by Renee Ryan
Still no response.
Frowning, he stared straight ahead with a narrowed gaze, as if by sheer force of will he could make Fanny obey his command.
“I brought Molly with me.” Male frustration rolled off him in waves, but his tone remained conversational. “She’s eager to speak with you.”
More silence.
“Fanny.”
“Go away, Garrett.” The muffled reply came from just behind the door, as if Fanny had her forehead pressed to the wood.
He fisted his hand again, drew in several breaths then uncurled his fingers. Muttering to himself, he began pacing. A black weight seemed to settle on his shoulders.
Molly tried not to watch him move, tried not to see the boy she’d once loved inside the man he’d become. It was hopeless, of course. Whenever Garrett was near, she rarely saw anything but him.
She tracked his progress through the room. The hint of a swagger clung to him as naturally as the year-round snow on the mountain peaks. Garrett’s cowboy upbringing was written all over him, as natural as the innate integrity and strong sense of family all the Mitchell brood possessed.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into my sister,” Callie whispered to Molly in a low tone, her gaze tracking her brother’s movements. “She’s acting irrational. And I…that is, I…”
Letting her words trail off, she pressed her lips tightly together, sighed unhappily.
Garrett’s feet ground to a halt. “What have you done, Callie?”
She took a shuddering breath. “It’s not what I did. It’s what I said.”
Molly touched the other woman’s arm. “I’m sure it wasn’t anything too terrible.”
“Oh, it was bad all right. I really upset her. But I don’t regret a thing I said, not one thing.” Callie lifted her chin in an unexpected show of rebellion. “Someone needed to talk some sense into that stubborn girl. Why not me?”
“What did you say to her, Callie?” Garrett’s voice held remarkable patience, even though his eyes grew dark with banked emotion.
“I said—”
“She told me I’d made a grave mistake.” The reply came from the open doorway where Fanny stood glaring at her sister. Eyes red-rimmed and puffy, she wrapped her arms around her waist in a defensive gesture. “She warned that if I didn’t ask for his forgiveness, I would lose Reese forever.”
That didn’t sound too terrible, Molly decided, especially since it was partly true, assuming Fanny still loved Reese.
“She also called me…” Blinking rapidly, Fanny’s bottom lip trembled. “Stupid.”
Oh, dear.
“I didn’t call you stupid.” Callie snorted in disgust. “I said you were stupid to let Reese go.”
At this, Fanny’s eyes glazed over, giving her a lost, dejected look. Tears wiggled to the edges of her thick lashes but she bravely held them in check.
“Reese is a good man.” Callie jammed her hands on her hips, her earnest tone emphasizing her words. “He’s decent and loyal. You won’t find another like him.”
“If he’s so wonderful, you marry him.”
“He wants you, Fanny. It’s you he’s in love with.” Callie took a step closer. “Can’t you see the blessing in that?”
“Can’t you stay out of it?”
The two squared off, nose to nose. Standing there, staring at one another with an identical turbulent expression in their eyes, the similarities between the sisters were impossible to miss. They were of a comparable height, equal build, and tilted their heads at a common angle. Although Fanny was considered the great beauty of the family, Callie had her own appeal, less pronounced perhaps, but there all the same.
Before Molly could intervene, Garrett moved between his sisters.
A head taller than both, he placed a hand on each of their arms. “Is there something you aren’t saying?” He addressed Fanny directly. “Something less than honorable we should know about Reese?”
“What?” Both women gasped simultaneously and ripped free of his hold.
Unmoved by their shocked response, Garrett persisted. “Has Reese done something to make you question his character, Fanny? Has he hurt you in any way?”
“Hurt me? No, Garrett. No. How could you ask such an awful thing?”
“How could you even suspect something so vile?” Callie’s outrage matched her sister’s. “You won’t find a better man than Reese Bennett, Jr.”
Despite being outnumbered, Garrett showed no remorse over his line of questioning. If anything, he seemed to grow fiercer, looking very much like a protective older brother. “If Reese has hurt you, Fanny, and you’re protecting him for some reason, you need to tell me. If he—”
“Don’t you dare utter another word.”
Ignoring the warning, Garrett opened his mouth. Fanny cut him off again. “Reese has always behaved above reproach. He’s the best man I know. He’s absolutely—” a sob slipped out of her “—perfect.”
She made the word sound ugly, which only managed to rile her sister all the more. “If Reese is so wonderful,” Callie challenged, “then why break off your engagement with him?”
Fanny lowered her head. “I have my reasons.”
“Which are?”
“None of your business.”
The two went toe-to-toe again.
“Callie, step back.” Sighing, Garrett gently edged her aside then focused solely on Fanny.
Speaking slowly, calmly, as he would to a spooked horse, he whispered words of encouragement, all the while pressing for details. But no matter what he said, or how he said it, she refused to respond.
His voice dropped another octave. “Can’t you see I’m trying to help you?”
She promptly burst into tears.
Wincing, he glanced at Molly. A mix of resignation and uneasiness flickered in his eyes, a look that read utter masculine helplessness. Garrett had never been good with female tears, especially when the crying woman was someone he loved. It was another trait he shared with his brothers.
