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“Yes, you do. This young lady—”
“Justin! Finally!”
The blonde launched herself into his arms and Justin had no choice but to catch her. Unlike Gina’s curves, however, this girl was skin and bones. Her hair and clothes were dirty and she smelled like she hadn’t bathed in a while.
After catching his balance, Justin peeled her arms from around his neck just as Gina and Ric walked in from the back hall. “Ah, I’m sorry, but I don’t know—”
“It’s me, Zoe! Zoe Ellis?” The girl clutched his hands. “You must remember me.”
He didn’t. Over the last three months, his encounters with the opposite sex consisted mostly of conversations with his sister Racy, and his coworkers. Yeah, there had been that girl he’d celebrated his release with when he first got out, but this wasn’t her. And he’d gotten more than a few offers for company from a couple of the waitresses, especially after everyone thought he and Gina had slept together—
Nope, not going there.
Justin forced his attention back on the girl, realizing he’d missed most of what she’d said.
“—and then we got a hotel room and didn’t come out for three days. I tell ya, I can still remember how you—”
“Look, you must have me mistaken with someone else. I’ve been…gone for quite a few years and only got back in town about three months ago.”
“Well, I know it’s been a while, eight years in fact, but I never forgot.” The girl reached for the little boy next to her.
Justin took in the child’s dark hair and eyes, seeing both fear and curiosity in his gaze as he clung to a scruffy-looking teddy bear and a dirty pillowcase that bulged at odd angles.
“In fact, I’ve had a constant reminder of those crazy few days,” she continued. “Meet Jacoby. Your son.”
Chapter Two
Justin couldn’t move. He wanted to. His legs screamed at him to run. Run hard and run fast and never look back. Ashamed at that thought, he shoved it aside to concentrate on what the girl had just said.
“My what?”
She yanked on the kid’s T-shirt, forcing him to stumble forward. “Your son. Jacoby Joseph Ellis.”
At the mention of his father’s name as this child’s middle name, Justin’s gaze snapped from the boy, whose downcast eyes were centered on his own dirty sneakers, one sporting a big hole in the toe, back to her.
“How—He can’t—He can’t be more than five years old. I’ve been in pri—” He paused and pulled in a deep breath. “I’ve been out of touch for the last seven years.”
“He’s small for his age. His seventh birthday was in January. If you count back nine months…”
April. Eight-plus years ago. A few months before he and Billy Joe had been busted for drug trafficking.
A bust he’d actually helped with.
Tired of the life he’d been living, Justin had anonymously slipped insider information to the cops on the drug ring he and his brother worked for. The guilt and fear over what he’d been doing had caused him to live in an alcohol-induced haze for weeks. No drugs, though. He’d never touched the stuff, despite his chosen profession, but partying had included a wild weekend he and his buddies had spent in a small town in Colorado.
Was it possible he was this boy’s father?
He tried to remember the girl as she rummaged in the large purse at her shoulder. She pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper. “Here’s his birth certificate.”
Justin read his name listed as the boy’s father. “If this is true, why now? Why not get in touch with me when he was born?”
“What could you have done from where you were?”
“You knew where I was?” He clenched the certificate in his fist. “But you never thought to tell me you had my baby?”
“Ah, it might be better if you all move to one of the back booths?”
Justin looked up to find Gina standing behind the little boy. He read curiosity, concern and another emotion he couldn’t identify in her eyes. She looked from him to the main area of the bar. He then noticed both Jackie and Ric had disappeared, but the tables had filled up, and most were watching them.
Damn, he should’ve thought of that. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
He marched to the other side of the bar and slid into the end booth. He watched Zoe eagerly follow, not even looking back to make sure the boy was with her. She plopped down next to Justin, moving in much too close.
“How about burgers and fries for you two?” Gina asked as she helped the little boy get settled into the opposite seat.
“And sodas,” Zoe added.
“Maybe milk for your son?”
Justin picked up on the edge in Gina’s voice as she stared at him. What? She expected him to make that call?
Zoe waved away the question, her attention on Justin as she rested her hand on his arm. “Oh, he drinks soda all the time.”
“Except at school. I have chocolate milk there.”
Justin shook off Zoe’s touch as the boy spoke for the first time, even though it seemed like he was talking to his bear instead of to one of the adults.
“Chocolate milk is my favorite. I’ll be right back.” Gina’s smile for the boy was sweet, but it disappeared as she shot Justin a hard look before walking away.
“Is she your girlfriend?” Zoe asked.
“What? No, she’s…a coworker.” Justin smoothed out the birth certificate and folded it in half. “I work here at The Blue Creek. How did you know where to find me?”
“I figured this was the best place to start. You talked about this bar that weekend we spent together. Besides, who can forget a town called Destiny?”
The pieces were starting to fall back into place. He and his buddies had gone on a road trip. They’d ended up at a house party and a couple of guys had been in the kitchen giving a girl a hard time. He’d stepped in and she’d stuck by his side the rest of the night.
And the rest of the weekend.
“You told me your name was Susie,” he said, more details surfacing in his foggy brain.
“Yeah, I lied.” She shrugged. “It was just for fun.”
“How do I know you’re not lying now? Just because you put my name on that piece of paper—”
Gina appeared with two plates of food and the drinks, cutting off his words. She must’ve taken someone else’s order to get back so fast. After everything was on the table, she turned to the boy. “Would you like to wash your hands before you eat?”
