Everyone around them grew quiet.

Max looked from Molly to Kari. Judging by the look on his face, he felt the tension between them, but he still had no idea what was going on.

"You always tell me that I can tell you anything," Molly said, making sure to speak loud and clear. Cole stopped turning burgers and Lindsay stood at his side.

"That's right," Kari answered. "You can tell me anything. But maybe right here, right now, isn't a good time for this discussion."

Molly lifted her chin. "I disagree. I think it's the perfect time and place. Why haven't you told me everything, Mom?"

Kari refused to discuss this in front of people she hardly knew. "It's time for us to go."

"Not until you tell me if you and Max met before I was born."

Sally returned with a newly changed baby. She opened her mouth to say something about the baby, but the rest of the gang stopped her with wildly gyrating hands. Nobody looked more bewildered than Max.

"Yes," Kari said matter-of-factly, "we met before you were born."

"When?"

"A long time ago."

"How many years exactly?"

"Almost fourteen years ago," Max chimed in, trying to be helpful. Heat crept into Kari's face. If her daughter wanted to have it out right here in front of strangers, then so be it. She refused to cower a minute longer to her thirteen-year old daughter.

"Mom," Molly said firmly. "Tell Mr. Dutton what you've been wanting to talk about, but didn't have the guts to say."

Kari held her shoulders upward. "No. I won't. Not until the three of us step into the other room. And I don't like the tone of your voice. We're going to go home and you're going to stay in your room until you're ready to apologize."

"Fine. Take me home, but not until I'm finished." Molly turned to face Max. "Mr. Dutton," she said, "if you had a daughter, would you run scared?"

Max frowned. "I'm sorry, honey, I don't know what you mean."

"Molly," Kari said, "stop this right now."

"Would you run scared?" Molly asked again, her voice shaking. "If you knew you had a daughter would you be afraid to accept responsibility...would you avoid your daughter and pretend she didn't exist?"

Kari looked at Max. "You don't have to answer that." Kari grabbed her daughter's hand, but Molly refused to budge.

Max kept his eyes riveted on Molly.

Molly pointed to her chest. "I am your daughter, Mr. Dutton."

Gasps and murmurs erupted from Max's sisters.

Mrs. Dutton looked pale and faint, but not nearly as surprised as her daughters.

"I didn't know either," Molly said to Max in response to his confused expression, "not until after the bowling party when I overheard Mom talking to Lindsay. If you don't like me or you never want to see me after this, I understand. I've never had a father, so I don't know what to say, except that I'm glad to have met you. Glad to finally know who my father is." She paused to take a deep breath. "I've always wondered why I didn't have Mom's light hair or her green eyes. And I always wondered if my father had blue eyes like me, or if he was funny or a good singer."

"He can't hold a tune," Breanne said, prompting Jill to elbow her in the arm, quieting her so Molly could finish.

Molly wiped at a tear running down the side of her face. "I'm sorry about today...about telling you all this and ruining your family party and everything. But it was nice to meet you again...and your family."

Molly reached for the picture that Breanne was holding, the one of her and Max at the bowling alley. Then she offered it to him. Her lip trembled.

Kari stood frozen in place. She was angry with her daughter, but even angrier with herself for letting it come to this.

Max took the picture and gave it a long hard look before looking to Kari for confirmation. Not nearly as brave as her daughter, she looked to the ground...ashamed.

Max didn't know what to think or say or do. He felt suddenly slow and dim-witted. Glancing at the picture, he examined it as best he could under the circumstances. It was the strangest thing: Same dark hair and blue eyes. Same lips and nose. There was no mistaking they were father and daughter.

"I know this must be a shock," Molly said, sounding nothing like the little girl he'd met at the bowling alley.

His sisters all nodded in agreement.

Kari didn't have the guts to look at him, and he didn't quite know what to think about her or about any of this for that matter. Five minutes ago he'd wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Kari and kiss her deeply and passionately in front of every member of his family, let them see how he felt about the woman he'd loved for over a decade; his dream girl.