“Fanny, please. Don’t cry.” He pulled her into his arms, patted her back awkwardly. “Everything’s going to work out.”
She muttered something incomprehensible into his shoulder.
He closed his eyes a moment. “No, you’re not alone in this. You have your family, your friends and, of course, the Lord. You can lean on us.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“It can be, with a little trust on your part.” He set her away from him, but kept his hands on her shoulders. “Help me to understand what’s made you change your mind about Reese.”
“I already did. He’s—” she released a choking sob “—perfect.”
Garrett chuckled mildly. “We live in a fallen world. No man is perfect.”
“Reese is,” Fanny whispered glumly. “Even worse, he thinks I’m equally perfect.”
There was that word again, spoken in that same dismal tone. So telling, so illuminating.
Garrett captured Molly’s gaze over Fanny’s head. At his arched eyebrow she arched one of her own. Didn’t he understand what his sister was saying?
Molly certainly did. She understood what it meant to fall short of others’ expectations. And now, she knew what she had to do.
“I want to speak privately with Fanny,” she said, looking pointedly at Garrett then widening the arc of her gaze to include Callie.
Callie immediately started to protest, but Molly cut her off with a firm shake of her head. She expected Garrett to balk, as well. He simply stared at her in measured silence.
Memories settled over her, her mind returning to a time when he trusted her without reservation. What would it be like to have him rely on her again, if only a little?
“Perhaps that’s not a bad idea,” he acknowledged, setting Fanny away from him, “but only if that’s what you want.”
Fanny nodded. “Yes, I want to speak to Molly. Alone.”
Despite being dismissed, he was calm, stoic, full of uncompromising integrity and streng
th. “If you continue down this path—” he took his sister’s hands in his, held her stare “—others will have to be told of your decision.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
“All right, then.” He released her and settled his gaze on Molly. “Walk me out.”
Before she could respond, he hooked his arm through hers and ushered her onto the third-floor landing. “She’s hiding something from us, something important.”
Perhaps. Perhaps not. Molly would know more once she spoke with Fanny.
“If this is merely a matter of cold feet—”
“It’s more than that.”
“I’m afraid you’re right.” Garrett rubbed the back of his neck, shifted his gaze to meet hers. “Since she’s made it perfectly clear she doesn’t want to discuss this with me or Callie, I’m counting on you to uncover the truth.”
“I’ll get her to talk,” she promised.
“I believe you will.” He turned to go then swung back around. “I’ll expect a full report later this evening.”
“This evening?”
“We’re attending the opera together. With Mrs. Singletary.” He punctuated the statement with a frown.
At his gloomy expression, Molly bit back a smile. Garrett hated the opera. Actually, he disliked all forms of theater, while she reveled in the drama of any production that required a stage and a troupe of performers.
Their vastly different opinions had been the source of their first argument. And, if memory served, the provocation that led to their first kiss.
Refusing to dwell on that thought, she cleared her face of all expression and became graciousness itself. “You’ll get your report. I won’t leave out a single detail.”
His eyes widened.
Oh, honestly. Did he think her completely incapable of agreeable behavior? Even after their unspoken truce?
Insulted, she pivoted around and, without uttering another word, left him to stare after her retreating back.
Let him think whatever he wished about her abrupt departure. Molly had a friend in need. At the moment, nothing mattered more than that.
Chapter Five
Garrett grimaced at the look he caught on Molly’s face, right before she turned her back on him. He’d offended her, somehow, when that hadn’t been his intent.
Rather than demand an apology, as she would have done in the past, she simply walked away from their conversation. Head high, chin tilted at a jaunty angle, she showed no real signs of temper. Yet, when she shut the door behind her with a firm click, her message was unmistakable.
Garrett was dismissed.
Torn between exasperation and amusement, he tunneled his fingers through his hair.
The afternoon was turning out to be a strange one. Indeed, nothing was as expected. There was Fanny with her uncommon tears and drama, Molly with her lack of either. In a matter of hours, his well-ordered, predictable world had tilted slightly off-center.
As if matters weren’t confounding enough, Callie joined him on the landing, a frustrated scowl on her face. “I’ve been banished from my own home.”
“Don’t look so tragic, Cal.” Her annoyance sent a slow smile curving across his mouth. “You earned your dismissal.”
She visibly stiffened. “I most certainly did not!”
“No? You were unusually harsh with our sister. That’s not typical of you.”
With exaggerated dignity, her spine snapped straighter still. “I don’t regret my behavior here today.”
He held silent for effect.
“All right, yes.” She gathered in a tight breath, let it out slowly. “I suppose I could have been more delicate in my delivery.”
“You suppose?”
Her lower lip wobbled. And then—God save him—her eyes filled with tears. Just what the afternoon needed, another bout of unchecked female emotion.
Too much for one day.
If he were a wise man, Garrett would head down the stairwell, exit the boardinghouse and just keep walking.
He remained firmly in place, watching Callie, waiting for her to pull herself together. Unlike Fanny, this sister wouldn’t welcome any outward show of sympathy from him.
