Daniel’s gaze sought out Molly the instant they walked into Jess’s. They made quite a little parade, his mother looking pathetically eager, Patrick wary, and their father as if he expected to be pummeled by a trio of outraged Devaney men. Molly gave him a reassuring smile, then came to meet him. She kissed his cheek, then gave his mother a warm hug.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Molly told her, including Connor Devaney in the comment. “There are a lot of people here who are anxious to see you.”

“More likely to lynch us,” his father said in an undertone.

“Dad!” Patrick protested.

“Okay, okay, I’m giving this a chance. I said I would, didn’t I?”

Just then a little girl’s voice piped up. “Is that my grandpa?”

“Hush, darlin’,” Ryan said, trying to maintain his grip on her.

But as he’d told Daniel on the phone, Caitlyn wasn’t going to be put off a minute longer. The three-year-old broke away from her father’s grasp and raced across the room, hurling herself straight at Connor. Startled, he reacted instinctively, scooping her up in his arms, then staring at her as if he wasn’t quite sure where she’d come from.

“Are you my grandpa?” she demanded, gazing at him intently.

Connor drew in a deep breath, and his eyes filled with tears. He blinked hard to fight them. “Yes, I suppose I am, little angel. Who might you be?”

“I’m Caitlyn,” she said without hesitation. “And that’s my daddy and that’s my mommy.”

Daniel saw his father’s gaze shift to Ryan, whose mouth was set in a grim line. Maggie had her arm tucked supportively through his, but her eyes were damp, and there was no question that her heart was with her impulsive daughter.

His own heart still in his throat, Daniel watched as a boy broke away from Sean and crossed the room. He frowned up at Caitlyn. “He’s not just your grandpa. He’s mine, too.” He gave his new grandfather an irrepressible grin. “I’m Kevin. Me and Mom married Sean.”

“I see,” Connor said, swiping impatiently at the tears on his weathered cheeks. His gaze sought that of his second son and the woman who was openly crying beside him.

Connor turned slowly to the one remaining son, who looked as if he’d tried to disappear into the shadows. “Then you’re Michael,” he said softly, no longer even attempting to hide his tears.

“I’m surprised you remember my name,” Michael said, earning a disapproving scowl from his wife.

Connor’s gaze remained steady. “I deserved that.” He looked from one son to the next. “I deserve whatever you think of me, whatever you want to say to my face or behind my back, but I’ll tell you here and now that I won’t tolerate you taking any of this out on your mother.”

Daniel saw his older brothers exchange glances and knew they’d taken the warning to heart, knew that it was a reminder that their behavior at the house on that earlier visit wasn’t to be repeated. It was almost as if they recalled a distant time when Connor Devaney’s word had been law, when he’d earned their respect.

“Am I making myself clear?” Connor asked, pushing the point home.

“Yes,” Ryan said tightly.

“Maybe we should all sit down,” Daniel said, relieved that Michael’s undisguised bitterness had been the worst of it so far. “Molly, how about something to drink?”

“Right away,” she said.

He put an arm around his mother’s waist and guided her to a table, then regarded her worriedly. “You okay?”

She nodded. “After they left so abruptly last time, I was afraid this day would never come,” she whispered. “Thank you for making it happen.”

Daniel grinned. “I think you should thank Caitlyn and Kevin. I gather from Ryan that they were adamant about meeting their grandparents.”

Her gaze went immediately to the girl who still hadn’t relinquished her hold on Connor. “I always wanted a little girl,” she said sadly.

“Well, it’s another generation, Mom,” Daniel said. “A granddaughter will have to do.”

“Oh, it does,” she said, her eyes bright. “She’s so lovely. She’s like her mother, isn’t she?”

Daniel looked from Caitlyn to Maggie. The resemblance was impossible to miss, but from all he knew, it went beyond being skin deep. “She has her mother’s open heart and strong will, too,” he told his mother. “That may be what guides us through this.”

As soon as everyone was seated and drinks had been served, the room was filled with an awkward silence. Not even Caitlyn was chattering with her usual exuberance. It was Ryan who finally broke the impasse.

