Free Daniel's Desire by Sherryl Woods

Daniel’s office. She wouldn’t call, though. She’d leave it up to fate whether or not she actually saw him.
    And in case fate was feeling particularly whimsical, maybe she ought to put on something fancier thanwhat she wore to work every day. It always threw Daniel off-kilter when she dressed up, and she definitely wanted him off-kilter.
    Her wardrobe didn’t run to anything too dressy, but she did have a couple of power suits she could choose from when she had to meet with the town muckety-mucks for various permits. Used to seeing her in jeans and T-shirts, the officials were pretty much rendered speechless by the power suits. And the suits gave her a confidence she needed when she was away from her own turf.
    She had the choices tossed across her bed when Kendra wandered in, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
    “What’re you doing?” she asked Molly, flopping down on the bed and only accidentally avoiding the suits.
    “Picking out something to wear to see Daniel Devaney,” Molly said, studying the suits with a critical eye. One was teal blue and fairly sedate. One was drop-dead red and had a neckline that plunged daringly. She usually wore it with a prim white blouse to negate the sexy effect.
    Kendra, awake now, bounced off the bed and peered past her. “Red suit. No blouse,” she said without hesitation. “It’ll take him a week to get his tongue untangled.”
    Molly stared at her. “I’m not entirely sure that’s the effect I ought to be going for. I want to project friendliness and reliability, not seduction.”
    Kendra grinned. “Seduction’s always better.” She said it with the assurance of someone much older.
    “How on earth do you know that?” Molly asked.
    “I’m female and I’m smart.”
    “So am I, but I didn’t know that at thirteen.”
    “Maybe you weren’t as smart as I am,” the girl said, her expression suddenly turning oddly glum.
    Something in her tone alerted Molly that the conversation had suddenly turned serious, though for the life of her she couldn’t detect why being smart would be a problem.
    “How smart are we talking?” Molly probed carefully.
    Kendra shrugged.
    “Kendra?”
    “They say my IQ is off the charts, whatever that means. I don’t see the big deal.”
    “It’s something to be proud of,” Molly told her, though it was evident Kendra didn’t see it that way.
    “Yeah, I guess.”
    Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place for Molly. Not only did Kendra’s parents intend to send her away, but her friends at school were more than likely intimidated by her intelligence—assuming she actually had any friends other than kids who wanted to borrow her homework and have her help them cram for an upcoming exam.
    “Does that have anything to do with why you ran away?” Molly asked.
    “Never mind,” Kendra said, her expression pleading with Molly to let the subject drop. “We’re talking about you and that suit. Just wear the red one, okay? And I’ll fix your hair. That straight style is way too sixties.”
    Willing to let the girl’s reaction pass for now, Molly asked, “What do you know about the sixties?”
    “Duh! We studied it in history. Hippies. Free love. Vietnam demonstrations. Woodstock.”
    For some reason Molly had a lot of trouble thinkingof the decade before she was born as being history quite as ancient as Kendra seemed to be implying. Still, it seemed as if that was yet another discussion it would be pointless to pursue.
    For the next hour Molly put herself in Kendra’s hands. The girl seemed to be getting a huge kick out of playing beauty shop with a real-life woman to fix up. When she was finished with Molly’s hair, she stood back and studied her with a critical gaze, then grinned.
    “Oh, yeah, Daniel Devaney isn’t going to know what hit him,” she concluded, then turned the mirror so Molly could finally get a glimpse of herself.
    “Oh, my God,” she whispered, stunned. She actually looked as if she’d stepped out of the