This Heart of Mine (Chicago Stars #5)(25)

He pretended he didn't hear either of them and made his way back through the crowd in the direction he'd just come. This had been a mistake. He couldn't deal with friends now, let alone fans eager to talk about the championship game he'd lost.

He claimed his coat but didn't button it, and the cold air of Dearborn Street hit him like a fist. On his drive into the city, the car radio had announced that the mercury had dipped to three below. Winter in Chicago. The valet spotted him and went to get his car, which was parked in a prominent space less than twenty feet away.

In another week he'd be a married man. So much for keeping his personal life separate from his career. He handed the valet a fifty, then slid behind the wheel of his Spider and pulled away.

You have to set an example, Kevin. People expect the children of clergy to do the right thing.

He shook off the voice of the good Reverend John Tucker. Kevin was doing this to protect his career. Okay, so the idea of an illegitimate child made his skin crawl, but that would bother anybody. This sure as hell wasn't some leftover preacher's kid thing. It was all about the game.

Phoebe and Dan weren't expecting a love match, and the fact that the marriage wasn't going to last long wouldn't surprise them. At the same time, he'd be able to hold up his head around them. As for Molly Somerville, with her important connections and her careless morality, he'd never hated anyone more. So much for marrying the silent, undemanding woman Jane Bonner loved to taunt him about. Instead, he had a snooty egghead who'd take big bites out of him if he gave her the chance. Luckily, he didn't intend to give her one.

Kevin, there's right and there's wrong. You can either walk through your life in the shadows or you can stay in the light.

He ignored John Tucker and accelerated onto Lake Shore Drive. This had nothing to do with right and wrong. It was career damage control.

Not quite, a small voice whispered inside him. He shot into the left lane, then the right, then the left again. He needed speed and danger, but he wasn't going to get either on Lake Shore Drive.



A few days after Phoebe and Dan's ambush, Molly met Kevin to take care of the wedding license. Afterward, they drove separately downtown to the Hancock Building where they signed the legal papers that would separate their finances.

Kevin didn't know that Molly had no finances to separate, and she didn't tell him. It would only make her look loonier than he already thought she was.

Molly tuned out as the attorney explained the documents. She and Kevin hadn't said a word about what role he'd take in her child's life, and she was too dispirited to bring it up. One more thing they needed to work out.

Leaving the office, Molly gathered her courage and tried once more to talk to him. "Kevin, this is crazy. At least let me tell Dan and Phoebe the truth."

"You swore to me you'd keep your mouth shut."

"I know, but—"

His green eyes chilled her to the bone. "I'd like to believe you can be honorable about something."

She looked away, wishing she hadn't given him her word. "These aren't the 1950s. I don't need marriage to raise this child. Single women do it all the time."

"Getting married won't be anything more than a minor inconvenience for either one of us. Are you so self-centered you can't give up a few weeks of your life to try to set this straight?"

She didn't like the contempt in his voice or being called self-centered, especially when she knew he was doing this only to keep himself on good terms with Dan and Phoebe, but he walked away before she could respond. She finally gave up. She could fight one of them, but not all three.

The wedding took place a few days later in the Calebow living room. Molly wore the winter-white midcalf dress her sister had bought her. Kevin wore a deep charcoal suit with a matching tie. Molly thought it made him look like a gorgeous mortician.

They'd both refused to invite any of their friends to the ceremony, so only Dan, Phoebe, the children, and the dogs were there. The girls had decorated the living room with white crepe-paper streamers and tied bows on the dogs. Roo wore his around his collar, and Kanga's perched crookedly on her topknot. She flirted shamelessly with Kevin, shaking her topknot to get his attention and batting her tail. Kevin ignored her just as he ignored Roo's growling, so Molly knew he was one of those men who believed that a poodle threatened his masculinity. Why hadn't she considered that in Door County instead of looking for burps, gold chains, and "You duh man"?

Hannah's eyes shone, and she gazed at Kevin and Molly as if they were the central figures in a fairy tale. Because of her, Molly pretended to be happy when all she wanted to do was throw up.

"You look so beautiful." Hannah sighed. Then she turned to Kevin, her heart in her eyes. "You look beautiful, too. Like a prince."

Tess and Julie let out whoops of laughter. Hannah turned crimson.

But Kevin didn't laugh. He smiled instead and squeezed her shoulder. "Thanks, kiddo."

Molly blinked her eyes and looked away.

The judge conducting the ceremony stepped forward. "Let's begin."

Molly and Kevin moved toward him as if they were passing through a force field.

"Dearly beloved…"

Andrew wiggled loose from his mother's side and shot forward to wedge himself between the bride and groom.

"Andrew, come back here." Dan reached out to retrieve him, but Kevin and Molly simultaneously snatched his sticky little hands to keep him right where he was.