The fact she’d left for a week in the Caribbean with her girlfriends the next day wasn’t helping. It should. That whole “out of sight, out of mind” thing, but it wasn’t.
He’d hurt her.
He’d seen it in her eyes when she’d looked at him, heard it in her voice. But it was for the best. She’d been laying on the daddy hero worship a bit too thick and when she’d touched him, turned his head to face her, he’d thought he’d telegraphed the message “back off” loud and clear.
Apparently she’d read his stare differently.
And before they’d ended up in a tangle of clothes and quilts in front of his fireplace, he’d had to do something, say something, to knock that starry-eyed look off her face. Just like he’d done that afternoon after she’d stepped forward and provided an alibi for him when the sheriff thought Justin was somehow responsible for the fire that destroyed the Dillon family home.
Didn’t she get it?
He was one hundred percent the wrong guy for her. Excon, from the wrong side of the tracks, nothing but trouble…all the clichés fit him perfectly, but Gina was too innocent, too nice to see Justin for what he really was.
He put the prepared vegetables for tonight’s salads back into the walk-in refrigerator and took out the fresh hamburger for the mini burgers. Instead of letting his thoughts stray to memories of warm skin and soft lips while he mindlessly molded perfectly formed patties, he thought about all that happened over the last week.
He’d settled Jacoby in at school and the boy’s doctor’s appointment had gone okay. Gage had called and said he’d found a Mazie Smith living in Templeton, Colorado, but other than learning that Zoe and Jacoby had stayed with her for a few months, and lifted the woman’s stash of emergency cash on their way out, there was still no clue of Zoe’s whereabouts. On a better note, the other two cooks had agreed to shift the kitchen staff hours around, so now Justin worked days and had his nights free.
For a seven-year-old.
That was also when he’d looked at the week’s schedule and seen Gina’s block of hours with a red line running through it. It hadn’t taken long for Ric Murphy, who seemed to have appointed himself Gina’s personal guard dog, to let Justin know she’d grabbed a last-minute cancellation and joined Barbie Felton, and probably a thousand other college kids, at a beach resort on a tropical island.
Justin had never experienced spring break, but he’d seen enough of those videos and reality shows to know all the craziness that went on. He’d found himself more than once wondering if Gina had finally found that inner wild child she’d been hunting for since coming back to town.
Had she joined in on any of those extreme contests that usually involved more alcohol than common sense? Had some muscle-bound college kid helped her to cut loose?
“Hey, aren’t those supposed to have a bit of heft to them?”
Surprised, Justin looked up to find Barbie leaning against the large counter where he worked.
They were back.
Barbie wore the usual outfit of a Blue Creek waitress, a tight T-shirt with the bar’s logo, a short jean shirt and cowboy boots. All designed to show off miles of skin, newly tanned in Barbie’s case.
He half expected Gina to walk through the swinging doors next, dressed the same way.
Mad at himself for the hot flare that shot through him at the idea of finally seeing Gina again, he returned his attention to the hamburger in his hand. It was flatter than a pancake. He folded the meat back into his palm and started over.
“Want to share what’s making you pound that meat into submission?” Barbie asked.
Yeah, like that was going to happen. “No.”
“You know, you’ve got yourself a cute little boy.” She ran a finger along the edge of the tray where the finished patties lay. “He’s got your eyes. I noticed that right off when Gina showed me a picture of him and Jack—”
He cut her off. “Gina has a picture of Jacoby?”
Barbie’s hand stilled, but her mouth rose in a smile. “Yeah, on her cell phone. She got a text message a few days ago while we were rocking the beach in our teenie-weenie bikinis.”
Justin tried not to picture Gina in a ‘teenie-weenie’ anything while figuring out who would’ve sent her a picture.
The answer came to him right away.
Racy.
