Vulnerable [Suncoast Society] (Suncoast Society #29)(56)

“I don’t know, sweetheart.” He couldn’t run with Laurel on his hip. He also knew whatever crisis it was, Tilly could handle it far better than he could at that moment.

When they reached the waiting room, there was an older couple there who Jesse didn’t recognize. From their position in front of where Eva sat, he suspected her parents.

And they were in the process of arguing with Ed, Landry, and now Tilly, while Eva sat there looking stony-faced and hollow. Actually, Eva looked terrified, come to think of it.

Fuck.

Jesse stopped just inside the waiting room entrance, knowing he might need to turn around and take Laurel back out again. But the older woman saw him and headed over to them with a grim look on her face and her arms outstretched.

“You. Give her to me. Right now.”

Like hell he would.

Laurel clung to him as he turned his left side away from the woman, where Laurel was resting against his hip, her arms clinging around his neck.

“No, Gramma. I want Uncle Jesse.”

“He is not your uncle! You come here to me right this instant.”

“No! Leave me alone I want Uncle Jesse!” Laurel screamed, silencing the entire waiting room as well as nearly blowing out Jesse’s left ear drum.

He didn’t care. He would gladly go deaf in that ear—both ears—if it meant taking care of Laurel.

He stared her down. “Lady,” he softly said, “if you try to take this child from me, you and I will have us one. And it won’t be pretty.”

“I am her grandmother, you fa—”

“Whoa! No! Hey!” A chorus of protest from nearly everyone—including Eva, he was glad to see, who finally stood—silenced the old bat and drowned her out.

The man shoved past Tilly and Eva and headed toward Jesse. “Laurel Ann Cooke, you come here right this instant.”

Jesse was ready this time, able to press his ear against Laurel’s shoulder before she started screaming. “Don’t you touch me! No! No! No! I want Uncle Jesse!”

Laurel actually kicked out at the man as he tried to take her from Jesse, her foot hitting the man in the chest and nearly catching Jesse in the nuts on her backswing, but he wouldn’t let go of her.

They’d have to pry her from his arms, even if he passed out from lack of oxygen first from the choke hold she now had on him.

“Mom! Dad!” Eva finally yelled, getting their attention. “Leave her alone! She needs to be with Jesse.”

They turned on her. Her father stormed over to her. “You listen to me, young lady.” He glanced around, seemed to actually see the ocean of angry, unfriendly faces staring at him, and returned his focus to his daughter. “Now, you and Laurel are going to come with us. Leo is your husband, and you have the right to order all these people out of here. You can get the divorce finalized and they can take care of him and you can come home with us, where you obviously belong. Put an end to this nonsense for good.”

Ed stepped forward. “It doesn’t work like that, sir. As Leo’s attorney, I can attest to the fact that Eva is still Leo’s wife only because the final judgment hasn’t been issued yet. Leo is the one who filed for a divorce from her, and he’s already changed his will and filed paperwork giving a durable power of attorney, including medical issues, to his domestic partner, Jesse Morrow.” Ed pointed to Jesse.

“So technically, no, your daughter has no power here. I can get an emergency hearing with a judge and obtain a court order validating that, if you want, but it’s going to cost your daughter a lot of money to get her attorney out of bed and in front of the judge to defend it. Or do you want to keep being an ass in front of your granddaughter and instead act like a reasonable person?”

Someone must have called security, because two uniformed guards showed up in the waiting room.

Tilly, Landry, Ross, and Ed herded Eva and her parents, followed by the security guards, toward a consultation room just off the main waiting room. When Jesse started to follow, Tilly turned and stayed him with an outstretched palm.

“Stay here,” she mouthed, pointing at the chairs.

The door closed behind them. Inside, Jesse heard raised voices immediately start again. Eva’s father, if he had to guess.

June walked over. “Don’t worry,” she said, looking grim. “We’ll get this handled.

Laurel looked at her. “Aunt June, please don’t let them take me from Uncle Jesse. I need him. He’s my other daddy.” She laid her head on his shoulder, his heart breaking at her tone of voice.

June stroked the girl’s hair. “We’ll do our best, sweetheart.”

Jesse kissed Laurel’s forehead. “I’m here for you, kiddo. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Uncle Jesse.” She pressed her face against his neck and tightened her grip on him.

A thought struck him. “I need to call Leo’s guys at work,” he told June. “They’re going to need to know about this. And I need to call my boss. Holy cra—ud,” he said, remembering to censor himself.

He walked over and sat down next to the bag of Leo’s things, angling himself so he could shift Laurel into his lap and sort of shield her body with his should her grandparents come out and make another run at her. There was Leo’s phone, right on top of the stuff in the bag.

“Could you hand me that, please?” he asked June, pointing.