Protected (Jacobs Family Series Book 2)

by Vannetta Chapman

  “So you covered them up and walked them out.” He stared at her as the medic checked her vitals.

  “It was all I could think of to do. Anyone know where Cameron is?”

  “Out of town. Dan has managed to contact him. He’ll be back tonight.”

  He wanted to rage.

  Wanted to scream and holler that a horse wasn’t a fraction as important as she was.

  Wanted to tell her she’d stopped—literally stopped—his heart from beating. Instead, he waited until the medic nodded, but he couldn’t wait until he left.

  He pulled Erin into his arms, and he kissed her like he’d wanted to for what seemed like forever. When he was done he whispered those words that had been lodged in his throat for too long.

  “I love you, Erin Jacobs.”

  He didn’t know if her tears were from happiness or smoke inhalation, but he was going to hope for the former. Clasping her hand in his, he walked her to her truck.

  Forty-Three

  Erin accepted Daniel when Shirley handed her the infant. She couldn’t resist the urge to pull his tiny hand from the blanket and lightly stroke his pink fingers. “He’s so perfect. I can’t believe he’s two weeks old already.”

  “I know. Seems we were just rushing out of here.”

  “I wish you could have been in the waiting room. It was absolute pandemonium. Travis acted as if—” Erin smiled at the memory, but the aches of the past few weeks were too much. The smile felt stretched, sore. She allowed it to slip away and focused on the miracle in her lap instead and waited for the tears blurring her vision to clear.

  Shirley handed Josh one of his toys from the diaper bag. He was lying on a quilt in the middle of the living room, as comfortable in Shirley’s home as he was in his own. Banging the toy on the floor, he grinned.

  Both women clapped and cheered.

  “He reminds me of Bam Bam some days.”

  “Your sanity is about to end. He’ll be crawling before you know it, then the world is his.”

  “Our hearing is Wednesday,” Erin said softly.

  “I know it is. I’ve been praying. We’ve all been praying. You don’t have any doubts about Travis’s recommendation, do you?”

  “No, but the ruling rests with the judge.” Erin reached out and ran her fingertip softly over Daniel’s fine red hair.

  “And Pitcher?”

  “Travis is picking up Joshua this afternoon for his final supervised visit.”

  Silence stretched between them as they both considered the ramifications of Joshua’s father still being in town.

  “What were you about to say before? How did Travis act when I was in labor?”

  Erin laughed, but the sound hurt her throat. “As if he were waiting for his own child to be born. It was the first time he was,” she searched for the word “normal with me in a long time.”

  “What happened between you two?”

  Erin’s head snapped up, and after a heartbeat she continued. “I’m not supposed to talk about it.” Shaking her head, she tucked Daniel’s hands back under the baby blanket.

  “Humph. I don’t like rules, especially ones that put walls between friends.” Erin started to protest, but Shirley forged on. “I’ve liked having you back. I missed Dana when she moved away, and then you closed yourself up in the ARK.”

  She worked her fingers through her bright red hair, and Erin couldn’t help smiling to think how much Daniel already looked like his mother with his little strands of red hair, couldn’t help finding joy in spite of their conversation.

  Her stomach was doing somersaults, but Shirley could make her smile just by the way she worried over her. That, too, was something Travis had given her—her friends back. It was impossible for her to hold any anger against him.

  “Sure, I had the rest of the group at the church,” Shirley continued. “And other folks from our high school class, but I missed you. Now I see you’re hurting—and yes, I know you try to hide it—but Erin, I don’t know how to pray for you if you can’t share with me.”

  Erin shifted Daniel to the crook of her arm and settled back into the corner of the couch. “It’s not like a rule. It’s more something we both agreed on when I was sick. And we didn’t actually say we wouldn’t talk to anyone, we only agreed it would be best kept between the two of us.”

  “For how long?”

  “At least until after the hearing, but more likely until after the adoption is finalized. Probably a year.”

