she was concerned. And she loved every second of her job. Couldn’t imagine doing anything else with her life. “How old is he?”
“Eight.”
“Well, luckily, I know more about baseball than I do horseback riding, so I think we’ll be fine.” She grabbed up her clipboard and headed to the door. Then added, “I met Rafe Corbett, by the way. He stopped by with Molly. He seems very nice.”
“He’s your horseback date?” Rick’s words came with a scowl. A very deep scowl, in fact.
“Molly is. She’s having some trouble adjusting.” She noticed the frown, but it wasn’t her place to ask why. She barely knew Rick and didn’t know Rafe at all, and judging from Rick’s reaction to the mention of Rafe, she thought it best to simply ignore the obvious friction. Still, she wondered about it, especially as both men seemed so nice, so easygoing.
Rick drew in a stiff breath then let it out slowly, deliberately, as if trying to quell something inside him. “Well, you tell Molly for me that she’s welcome to come back to work any time she’s up to it. We all miss her, and would love having her back at the hospital again. And I’m worried about her, Edie. As close as she and Grace were…it makes me worry about my son, and what would happen to him if…” He shook his head. “Anyway, tell Molly we all miss her.”
Edie wondered about Molly’s future. Maybe even worried about it. What would happen to her if Rafe didn’t do well taking care of a child? Or, worse yet, if he turned out to be the one person in Lilly Lake who didn’t love Molly?
What would happen to Molly then?
It was something Edie didn’t want to think about…Molly going out to the foster-care system and being put up for adoption. She herself had endured a lifetime with that fear, living with a mother who’d had so many medical problems, a mother who often hadn’t been able to care for herself, a mother who had skirted death for such a long time. At times, it had seemed like the child protective services had perched just outside the door, waiting to take Edie away to some other circumstances, waiting to put her into what they viewed as a better home.
As a child, even as a teenager, it had always scared her. She’d had nightmares about being taken away from her mother, and had spent so many fearful years peeking out the front window, making sure nobody was coming up the steps. Sure, her life with her mother had been difficult, at times even back-breaking. But she’d loved her mother dearly and wouldn’t have done anything differently. Even now, though, when she remembered all those times someone had talked about taking her away…
What they hadn’t understood was that being with her mother, no matter how sick she’d been, no matter how poor they’d been, had been for the best. There’d been no neglect, no abuse. Only love. And Molly needed that now. What she didn’t need, or deserve, was the awful dread that came from the knowledge that she could be ripped out of the life she knew at any moment. No child needed that. So, one way or another, Edie was determined to make sure Molly’s future wasn’t filled with the things she’d lived through.
Of course, her own immediate future didn’t seem so bright, not when she thought about climbing up on that horse.
* * *
“She needs a good adoptive family. Actually, she deserves a good adoptive family. She’s a sweet child and I want her to be in a normal situation. My situation isn’t normal, there’s no room for a child in it.” Twenty minutes after he’d arrived home, Henry Danforth confronted Rafe, in person, with the one solution for Molly that Rafe was not going to accept. Keep her, adopt her.
“Well, then, if that’s your final decision, all I can say is that we’re working on it and we’ll do our best. In the meantime, the county child services agency doesn’t see any reason to remove her from the only home she’s ever known, and stick her in foster-care. Which is what will happen if you don’t look after her for now. And just so you’ll know, the closest foster-mother they have is half an hour outside Lilly Lake, and she already has six children, plus three of her own. Molly would literally have to be squeezed in. So, is that what you want for her, son? To be squeezed in? Or maybe I should ask if that’s what Grace would have wanted?”
He was the one being squeezed here, and Henry was so good at it. Almost as good as Aunt Grace had been. Of course Rafe wanted to take care of Molly in the best way possible. Of course he wanted her in a better situation where she wasn’t going to be one of the many foster-children. “So what are you telling me, Henry?” As if he didn’t already know.
“That if you want to do the right thing, you’re either taking Molly with you when you go home to Boston, or you’re staying here at Gracie House to take care of her for the time being. Which is probably what’s best…letting Molly stay in her own home.” He shrugged. “I mean, there aren’t a lot of other good options here. I’m sorry about that, but your aunt loved that little girl something fierce, and would have adopted her if the courts hadn’t said she was too old. And here’s the thing. She set up a sizeable trust for Molly. You already know about that, but what I haven’t told you yet is that Grace made you the permanent trustee…at least until Molly is twenty-one.”
“Without telling me? Could she do that?” He was surprised yet in a way he wasn’t. His aunt had always expected more of him than he expected of himself.
“Yes, she could, and that’s what she did, son. You were the only one she wanted.”
“So, let me guess. She thought I’d refuse if she’d simply asked me, so she locked me in this way instead?”
“She knew you’d refuse. But Grace always got what she wanted, one way or another. Didn’t mean to surprise you like I did, but that’s the way Grace wanted it, too. Didn’t want you having time to think about ways to back out of the arrangement.”
Rafe chuckled. “I guess I should have seen it coming.” He could almost see the smile on his aunt’s face while she plotted this whole affair. Damn, he missed her! “So, OK. For now, that’s fine. I’ll serve as Molly’s trustee. But I’m assuming that once she’s adopted, that will change.”
Henry shook his head, fighting back an obvious, devious smile. Henry was a burly man. Big, soft, with tons of gray hair on his head. And a pair of hazel, very astute eyes that missed nothing, including the fact that Grace Corbett, God rest her soul, had won this round. “The responsibility’s still yours, even after she’s adopted, son. Which in itself is going to be a problem, because finding placement for a child who comes with Molly’s substantial financial means isn’t going to be easy since there are going to be a whole lot of candidates lining up who’ll want her only because she’s a wealthy little girl. Of course, everything could be settled right now if you’d simply adopt her. Or at least let me write up the guardianship papers for you.”
“That sounds like Aunt Grace’s argument.” Rafe shook his head in frustration. “But I already told you, I’d make a terrible father. And guardian. I don’t have time, I don’t have experience. Maybe my aunt thought that tangling me up in all these arrangements would make me want to be an instant father, but it’s not happening, Henry. I care about Molly, but my focus is on my work. No serious relationships and especially no children. So it’s up to you to find Molly a family who wants her because they love her, not because she’s wealthy. And when you’re convinced that Molly is in the absolute best situation, you can see about changing the terms of Molly’s trust…phasing me out as trustee and giving the responsibility to her parents, because that’s the way it should be. Or I’ll have my attorney do it if you won’t. Bottom line, I’m going to make sure Molly gets the best. Personally oversee