He looked at his father. “Since I’m the oldest, I’ll be the one to ask. Why?” he asked simply. “Why did you leave us behind? After all these years, after the way it messed with our heads, I think you owe us an explanation. Weren’t we good enough? Did I stir up too much trouble? Did Sean and Michael?”

“Never,” Kathleen said with a shocked gasp. “Don’t ever think such a thing. You three were my angels. From the moment you were born, Ryan, I knew you were going to make something of yourself. You came into this world with an independent streak. Of course, that landed you in scrapes from time to time, but you were a good boy. I won’t hear you suggest otherwise.”

“Then why?” he asked again. “For years now, each of us has had to live with being abandoned by the people who were supposed to love us unconditionally. The fact that we’re all married now is a miracle. Not a one of us believed we were worth loving, because of what you did to us. Our wives believed otherwise and stuck with us till we came around. It’s because of them that our hearts are finally whole.”

In the silence that followed Ryan’s bitter words, it was again Kathleen who finally spoke. “Then I’m grateful to you,” she said, her gaze seeking out Maggie, then Deanna, then Kelly.

Tears streaming down her face, she turned to her husband and reached for his hand. “I can tell them,” she said.

Connor looked shaken, but he raised her hand to his lips and kissed it gently. “No. You’ve shared the blame long enough, Kathleen. It was my decision. It’s time I take responsibility for it.” He met Ryan’s gaze, then looked down at the trusting child in his arms. “You’re a father now, so maybe you’ll understand.”

“God knows I want to,” Ryan said. “We all do.”

Connor cleared his throat, then looked to Molly. “I wouldn’t mind another beer.”

She jumped up at once. “Of course.”

Only after she’d returned with the drink and he’d taken a long swallow did he finally speak. “When your mother and I were married, we were young. Too young, probably, but I fell in love with her the day I set eyes on her, and she felt the same. I had a job, a decent one with decent wages. A year later, Ryan, you were born. It was a joyous occasion. I looked at you the first time I held you and thought to myself, ‘I would give my life to protect this boy.”’

Caitlyn patted her grandfather’s cheek. “You’re talking about my daddy, huh?”

Connor gave her a tired smile. “That I am, little angel. Your daddy was something else. He had one speed—full throttle.”

Across the room, Maggie grinned. “Like someone else in the family,” she said, gazing at her daughter.

Connor settled back in the booth, looking more at ease now that the telling was finally underway. He’d always had the gift of being a natural storyteller, and he drew on that now. Daniel knew he would paint a picture for Ryan, Sean and Michael that would make that tragic turning point in all their lives as real as if it had happened yesterday. Maybe it would lead only to more anger and blame, but there was also the chance it could finally lead to understanding and forgiveness.

“And then Sean came along,” Connor said, looking toward his second born, who was wearing a Boston Fire Department T-shirt. “You were born without fear. If Ryan did it, you wanted to do it, too. Nothing was too high for you to climb or too risky for you to try.”

“He’s not scared of anything now, either,” Kevin said proudly. “He fights fires. That’s how me and Mommy met him.”

Connor nodded. “It doesn’t surprise me in the least that you’d take chances, if it meant saving lives, Sean.” He turned to his wife. “You remember the day he climbed up onto the neighbor’s roof? Almost scared the life out of both of us.”

Kathleen nodded. “How could I forget?”

Sean regarded them with bewilderment. “Why was I up there?”

“The neighbor’s cat,” his father said. “Poor, pitiful thing was meowing her head off, and you couldn’t stand it. Everyone else was wringing their hands, and you slipped around back, found a ladder and scampered right up there.”

Kevin was clearly intrigued, but Sean frowned at him. “Don’t go getting any ideas.”

“Amen,” Deanna said, giving her son a forbidding look as the others chuckled at the disappointment on Kevin’s face.

“We had two fine sons,” Connor said, turning to smile at his wife. “But my Kathleen was aching for a daughter.” He focused on Michael. “That would be you, son.”