He and Jacoby had eaten at her and Gage’s house last week. He’d gotten the third degree from both of them after Jacoby had shared the story of chasing away monsters, including Gina’s part in the evening’s events. Later that same night, his sister had asked him if he knew why Gina had suddenly requested a week’s vacation the very next day.
He’d told her he had no idea, which was the truth, in a manner of speaking.
“Hey, Dillon.” Ric Murphy walked into the kitchen. “Your sister is looking for you.”
Justin shook his head at the guy’s ongoing crappy attitude toward him. The last time he’d actually looked happy was months ago when Justin made it clear he had no interest in Gina.
No interest? Yeah, right.
Ric’s scowl turned to a smile when he spotted Barbie. “Hey, the beach girls are back. I wish I’d gone with you all.”
Barbie turned on the charm. “You should’ve!”
“Yeah, well, the log mansion that Murphy Mountain Homes is putting together on the old Harris land needed extra hands and my brothers expected me to pitch in, no questions asked.”
“Oh, did you find out who’s building that place?”
Ric shook his head. “Nope, my brother Bryant would only say it’s a privately held company. So, how was your trip?”
“Boys, booze and beaches.” The leggy waitress replied with a grin. “It was awesome.”
Awesome, huh?
Barbie’s description of their trip swirled inside Justin’s head as he exited through the swinging doors and headed toward his sister’s office. He found her on the phone. She waved him in and kept talking.
Jack rose from the couch and bounced over to greet him. After allowing Justin to scratch him behind his ears, the dog started pacing between him and the door Justin had closed behind him.
“What’s he doing?” He asked after Racy ended her call.
“He’s probably looking for Jacoby,” she said, snapping her cell phone closed. “He’s really attached to the kid.”
“Yeah, so much so he figured out how to take a picture of the two of them and send it via a text message all the way to the Caribbean.”
A smile took over her features. “You know about that.”
Justin dropped into one corner of the leather couch and Jack climbed up next to him. “Whatever gave you the idea to send Gina that picture?”
“Because Jacoby asked me to.”
That surprised him. “He did? Why?”
“We were doing the dishes while you and Gage were enjoying some man-time downstairs playing pool.” She leaned forward in her chair. “He said he was worried she might forget him while she was gone.”
Justin had no idea the boy felt that way.
When Jacoby had asked about her, Justin had told him she’d gone on vacation. He’d thought that was the end of it because Jacoby hadn’t mentioned her again. What did it mean that neither one of them seemed to be able to get Gina out of their heads?
“Hey, you still with me?”
Mentally shaking off his thoughts of Gina, Justin tried to read the worried expression in his sister’s eyes.
Something was going on.
“I asked for you because Leeann is on her way,” Racy continued when he remained silent. “To speak with you.”
Deputy Leeann Harris.
Justin had known her as one of his sister’s best friends growing up and as the girl who’d entered tons of beauty pageants. It seemed she’d always been in the newspaper as Miss something or other. The last he’d heard Leeann had left town to become a famous model. She’d been a popular choice of wall art on the concrete walls in his former home. He had been s
urprised when he returned home to find her working for the sheriff’s department.
Now she was assigned to the search for Jacoby’s mother.
The news that the deputy was on her way had him sitting up straight. “Why? What’s going on?”
Racy shrugged. “I don’t know. She called earlier and asked if you were working today. She said she tried to call you directly, but you weren’t answering.”
“I forgot my phone at home,” he answered. Did the sheriff’s department have something on Zoe? Maybe even found her? “Jacoby didn’t want to get out of bed, and then he put up a stink about taking a shower. It went downhill from there.”
“How did his doctor’s visit go?”
Justin knew what his sister was doing and he let her distract him from thinking about Zoe. “It went okay. Jacoby’s fine physically, even though he’s a bit undersize for his age. Another ten pounds couldn’t hurt, but at least his immunizations are now up to date.”
“And you did the DNA testing?”
So much for distraction. Justin nodded.
“Do the results really matter to you?”
