“Found them.” Ethan entered the display area holding one of the boxes filled with child-sized rods and reels. But with the box of fish already centering the display, there was hardly room for the man and the additional props.
“Maybe I should put them out on my own. It’s getting a little crowded.” Lindy reached for the box of fish so she could move it toward her, and her hands met the cardboard edge at the same moment as his. But this time, his palms covered hers, and when she jerked her attention to his face, he looked at her as though wondering just how badly she wanted to remove them.
* * *
Ethan had been trained to spot children who had been abused. In fact, he’d been required to view an extensive video series on the subject that had made him extremely uncomfortable. However, he had been able to spot the signs more clearly after learning what to look for.
But even though his training had been geared toward abused children, he didn’t miss the signs in adults, as well. And he knew without a doubt that Lindy Burnett, at some point in her life, had been abused.
“Lindy, are you okay?” He asked the question as softly as possible, in the same tone he’d use with one of his students, because the beautiful woman across from him, her strawberry hair tumbling forward and those vivid blue eyes filled with an agony that couldn’t be disguised, seemed more fragile than any student he’d ever approached with questions of abuse. And Ethan realized that he hadn’t merely missed Jerry this weekend; he’d missed this intriguing woman, too.
In fact, he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t also shown up early because he knew she’d be here in the store, and that he might have a chance to spend time with her, like this. But there was something troubling the gorgeous lady, and in spite of knowing he shouldn’t get too close, Ethan wanted—needed—to help.
She blinked, cleared her throat, and then slowly slid her hands from beneath his. “I’m fine.” She made a sound like a combination of a cough and a hiccup, then repeated herself. “I am fine.” She looked away to place more fish on the opposite side, or to hide her face so he couldn’t see too much, with those long, strawberry tendrils tumbling forward.
He knew he shouldn’t be so concerned with this striking lady. Past experience had taught him that the more he cared, the more he’d get hurt when yet another woman in his life let him down. But she seemed so very broken. And Ethan couldn’t ignore the need to help someone who’d clearly been abused.
She wasn’t fine; he was certain of that. But he was equally certain that she wouldn’t discuss it with him. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
And he hadn’t come to Claremont to determine what was wrong with this troubled woman. He was here for Jerry. Even so, it was all he could do not to reach forward, push those long strawberry curls out of the way so he could attempt to see what she was trying so desperately to hide.
He swallowed, knowing he shouldn’t push. “Okay, then.” Picking up a green fishing rod, he grabbed a yellow fish from the box. Determined to think about his future son instead of the enthralling lady beside him, he threaded the fishing line through the tiny hole in the fish’s mouth. “Might as well get some of these ready to go.” He knotted the line in place. “Maybe Jerry will want this one.”
She jerked her head up to answer, tossing those curls over her shoulder which made her look even more appealing. “He’ll want a red one.”
Ethan laughed, glad that she hadn’t shut herself out of conversation with him completely and also bemused by her statement. What would make her think he’d want red? “You sound so sure of that.”
“I...” She paused, her eyes wide, as though she wasn’t certain what to say. Then she added, “I think little boys like red.”
He shrugged. “Actually, red is my favorite color. Maybe it’ll be his, too.” He started to reach for the red fishing rod, but then his phone rang in his pocket. Withdrawing the cell, he glanced at the display. “It’s Candace, the social worker.” He held up a finger. “I’ll be right back.”
Lindy nodded as Ethan made his way out of the display area. “Hi, Candace. I didn’t expect to hear from you today.”
“Ethan.” He heard her regretful tone.
“Did something happen? Is everything okay with Jerry?”
“Listen, I don’t want this to disappoint you, or in any way change your mind about your desire to adopt Jerry, but I have some news. And, well, it really shouldn’t affect anything, because I feel certain that the state will uphold the parental rights termination. Terminated means terminated, after all. At least as far as the social workers are concerned.”
His chest tightened. She was talking about the little boy he’d missed all weekend, the little boy he wanted so badly that it hurt. “What is it, Candace?”
“It’s Jerry’s mother, Melinda Sue Flinn. There were some—” she paused “—new developments in her case.”
“New developments?” he asked, his mind reeling. How could that be? “She was tried and found guilty of murdering her husband. Her rights were terminated. And I am adopting her son soon. What kind of new developments? Tell me the court didn’t change the termination of rights.”
“No, that didn’t change, and I’m totally under the impression that it won’t. I have no reservations in saying that she shouldn’t ever get her rights back. She didn’t protect Jerry, and I will gladly testify to that in court if I need to.”
“Then what changed?” Ethan couldn’t imagine what would classify as a new development when a wife had been tried by a jury and found guilty of murdering her husband. She’d been sentenced to time in Tutwiler Prison. “Candace, I need to know. What happened?”
“Ethan, her conviction was overturned. She was released last week. Melinda Sue Flinn is free, and—” she hesitated “—she wants her son back.”
Chapter Four
Lindy listened as Ethan’s voice lowered, and his shock escalated.
