The Devaney Brothers: Daniel

“There’s your brother,” she said as if Patrick’s arrival were a good thing, rather than a complication. “I hope you two will play nice. It’s bad for business when there’s a brawl in here.”

Daniel followed the direction of her gaze to where his twin brother stood perfectly still near the bar. Patrick looked as if he’d like nothing better than to flee, but he sucked in a deep breath, then crossed the room and slid into the booth. That, at least, was progress, Daniel thought. A year ago, Patrick would have acted on his first impulse and left. Their one attempt at making peace appeared to be holding, as long as it wasn’t tested too often.

“I’ll get you a beer,” Molly said to Patrick, then gave his shoulder a squeeze.

They sat there in silence until she’d returned with the drink, then hurried away again, clearly relieved to have someone else dealing with Daniel.

“You look good,” Daniel said finally.

“Being in love does that for a man,” Patrick said. “Maybe it’s time you tried it.” He waited a beat, cast a pointed look toward Molly, then added, “Again.”

Daniel didn’t miss the significance of the comment or the look. He wasn’t going to get drawn into that particular discussion, not if he could help it. “Not likely,” he replied. “Too many bad examples all around me.”

Patrick gave him a wry look. “So, how are the folks?”

Daniel hadn’t expected him to be so direct. He answered in kind. “They miss you.”

“The same way they missed Ryan, Sean and Michael?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I think not a day has gone by in more than twenty years that they haven’t missed our brothers. I think we suffered for that. What do you think caused all that resentment we never understood?”

Patrick frowned. “I don’t think about it. Maybe you should get together again with Ryan, Sean and Michael and ask them if they feel any sort of pity for our parents. Trust me, they don’t.”

“I don’t know. They seemed like reasonable men to me.”

“Reasonable, yes,” Patrick agreed. “Not gullible.”

“When are they coming back up here? Mom knows they were here for your wedding. I think it broke her heart that she didn’t get to catch at least a glimpse of them. I think she would have risked coming to the wedding uninvited, if it hadn’t been for Dad. She knew how it would upset him...and you. Maybe she should have, though. Maybe a confrontation then would have put an end to all this.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t encourage her to do it.”

“I might have, if you and I hadn’t just started to make peace. I didn’t want to risk that. I thought it was a first step. Only trouble is, we seem to be avoiding taking the next one.”

Patrick sighed. “You’re right. As soon as I start thinking about the folks, I get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach again.”

“See them. Maybe it would go away. Seeing them for the first time is bound to be hard. It’ll get easier after that. Tell Ryan, Sean and Michael that, too. Ask them when they’re coming.”

“I’m not going to push them,” Patrick said.

“But you are in touch with them?”

“Why not?” he said defensively, as if Daniel had implied disapproval. “I like them. They feel like, oh, I don’t know, family, maybe.”

Daniel ignored the sarcasm. “I’m your family, too,” he said quietly. “Maybe it’s time you remembered that.”

Patrick sighed again. “Okay, you’re right. I am the one who’s being a hard-ass, but you don’t make it easy, Daniel, not when you insist on acting as if the folks did nothing wrong.”

“Dammit, I know what they did was wrong. So do they, if you get down to it. People make mistakes.”

“This was a helluva lot more than a mistake,” Patrick countered heatedly. “They didn’t just forget to bring in the morning paper or leave an umbrella behind at the office. They forgot three sons and left them to fend for themselves in another state.”

Daniel frowned. “Don’t you think I know that?”

Patrick held up his hands. “Okay, let’s not go down this path again. Why are you here? I assume you didn’t come just to hassle me.”

“Business.” When Patrick regarded him with blatant disbelief, Daniel explained about the runaway he believed was working for Molly. “Have you seen her?”

Patrick’s expression remained perfectly neutral. “As far as I know, Molly waits on all the customers herself. Always has.”

“And you wouldn’t tell me if that had changed, would you?” Daniel said.

Patrick didn’t have to respond. It was clear that Daniel wasn’t going to get any more information from his brother than he had from Molly or Retta. It was as if they’d formed this tight little circle to keep him in the dark. He dropped the subject. An uneasy silence fell again, the kind that had driven him to stay away in the first place. It had been too painful after all the years when he and Patrick had shared everything.

He regarded Patrick wearily. “When is this going to stop?”

“What?”

“The tension between us. I didn’t abandon anyone. The folks did, and we both know they regret it, that they’ve regretted it every day of their lives.”

“I’ve told you this a million times, but I’ll say it once more. You’re not going to get me to feel sorry for them,” Patrick said bitterly. “They made a choice, dammit. It could just as easily have been us they left behind. Would you be so blasted forgiving if that had been the case?”

“But it wasn’t the case,” Daniel reminded him. “They gave us a home and their love.”

“At the expense of three other sons,” Patrick argued. “Have they bothered explaining why yet? Or have you even asked?” At Daniel’s silence, Patrick shook his head in apparent disgust. “Obviously not.”

“Any explanations they have are owed to Ryan, Sean and Michael, assuming they even care at this late date.”

“Oh, they care.”

“Then why haven’t they set up a meeting? I thought they’d want to see the folks when they came up for your wedding, but when I suggested it after the ceremony, they backed off.”

“Maybe because it’s not so easy working up the courage to confront the parents who abandoned you. Maybe because they’re afraid of what they’ll do when they see the sorry excuses for human beings who walked out on them.”

Daniel understood his brother’s pain, but he wouldn’t listen to him bad-mouth two people who’d done their best for them, if not for their brothers. Kathleen and Connor Devaney were flawed. They weren’t monsters.

“Watch it, Patrick. Those two people gave you life and their love for eighteen years. I won’t listen to you talk about them as if they’re the scum of the earth. They deserve more respect than that from you.”

“Yeah, they gave us everything, all right,” Patrick said, his tone scathing. “But at what cost?”

“It must be nice to be so perfect that you can pass judgment on other people’s mistakes,” Daniel retorted.

Patrick gave him a hard look. “While we’re on the subject of mistakes, are you ever going to give Molly the apology she deserves?”

The sudden shift caught Daniel off guard. He knew Patrick was protective of Molly, but he hadn’t expected his brother to call him on what had happened four years ago, not at this late date. “I tried. She doesn’t want to hear it,” Daniel said. “Besides, what good are words?”

“Not much,” Patrick agreed. “But she deserves them anyway. She doesn’t deserve you coming in here and hassling her over some runaway. There’s too much history between the two of you. Next time, send someone else.”

“There is no one else. It’s my job. I’m trying to make sure the girl is safe and gets back to her parents. The fact that Molly has chosen to get herself involved is an unfortunate coincidence.”