  Shirley stood, went into the kitchen, and came back with two mugs of warm tea. “That’s a long time to carry something alone, especially when that something is the fact Travis Williams is in love with you.”

  This time Erin’s mouth fell all the way open, and she didn’t shut it.

  “Put a cookie in your mouth. It’ll help with the shock.” Shirley sat back with her own mug and cookie and grinned at her. “You really think we didn’t know?”

  “Who is we?” The question pitched up at the end, the same way her world was somersaulting. She clung to Daniel, suddenly afraid she might drop him.

  “I would think the entire town, but maybe I’m exaggerating.” Shirley set her mug down and moved closer on the couch. “Relax, sweetie. There hasn’t been a feature in the paper, but it seems so obvious. Someone would have to be blind to be around you two for five minutes and not notice.”

  “But…” Erin swallowed and tried to think what they had done wrong. “I’ve followed his rules.”

  “There you go with that word again.” Shirley’s eyebrows shot up to the top of her hair line. “I think I better take Daniel. You’re looking a bit pale. Drink your tea. Rules? Seriously? You have never been one to follow anyone’s rules very well, Erin Jacobs. You’ve always gone by your own playbook, to use a man’s analogy, and don’t look like you’re going to argue with me. The ARK is a perfect example. Anyone else would have joined an established vet clinic like Doc asked you to do when you came back to town.”

  “It hasn’t been easy,” Erin admitted.

  “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

  Erin thought back to that night in her home, the night he’d come to help her with the animals, the night after she’d stayed with his parents.

  “I knew I was falling in love with him,” she began, picking up her mug but not drinking. The warmth seeping through the ceramic emboldened her. She looked up at Shirley, smiled, but the memories she’d tried to bury were stirring deep within her. “When I was so sick with the flu, Travis took me to his parents’ home.”

  “I remember. I wish you had called me.”

  “You had your hands full. Plus I did call you to take me home.”

  “I remember how upset he was that morning.” Shirley sat back, slipped Daniel to her shoulder, and rubbed his back in slow, gentle circles. “He tried to talk me out of taking you back to the ARK.”

  Erin sipped the tea and let the sweet taste bring back the memories of those days. “Something happened while I was sick.”

  “It helps when a man drives up in a monster truck, wades through flood waters, and rescues you.” Shirley reached for another cookie, but chose a strawberry off the tray instead. “Did he kiss you?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Erin felt the blush in her face rising. “Why do I feel like I’m in high school?”

  “Because we’re acting like we’re in high school. Keep talking.”

  “While I was at Barbara’s, I had—I guess you’d call it a spiritual experience. Sounds odd, but I don’t know how else to explain it. I suddenly understood I’d been running from God.”

  “I knew something had happened. That’s why you started coming back to church.”

  “It’s part of the reason.” Erin set the mug down, picked up the throw pillow instead, and hugged it to her chest. “The first time Travis kissed me was at his parents, and I think it frightened both of us.”

  “Why, Erin? You make such a wonderful couple.”

  “It’s complicated though. Travis is my caseworke
r.” She paused and allowed the full implications of that to sink in and knew when they had by the shift in expressions on Shirley’s face.

  “Couldn’t they switch your case to someone else?”

  “He asked, but his director denied his request. So after you took me back home, Travis came by to help and stayed for dinner. I told him I realized God had a plan for my life, for Joshua’s life, and it might include him.”

  “Holy cow. Did he run out the front door?”

  Erin laughed for the first time since she’d walked in, and it helped to put some perspective on the scene she’d kept buried in her heart for so long. “He did act as if I’d branded him with a hot iron, now that you mention it.”

  “Did you ask him to marry you?” Shirley’s grin had turned mischievous.

  “Are you crazy?”

  Joshua let out a hoot at just that moment, and both women started laughing.

  “Anyway, after he paced a trail in my living room, he told me how much he cared about me, but he didn’t say he loved me.”

  “It’s so obvious.”

  Erin stopped and stared at her dubiously.