“What do you mean, she’s free?” He’d obviously taken a few steps away from the window display, but because he was the sole customer in the store and because Lindy strained her ears to hear, she didn’t miss a whispered word. “She was tried and found guilty of murder, Candace. Sentenced to Tutwiler for life. How could the state release her now?”
A cold, bitter frisson shimmied down Lindy’s spine at the mere mention of that horrid place, as did a trickle of fear that Ethan could be very close to finding out who she was. Surely the social worker hadn’t figured that out.
“A confession? What kind of confession?” He sounded almost as shocked as she had been when she heard the unexpected news, that her best friend had stabbed her in the back to save her own husband, Gil’s former business partner. Marsha’s testimony about the abuse, as well as how Lindy had confided that she had to get out of the marriage one way or another, had convinced the jury she was guilty. But Marsha had lied. And no one, not even Lindy, had suspected that Paul had murdered the man who had once been his best friend.
Lindy forced her hands to keep moving, situating the fishing rods, placing the fish, anything to control the urge to bolt from the store, find Jerry and take him as far away from Claremont—and Ethan Green—as possible.
But where would they go? And how long would she last with no money and no one to help them? Besides, she didn’t want to run from the law; she never had.
She simply wanted her son.
Ethan’s thick exhalation echoed beyond the fabric barrier forming the back of the display. “No, I understand. I was just caught off guard.” A pregnant pause caused Lindy’s palms to sweat while she wondered what Candace said on the other end. She brushed her hands against the soft fabric of her skirt and took a deep, calming breath.
Don’t panic. Surely they haven’t matched Lindy Burnett to Melinda Sue Flinn. She closed her eyes. Not yet. Please, God, not yet.
“Why do you think this won’t affect the adoption
?” His voice, a bit softer now, seemed farther away.
Lindy glanced down at her soft watercolor skirt, the blues and mints and pinks that had caught her eye when they were displayed in the window of Consigning Women making her nauseous now. And she saw that she’d bunched the pretty fabric within her palms and formed a few noticeable wrinkles. But she didn’t care—her focus was on Ethan’s conversation that could very well change her life.
The boiled egg and buttered toast she’d eaten for breakfast threatened to make a hasty exit as he expressed her deepest fears.
“So you’re certain that no judge would give her rights back?”
She emitted a barely audible gasp, though she wanted to scream. She did deserve her rights back. She’d done everything she could to protect Jerry, had continually put herself between her husband and her child to contain Gil’s rage.
The memory of her baby’s screams—and that sickening moment of silence—pierced her heart like a jagged knife. That one time, on the night Gil died, she hadn’t been able to protect her son.
But she’d tried. She’d truly tried.
“Okay.” Ethan’s voice seemed calm again, assured that everything would be all right. “Yeah, I understand. But I want you to talk to the folks who decided I had to wait until the end of the summer to adopt Jerry and see if that can be altered now. The quicker I can adopt him, the sooner we can make sure he isn’t given back to her. She didn’t protect him then. Why would any court believe she’d behave differently now?”
Because I did the best I could then. And I would protect him now. I would die for him.
“No, I don’t want to stop pursuing the adoption. Jerry needs my protection more than ever now.”
His protection?
Ethan disconnected, and Lindy waited for him to return to the display area. She couldn’t help herself. As soon as he pushed the curtain aside and stepped in, she asked, “Why would Jerry need your protection?”
He slid his cell into his jeans pocket. “I’m sorry you had to overhear that. He’s fine, or he will be, as soon as I adopt him. But he has an extremely painful past, and unfortunately...” He paused while Lindy held her breath, waiting to see what he’d say about her.
Ethan’s gaze shifted to the window. “Look, they’re coming.”
She twisted around to see the Willow’s Haven group crossing the square in a direct path for the store. Kids of all ages were laughing and chatting, shoving at each other the way kids do when they’re excited and happy. Another group of adults had gathered a short distance away from the store’s entrance, probably the mentors waiting for the children they would be paired with for the Fishers of Men program.
Lindy scanned the crowd of kids until she spotted the preschoolers with Savvy, smiling and waving her hands as she talked animatedly to the smallest children. Most of the little ones nodded, clapped, grinned or laughed as they made their way toward the store. Jerry, however, walked somberly, keeping away from the cluster and on the opposite side of Savvy.
Did he fear all adults?
“There he is.” Ethan pushed the fabric aside and extended a hand toward Lindy. “I don’t want to talk about that phone conversation now. I’ll tell you about it later. Right now I want to spend time with Jerry and remind him of how life will be when that adoption goes through. I can’t believe how much I missed him after just meeting him once. I guess it’s because I’ve been praying for him for so long.”
“You’ve been praying for him?” she asked, baffled.
“Every day for three years.” His hand remained outstretched, and she couldn’t find a reason not to accept it.
She wanted to tell him how very much she’d missed Jerry, and how she’d prayed for him each and every day since the moment she learned she was pregnant, but she swallowed past the urge, placed her hand in his and allowed him to help her exit the display area. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” His smile inched up and he squeezed her hand, only slightly, but still...
