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“Right. We agree on that, at least.” Jax adjusted his hat, and the movement came off as a kind of sly tip of congrats to the sheriff for being on his side.
“What do you mean? About me how?” Shelby cradled the baby higher in her arms, but that did nothing to temper the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Everybody in town knows your story, Shelby Grace. We all know about your daddy, about that Mitch. Some of us even know that you broke your lease and packed up all your belongings today.”
“Huh?” Tyler glanced up and blinked. “You moving, Miz Shelby?”
“I don’t know your story, Miss Lockhart, but I do know that that’s an interesting development.”
People were not supposed to find out this way, not by hearing it couched in supposition and gossip, and certainly not before her father. “It doesn’t matter, Tyler. None of this has anything to do with me and—”
“Hold that thought right there, young lady.” Sheriff Denby flipped a waiting coffee mug over on the counter and helped himself to a steaming hot cup. “There is a more than passing fair chance that whoever left that baby on the doorstep, when you were here closing up all by your lonesome, left her here for you to find.”
“Makes sense to me.” Jax turned toward the door, then looked at Tyler. “You said someone tried to steal gas from the station tonight. Did they happen to be driving a silver SUV?”
“Uh, no. Actually, when I looked up and saw a faded red Mustang slide up to the pump, I thought it was Mitch come to see Miz Shelby. So I stopped paying attention until they took off fast. That’s when I thought maybe they’d filled up and run off without paying, but turns out their credit card had been denied and they didn’t get a drop.”
“Mitch?” Jax leaned one elbow on the counter, gave Shelby a hard look, then glanced at the baby. “Any particular reason this Mitch might have come by tonight and not hung around to talk to you face-to-face? He a friend of yours?”
“An ex...friend,” Shelby said, oddly defensive in this man’s presence. Still, she searched the baby’s face for any similarity to Mitch, who she had forgiven more than once for cheating on her.
The man stared her down with an expression that made her feel he knew all about Mitch and his cheating ways, though that would be impossible. Wouldn’t it?
“This Mitch wouldn’t be the kind of ex-friend who might think you’d be a good person to raise his child, would he?” Jax asked, sounding far too matter-of-fact for that kind of question.
“The last thing Mitch Warner would have wanted was to be a daddy,” Sheriff Denby snorted.
Shelby tucked the baby in closer, as if that might conceal how strongly her heart was beating at the very idea that Mitch might have done something like this. “Of course, we are conveniently overlooking the possibility that the baby was left by someone who doesn’t even know me. Someone we don’t know, for that matter.”
“Like me?” The man with the cool eyes and the quick smile cocked his head at her.
“I’m just saying that we all know one another around here. You just showed up.” At the worst time. Or maybe the best, if he had no connection to tiny Amanda. “Tonight, of all nights.”
“You want to know who I am, Miss Shelby Grace Lockhart? I’m a man who served four years with the Greater Dallas police force.” He reached into his back pocket and withdrew his wallet, glanced down at it, grimaced slightly and put it back. “At least I used to. Now I’m, for all intents and purposes, homeless and unemployed for the next couple of weeks.”
He gave her a wistful smile that hinted he expected her to find that notion so preposterous, she would have to laugh. She didn’t know whether to smile or shake her head at that.
He nodded at her nonresponse. “You got me. I’m pretty much the most likely suspect in your child abandonment scenario.”
“Yup.” Andy Denby set the coffee cup down on the counter without a drop ever going in his mouth. “Not trying to be punitive. Got to consider what’s right and best for little Amanda. My wife is the town’s only physician, so it makes sense we get the child to my house to be checked over.”
“So that means...” Jax narrowed his eyes and held out his hands like a man waiting to carry out an order.
“That makes it official. This is a case. I’ll call in what details we have tonight, see if there are missing children reports that might be connected. Whatever else needs to be done can wait till morning.” The sheriff turned to grab a to-go cup and poured his untouched coffee into it as he half spoke, half yawned. “C’mon, Shelby Grace. The old doc will be tickled pink to have you and that little one stay with us for the night.”
“Stay? In Sunnyside?” Her mind raced. She had planned to be long gone by morning, to have begun a whole new life. “Can’t you just take the baby and...”
“And what?” Sheriff Denby took the emptied ceramic cup around behind the counter and disappeared long enough to bend down and drop it in the dirty dishpan. He motioned to her, then to her backpack. “Allow you to leave town before we get statements and figure out what’s best for little Amanda?”