  “Erin, I wish I had a video of every time you two are in the same room. It’s as if he’s a moon gravitating around you.”

  “He’s so formal around me!” Erin’s voice grew as her frustration vented itself. Baby Daniel squirmed in his mother’s arms, and Erin lowered her voice. “If he shows up at the ARK, he makes sure there’s someone else there so we won’t be caught alone.”

  “Which you asked him to do.”

  “True, but he acts as if he’s afraid I’m contagious.”

  “Honey, the way that man looks at you, he is saying it all with his eyes. I bet you know the second he arrives in a room, even with a dozen people there.”

  “Yeah, I do. It’s very strange.”

  “Um-hmm. He doesn’t have to talk to you to focus all his attention on you.”

  “Well, I don’t understand. I mean I’ve felt some of what you’re describing, but I don’t know. Some days I think I’ve imagined the entire thing, including the way Travis might feel about me.” The tears pricked her eyes again as she shared her biggest fear. “Then the afternoon of Cameron’s fire he kissed me in front of the medic.”

  “I bet he was terrified you’d been hurt.”

  “And he told me he loved me—but maybe he meant he loved me, you know, like a sister.”

  “Did he kiss you like a sister?”

  Erin shook her head, lost in the memory.

  Shirley adjusted Daniel in her arms and stroked his cheek with her fingertip. “Every woman has trouble learning to trust her intuition. I think God gives it to us for a reason though, maybe for times like this. You know how Travis feels about you, even if he can’t show it right now, and you’re definitely not imagining it.”

  “That night at my house he gave me a second round of lectures about his job, and I felt so bad for the guy. He looked like he was struggling with the responsibility of a dozen men, carrying more than the responsibility of Noah’s ARK.” Erin smiled as she shared the image that had crossed her mind so often in the last weeks—Travis carrying the burden of Noah’s ARK, of her ARK on his shoulders.

  “So his great plan was…”

  “His plan was for us to see each other only in a professional capacity so that we not jeopardize Joshua’s adoption in any way.”

  “Sensible.”

  “Exactly. And I was to continue re-establishing my social network by involving myself in the community or church groups.”

  “He asked you to date?” Shirley’s voice rose in the “I’ll-take-you-on” tone Erin recognized from her debate team wins in high school.

  “I don’t remember him putting it that way.”

  Shirley stood and moved Daniel to his bassinet between the living room and the kitchen. When she turned to face her, Erin felt like a fox caught in a trap. “He asked you to date! He told you something like you needed to be sure of your feelings, and if they were real you’d still care about him when this six-month period or year or whatever timeframe he set expired.”

  Erin could only stare at her friend. Finally, Shirley plopped down beside her on the couch, reached out, and tucked some of the curls behind her ear. “Sweetie, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the mind of Travis Williams.”

  “Are you sure you don’t have my living room bugged?”

  “Hardly. Now I know why you’ve broken two hearts in our group.”

  “Not true and you know it.” Erin scrunched down into the couch, enjoying the feel of Shirley’s hand on the top of her head. She’d missed the physical contact of friends. She didn’t want to go back to being alone again. The thought hit her with the clarity of a well-placed arrow.

  “They’re all nice guys,” Shirley murmured.

  “But not the right guy.”

  “No.” They sat that way for another moment. Finally, Shirley broke the silence. “So what are you going to do? Wait him out?”

  “I honestly don’t know. I was prepared to, but suddenly I feel itchy, as if something is about to change.”

  “Like what?”

  “I have no idea. I have a lot of questions. I wonder how he can stand to be apart when we’re only a few miles away. Even when we’re together he acts unerringly polite. Then when we’re in a group, I can feel him watching me. It stirs up my emotions.”

  “That’s a lot for a young mom to handle.”

  “Don’t I know it. I’ve realized how hard it is being alone, running the ARK and taking care of Josh. Don’t get me wrong. I wouldn’t change anything for the world, but I understand the challenges I’m taking on, and it is lonely out there. I was never lonely before.”

