Her Lost and Found Baby

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  He watched her all afternoon. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop looking at her. And every time he did, he felt a resurgence of that kick in the gut he’d had earlier, but he didn’t get hard once.

  He still found her incredibly attractive. That hadn’t changed. He just cared more about holding her up than lying down with her that afternoon.

  The hours were some of the longest he’d ever known. Sometime after two, Tabitha glanced at him, and he caught a look of desperation in her eyes and motioned her over. Telling the customer at the front of the line that she’d be right back, she was at his side instantly. “Why haven’t we heard?”

  “If something had happened, we would have,” he told her. “If there was any indication that Matt wasn’t returning, or anyone had seen him, or the judge ruled on the warrant, we’d have heard.”

  “I know. You’re right.” She leaned over, kissed him quickly and went back to her duties.

  Johnny had to take a moment before he could get back to his.

  * * *

  The kisses meant nothing. She knew that. Not in the big picture. They were a way to get through the day. A way to feel good so she had the strength to get through the next minute. The next hour. Johnny had kissed her that first time to distract her. And the second time, she’d just needed the feel-good. The connection.

  By four o’clock that afternoon, she was ready to go to bed with him. She was going to need something that huge to take her mind off all the people out there who weren’t calling them.

  Johnny’s phone rang just as she had that thought. There’d only been a couple of people in line over the past five minutes or so. She almost dropped the last bowl as she handed it out the window and then turned to watch Johnny.

  Montgomery, he mouthed as he answered. Leaving the window, she moved toward him, taking his hand as he held it out to her. He squeezed. She squeezed back. For that day, Johnny was her lifeline. Just for the day.

  She could hear a male voice. Couldn’t make out any words. Noise from the boulevard on which they were parked, coupled with the sound of the truck’s generator, made it impossible to know what was being said.

  Johnny listened. He didn’t talk for what seemed an inordinately long time.

  “Okay. Thanks, man.”

  Okay, what? What was he thanking him for? Her palms were sweating and she felt a bit nauseous.

  “Yeah.” And then, “Absolutely.”

  She was staring at Johnny, who seemed to be focusing on their clasped hands. She didn’t think she could take much more.

  “Yep,” he said and then rang off.

  Tabitha wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he had to tell her when he finally raised his head and she saw the look in his eyes.

  “Mark didn’t show up at the cemetery,” he said. “No one there has seen him since his mother’s funeral. No one in the area recognized his picture. And there’s no sign of Matt, either. Montgomery’s team showed recent pictures to people at the bus stop where he got off, to other bus drivers and at nearby establishments. They’ve followed every lead they can and...nothing.”

  “That just means we don’t know what Mark’s mom loved. He’s taken him someplace she loved.”

  He nodded and looked as though he might say something else. He didn’t, but his gaze was intense. “I’m sorry we don’t have more.”

  “So we didn’t get him at the cemetery. Maybe they went to some flower place that specializes in lilies. He got that new lily tattoo because they were her favorite flower.” She couldn’t give up now.

  “I want to promise you that we’ll find them. Today. And that Matt and Jason are Mark and Jackson.” His tone held no hint of promise at all.

  She nodded and didn’t move away. “I know, Johnny. It’s the succeeder in you. But sometimes it’s not a matter of being the best at something. Being able to master it. Sometimes you have to believe before you see.” And while he might hope or think, she didn’t feel like he believed.

  He studied her for a second, his blue eyes searching. She wanted to give him whatever fact or belief he was missing, but she didn’t know what that was. “Sometimes it has to matter enough,” she told him. “Whatever you’re looking for. Or hoping to achieve.”

  He tilted his head, as though waiting for more.

  She had no more. All she knew was that she believed she’d find her son. Jason, Jackson, whatever they were calling him. That she wouldn’t stop until she had him home. And that she was scared to death something would happen to him in the meantime.

  “Besides,” she said, “we still have Detective Bentley trying to get a DNA warrant. Maybe not today, but possibly by tomorrow.”

  She prayed to God that Matt didn’t run. That after speaking with Detective Bentley, the San Diego police would take the case seriously and keep him in their sights.

  “Montgomery is posting agents at the front and back entrances of Matt’s house starting tonight,” Johnny told her. The detective had followed the man home one night to get the address.

  It was going to cost her Jackson’s college fund, the rest of the insurance money she’d received after her mother’s accident and probably savings she didn’t yet have, but she’d pay him back for the investigator. Somehow.

  He lowered his head. He was going to kiss her again. She wanted him to.

  “Excuse me! Anyone in there?” a voice called.

  Tabitha jerked back, hurried to the window and took care of the customer. Maybe it was for the best that she and Johnny had stopped playing with a fire that would eventually incinerate her.

  * * *

  Johnny stood in the shower Thursday evening, his mind busy. Sometimes it has to matter enough. Tabitha’s words played and replayed, looking for a place to land, finding none. She’d hit on the flaw that had plagued him all his life. Nothing mattered enough.