Shelby held her breath. How had the sheriff known she was fleeing town tonight? Had she been that obvious? She turned to Jackson Stroud, as if she actually hoped that somehow he would spring to her rescue. That was his style, right? If he was telling the truth, that he had come over to save a basket he thought held kittens, then why wouldn’t he save her?
The man in the Stetson stepped forward. “So that’s it? I can get back on my way, then?”
Cowboys. Shelby let out a huff. You couldn’t trust them, at least not to do anything but think of their own hides.
“Absolutely...not.” The sheriff put the lid on his to-go cup with a soft click. “It’s late. I can’t call around to find somebody to put you up, so I’m asking nice. Will you just bunk at the Truck Stop Inn for the night so we can sort this out with clear heads tomorrow morning?”
“I can let you in.” Tyler started toward the back of the building, motioning. “It ain’t fancy, but there’s a couple rooms with cots and a shower that we rent out to truckers by the night.”
“Tell Miss Delta to bill the department for it.” Sheriff Denby clapped his hands together, then motioned for Shelby to hurry up and get her things together. “As of now, this is an official investigation. I’ll thank you not to leave town, Stroud, until after we speak again.”
“I was only joking about being homeless and unemployed. I have a job waiting for me in Miami. I was on my way there tonight to find a place to live and get the lay of the land before I start work.” Jax followed behind Tyler. “I can’t stay here indefinitely. I have—”
Denby gave the stranger a hard look that cut him right off. But when the man got even with the sheriff, it did not escape Shelby’s keen eye that the older man added something to the conversation that made the wandering cowboy’s wide shoulders stiffen. He glanced back at Shelby and the baby.
The world seemed to stand still for a moment.
Then Jax nodded to no one in particular and said, “I guess I can spare some time. But as soon as I have nothing more to offer this case, I need to get on my way.”
Chapter Three
Jax rolled onto his side. The whole framework of the old cot creaked. When he’d climbed between the scratchy, bleached brilliant white sheets last night, he hadn’t expected to get much sleep. He thought he would never get comfortable or be able to quiet his mind after the day’s events. But the minute his head had hit the pillow, the prayer he had shared with Shelby had come echoing back to him, and a sweet peace had washed over him. The next thing he knew, the dim light of the new day was creeping through the crack where the shade did not quite meet the windowsill.
He checked his cell phone for the time and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Head bowed, he rubbed his fists into his eyes. Tyler had said that both the café and the convenience mart opened at six in the morning. That meant, he calculated, he had twenty-five minutes to get ready for...
For what? A few hours ago, his course had been set. If you’d asked him then, he’d have told you without hesitation that he’d be in Miami this morning. He’d be scouting out apartments, looking over the exclusive gated community where, on the first of next month, he’d start his job as head of security. Now he didn’t even know what to expect beyond getting up and getting dressed.
That his lack of control in this new situation didn’t have him on edge was not like him at all. Jax was a man always one step ahead of everyone else. He pressed his eyes shut tightly. For a moment he considered praying for guidance, but in the end he decided what he really needed was determination. He set his own way, and his way was toward Miami before the end of the day.
He sighed as the peace of last night turned into a weight pressing down on his shoulders. That weight did not lift as he cleaned up with the toiletries Tyler had gathered for him last night. He’d feel better if he could put on clean clothes, but that would have to wait until he reached Florida tonight.
He walked into the Shoppers’ Emporium part of the building in time to see the spectacular sunrise over the wide-open Texas landscape, framed by a large plate-glass window. It was the loveliest thing he’d seen in a long time.
“Make that the second-loveliest thing,” he murmured to himself as Shelby Grace Lockhart suddenly stepped into view from around the corner in the parking lot. Her hair was windswept, her expression determined, and both her hands gripped the handle of a baby carrier.
“Miss Delta?” Shelby peered in with her cute little nose all but smashed against the glass. “You in there yet?”
“I’m coming. Just hold on to your—” A woman who looked to be a few years shy of sixty, with hair the color and consistency of sunburnt hay, bustled past him, then slowed. She gave him a quick once-over and cocked one penciled eyebrow. She paused long enough to plunk her fist on her bony hip and ask him, “Cowboy or trucker?”
“Cop,” he said, then corrected himself. “Ex-cop, that is.”