Lindy did her best to ignore the comfort his warm palm provided and the reminder of the way people typically touched throughout a normal day. For the past three years, she’d done her best to keep from accidentally brushing against a fellow inmate. You never knew when someone might see any physical contact as aggressive and respond in kind, with a punch to the jaw, elbow to the side or worse.
She flinched, suddenly flooded with memories of saying or doing the wrong thing those first few weeks...and ending up in the infirmary. It didn’t take her long to learn survival skills for the prison yard.
He held her hand a moment longer than she’d have liked, but she controlled the urge to release it. A normal person wouldn’t have a problem with this, and she wanted—needed—to be normal again.
“Lindy, are you okay?” he asked, and he sounded like he truly cared.
The answer was simple. No, she wasn’t, and she wouldn’t be until Jerry was in her life again, for good. She swallowed. “I’m okay.”
He nodded, accepting the lie as truth, or deciding to leave it be. Lindy didn’t know which, but she was glad that he left it alone and changed the subject.
“Hey, it’ll only grow with time, right? That feeling I have toward my son?” He waited a beat for her response, but Lindy couldn’t make herself encourage his desire to adopt her boy. Thankfully, the kids and adult mentors neared the door, and she left the question unanswered.
“Come on.” He tugged her palm and stepped toward the entrance. “The window looks great, and I know you’re probably as anxious to spend time with these kids as I am.”
She was anxious to spend time with one child, the same one as Ethan. But there were twenty-four children and an equal number of mentors who needed her help to rent or purchase supplies for the summer fishing program, and she’d meant what she said when she told Mrs. Bowers that they could count on her to do a good job.
“I am anxious.” Lindy finally slid her hand from his. As much as she hated to admit it, in order to spend more time with Jerry, she had to spend some with Ethan, too. But she’d keep the physical contact to the bare minimum. Something about him rattled her senses, in the same way Gil had thrown her world off balance when they’d first met so long ago. An extremely intense, but extremely unwanted, attraction.
Ethan was equally charming and equally handsome, if not more, than her husband had been. And he, like Gil, seemed nice, sincere. Honest. But Lindy had become an expert in misguided trust during her marriage, and even more of an authority after the murder that ended it. She’d trusted Marsha as a confidant, the only person who knew how terribly Gil had treated her...and the only one she’d called that night when she’d left her husband sleeping and went searching for the women’s shelter.
While Paul had murdered Gil.
“This is going to be a day to remember,” Ethan said, his eyes lighting up with excitement at the group of children dashing toward the door. “And I’m not letting anything steal my joy at spending time with Jerry.”
“A day to remember,” she said at the exact moment Jolaine Bowers reached the front of the store.
“I got a text from Savvy saying they’re almost here.” She peered through the window. “Look, there they are! Here, Lindy—” she hurriedly handed her a stack of papers “—we can give each mentor a supply list to get them started. I can’t wait to see if they like all the new things we got in for this. I’m so excited about the Fishers of Men program. Such a wonderful way to show these kids how much the community cares, don’t you think?”
“Definitely,” Lindy and Ethan said in unison. He smiled at the moment. So did Mrs. Bowers. Lindy, however, clutched the stack of papers to her chest, stepped toward the door—away from the man unnerving her—and welcomed the crowd.
God, let my little boy see how much I care.
* * *
Ethan watched as one by o
ne, a child was paired with an adult to begin the shopping adventure. As much as he hadn’t looked forward to the actual fishing, he’d been waiting for this moment all weekend: spending time with Jerry as they selected items for Fishers of Men.
Truthfully, he’d also looked forward to seeing Lindy Burnett again. In spite of being burned so badly in the past, he’d found himself thinking about the captivating woman the whole time he’d been away from Claremont. She was so quiet, so reserved, and undeniably troubled by whatever had happened in her past that led her to Claremont with no family, no friends and no job.
She disappeared within the flood of adults and kids grabbing the supply lists, but as one very tall gentleman moved out of the way, Ethan saw her, looking a little rattled but politely answering their questions. She pushed a long strawberry curl away from her face and scanned the crowd as though looking for someone. Ethan suddenly wondered whether that long spiral was as soft as it looked and recalled how badly he’d wanted to push those locks away and see her face a few moments ago.
Then their eyes connected, and he gave her a thumbs-up.
He expected a smile, an acknowledgment that she’d been searching for him, but her eyebrows dipped, her confusion at the friendly gesture evident, and then she continued handing out sheets and answering questions.
What had happened to her in the past? And why couldn’t he stop the desire to right not only Jerry’s world, but also hers?
“There’s Mr. Ethan.” Savvy’s words took his attention off the puzzling, riveting female on the other side of the store and onto the freckle-faced boy who had consumed his thoughts and prayers for three years. Oh, how he wanted to adopt Jerry Flinn.
Jerry Green. Ethan couldn’t wait until this guy shared his name.
He crouched to eye level with his future son. “Hey there, buddy. Remember me?”
Child Wanted Page 5