After a moment of eye blinking and steady breathing, she morphed into the cagey fighter he knew her to be—and smoothly turned the conversation back on him.
“You and Molly, overly polite with one another, acting as if there’s no history between you. I want an explanation. A real one, this time.”
Holding on to his patience, barely, he rubbed a hand over the stubble of a late-day beard coming in. “Haven’t we been through this already?”
“Yes, and we’ll continue to revisit the topic until I get a reasonable answer out of you.”
Of that, he had no doubt. Once his ornery sister had an idea in her head, she never let go. “It’s just as Molly said earlier. We joined forces for Fanny’s sake.”
“How very noble of you both.”
A portion of his patience edged into annoyance. “Save the sarcasm, Callie, it’s not helping, nor is it productive. In fact—”
She talked right over him. “I can’t think of a time in the past six months since you’ve been home that I’ve seen you and Molly in the same room, much less conversing with one another beyond monosyllables.”
She was right, of course. Since taking the position at Bennett, Bennett and Brand, Garrett had made every effort to avoid Molly, and she him. With both of them working toward a common goal, they’d reaped remarkable success, managing to circumvent one another as efficiently as possible.
That had changed today. Even without Fanny’s situation to bring them together, Mrs. Singletary had tapped Garrett to work with her directly. Which meant he and Molly would cross paths far too often.
He exhaled sharply.
“Garrett, I asked you a question.”
Another ripple of annoyance shred what little patience he had left. “No, you made a statement.”
She rolled her eyes. “I see you’re going to be difficult. So let me speak frankly.”
“Never a good idea,” he muttered.
She ignored the barb. “Why—no, how—did you and Molly end up arriving here together? The truth, Garrett. I won’t accept anything less.”
Short of muzzling her, he might as well give his tenacious sister what she wanted. “It’s not complicated,” he explained. “When you and I couldn’t talk Fanny out of her room, I went in search of Molly.”
“Because?”
“I wanted answers and I thought she had them.”
“Why would you think Molly knew any more than we did?”
“I believed she’d been the one to influence Fanny’s decision.”
Callie gasped. “You didn’t actually accuse Molly of such a terrible thing?”
He shrugged. “Her history speaks for itself.”
“Garrett, Garrett, Garrett.” Callie shook her head in obvious disapproval. “You really don’t know her at all.”
Oh, he knew her. Or rather, he thought he knew her. He wasn’t sure anymore. And that left him even more agitated than before. If he’d been wrong about Molly in this situation, was he wrong about her in other ways as well? Was he prejudging her unnecessarily without gathering all the facts?
“Maybe I don’t know her as well as I thought,” he conceded.
With far too much perception in her gaze, Callie studied him out of narrowed eyes.
Garrett braced for one of her lectures. But she surprised him by switching topics again. “What are we going to do about Fanny? I can’t bear to watch her ruin her life.”
This abrupt change of subject gave Garrett pause. Callie was trying to tell him something, something personal, perhaps. But what? What was going on inside that complicated mind of hers? He could simply ask, but he suspected she wouldn’t answer him candidly.
Besides, the day was slipping away and he had a lot of work still to do.
“We can’t help Fanny until we know more,” he said reasonably.
>
“I guess not.” Callie released a resigned sigh. “Let us pray Molly can convince her to see reason.”
He nodded.
But then Molly’s words came back to him with alacrity. If Fanny doesn’t love Reese enough to want to marry him, then maybe, maybe she’s making the right decision.
Pulling out his watch, he flipped open the lid and read the time. “I need to get back to the office.” He refocused on Callie, then glanced around the darkened landing. “Will you be all right if I leave you here alone?”
Her withering glare was answer enough. Right, his mistake—Callie was a grown woman of twenty-three, more than capable of taking care of herself in her own home.
“I’ll try to stop by again soon,” he said. “If not later this afternoon, then tomorrow at the latest.”
“Will you speak to Reese after you return to the office?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps.”
Her eyes went cool, accusatory.
“Stop looking at me like that. For all I know, he might have already left for the day.” Though Garrett doubted it. Reese was nothing if not dedicated to his work.
Maybe she’s making the right decision…
He heard Callie say something more, something about his duty as an older brother to his hurting sister, but Garrett had already started down the stairs. He waved a hand in farewell, exited the boardinghouse. And just kept walking.
* * *
“It occurs to me,” Molly said to Mrs. Singletary as they awaited Garrett’s arrival in the blue parlor later that evening, “that a night at the opera is an odd place to begin your business association with Mr. Mitchell.”
The more she thought on the matter the more she realized how truly out of character the request had been. There could be no opportunity to discuss their plans, or any other business for that matter. That left one glaring reason for the invitation.
Mrs. Singletary was, indeed, playing matchmaker. With Molly and Garrett as her current victims, er…beneficiaries.
Molly stifled a groan. She couldn’t fall for Garrett again. She’d given far too much of herself to him once before, only to suffer unspeakable heartache. There’d been no letters once he’d gone away to school, no contact when he’d come home on breaks and certainly no cause to hope he’d change his mind about them.