Free This Heart of Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips Page B

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.
    An Aussie hottie in a halter top and tight white shorts gave him the twice-over, followed by an inviting smile. "Need a tour guide, Yank?"
    "Thanks, not today."
    She looked disappointed. He probably should take her up on her invitation, but he couldn't work up enough interest. He'd also ignored the seductive overtures of the sexy blond doctoral candidate who'd cooked on the dive boat, but that had been more understandable. She was one of the smart, high-maintenance women.
    This was the heart of Queensland's monsoon season, and a splatter of raindrops hit him. He decided to work out at the hotel health club for a while, then head over to the casino for a few games of blackjack.
    He'd just