A ripple of trepidation sliced through his gut. “I’m ninety percent sure he’s my son, but if not…well, I wouldn’t want some other father out there not knowing the boy exists.”
“That’s not going to matter if you can’t find his mother.”
Maybe the sheriff’s department already had. “I know. Jacoby is my responsibility…for now.”
“And when the results come back that you’re a match?”
“Then I’m a dad.”
A name Jacoby had been calling him for a week now.
It’d started the morning after the monster exorcism, when the kid walked into the kitchen asking for breakfast, still wearing Justin’s T-shirt. It seemed as if he made sure to include the word every time he spoke. Justin had asked why a few days later, Jacoby simply stated dad was a word he’d never had the chance to use before, and damn, if Justin wasn’t getting used to—
A knock rapped on the door.
“Come on in,” Racy called out.
Leeann entered. “Hi, there, I see you found him.”
Leeann was a striking woman, even wearing the standard khaki uniform of the sheriff’s department and her former waist-length hair now cut short.
Noticing the deputy’s hair instantly made him think of that pink streak in Gina’s. Congratulations, Dillon. You managed to go a half hour without thinking about the woman.
“Hello, Justin.”
Leeann’s voice cut into his thoughts. It still carried that ice-running-through-her-veins tone he remembered from years ago. Or was that money? Thanks to her inheritance, the sale of the land where her former childhood home once stood and her modeling career, he’d bet she had plenty of money stashed away.
He wondered again why she was working as a public servant. “Deputy Harris.”
Racy walked around her desk. “I’ll give you two some privacy.”
“You don’t have to go,” Justin said. “You know I’ll just tell you everything later.”
His sister’s smile spoke to how their relationship had changed over the last few months. “Thanks, but if I know Lee, she’s going to want to do this by the book, and that means just the two of you.”
Leeann nodded in agreement and waited until Racy left before she crossed the room. She sat in a chair opposite him, pausing a moment to offer a hello to the dog.
Justin leaned forward. “Did you find Zoe?”
“We’re not sure.” She pulled out a small black notebook and flipped a few pages. “Did you ever know Zoe Ellis by any other name?”
“The weekend we spent together, she told me her name was Susie.” Justin realized he’d never relayed that information to the sheriff’s office. “I confronted her about that when she was here. She admitted she lied. Said her real name was Zoe Ellis.”
“A car matching the vague description Jacoby provided was found abandoned in Reno—”
Justin sprang to the edge of the sofa. “Reno!”
Leeann held up a hand to silence him and kept talking. “A child’s drawing was found in the backseat. It was signed ‘Jacoby Ellis.’”
Justin closed his eyes for a moment, but opened them when Leeann continued.
“I sent a copy of that old photograph of you and Miss Ellis to my contact at the Washoe County sheriff’s office. She took it to local businesses near where the car was found. A second-rate casino came up with a possible match, but said the woman called herself Susie Ellsworth.”
His heart dropped to his feet. “Did they find her?”
Leeann shook her head. “The people at the casino said she told them a sob story about running from an abusive husband and didn’t want to fill out any paperwork. She worked as a cocktail waitress for a few days—all wages under the table—and then took off with a high roller throwing around a lot of money.”
This was unbelievable. Justin dropped his head and gripped his fingers, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.
“You okay?”
Leeann’s soft voice surprised him. He released a pent-up breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding and forced his hands to relax. “Yeah, so what do we do now?”
She shut her notebook and met his gaze. “We keep looking, under both names, for her. Have you had the DNA test done you mentioned last week?”
Justin nodded. “I should have the results in a few days.”
“Good. The sooner paternity is established the better it will be, for you and that little boy.” Leeann rose from her seat. “We’ll be keeping an eye out for Zoe and her friend, if they are still together, as well.”
“You think she might just show back up here?”
“If she thinks she’s found someone to support her…”
Leeann’s voice trailed off, leaving unsaid the suggestion that Jacoby’s mother could snatch the boy away as easily as she left him behind.
