as a glint of humor in his eyes. When he was like that, it was easy enough to pretend that she’d never felt a thing for him. Of course, the pretense was just that, a lie to keep her safe.
Her hand instinctively went to her belly, covering the empty womb where her child—hers and Daniel’s—should have been safe, should have grown until ready to face the world. She struggled against a flood of tears.
“I am not shedding one more tear over that man,” she said staunchly. And she’d shed all she could over her lost child.
But despite her intentions, the tears fell anyway. She sank onto the edge of the bed, still clutching the picture, mentally cursing herself for not having thrown it away years ago.
A whisper of sound had her wiping her eyes before she faced Kendra, who was standing uncertainly in the bedroom doorway.
“Are you okay?” the teen asked worriedly.
“I’m just fine,” Molly reassured her, then patted the edge of the bed. “Come sit here for a minute.”
Kendra sat next to her, keeping a careful distance between them. “I tried to wait up for you. I guess I fell asleep.”
“That’s okay.”
“We can talk now, if you want.”
“Sweetie, I need to know why you ran away from home. That’s the only way I can help you.”
“I can’t say,” Kendra said, her expression apologetic. “I’m sorry. You’re being real nice to me, but I can’t. It will ruin everything.”
What an odd thing to say. Puzzled, Molly studied her. “What will it ruin?”
“Can’t I just stay here a little longer, please? I’m helping Retta. She said I was doing good. She taught me to make chowder today, and the customers liked it. I heard them say so.”
“You are good, and if it were just about a job, you could stay,” Molly told her. “But you have a home, Kendra. You have parents who are worried sick about you. I have to think about them, too.”
“Is this just because you don’t want to keep fighting with that man who came today?”
“No, it’s because I feel guilty standing between you and your parents when I don’t know what’s going on.” She tucked a finger under Kendra’s chin and forced the girl to meet her gaze. “What did they do that was so awful?”
“It’s not what they did,” Kendra said at last. “It’s what they’re gonna do.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They’re going to send me away,” she said, barely choking back a sob. “I’m just saving them the trouble.”
And before Molly could ask a single question, Kendra was out of the room and out of the apartment, thundering down the stairs and out into the night.
Molly raced after her, then stopped when she got to the front door of Jess’s. Kendra was outside, but she hadn’t gone far. Molly pulled a chair over by the door and waited, leaving light from the bar spilling into the street. She wanted Kendra to know that when she was ready, this was one home she could come back to.
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