from her while she jostles Harley on her other hip.
“Give him to me,” I coo, wiggling my fingers for the little man, and Scarlett passes the growing baby into my arms. As I enter the café, I hadn’t realized I was using Harley as a shield until I let out a huge sigh of relief that Jake is not present on the favored couch. Taking Harley with me to said sofa, Scarlett steps up to the counter to greet Roderick and a new worker behind the counter.
Once seated on the plush peach fabric, I focus on the baby on my lap, inhaling his sticky, sweet scent. My eyes prickle with a reminder of all I’ll never have, but I rapidly blink back the threat of tears. I don’t want to cry anymore.
“Tell me everything,” Scarlett says as she comes to sit beside me, holding two steamy mugs in her hands. I break into what I’d learned only the night before in this same spot, telling her everything right down to the strange lamp he’d given me.
“A lamp?” Scarlett questions.
“Or a light. I’m not certain what to call it. It’s very artistic and obviously handmade, but I don’t understand its significance.”
Scarlett ponders the gift for a moment before asking, “Do you believe him?”
Focusing on Harley, I answer Scarlett. “I want to believe him. Something deep inside me says there is no way Jake could have done it. He couldn’t start a fire. But I just don’t know. I don’t know him.” The statement is more a reminder to myself than Scarlett.
What do I really know about Jake Drummond?
I know how his lips taste and his mouth feels as he travels over my skin. I know how he looks when he enters me, his expression always full of wonder at our connection. I know how charmingly he smiles and how he knows it gets to me every damn time he uses it on me. I also know he’s been loyal to his family and worked hard his entire life, giving up his own dreams to take care of others.
It hits me that I’d done the same thing for my family. When my father had his first heart attack, I returned for him. When my father became a judge, I took over more of our practice, falling into all the places I am now: a practicing attorney, a Building Buddies supervisor, a woman alone.
“I think you should trust your gut. If it’s telling you Jake didn’t do it—couldn’t do it—then you need to go with that feeling. Find out more information.”
“You sound like May,” I state, holding Harley’s little fists and tapping his pudgy knuckles together.
“What does May say?”
“I should investigate.” Scarlett perks up next to me, and I have to level her with my best glare. “Not that kind of investigation.”
“What?” she teases, holding a hand to her chest in innocence. My friend might have played a sleuth in the past, but she didn’t always do it through proper channels, having used false sources and sketchy connections to report the goods on Hollywood’s elite and bad-boy athletes. But this was Jake. “I’m a genuine investigative reporter.”
“Was,” I remind her. “Past tense and presently mother to one beautiful baby. Isn’t that right, Harley? We need to keep snoopy-nose mommy out of trouble.”
Scarlett chuckles. “Well, that’s better than some names I’ve been called in the past.” We both glance at Harley, who responds to his mother’s laughter with a large, drooly smile. His dark eyes match hers and seek her next to me as I continue to tap his little knuckles together. Scarlett reaches out a hand and strokes her palm over her son’s fuzzy head.
“You need to believe in miracles, Rita. Weren’t you the one telling me the universe works in mysterious ways, and there are signs all around us?”
“Did I say that?” I softly chuckle, sensing the universe speaks to others, but I have no idea what it’s been trying to tell me for the past decade.
“Maybe Jake was put in your path for a reason,” Scarlett states, still speaking toward her son while addressing me. “Maybe his presence is more than restoration for him, but restoration for you. He’s your sign to move on.”
“I have moved on,” I snap, a little harsher than necessary.
“But have you really?” Scarlett asks, softening her voice. “I know you submerge yourself in Building Buddies, and you have a successful practice. You’re a great supporter of Alcoholics Anonymous. Those are all noble and self-assuring in many