonder you didn't beat me."

"Somerville girls had to find their own ways to survive."

One of us still does, Molly thought.

Roo adored Phoebe and pounced into her lap the moment she sat. "I'm so glad I got to see the illustrations for Daphne Takes a Tumble before you sent them off. The expression on Benny's face when his mountain bike slips in the rain puddle is priceless. Any ideas for a new book?"

She hesitated. "Still in the thinking stages."

"Hannah was delirious when Daphne bandaged Benny's paw. I don't think she expected Daphne to forgive him."

"Daphne is a very forgiving rabbit. Although she did use a pink lace ribbon for his bandage."

Phoebe laughed. "Benny needs to be more in touch with his feminine side. It's a wonderful book, Moll. You always manage to stick in one of life's important lessons and still be funny. I'm so glad you're writing."

"It's exactly what I always wanted to do. I just didn't know it."

"Speaking of that… Dan, did you remember-" Phoebe broke off as she realized Dan wasn't there. "He must have gone to the bathroom."

"I haven't cleaned in there for a couple of days. I hope it's not too-" Molly sucked in her breath and whirled around.

But it was too late. Dan was walking back in with the two empty boxes he'd seen in the wastebasket. The pregnancy test kits looked like loaded grenades in his big hands.

Molly bit her lip. She hadn't wanted to tell them yet. They were still dealing with the loss of the AFC Championship, and they didn't need another disappointment.

Phoebe couldn't see what her husband was holding until he dropped one of the boxes into her lap. She slowly picked it up. Her hand traveled to her cheek. "Molly?"

"I know you're twenty-seven years old," Dan said, "and we both try to respect your privacy, but I've got to ask about this."

He looked so upset that Molly couldn't bear it. He loved being a father, and he was going to have a harder time accepting this than Phoebe would.

Molly took the boxes and set them aside. "Why don't you sit down?"

He slowly folded his big body onto the couch next to his wife. Phoebe's hand instinctively crept into his. The two of them together against the world. Sometimes watching the love they had for each other made Molly feel lonely to the bottom of her soul.

She took the chair across from them and managed a shaky smile. "There's no easy way to tell you this. I'm going to have a baby."

Dan flinched, and Phoebe leaned against him.

"I know it's a shock, and I'm sorry for that. But I'm not sorry about the baby."

"Tell me there's going to be a wedding first."

Dan's lips had barely moved, and she was once again reminded of exactly how unbending he could be. If she didn't hold her ground now, he'd never give her any peace. "No wedding. And no daddy. That's not going to change, so you need to make peace with it."

Phoebe looked even more distressed. "I-I didn't know you were seeing anyone special. You usually tell me."

Molly couldn't let her probe too deeply. "I share a lot with you, Phoeb, but not everything."

A muscle had started to tic in Dan's jaw, definitely a bad sign. "Who is he?"

"I'm not going to tell you," she said quietly. "This was my doing, not his. I don't want him in my life."

"You damn well wanted him in your life long enough to get pregnant!"

"Dan, don't." Phoebe had never been intimidated by Dan's hot temper, and she looked far more concerned about Molly. "Don't make a decision too quickly, Moll. How far along are you?"

"Only six weeks. And I'm not going to change my mind. There'll be just the baby and me. And both of you, I hope."

Dan shot up and began to pace. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

She could have pointed out that thousands of single women had babies every year and that he was a bit old-fashioned in his outlook, but she knew him too well to waste her breath. Instead, she concentrated on practicalities.

"I can't stop either of you from worrying, but you need to remember that I'm better equipped than most single women to have a child. I'm nearly thirty, I love children, and I'm emotionally stable." For the first time in her life she felt as if that might be true.

"You're also broke most of the time." Dan's lips were tight.

"Daphne sales are going up slowly."

"Very slowly," he said.

"And I can do more freelancing. I won't even have to pay for child care because I work at home."

He regarded her stubbornly. "Children need a father."

She rose and walked to him. "They need a good man in their life, and I hope you'll be there for this baby because you're the best there is."

That got to him, and he hugged her. "We just want you to be happy."

"I know. That's why I love you both so much."

"I just want her to be happy," Dan repeated to Phoebe as the two of them drove home that night after a strained dinner.

"We both do. But she's an independent woman, and she's made up her mind." Her brow knit with worry. "I suppose all we can do now is support her."

"It happened sometime around the beginning of December." Dan's eyes narrowed. "I promise you one thing, Phoebe. I'm going to find the son of a bitch who did this to her, and then I'm going to take his head off."

But finding him was easier said than done, and as one week slipped into another, Dan came no closer to discovering the truth. He made up excuses to phone Molly's friends and shamelessly pumped them for information, but no one remembered her dating anyone at the time. He pumped his own children with no more success. Out of desperation he finally hired a detective, a fact he neglected to mention to his wife, who would have ordered him to mind his own business. All he ended up with was a big bill and nothing he didn't already know.

In mid-February Dan and Phoebe took the kids to the Door County house for a long weekend of snowmobiling. They invited Molly to come along, but she said she was on deadline for Chik and couldn't stop work. He knew the real reason was that she didn't want any more lectures from him.

On Saturday afternoon he'd just brought Andrew inside to warm up from snowmobiling when Phoebe found him in the mudroom where they were taking off their boots.

"Have fun, pookie?"

"Yes!"

Dan grinned as Andrew flew across the wet floor in his socks and threw himself into her arms, something he generally did when he was separated from either one of them for more than an hour.

"I'm glad." She buried her lips in his hair, then gave him a nudge toward the kitchen. "Get your snack. The cider's hot, so let Tess pour it for you."

As Andrew ran off, Dan decided Phoebe looked particularly delectable in a pair of gold jeans with a soft brown sweater. He was just starting to reach for her when she held out a yellow credit card receipt. "I found this upstairs."

He glanced at it and saw Molly's name.

"It's a receipt from the little drugstore in town," Phoebe said. "Look at the date at the top."

He found it, but he still didn't understand why she seemed upset. "So what?"

She sagged against the washer. "Dan, that's when Kevin stayed here."

Kevin left the sidewalk cafe and began walking along the Cairns Esplanade toward his hotel. Palm trees swayed in the sunny February breeze, and boats bobbed in the harbor. After spending five days diving in the Coral Sea with the sharks that swam near the North Horn site of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, it was nice being back in civilization.

The city of Cairns on the northeastern coast of Queensland was the diving expedition's home port. Since the town had good restaurants and a couple of five-star hotels, Kevin had decided to stay around for a while. The city was far enough from Chicago that he wasn't in much danger of running into a Stars fan who wanted to know why he threw into double coverage late in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship. Instead of giving the Stars the victory that would have taken them to the Super Bowl, he'd let his teammates down, and even swimming with a school of hammerheads wasn't making him forget that.