Justin stood, too, the urge to pick up Jacoby from the after-school program suddenly very powerful. “Fine.”
The deputy looked at him for a long moment and Justin returned her stare. She’d done the same thing last week at the sheriff’s office when Gage filled her in on the details of the case. He didn’t know if she was testing him, but he held her gaze until she broke free and turned toward the door.
“For what it’s worth—”
His words stopped her. Words he hadn’t even planned to say, but now that he’d started, he kept talking. “I appreciate your hard work on this. Considering our somewhat tainted history, you could’ve—”
Leeann spun around to face him, her voice low. “I’m just doing my job.”
“Well, thanks anyway.”
Leeann nodded and left the office. Waiting a few minutes to give her a head start, Justin followed and ran into his sister in the hallway.
“So, how did it go with you and Leeann?”
“Ah, I’ll talk to you later, okay?” He looked at his watch. “I need to get to the school and pick up Jacoby.”
After a quick hug goodbye, Justin headed out to the parking lot. Even though he was running late, he stuck to the speed limit, despite the threat Leeann alluded to in this ongoing mess about Zoe Ellis or Susie Ellsworth or whatever her name was.
Minutes later, he parked outside the school. He got out of his truck and took a deep, cleansing breath. It was cool now that the sun had gone down, and he was anxious to find Jacoby in the crowd. Then he saw him racing toward him, his tattered pillowcase bouncing off one shoulder and papers in his hand.
Justin knelt as the boy careened into him. “Hey, slow down, buddy.”
“Dad! Dad! Guess what?” Jacoby jumped around with little-boy excitement. “Gina’s back in town!”
Was it less than an hour ago Justin had found out the same thing? “How do you know that?”
“Look at this!” Jacoby shoved a piece of paper in Justin’s face. “She’s doing a story hour at the town library. Tonight! Can we go?
Huh? Huh? Can we?”
Chapter Eight
The familiar scent of clean male skin mixed with a hint of garlic and pine trees tickled Gina’s nose. It nudged out the sweet and sweaty smells of crayons and candy drifting up from the children sitting at her feet.
Justin was close by.
She could actually feel his presence. As romance-booky as that sounded. Of course, at last count, she’d consumed eight romance novels during her week in paradise and had an unfinished one tucked in her purse.
Once she, Barbie, Jeannie and Tina had settled into their seats on the plane, she’d pulled out an unfinished biography of one of her favorite English poets, but Barbie had snatched it out of her hands.
“Absolutely not,” her friend declared. “If you are going to read this week—and I’m sure you will—it’s only flirty and frisky novels for you!”
She’d then handed her a paperback with a man on the cover, headless but showing wide shoulders, a perfect set of six-pack abs and wearing nothing but a pair of faded jeans that hugged him in all the right places.
Gina had immediately thought of Justin. Not good, considering getting away from him was the reason for her impromptu vacation.
The same night she’d raced out of Justin’s cabin after that heartbreaking kiss, Barbie had called offering her the last-minute vacancy on a trip to the islands. She’d jumped at the chance to put a few thousand miles between her and the sexy coworker-slash-new-father whose kisses were a hundred times better than anything she’d read over the last week.
Forcing her attention back to the open children’s book on her lap, Gina managed to get through the rest of the words on the page, despite the lower and huskier tone of her voice.
Her gaze scanned the kids in the children’s area as she turned the page, making eye contact with Jacoby in the back row. He gave a discreet wave. She winked in return. Behind him were a group of jean-clad legs, visible from the knees down, and a variety of work boots, sandals and cowboy boots.
So which of those legs belonged to Justin?
He wouldn’t just leave the little boy alone in the library, would he? Then again, maybe Justin wasn’t the one who’d brought Jacoby, which blew her “he’s close by” theory out of the water.
A Daddy for Jacoby Page 9