When the Bough Breaks (Rose Gardner Investigations #6) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,17
at me, terror in her eyes. “Does he want to be a daddy to your baby?”
“Honestly? I doubt it. I suspect he refused so he’d have something to use against me.”
“Oh, Rose.”
I pushed out a breath. “After that, it seemed wise to retain a family law attorney. But my new lawyer doesn’t want to do anything yet. She thinks we should wait until he makes a move, otherwise the baby’s paternity will become public knowledge. I know she’s right, but it feels like I’m sitting on a ticking time bomb that could go off any minute.”
“How’s Joe takin’ it?”
“I haven’t told him.”
“Rose!”
“I don’t want to worry him.”
“So you’re takin’ the worry all on yourself?” she asked in disbelief. When I didn’t answer, she said, “Rose, seems to me that bein’ a parent is worryin’ about your baby for the rest of your life. You’re lettin’ Joe be the baby’s daddy, but you’re not lettin’ him do his job.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I realized she was right. Joe wasn’t going to abandon me or the baby if things got tough—wasn’t that why I wanted him to be the father? Tears stung my eyes. “How’d you get so smart?”
She preened for a few seconds, her attention flicking from me to the road, but her expression turned serious again all too soon. “Seriously though, I’m worried the message he’ll take from this is that you don’t think he’s capable of bein’ a daddy.”
“That’s not it at all!”
“I know that,” she said, “but he’s already worried he’s on shaky ground.”
“Which is why I don’t want to worry him unnecessarily about James.”
“He’s a strong man, Rose. He can handle this, and it’s gonna hurt his feelings that you’ve been carryin’ this all alone.”
Tears filled my eyes. “This is all my fault.”
“What are you talkin’ about?” she asked.
“If I hadn’t been stupid enough to think I could handle having a fling with James…if I’d been more careful…if I hadn’t slept with the crime lord of the county, I wouldn’t be in this situation. I wouldn’t be puttin’ Joe through this.”
“And you wouldn’t be havin’ this sweet baby, Rose.”
“I know,” I said with a sigh. “I wouldn’t wish the baby away for the world, but it’s all so confusing.”
“Look,” she said, “we all make mistakes. Me included. I blamed myself for my infertility, even though I got all those STIs through no fault of my own.”
“I knew full well what I was gettin’ into,” I said. “I just chose to believe I could have a different outcome.”
“Granny always says live and learn,” she said. “And that there’s no sense hangin’ on to the past.” She paused. “It doesn’t really matter how we got here, Rose. All that matters is what we do with the here and now.”
“I’ll tell Joe tonight.”
She gave me a sad smile.
We reached the neighborhood and Neely Kate turned in. The addition was new enough that it didn’t have any inhabitants yet. There were over a dozen houses in various states of construction scattered down the street.
One of those houses was cordoned off with crime scene tape, and I could feel in my bones that my worst fears had been confirmed. The murder really did have something to do with Mike.
“What in the world…?” Neely Kate exclaimed as she pulled over between two beat-up pickup trucks.
“That must be where they found the dead body yesterday,” I said with a shaky breath.
“What?” she screeched.
Joe had told me not to tell Neely Kate anything, but there was no hiding crime scene tape. What else was public knowledge? I pulled out my phone and did a quick internet search.
“You knew there was a dead body and didn’t tell me?” she asked, sounding affronted.
I continued searching on my phone. “That’s where Joe went last night, but he didn’t say much about it.” I found an article and opened it. “This says a body was found at a new home construction in the Wild Vista neighborhood and that neither the name of the victim nor the cause of death has been released yet. The murder is under investigation.”
“There haven’t been any murders in Fenton County in months…” she mused. Then she gasped. “Do you think this is tied to Mike?”
I pinched my lips tight.
“You do know something.” When I didn’t respond, she exclaimed, “Rose!”
“I only know that he was an electrician and Joe’s lookin’ to see if there’s a connection. It could be a coincidence.”
She stared at me in disbelief. “Do you seriously believe that?”