Shelby knocked on the door. “Miss Delta? I’m kind of in a hurry. You’ll never believe what happened last night.”
“And I can’t wait to hear all about it,” Delta murmured in Jax’s direction even as she pivoted and went to unlock the front door. “Shelby Grace, where did you get that sweet little fellow?”
“It’s a girl,” Shelby corrected at the exact same time the words left Jax’s lips. Their perfect timing didn’t take the edge off her pointed tone as she added, “Someone left her outside the café last night.”
Shelby gave Jax an unyielding stare. In return, Jax gave Shelby...the biggest grin he’d ever grinned. Which wasn’t saying much, since he never grinned. Or he never used to. But there he was, unable to stop himself.
“How is she doing?” he asked, his eyes on Shelby’s face.
“Doc Lovey checked her out. She’s in good shape, but a little underweight for what Doc thinks is a four-month-old.” Shelby shifted the weight of the carrier and, in doing so, got a bit off balance.
“Doc Lovely?” Jax asked as he rushed forward and scooped the carrier up out of her hands. It felt light to him. No, it wasn’t the carrier that felt light. It was him. Like that weight he had felt since plotting his getaway from here had lifted.
“Lovey. Sheriff Denby’s wife. It’s a nickname, but everyone around here calls her that.” Miss Delta tipped her head back a bit so she could give Jax another once-over, then fixed her attention on the baby in the carrier. “Lovely is what this sweet thing is. What a cutie. Who could have ever left something this precious?”
“Someone who knew they were placing their baby in good hands,” Jax said, almost under his breath. He met Shelby’s hesitant gaze and held it until she took a deep breath and smiled.
“That’s a sweet idea, I guess,” Shelby whispered.
But? She did not say it, or even hint that there was more to say, but Jax felt it. Something else was going on with Shelby Grace Lockhart. Anyone else might have prodded, peppering her with questions to find out more, but Jax knew that people’s true motivations showed in their actions, not their words. So he held his tongue and waited.
Shelby glanced over her shoulder toward the café, then down at baby Amanda in the carrier, which Jax held easily by the handle. “But I can’t...I don’t have it in me anymore to take on one more person’s broken promises.”
“Promises?” he asked softly.
“A baby left on her own in the dark of night?” Her eyes met his. Her hair swept over her shoulder as she shook her head. “If that doesn’t say someone somewhere broke a promise and now wants someone else—”
“You,” he interrupted.
“Me.” She nodded in agreement. “Now someone wants me to do what everyone knows Shelby Grace does so well. Pick up the slack. Put the pieces back together. Always be there. I just don’t think I can do it anymore.”
He wanted to speak to her of faith. Of knowing where to find strength. Of what it felt like to be a child caught in the middle of a world with no Shelby Graces in it. Instead, he swallowed his opinion and supported her with a quiet “yeah” and a nod of his head.
She shuffled her feet, then squinted toward the large window, where the sun had begun to shine in and create shadows around them.
Clearly she wanted to get moving. But where? And why? None of his business, of course. Under other circumstances, he would have let it go. He studied her profile, the curve of her cheek. The shadows under her eyes told of a sleepless night. He couldn’t let it go—not with the simple question Sheriff Denby had asked him echoing in his mind. Why Shelby Grace Lockhart?
“I can’t believe there’s nothing this little sweetheart needs,” Delta cooed as she gave the baby’s head a pat. “I’m going to go see what I can find.”
“Don’t trouble yourself, Miss Delta.” Shelby raised her hand in a halfhearted attempt to slow the juggernaut that was Miss Delta of Delta’s Truck Stop Inn. “Doc Lovey got us diapers and formula from the county health department. After I help the sheriff look for any signs of who might have left the baby, I volunteered to take her to social services over in West...more...land.” Shelby’s shoulders sagged as the older woman hurried away, rattling off a list of things she wanted to gather for the baby.
“Here kind of early, aren’t you?” he finally asked. “I don’t see the sheriff anywhere around.”
“There’s something I have to do at the café before then.”
“Oh?” He narrowed his eyes. It was a simple technique to speak little and act like you expected an answer. Oftentimes people complied without even knowing why. Other times they hesitated, then felt compelled to fill the silence, usually with the very information Jax needed.