The laughter grew louder and less tense as everyone gazed at Michael, who couldn’t have looked less feminine. His years in the Navy and his struggle to overcome injuries caused by a sniper’s bullet had given him a powerful build.

Connor shook his head, his expression nostalgic. “If we thought Ryan was strong and Sean was fearless, you put the two of them to shame. There was nowhere they went that you didn’t sneak off to follow them. If they took a risk, you took a more dangerous one. They were your heroes, but there was little question that one day you’d do something heroic yourself.”

Daniel heard the words and felt a sudden twinge of suspicion. “Michael was a Navy SEAL, but you knew that, didn’t you, Dad?”

Connor kept his gaze on Michael and nodded slowly. “I did. I kept up with each of you. I worried over your unhappiness and made myself sick thinking about the danger some of you put yourselves in. I blamed myself for making you think that your lives were worth so little that you might as well risk them.”

Kathleen stared at him in shock. “You knew where they were? You knew what they were doing? You knew all of that and didn’t tell me?”

He regarded her apologetically. “It was selfish, I know that now, but I thought I was protecting you, making it easier for you to bear being separated from them, if we never talked about them. I guess in the back of my mind, I thought that I would know if they truly needed us, and that then I’d tell you and we’d decide what to do together.”

“But we did need you,” Ryan said angrily. “Time and again.”

“And I almost reached out,” Connor told him. “I heard about the trouble you were getting mixed up in, the petty shoplifting and such. I was about to come for you myself and shake some sense into you, but Father Francis stepped in. He gave you what you needed.”

Ryan still looked angry, but he nodded. “He was my salvation, no question about it.”

“So, if you cared enough to keep track of all of us, why the hell did you dump us in the first place?” Michael demanded.

To Daniel’s surprise, his father didn’t take offense at his son’s tone.

“You recall that your mother wanted a little girl. She’d just gotten pregnant again when I lost my job. I picked up work here and there, but I couldn’t find a steady paycheck. Feeding three boys required more money than was coming in. We struggled over that and over doctor’s bills and rent.”

“And then you had us?” Patrick said, looking shaken. “Twins, when even one more baby was going to be a strain?”

“The timing was unfortunate,” their father admitted. “But we looked at the two of you and you stole our hearts, just as your brothers had. For a long time, we told ourselves that things were going to get better, that I’d find another job and we’d land on our feet, but it didn’t happen.”

He gazed around the room at his sons. “I don’t believe any of you have been out of work or desperate, but that’s the way I was feeling. And Patrick and Daniel, bless ’em both, weren’t easy babies, the way you other boys were. They had powerful sets of lungs and difficult dispositions.”

“That hasn’t changed much,” Alice said, giving Patrick’s hand a squeeze.

“I remember the fighting,” Ryan suddenly said softly. “You and Mom were fighting for the first time I could ever remember.”

“We were,” Connor confirmed. “I knew that something had to change or I would lose my wife, lose everything that mattered to me. I knew we had to leave Boston and start over fresh.”

Sean stared at him. “So you divided the family in half and tossed us aside to save the rest?” he asked heatedly. “What kind of choice is that?”

“A desperate one,” Connor said. “The twins were little more than babies. They needed us. You three were strong. Young as you were, you were already independent. We knew you could make it without us, at least for a time. I hoped we’d be able to come back for you, but as time passed, it seemed best to leave things as they were. We believed you would find good homes, have a better chance than we could give you. I’m not saying it was a good decision, but it was the only one I could make at the time. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t prayed to God to keep you safe. Not a day has passed that I haven’t regretted what I did, but God help me, I didn’t know what else to do.”

Kathleen reached for her husband’s hand and clung to it. “We didn’t know what else to do,” she said softly. “I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to forgive us. I don’t know if we’ll ever forgive ourselves, but we did the only thing that seemed to make sense at the time. We gave you three—Ryan, Sean and Michael—a chance at a better life than the one we could give you.”

“You abandoned us,” Michael said fiercely. “Okay, I was lucky. I wound up with a family that gave me all the emotional support a scared kid could need, but Ryan didn’t. Sean didn’t. How was that for the best?”

