A Daddy for Jacoby(75)

Demanding was exactly right. It’d been a hell of a week.

Justin had spent Monday in three separate meetings. First with a lawyer recommended by Jennifer Steele, then with Jacoby’s doctor and then with the Ellsworths.

In that order.

He’d filed the paperwork requesting physical custody of Jacoby and things were looking good for the request to go through without any issues, considering the Ellsworths had agreed with the idea.

Jacoby’s grandparents had decided they didn’t want to use the loss of their daughter to cause another parent to be separated from his child.

They asked for visitations and Justin had agreed, promising to bring Jacoby to see them at least once a month. From there, they could work their way up to the boy spending longer periods of time with his grandparents.

“Yeah, demanding,” Justin agreed when he noticed his sister seemed to be waiting for a reply. “But, geez, I must’ve really been out of it not to hear my son tell me that Gina was packing her bags and getting out of Dodge.”

“Maybe she doesn’t think she has any reason to stay,” Racy said with a smile. “Yes, her family is here, but they’ll always be her family no matter where she is. She doesn’t have a job and volunteering at the library is what fueled her desire to be a teacher.”

“A teacher?”

Racy nodded. “She’s going back to school to get her teaching credentials in elementary education.”

Justin couldn’t believe it. After she’d put that idea in his head a few weeks ago, she was now taking her own advice. Gina would be an awesome teacher, she had a natural gentleness with kids Jacoby’s age. She didn’t talk down to them or make what they had to say seem unimportant.

He’d actually found himself on the website for the University of Wyoming, looking at their College of Education. Becoming a teacher himself was still just a dream, but he’d enjoyed working on a scared-straight type of program for teens while in prison. Maybe he could start off being a temporary and work his way up.

“Justin? Did I lose you again?”

“Huh?” He snapped out of his thoughts to find his sister grabbing her purse and coat. “Ah, when is Gina leaving?”

“Tomorrow after the Memorial Day parade.”

“Tomorrow?” His heart seized in his chest, waiting a full heartbeat before it resumed an unsteady pounding. “Why so soon?”

“She’s hoping to get into a summer session.”

Racy gave him a quick kiss and headed for the door. Justin walked with her, waiting as she stopped to give Jacoby a goodbye kiss, as well, then followed her out to her car.

“If you’ve got something to tell her, I think you better do it today,” she said, climbing behind the wheel. “Before it’s too late.”

He waited until she put on her seat belt and started down the road before he headed back to the porch, his sister’s words ringing in his head. Talk to Gina? She’d made it clear she wasn’t interested in anything he had to say, but he couldn’t let her leave town without her knowing—

Knowing what?

How much it meant to him that she’d believed in him from the very beginning, standing up for him when no one would? How she’d been by his side from the moment his son appeared and never let Justin’s doubts and inner demons get in the way of what he had to do to keep Jacoby safe and happy? How she’d taught him to laugh, to think, to dream?

How she’d changed his life?

“Hey, Dad!”

He opened the screen door and went back inside. “What do you need, Jacoby?”

“Is love spelled with an o or a u?”

Justin smiled.

Neither. In his eyes, his heart and deep in his soul, he knew he would forever spell it G-i-n-a. “It’s an o,” he said. “L-o-v-e. Why?”

“I want to make another sign.” Jacoby leaned over a fresh piece of poster board. “Everyone is saying thank you or how happy she makes us, but I want to make a sign that says ‘We Love You,’ even though I like l-u-v-e better.”

He crouched beside his son. “Why do you want to say that?”

Jacoby looked up at him. “Because we do. Love her. Right? So why not just say it?”

Justin dropped to his knees and reached for a paintbrush.

Why not, indeed?



Gina clapped along with everyone else lining Main Street when the high school marching band led off the annual Memorial Day parade as the church bells chimed the noon hour.