Shelby did neither. She took the carrier and settled it on the counter. In doing so, she put her back to Jax. “Delta, will you watch the baby for a few minutes? I’ll come back for her just as soon as I—”
Jax clamped his hand down on the woman’s shoulder, partly in reassurance, partly to tell her he would not be so easily dismissed. “Don’t bother. I’ll bring her over.”
Shelby whipped her head around. Her shoulder went from strained and tense under his touch to stiff but confident. It was a small shift, but one that let him know she would not be intimidated by him, that she had the grit to hold her own ground.
“You?” Miss Delta poked her head out from behind a round display of candy a few feet away. She gave Jax a once-over, then a twice-over. “Pardon my saying so, but you hardly look like the babysitting type.”
“Foster care,” Shelby said before Jax could come to his own defense. She pressed the handle of a baby carrier, labeled Property of the Sunnyside, Texas, Police Dept., into his hand. “Meet me in the café in a few minutes.”
Somewhere in the shop, something fell off the shelf. As soon as Shelby left, Miss Delta tiptoed from behind that shelf and whispered, “You gonna let her do that? Take that baby to Westmoreland?”
The question, and the implication that Jax had any say over what Shelby did with the child, caught him off guard. “Is Westmoreland really that bad?”
“You know what I mean. Take her to...” Delta hurried over to cover the baby’s ears, and even then she spoke in a whisper. “Social services.”
Baby Amanda gurgled.
Jax’s heart clenched. He had been eight when his mom died and he’d been taken to social services. It was a moment he hadn’t thought of in years, and yet he was not foolish enough to think it hadn’t affected him every day of his life.
“What choice do I have?” He wasn’t asking rhetorically. He really hoped she had another suggestion.
“I asked you first,” she said, in a way that left the impression that if she did have some ideas, she wasn’t going to just blurt them out to him. He got that. He was not only an outsider, but he was a total stranger, too. Yet her choice to keep her thoughts to herself actually made his opinion of her go up a couple more notches.
Jax didn’t say a word to that effect. But he did turn to stand next to Miss Delta, looking down at the innocent in the carrier. After a moment, he looked the older woman in the eyes and said softly, “I know I’m a stranger here, but I don’t think for one moment that Shelby Grace or Sheriff Denby would let this child go anywhere that wasn’t the right place for her to be.”
“I know that, young man. I just hope you do, as well.” Miss Delta nodded, then looked down at the baby. She touched the child’s head and bent to give her a kiss on the forehead, which left a bright pink smudge. “You said you were an ex-cop?”
“Yes, ma’am. On my way from four years of service in the Dallas area to a dream job doing private security for the ultrarich in Florida.”
“Dream job?” She stood back, squinted one eye shut and pressed her lips together to make sure he knew she had sized him up good. “For a man like you? Doing the bidding of the ‘ultrarich’ sounds more like a nightmare.”
“It’s helping people without the complications of...the people.” That was as best as he could describe it on the spot. He had to admit, the overly simplified explanation didn’t make him proud of his choice.
Miss Delta homed in on that right away. She shook her head, causing the necklaces she wore to jangle softly. “That’s what you have your heart set on? Spending your days as a hired helper?”
He repositioned his grip on the baby carrier and his boots on the concrete floor and assured her, “It is.”
“In Miami, Florida?”
“Got a contract that says that’s where I’m supposed to be.”
“Yet here you stand, at the door of the Shoppers’ Emporium in Sunnyside, Texas.” She narrowed her eyes and tapped the toe of her shoe, which was much too fancy for standing on your feet all day.
“What?” Jax demanded, knowing the woman wanted to say more.
“Nothing.” She gave an exaggerated sigh and shook her head. “Only, I wonder if you ever considered that you might just be where you are supposed to be already.”
Jax froze for a moment to try to piece together what she meant by that. He was just a guy who had happened by, right? He didn’t have any reason to get involved. And yet...
He leaned down to wipe the lipstick off Amanda’s head. “I’ll take that under consideration, ma’am.”
“I believe you will.” Miss Delta reached out, grabbed his chin and drew his face close enough to plant a big ol’ kiss on his whiskered cheek. “I really do believe you will.”
That was how he came to walk through the door of the café, swiping at his cheek with the sleeve of his jacket, carrying a foundling baby, grinning and looking for Shelby. Questions about and reactions to the little one in the carrier began flying at him the second he walked into the café from the few patrons who had begun to shuffle in and settle down for their morning meal.
“What a sweetie.”
“How old...?”