Justin thought the kid needed to be scrubbed from head to toe, but he kept quiet. Zoe dug into the food, ignoring everything else.
“Okay,” the boy said.
Gina held out her hand and he went with her. “I’ll take him to the kitchen.”
His mother didn’t reply, so Justin nodded. Waiting until they were out of earshot, he grabbed for the soda the same moment Zoe did.
“Hey!”
“You let your son go off with a total stranger?”
Zoe looked at him. “Like she’s going to run off with the kid? She looks like she’s barely out of college.”
If he remembered correctly, Zoe was a few years older than Gina. Unless that had been a lie, too. “You told me you were nineteen back then. Was that the truth?”
She tucked the birth certificate into the pocket of his T-shirt. “Yes. Now, can I have my drink?”
He handed over the soda. “You still haven’t told me why you never got a hold of me.”
“I thought about it when I found out I was pregnant, but then I heard about your arrest. Like I said, there was nothing you could do from where you were heading and heck, we were just a one-night—one-weekend stand.” She paused to take a long swallow from the cup. “I figured I could handle things myself.”
“So, why look me up now?”
“I read you got out of prison early for good behavior. Hey, I’m not going to lie, the last seven years have been hard. I’m not too proud to come and ask for help.”
He didn’t know what to say. Was the kid his? Without a DNA test, he couldn’t be sure, no matter how the dates matched up.
Gina returned with the boy, who started in on his food with an enthusiasm that left Justin wondering when was the last time they’d eaten a meal.
“You make sure you eat all that,” she directed her comments to her son. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom. You be good and don’t give your dad any trouble, you hear?”
The ketchup bottle in the boy’s hand stilled at he looked at his mom with dark eyes. They shifted to lock on to Justin before the child nodded solemnly.
Justin sat mute, having no idea how to respond to her words. He watched her slip out of the booth and head for the front foyer where the restrooms were located. When she disappeared through the swinging doors, he turned his attention back to the boy, noticing they had the same dark hair and eyes.
Jacoby Ellis. His son?
If it was true, shouldn’t he feel something? A pull? A spark? That unexplained connection between parent and child?
He doubted his father ever had felt that toward him, his brother or sister. Joseph Dillon hadn’t had a paternal bone in his body. Justin had only been five when their mother died, but there was never any doubt that she’d loved all her children with a fierce devotion. He was still able to recall the warmth of her touch. And the sound of her tears.
He shook off the memory and noticed the fries were going into the boy’s mouth faster than he could chew. “Hey, take it easy. No one’s going to take away your plate until you’re finished, okay?”
Those dark eyes looked at him again. The boy didn’t speak, but he did slow down. Justin watched him eat for a few minutes, then his own stomach rumbled and he found himself wishing Gina had brought him a burger, too.
Like magic, a plate with a Blue Creek Super Burger appeared in front of him.
Gina stood at the table, her arms crossed. “I figured watching them eat was making you hungry. Besides, something tells me you’re going to need to keep up your strength.”
Justin scowled at her, but grabbed the burger anyway.
“Does that taste good?” She turned her attention to the kid and he nodded, too busy sucking chocolate milk through a straw to reply.
“Where’s your friend?” Her voice was low as she directed the question back at Justin.
He forced down a mouthful of food. “Ladies’ room. Can you believe this? Damn, what a freaking mess—”
“Justin!” Gina cut him off, dropping her hands to the table. She leaned forward, cutting off his view of the boy. Not that he was looking at the kid with Gina’s curves practically laid out in front of him.
Geez, now was not the time for his mind to take that detour. “What?”
“Watch your language.”
Her words came out in a whisper so low that he had to read her lips to get what she was saying. “What did I say?”
She straightened and took a step back, again with the crossed arms. A toss of her head sent her curls—including that darn pink one—flying over her shoulder.
“It’s what you were going to say. You’ve got little ears here,” she whispered. “You need to be careful.”
Justin sighed. She was right. Something told him it was a position Gina Steele, egghead extraordinaire, was probably very used to.
“Okay, I get it. Can you do me a favor and check on Zoe?” he asked. “She’s a little…upset.”
Gina stared at him for a long moment, then nodded and left.
“Your mom will be right back,” Justin said.
The boy only stared at him and clutched his bear tighter. Justin grabbed his burger and nodded to the boy’s half-eaten food. The kid started munching again, but the bear stayed right on his lap.
A few minutes later, Gina came back to the table. Alone.
“What’s going—” Justin read confusion on her face. “Where’s Zoe?”
“The ladies’ room was empty.” Gina again kept her voice low as she turned away from the boy. “I checked with Ric, he’s working the front door. He didn’t see her leave. I even checked the parking lot. Nothing.”
A sucker punch hit Justin square in the gut, harder than the one delivered less than a half hour earlier when Zoe had walked back into his life.
She left? She walked away from her own son?
He stared at the boy, who kept his eyes glued to his plate.
“I think we should call Gage.”
The mention of Gina’s brother—now his brother-in-law—caused a familiar ripple of unease. At best, he and the sheriff tolerated each other. Usually from a distance.
“We need to search the place.” Justin slid to the end of the booth. “Maybe she just wanted to find a quiet spot to…I don’t know, to think, to pull herself together.”
“Ric and a few others are looking for her.” Gina put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. “I’ll call my brother…just in case. You need to stay here.”
Justin nodded.
