The rush of gratitude she felt toward him blocked out her guilt. “Thank you. I’d like that very much.”

At that moment Peg stuck her head in the door and scolded Molly for not being in bed. She said good-bye to Dan and returned to her room. After Peg left, she retrieved Mr. Brown from his hiding place and snuggled beneath the covers with him, even though she was much too old to be sleeping with a stuffed animal.

Just as she was drifting off to sleep, she heard a soft scratching at her door and smiled into her pillow. She couldn’t open the door because she didn’t want Phoebe to discover that she’d let Pooh into her bedroom. But, still, it was nice to be wanted.

10

10

As Phoebe looked down at the videotape that lay on the passenger seat next to her, she knew that showing up unannounced at Dan Calebow’s house was the stupidest thing she’d ever done. But instead of turning Bert’s Cadillac around and going back home, she peered through the glare of the headlights toward the side of the road trying to find the wooden mailbox that Krystal Greer had told her to watch for. As she looked, she rehearsed what she would say when she got there.

She would be very casual, tell Dan that Paul had shown up with the videotape not long after he’d left the party. She’d known Dan wanted to see the tape before he went to bed, and she’d decided to deliver it since it was such a beautiful night for a drive. No trouble, really.

She frowned. It was one o’clock in the morning, so maybe she shouldn’t say anything about it being a beautiful night for a drive. Maybe she’d simply say she hadn’t been sleepy and had felt like taking a drive to relax.

The truth was, she wanted to see him again before she lost her nerve. She had been deeply shaken by that moment when she’d felt such an overpowering urge to kiss him. Now she needed to see him alone, where they wouldn’t be interrupted, to try to discover what those feelings meant.

She could come up with a million reasons she shouldn’t be attracted to him, but none of those reasons explained the way he had made her feel tonight, as if her body were slowly coming alive. The sensation was both terrifying and exhilarating. He hadn’t made any secret of the fact that he disliked her, but at the same time, she sensed he was attracted to her.

Without warning, she felt tears gathering in her eyes. For years she hadn’t even let herself dream that something like this could happen. Was she being a fool or was there a chance she might be ready to reclaim her womanhood?