  Things mattered. But not enough to ignite the kind of passion that drove a man to make certain choices simply because he had to. She’d said that sometimes you have to believe before you see, but he’d never needed to do that. Exactly the opposite. He saw, believed he could make it happen and then did. Whether it was mastery of a sport or a musical instrument, receiving a college degree, closing a deal or winning a case. Even with Angel...he’d seen the woman who was right for him, one he’d loved casually most of his life. He’d seen his parents’ relationship and set out to make his own marriage work.

  And now...he saw Tabitha’s need to have her son back in her arms, in her life. But he couldn’t seem to make it happen for her. The defeat was crushing him.

  So he’d just keep trying, like his father had said. As long as he tried, there was a possibility of success. Maybe not with Matt and Jason. Maybe not in San Diego. But Mark and Jackson had to be somewhere. Thinking that if things in San Diego didn’t pan out, he’d hire Montgomery and his team to handle Jackson’s case overall. To turn every stone to find the child. Tabitha would never be able to afford the cost.

  Perhaps he’d start a nonprofit to find missing children and use the proceeds from Angel’s Food Bowls to finance it. Jackson would be their first case...

  Pleased with where his mind was taking him, Johnny finished his shower, eager to meet Tabitha out in the suite for the Italian feast they’d ordered from room service, which should be arriving in a few minutes. They still had three more nights and four days left of the trip. Anything could happen in that time.

  The warrant could come through in the morning. By tomorrow night, Tabitha could have Jackson safely in her arms—or at least the DNA testing might be in process. He knew a guy who knew a guy and had the ability to pay the lab enough extra to get almost immediate results.

  In the meantime, he’d support the heck out of her. Fulfilling his promises to their partnership. He’d been keeping his distance since their near miss on the couch the other night. Or, rather, their foray into erotically inc
redible territory. He wasn’t even sure anymore why he’d pulled so far back from her.

  Or let her pull back from him without noticing. But seeing her that morning, about to fall when she thought there was bad news about her son...watching her hold herself up all day...finding a strength he’d never seen displayed in one individual before, he’d been unable to stand back any longer.

  Tabitha shouldn’t be alone. No one deserved to go through tragedy alone. She was in the middle of her second and still standing. And he was there, the one she’d invited in.

  Why him? He had no idea. Why no one else in all the years since her mother had been killed in that accident, he couldn’t say.

  But she’d seen something in Johnny, something he sure as hell didn’t see in himself, and he’d be damned if he was going to let her down.

  Didn’t matter that there were limits on their time together. That their partnership would dissolve. What mattered was she’d asked someone—him—to share her load for a while and he was going to succeed at doing so.

  Just as she’d helped him succeed with Angel’s Food Bowls. They’d made a deal and he always kept up his end of any deal.

  Checking his phone as he headed out to the suite’s living room, he saw a missed call from Montgomery. A voice mail. And Tabitha, in sweats and a long-sleeved cotton shirt like she’d worn at home during their list-making nights. Barefoot, like him, she was sitting with her legs curled up under her on the couch.

  “Dinner hasn’t arrived yet,” she told him, looking more relaxed than she had all day.

  “Montgomery called,” he said, hating to bring tension back into the room. He was listening to the voice mail by the time he reached her.

  “What?” She didn’t even let him move the phone away from his ear before she was on him.

  “Matt and Jason got home, on foot, about half an hour ago. Jason was carrying a stuffed toy and Matt had one like it, several sizes larger. They were both wearing San Diego Zoo hats.”

  “They went to the zoo?”

  “You know anything about Mark’s mother being fond of animals?”

  She shook her head. “But like I said, I know almost nothing about her. I don’t even know if he had a pet growing up.”

  She had to be able to depend on him, at the very least. “Maybe she liked the zoo,” he said anyway, giving her hope.

  Because she had to believe before she’d see and she most definitely needed to see her son again. If it turned out that Jackson wasn’t this boy, he’d help her look at photos until there was another. She had a small smile on her face. A sad one.

  “You doing okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” Picking up the pillow he’d held over his lap the other night, she hugged it to her. “At least I know they’re home safely. That Matt really was bringing Jason back. And tomorrow, when the warrant comes through...”

  “If it comes through...” He could encourage, but he couldn’t lead her on.

  “Can we just not worry about that tonight?”

  Room service knocked at the door before he had a chance to answer her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I’ve missed you the past couple of days, Johnny.” Tabitha held a bread stick, munching on it as she walked around the suite. Touching things. Pulling out drawers. She’d already wheeled their dinner cart out into the hall, leaving what was left of the basket of bread sticks on the table.

  “I’ve been right here.” Johnny was still at the table for two in front of the windows, sipping from the glass of wine he’d ordered with dinner. Hers was half empty on the table across from him.

  She’d eaten some of her dinner—more than she’d expected to—but she’d been restless, finding various reasons to get up from the table. She’d needed a tissue. Had gone to turn down the thermostat, thinking it was a little hot in the room. She just couldn’t seem to sit still.