But now it all made sense. Now he understood why she'd been pushing him away. She was right...he didn't know her at all.

Molly wiped at her tears again and when Max looked into her eyes, she said, "According to Mom, it took fifteen hours of pushing to get me out. They almost had to do an emergency c-section, but that's when I decided to get moving, I guess. Aunt Lindsay tells me I came into the world with a cone head and that I was sort of ugly." Molly forced a laugh that made his insides twist and turn. She was trying so hard to be strong and yet he didn't know what to say.

"As you already know, I was born in June. I'm kind of a tomboy and I'm not the most popular girl in school. But I can curl my tongue and I'm a leftie. My favorite ice cream is mint chip. Most of my friends have started their menstral cycle, but not me."

His sisters mumbled between themselves, most of them agreeing that that made sense since they were all thirteen or fourteen when they started the cycle.

Max glared over his shoulder, silencing them all with one look.

"I think I'm a late bloomer like my mom," Molly continued. "And," she added as an afterthought, "you might be glad to know I made the basketball team."

He smiled at her bravery. Not once had she looked away from him as she spoke. The tears had stopped and her twiddling thumbs were the only giveaway that she was nervous at all. He could only imagine how hard this must be for her, standing before him now, neither knowing what to think about their predicament or about one another.

Kari finally brought her head up, her eyes round and scared as she met his gaze, nothing in her eyes resembling the take-no-prisoner sort of woman she'd been when they met face-to-face in Dr. Stone's exam room.

"I'll be a starter," Molly said, transferring his thoughts back to the little girl who was telling him she was his daughter, his own flesh and blood.

He had a daughter. The notion was surreal.

"I like a boy named Grant, who you've met. I took ballet once, but I wasn't very good at it. I like to play video games and e-mail my friends. I like pizza, but who doesn't?" She smiled. "Well, that's about it. If you ever want to call me and talk, you have my number." She turned to Kari. "Can we go now?"

Max wanted to follow them to the door, but his legs wouldn't move and his mind was mush. Nobody said a word. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Kari said she was sorry before she left and Molly sort of shrugged and gave him a half smile before she followed her mother back into the house.

Breanne put a hand on his back and tried to push him in their direction. "Aren't you going to go after them and say something to the poor girl?"

Max shook his head as he watched them walk through the French doors and disappear down the hallway leading to the front door. "No," he said. "I need to think."

CHAPTER 14.

Max pulled up to the curb outside of Lindsay's Daycare, turned off the ignition, and then just sat there for a moment. For three days now, he'd known he had a daughter, and yet he still hadn't come to grips with the idea.

He never wanted a family before because he knew he was headed for an early grave, and he didn't want to leave them behind. But fate had stepped in and took the choice away from him, leaving exhilaration in its wake. He always thought having a family would make him feel weighed down with responsibility. But he felt the opposite. He felt keyed up, energized. He'd thought a lot about the speech Molly had given at the barbeque and every time he replayed her words in his mind, he got all misty-eyed, overcome with an overwhelming desire to protect his little girl. He felt something else too...an instantaneous love...the same sort of love he felt for his sisters and mother. Unconditional, but somehow deeper and stronger. How could he feel that kind of love for a kid he hardly knew?

Max looked at the house with its overflowing flowerboxes and white trimmed windows. His daughter had been living in that house for thirteen years. It boggled the mind.

Today was Wednesday. Yesterday, after prodding from Breanne, he'd called Kari to see if Molly could come to his house for a few days so they could get to know one another. Although her aunts and uncles and her grandmother had all headed back to Santa Barbara, Breanne would be at the house, too. Reluctantly Kari had agreed. He was angry with Kari for not telling him he had a daughter, but he had also made a few calls and although his mother couldn't recall whether or not she'd talked to a young woman nearly fourteen years ago, she didn't say it was impossible. The people in charge of fan mail for the Los Angeles Condors told him they received dozens of letters every week from women who said one player or another had fathered their children, usually asking for compensation. Certainly Kari's letter could have been filed away or tossed with the others.