“If we’d kept all of you, there was little question that your father and I would eventually divorce,” Kathleen said. “It was that bad between us. You’d have been no better off.”

“We’d have been together,” Michael said. “We’d have known what it meant to be a family, even if it was a family that had to struggle. Or you could have agreed to an adoption.”

“That would have been so final,” Kathleen said, her voice breaking.

Daniel looked into his mother’s eyes and saw heartbreak, but he could barely sympathize. He was too caught up in his own sense of guilt, even though he knew it was ridiculous. He and Patrick hadn’t been given a choice back then. They hadn’t asked to be the ones chosen to stay behind. He glanced at his twin and saw that he was struggling with some of the same emotions. Because they’d been barely more than babies, because they’d been helpless and needy, they’d gotten to stay with their parents.

“If Patrick and I hadn’t been born,” he began.

“Don’t you dare go there,” his mother said, cutting him off. “You and Patrick brought such joy into our lives.”

“More than Ryan, Sean and Michael had?” he asked.

“You can’t trade the joy of one child for another,” his mother responded.

“But you did,” he reminded her. “That’s exactly what you did.”

He felt Molly’s hand squeeze his, but it was scant comfort. He looked at his older brothers. “I’m so sorry.”

Ryan scowled at him. “You have nothing to be sorry for. Don’t be crazy. You and Patrick were barely two when all of this happened. I can see why Mom and Dad felt they had no choice but to look out for you.”

“You can?” his mother said eagerly.

Ryan nodded slowly. “I look at Caitlyn now and know that I could never abandon her when she’s so young. I think about the way I was at nine and I was tough. The truth is, I did make it—not without a lot of mistakes, but I made it.”

“That’s what we counted on,” their father said.

Ryan held up a hand. “Wait, now. I’m not saying I agree with your decision or even that I can forgive it, but at least now I can understand it a little better.” He looked around the room. “I think we’re all pretty well wiped out now. Why don’t we call it a night and sleep on all of this, maybe talk again in the morning?”

“What’s left to say?” Connor Devaney asked. “I’ve told you what happened and why. I won’t spend the rest of my days trying to defend it.”

“And we’re not asking you to,” Ryan said.

“But we need to keep talking, Dad,” Daniel said. “I don’t want to lose this chance to know my brothers, and I don’t think you want to lose this chance to know them and their wives and their children…your grandchildren. Please agree to come back tomorrow.”

“We’ll be here,” his mother said, giving his father a look that dared him to challenge her.

Connor sighed. “If it’s what your mother wants, we’ll be here.” He glanced at Molly. “I don’t suppose you still have your grandfather’s recipe for waffles, the old-fashioned kind?”

Molly grinned. “I do indeed. I’ll make up a batch.”

Caitlyn, who’d been half-asleep in her grandfather’s arms for some time now, woke up in time to hear. She clapped her hands together. “I love waffles.”

“Me, too,” Kevin chimed in. “I can eat three of them.”

“I can eat more,” Caitlyn said.

Daniel saw his mother’s eyes turn misty. “Mom, what is it?”

“They sound just like Ryan, Sean and Michael and the way they tried to outdo each other. It takes me back,” she said. She smiled at Molly. “Something tells me you’d best be prepared to make a lot of waffles in the morning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few of them wind up needing to be thrown out.”

Molly squeezed her hand. “Not a problem.”

“Just be sure I get mine first,” Daniel said.

Molly rolled her eyes. “You really do need to learn to share,” she scolded.

“Yeah, Daniel. I’ve been telling you the same thing for years,” Patrick chimed in.

Suddenly the room was alive with teasing banter and laughter. To hear their wives tell it, sharing seemed to be a problem for all of the Devaney men.

Daniel leaned back and listened, suddenly content. It was noisy and chaotic, but he had Molly beside him and his family all in the same place. It wasn’t perfect, but it was real. This was it. This was the way a family was supposed to be.

And God willing, it was the way his family would be from now on.