I’d balked, worried I was taking advantage of him, but he’d convinced me that he wanted to be a parent. He aspired to be the kind of father he’d never had, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would be. Because Joe Simmons had done a lot of growing up over the last two years, and I had no doubt he would put our baby before everything else. That he’d be there with me through the good and the bad. That he would never, ever take off just because things were hard.
James hadn’t offered me any of that. And wouldn’t.
Most of the people in town thought Joe and I had been together and split up but agreed to raise our baby amicably. We’d come up with the plan for him to build an apartment in the barn—a plan that had been put on hold after I’d agreed to shelter rescue horses—but lately, I’d been thinking of asking him to stay with us more permanently. I wasn’t sure how I felt about him romantically. Frankly, my emotions were too all over the place for me to know for certain, but I did know that he’d helped make what could have been months of despair into a much more hopeful and joyful time. And I knew that I loved him. I just wasn’t sure what that love meant. My love for James had been too blinding for me to see anything else.
But the shine had long since tarnished, even more so since James had refused to sign those papers. I might have understood if he’d come to me and said he wanted to be part of the baby’s life. Or if he’d reached out to explain himself. But he’d remained eerily quiet. When I’d attempted to quiz Carter about his client’s intentions, he’d confessed he was in the dark. In fact, he had suggested it might be a good idea for me to find another attorney. An impartial one who was very good at family law.
I’d hesitated to do that—partially because it seemed like a bad idea to bring the whole thing to court, but also because I couldn’t bring myself to believe the man who’d professed to love me would use our child to hurt me. Still, I knew James had changed. Everyone around me said so, even his ex-best friend, Jed. James saw my decision to keep the baby as a betrayal, and he was someone who retaliated for that kind of thing. So I had gone to a lawyer in the end, only for her to tell me it would be best to wait James out. If I brought him to court, everyone would learn the truth about the baby’s parentage.
But Joe was looking at me now, obviously waiting for an answer, and I hadn’t the first idea what he’d said.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “What did you say?”
He smiled patiently. “I said how about I don’t go back to work, and I’ll go with you to Mike’s to pick up the kids. I’m as excited to see them as you are.”
It was true. He’d loved the kids, and vice versa, but I also suspected he was worried Mike would give me grief, and while Joe was beyond excited at becoming a father, the closer I’d gotten to delivery, the more protective he’d become with regard to my safety.
Understandable given two of his ex-girlfriends had been killed, both while pregnant.
“Okay,” I said. “They’ll be excited to see you.”
“It’s nearly five. How about we get you checked out, pick up Muffy from the office, then head over to Mike’s a little early?”
“Sounds good.” I doubted Mike would give Joe, the Fenton County chief deputy sheriff, trouble for showing up a half hour early.
I grabbed my clothes from a chair, and he hesitated at the door. “I’ll wait in the hall.”
“No,” I said, keeping my back to him. “You’re gonna get an eyeful and more when the baby’s born. Stay.”
He hesitated a moment. “Okay.”
I turned my back to him and reached behind me, fumbling to untie the strings of the faded hospital gown, but then Joe walked up behind me and tugged on the top string. The neckline fell to my chest, and I placed my hand on it to hold it.
His fingers lightly brushed the skin of my back as he slowly untied the next string with a tenderness that caught me by surprise. A shiver ran down my back, and my nerves tingled in anticipation. I