A part of him felt sorry for Kari. All a person had to do was talk to Molly for five minutes to see she was a good mother. And yet he also knew it was probably best if Kari didn't come along and hover over Molly while he got to know his daughter, at least for now. As for his feelings for Kari...well, he wasn't sure what he felt any longer. He decided to take it one day at a time.

Max climbed out of the car and headed up the walkway. The afternoon sun warmed his back. Geese flew overhead, all honking at once as if to announce his arrival.

The door opened before he reached it and Lindsay exited the house, shutting the door behind her.

"Hello, Lindsay."

"Hi, Max."

She had on jeans and a T-shirt. She looked how he felt...emotionally drained. "Before you see Molly," Lindsay said, "I was hoping you and I could talk."

He waited.

"Molly and Kari are the only family I have. If you ever hurt either one of them I will stalk you, Max. I will make your life a living hell."

"I would never hurt either of them." He shoved his hands deep into his pant pockets. "Is that all?"

She shook her head. "I couldn't sleep last night. I need to know if Kari needs to worry?"

"About what?"

"About you hiring a lawyer and trying to get custody of Molly."

Three days ago he was thinking about the possibility of spending the rest of his life with Kari, but he kept that tidbit to himself and said, "I haven't had a chance to think about it."

"How can you be sure Molly is yours?"

Something sharp twisted in his gut. "She knows I'm her father and I know she's my daughter." He narrowed his eyes. "Are you going to try to tell me she's not?"

Her arm dropped to her side. "No."

"Good. If you'll just step aside now and let me..."

Lindsay stepped to her right, blocking him. "What if Molly doesn't want to go with you?"

"Did you ask her?"

"No."

"Then why don't we both go inside and find out?"

"Not until you tell me why you didn't respond to any of Kari's letters."

"I never received them."

"And so that's that, huh?"

"Yeah, I suppose it is. What did you expect? Did you think I would walk away without even trying to get to know the daughter I never knew I had? Just disappear out of Molly's life as quickly as I came into it?"

"If you have any qualms about being a father to Molly, yes, I think walking away would be best."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere without my daughter. So move to the side, Lindsay, before I pick you up and move you myself."

She held strong. "What about the Dutton curse?"

"Nice try," he said. "I may not live much past forty, but I plan to spend the time I do have getting to know my daughter."

"Well good. I'm glad." Her angry scowl changed to admiration. One minute she looked ready to claw his eyes out and in the next she looked like she might hug him.

"Is Molly ready to go?" he asked impatiently.

She stood there smiling for a moment longer before she said, "Let me check." Turning about, she went back inside, letting the door shut on his face.

"Molly, your dad is here to pick you up," he heard Lindsay call.

Dad. A knot formed in his throat. He inhaled and got a whiff of jasmine and something else he didn't recognize. The front yard resembled a nursery with all the flowers and plants.

It wasn't long before the door opened again, but this time it was Kari and Molly who came outside.

Molly was dressed in a skirt and a frilly top. She looked ready for church instead of a few nights at his house. She didn't look anything like the little girl he'd met on Sunday or at the bowling alley the week before that. But this was their first outing, and he wasn't about to comment on her clothes and screw it all up. "Ready to go?"

Molly nodded. Her small round face appeared pale and drawn. She looked as nervous as he felt.

"Molly," Kari said. "Why don't you go on ahead to the car, so I can have a few words with Max."

Molly headed toward the car without protest.

Kari's eyes were red, Max noticed, as if she'd been crying for three days. Once again he found himself feeling sorry for her. And that irked him. "What is it?" he asked. "I was already drilled by your bodyguard and I'm running a little late."

"I just thought you should know that Molly sleeps with a nightlight." She lowered her voice so Molly wouldn't overhear. "She likes to leave the bedroom door open just a tiny bit, just enough so she doesn't feel all alone."

"Okay," Max said. "I appreciate it. Thanks." Kari's eyes, he noticed, were all round and glossy. He didn't like the way he felt when she looked at him like that, as if he was deliberately hurting her.