A Daddy for Jacoby(67)

Racy nodded and returned her smile. “Just to be safe.”

Time seemed to crawl as Gina and Racy waited. When Racy’s watch beeped, both women jumped.

Silencing the alarm, Racy glanced at the bathroom door. “I can’t look.”

“What? Why?”

“I thought I’d be okay no matter the results, but now…”

Gina squeezed Racy’s hand. “You want me to check?”

Racy nodded.

Gina entered her bathroom and eyed the five testers on her sink. The results were identical. She took the first stick and headed back into her room.

“Yeah! We have a baby on the way!”



Justin stood at the oversize window in his sister’s dining room. It looked out over a large yard surrounded by trees on three sides and Echo Lake on the fourth. The sun was just about gone, but it was another warm spring evening.

He’d shown up at Racy and Gage’s home in time to join everyone for dinner. Now that the meal was over, Racy and Maggie Stevens, one of his sister’s best friends, were in the kitchen cleaning up. Gage and Landon, Maggie’s husband of a few months, had disappeared in the garage to check out Gage’s new motorcycle.

Justin had waved off Gage’s offer to join them and instead watched Jacoby race around the yard, playing man in the middle, or more appropriately dog in the middle, with Anna, Maggie’s daughter. Jack, his sister’s golden retriever, was trying his best to get the ball the kids tossed back and forth to each other.

We want our grandson. We can provide him with a stable life filled with the best of everything.

Richard Ellsworth’s words, spoken during their meeting this afternoon, echoed in Justin’s head. The big house, private schools and summer vacations around the world. It all sounded perfect. Perfect for a little boy with loving grandparents.

There was no way Justin could compete. He wasn’t even sure he had the right to, even with the shift in people’s attitudes toward him lately.

During the two days before they left for Colorado and in the week since they’d been back, he’d been thanked numerous times for stopping the fight at the school dance, by adults and teenagers, whenever he ventured from the kitchen into the bar’s dining area or when out in town. He had to admit that when he’d told Jacoby why people were asking to shake his hand and offering their appreciation, it felt good when his son jumped into his arms and called him a hero.

But it couldn’t erase all he’d done in his past.

Richard Ellsworth hadn’t threatened outright to use his family history or prison record against him if it came down to a legal battle, but he made it clear that the court would do an extensive background check on all the parties involved.

He sighed and turned from the window, seeing his sister and Maggie had moved into the living room. Both women looked at him with expectant gazes.

“Do you want to tell us what happened today?” Racy asked.

“No.”

The one he really wanted to talk to was Gina, but after the way she walked out on him last week, and made herself scarce ever since, he doubted she’d be willing to listen to anything he had to say.

His sister tilted her head and Justin knew he wasn’t going to get out of this. He joined them, sitting on the end of couch. “I really don’t want to talk about this.”

“You need to,” Racy persisted, “and you need to let your family and friends help.”

“That includes me and Landon, too,” Maggie added when Justin looked at her.

Racy leaned forward. “So, how did it go with Richard Ellsworth?”

Justin gave in and told his sister and Maggie everything, from what it was like staying with the Ellsworths following the funeral, to the day Richard gave him the custody papers and the details of what they’d talked about today, minus the obscure warning about his past.

“So, now I’m trying to figure out if I should pack up Jacoby’s things.” Justin rose, unable to sit still any longer. He paced the area in front of the fireplace. “I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching since we got back from Colorado, but the bottom line is the Ellsworths can give him all the things in life I can’t.”

“You’re a great father,” Racy said. “And they’re damn lucky you are in light of the way their daughter just introduced you and Jacoby and then took off. To decide now they can raise him better—”

“They didn’t know Jacoby existed.”