Molly rumpled his hair and didn’t reply. At the same time she reached for the quietest Calebow.

Hannah had been standing a little off to the side, as she usually did, but her eyes sparkled with excitement. “I thought up a whole new Daphne adventure,” she whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear. “I wrote it down in my spiral notebook.”

“I can’t wait to read it.”

“Can we see the beach, Aunt Molly?”

As Dan took the keys from Phoebe, he turned toward Kevin. “Maybe you could show me the cottage so I can start unloading.”

“Sure.” Just what he didn’t want to do. Dan was on a mission to assess how much damage Kevin had done to his precious Molly. But when it came to damage, Kevin felt as if he were the one who’d suffered a head wound.

Molly pointed toward the cottage on the other side of the Common. “You’re staying in Gabriel’s Trumpet. The door’s unlocked.”

Kevin walked across the grass while Dan drove around. They did a catch-up on the team as they unloaded, but he knew Dan fairly well, and it didn’t take the Stars’ president long to say what was on his mind.

“So what’s going on here?” Dan slammed the tailgate on the Suburban harder than he needed to.

Kevin could be as in-your-face as Dan, but he decided it was smarter using Molly’s “dumb” ploy. “The truth is, I’ve been having a bitch of a time.” He picked up a laundry basket filled with beach toys. “I didn’t think it was going to be so hard to get someone to run this place.”

“Dad!” Julie and Tess came running up, followed by Andrew. “We need our suits so we can go swimming before the tea party this afternoon.”

“Except Aunt Molly says I get to drink lemonade,” Andrew declared, “’cause I don’t like tea!”

“Look at our cottage! It’s so cute!” Julie raced to the door as Molly and Phoebe approached with Hannah.

Molly looked tense, and Phoebe regarded Kevin with eyes as chilly as a Lions uniform in the middle of a losing Detroit November.

“The lake’s freezing, girls,” Molly called out to the twins on the porch, trying to act as though everything were normal. “It’s not like the pool at home.”

“Are there water snakes?”

The question had come from Hannah, who looked worried. Something about her had always gotten to Kevin. “No snakes, kiddo. Do you want me to go in with you?”

Her smile flashed a thousand watts of gratitude. “Would you?”

“Sure. Get your suit on, and I’ll meet you there.” He didn’t want to leave Molly alone with the enemy, so he said, “Your aunt’ll come along. She loves swimming in that old lake, don’t you, Molly?”

Molly looked relieved. “Sure. We can all go swimming together.”