  Now she wanted to do something so completely out of character she wasn’t sure she actually could.

  “Your body’s been here,” she told him. “My partner’s been here. But ever since we kissed, you’ve been acting like I’m a leper.”

  “I kissed you three times today. I have to say I don’t think I’d ever kiss a leper.” Exactly. Those kisses—gentle and sweet though they’d been—were prompting her to act like a crazy woman. She knew it but couldn’t find any desire to stop. On the contrary. If she didn’t get under Johnny’s skin a little bit, she might just fly out of hers before the night was through.

  And before they got to morning—and, she hoped, the judge’s decision. By noon she might have Jackson’s DNA. If they got the warrant, Johnny would pay the lab to rush the results, and with hers as the other sample, a determination should be pretty easy.

  They’d talked about the process all the way through closing the truck down for the night.

  She didn’t want to think about labs and judges sitting on their benches making rulings that affected people for the rest of their lives. Didn’t want to picture the person who, in the morning, might hold her future in his or her hands.

  And she didn’t want to worry about Mark running once he knew the jig was up. It wasn’t like the DNA authorization would include a warrant for Mark’s arrest. Until the test came back, he was Matt, father of Jason, not Mark, kidnapper of Tabitha’s baby boy.

  Sliding back onto her seat, she picked up her glass of wine then glanced out at the harbor. She saw a reflection of the room’s light in the glass. Jumping up, she turned off most of the lights in the living room portion of the suite. “There, now the view is nicer,” she said.

  Slouched in his chair, looking satiated and comfortable, Johnny narrowed his eyes as he stared across at her and said, “Yes, it is.”

  She’d meant the harbor view.

  She looked out to sea. Thought about all the people who died before they’d done everything they wanted to do. People like her mother. Like Angel. And not everyone had a Johnny who’d take on what was left undone.

  Sipping her wine, she could practically feel the heat emanating from her companion.

  Her Johnny. Not the one who’d grown up with wealth, who had wealth, who would return to wealth.

  For this time, for the next few days, maybe even the next couple of months, Johnny was her partner.

  Her companion.

  Whether he knew it or not, he was the best friend she’d ever had.

  “I’ve been thinking about your problem,” she said. The words had sounded better in the shower than they did out here in the open.

  “What problem?”

  He was supposed to have gotten it right away. She’d pictured this playing out with a sexy smirk on his face.

  “The one we talked about the other night.”

  He frowned. “Listen, Tabitha, we don’t have to let that get in the way. I’m sorry I was...distant the past couple of days, but I’m over it. I’m here for you. I’ve always been here. And I’m not going anywhere. I swear to you.”

  “I was hoping you’d go to bed with me tonight.”

  Wow. The power of those words almost knocked her off her seat. Way more out there than they’d seemed in the shower.

  He wasn’t saying a word. Just tapping his finger against the stem of his wineglass. She’d thought he’d be taking her hand, leading her to his room. Or hers. Even the couch would be better than sitting there across from him.

  Then he smiled. A weird kind of smile. One she’d never seen on him before. And yet...still all Johnny. “I appreciate the offer.” His tone was kind. Congenial. “And you have to realize I’m tempted. But...no.”

  Cold now, she wished she hadn’t turned down the heat. Nowhere in her imaginings of this moment had she seen a rejection coming. “Why not?”

  She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. But she didn’t know how to extricate herself, either.

  “You had sex with Ma
rk out of grief over the loss of a patient.”

  She’d forgotten he knew that. But...yeah. “I don’t get your point.”

  “Sex is for enjoyment between two people who want it equally.”

  “You want it with me. You made that pretty obvious.”

  “I’m not denying that.”

  “And I want it.”

  “I don’t think you do.”

  If she wasn’t feeling so...strange, she might start to feel angry, instead. “You think I don’t know what I want?”

  “I think you’re the sweetest woman I’ve ever met, the most nurturing, and you’re trying to be a good friend to me because I’m helping you through a tough time.”

  She took a minute to consider what he’d said. Was that what she was doing?

  “No, that’s not it.” She shook her head.

  “You’re going to tell me and expect me to believe that you’ve developed a sudden passion for my body during the past two days?”

  Maybe. His kiss a few nights ago had changed her. “I’ve never felt...huge passion in that area...”

  He stopped tapping on his glass. He studied her intently, then lifted his wine to take a long sip.

  “I’ve been too busy taking care of myself, watching out for all the roadblocks because I knew there wasn’t anyone who’d be there to pick me up if I fell...” She didn’t want him to think she was undersexed.

  Even if she was.

  “You’ve never been so racked with passion that you just couldn’t say no? Couldn’t stop?”

  “No.”

  “Then why have sex?”

  “When I was younger...because it was kind of expected, I guess.” Even to her, the reasoning sounded lame.

  “And later?”

  “There was only Mark. That one time.” She couldn’t imagine that any of this was helping her cause. If he’d been turned on, been picturing her as this sexy woman who’d fulfill his needs, she was disappointing him.