  Shirley reached out and clasped her hand. “You know you can call me anytime.”

  “I know.” Erin brushed away her tears. “That’s not all though. I keep praying, and then last night I spoke with Dana and Ben again.”

  “They’re coming for the hearing?”

  Erin nodded and ran her hand over the seams of the pillow she still clutched. “They fly in tomorrow and want to talk to me about something, but Dana wouldn’t say what. She wanted to discuss it in person.”

  Shirley sighed, then moved to collect the mugs and cookies as Erin picked up Josh’s toys. “Whatever it is, we’ll pray and trust that God already knows the problems and the solution.”

  “What do we pray for though?”

  “Wisdom. Let’s start by asking for wisdom, for you and Mr. Travis Williams.”

  Forty-Four

  Travis gazed across the courtroom at Erin. Hard to believe it was the same woman he had nearly knocked off the porch three months ago. She was fussing with Joshua. He could see his chubby hands reach up to grab her earrings. Something in Travis’s heart tightened at the sight of the two of them together.

  He suddenly needed to speak with her, needed at least to catch her eye, but the hearing was about to begin. She didn’t give any inclination she noticed his presence on the other side of the courtroom.

  How could she not? For Travis it was as if the room centered around her instead of around the judge’s bench.

  She wore a trim fitting black dress, and her hair had been styled with some sort of gel women used to tame curls. It made her look sophisticated. The entire image had him squirming in his suit. He preferred the woman he had first met—the one in her ridiculous men’s work clothes with hair askew.

  He preferred her in his arms.

  He pushed the thought away and looked down at his case notes. Everything appeared in order. He would, of course, recommend placement. The fact that Erin and Joshua would remain in Livingston was an added bonus. Annual follow-ups always made the court more comfortable about permanent placement.

  Derrick Pitcher was nowhere in sight.

  No doubt the man was back on his yacht—or whatever boat he could buy with the money he had left. Technically, Travis shouldn’t have left the folder detailing Joshua’s trust fun
d—clearly labeled and placed on top of his workbag—on the park bench where the man might have looked through it. When Pitcher steadfastly refused to change the child’s dirty diaper, or even hold the boy, Travis had gone to the park’s restroom to do it.

  He’d suspected Pitcher would disappear once he’d read the details of Mrs. DeLoach’s will—and the man did not disappoint. He’d even left the sheet on top detailing that none of the money would be released until Josh turned twenty-five.

  His absence this morning proved Travis’s suspicion about his greed was correct.

  The doors to the courtroom opened, and Travis turned to see who had arrived. Erin’s attorney already stood beside her table, and he certainly wasn’t expecting any witnesses.

  The couple at the back of the room only had eyes for Erin. The woman was striking—tall, beautiful, with a bearing and gaze that spoke of law enforcement. The hair gave her away. Shoulder length and straight, there was an amber cast to it perfectly matching Erin’s. He swiveled his head from Erin and back to the couple again, noticing the similarities in the women’s profiles. More than that was the warmth in their gaze, the way they hurried toward each other.

  Travis understood immediately. The taller woman was Dana, Erin’s sister. Which meant the man with her was Ben. Suddenly, the man turned, and their gazes locked. Something passed between them, an understanding that startled him.

  Then the bailiff proclaimed, “All rise,” and he forced his attention to the front of the court.

  “I’m happy to report Mr. Pitcher has withdrawn his petitions from this court. For what it’s worth and any future bearing on this case, I want entered into the record that I found Mr. Pitcher has no paternal rights in the case of Baby Joshua, also known as Joshua DeLoach. Mr. Pitcher relinquished those rights legally before the child was born and that ruling stands. Now to move on with the original petition…”

  Fifteen minutes later, he was on the stand, looking down at Erin who sat twenty feet away, and making his recommendation to the judge.

  “I believe the best placement for Joshua is with Miss Jacobs.”