A Daddy for Jacoby(34)

“Oh, did you find out who’s building that place?”

Ric shook his head. “Nope, my brother Bryant would only say it’s a privately held company. So, how was your trip?”

“Boys, booze and beaches.” The leggy waitress replied with a grin. “It was awesome.”

Awesome, huh?

Barbie’s description of their trip swirled inside Justin’s head as he exited through the swinging doors and headed toward his sister’s office. He found her on the phone. She waved him in and kept talking.

Jack rose from the couch and bounced over to greet him. After allowing Justin to scratch him behind his ears, the dog started pacing between him and the door Justin had closed behind him.

“What’s he doing?” He asked after Racy ended her call.

“He’s probably looking for Jacoby,” she said, snapping her cell phone closed. “He’s really attached to the kid.”

“Yeah, so much so he figured out how to take a picture of the two of them and send it via a text message all the way to the Caribbean.”

A smile took over her features. “You know about that.”

Justin dropped into one corner of the leather couch and Jack climbed up next to him. “Whatever gave you the idea to send Gina that picture?”

“Because Jacoby asked me to.”

That surprised him. “He did? Why?”

“We were doing the dishes while you and Gage were enjoying some man-time downstairs playing pool.” She leaned forward in her chair. “He said he was worried she might forget him while she was gone.”

Justin had no idea the boy felt that way.

When Jacoby had asked about her, Justin had told him she’d gone on vacation. He’d thought that was the end of it because Jacoby hadn’t mentioned her again. What did it mean that neither one of them seemed to be able to get Gina out of their heads?

“Hey, you still with me?”

Mentally shaking off his thoughts of Gina, Justin tried to read the worried expression in his sister’s eyes.

Something was going on.

“I asked for you because Leeann is on her way,” Racy continued when he remained silent. “To speak with you.”

Deputy Leeann Harris.

Justin had known her as one of his sister’s best friends growing up and as the girl who’d entered tons of beauty pageants. It seemed she’d always been in the newspaper as Miss something or other. The last he’d heard Leeann had left town to become a famous model. She’d been a popular choice of wall art on the concrete walls in his former home. He had been surprised when he returned home to find her working for the sheriff’s department.

Now she was assigned to the search for Jacoby’s mother.

The news that the deputy was on her way had him sitting up straight. “Why? What’s going on?”

Racy shrugged. “I don’t know. She called earlier and asked if you were working today. She said she tried to call you directly, but you weren’t answering.”

“I forgot my phone at home,” he answered. Did the sheriff’s department have something on Zoe? Maybe even found her? “Jacoby didn’t want to get out of bed, and then he put up a stink about taking a shower. It went downhill from there.”

“How did his doctor’s visit go?”

Justin knew what his sister was doing and he let her distract him from thinking about Zoe. “It went okay. Jacoby’s fine physically, even though he’s a bit undersize for his age. Another ten pounds couldn’t hurt, but at least his immunizations are now up to date.”

“And you did the DNA testing?”

So much for distraction. Justin nodded.

“Do the results really matter to you?”

A ripple of trepidation sliced through his gut. “I’m ninety percent sure he’s my son, but if not…well, I wouldn’t want some other father out there not knowing the boy exists.”

“That’s not going to matter if you can’t find his mother.”

Maybe the sheriff’s department already had. “I know. Jacoby is my responsibility…for now.”

“And when the results come back that you’re a match?”

“Then I’m a dad.”

A name Jacoby had been calling him for a week now.

It’d started the morning after the monster exorcism, when the kid walked into the kitchen asking for breakfast, still wearing Justin’s T-shirt. It seemed as if he made sure to include the word every time he spoke. Justin had asked why a few days later, Jacoby simply stated dad was a word he’d never had the chance to use before, and damn, if Justin wasn’t getting used to—