by Jen Talty
“Let’s stand over here.” Jake took her by the hand, lacing his fingers through hers.
She sat on a large rock under the big willow tree off the north end of the cabin, watching people go in and out of her house.
“My father didn’t know everything his lawyer did when helping with the adoption. He might have been wrong in what he did, but—”
“I can’t believe you’re defending him.”
“No. What he did was deplorable. Wrong morally and legally. But in his mind his actions were protecting his family. His child. Something you and I are just starting to understand.”
“I’ll agree with that statement regarding your mother’s death, but not with giving the baby away and lying about it.”
“Agreed,” Jake said. “But don’t let that lie push you to give away what you really want for you and our baby.”
She stared at a young man in a Trooper uniform briskly walking toward them. “All I want right now is for this insanity to end. To feel safe again in my own space.”
“Jake,” the Trooper said as he stood in front of them.
“Hey, Josh. This is Kenzie. She lives here.”
“Good to meet you. I need you to walk through and let me know if you notice anything besides your computer that’s missing.”
“Sure thing.” She took the hand Jake offered.
Long moments passed as she walked through the place she’d called home since she was nineteen. While she and Jake didn’t admit to living together until she was twenty-one and he was just shy of his twenty-fifth birthday, it had been her home. A real home. Looking at the tiny pieces of her baby's ultrasound on the floor in her bedroom she realized that while she felt violated, she would do whatever it took to not only protect her baby, but make sure he or she had the opportunity to know their heritage, something Delilah’s child had been denied.
“Nothing else appears to be missing,” she said. “I need some fresh air.”
Jake followed her out. He opened the flat bed of his truck and lifted her by the hips, setting her butt down on the metal, then hoisted himself up to join her. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I doubt that.” She scooted back slightly so she could sit cross legged. “I don’t think things will ever be okay again.”
“I know it feels that way now,” he said. “And until we find the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s not safe for you to be here.”
“Where do you suggest I go?”
“For now we’ve got a cabin at the Heritage Inn,” he said. “We’ve got it for as long as we want it. And I don’t want you to be alone until this is over.”
“So what? I hide out there?” She wanted to add she had work to do, but that would negate her argument on how upset she’d been.
“For now,” he said. “Kicker will handle the daily operations. Charlie and Trevor will step up and take care of the rest of it with my help.”
“You’re going to run the farm?”
“I’m going to protect the farm, you, and our baby. That’s my job.”
Chapter 13
JAKE SAT ON THE FRONT PORCH of the Uncus Cabin on the Heritage Inn Property. All the cabins were given Native American names and the décor matched the theme as noted by the walking stick on the front porch. Normally, he’d think the view of the of lake on a hot summer morning as the sun warmed the night sky would be relaxing. But not today.
He rocked back and forth, trying to calm his nerves, but the two men heading up the path didn’t help his rising blood pressure.
“Long night,” Luke said as he sat down on the steps. His ball cap pulled down over his forehead. Glasses slightly of kilter.
“You look like I feel.” If Jake had slept an hour total that would have been a lot. “Yet Josh over here looks bright eyed and bushy tailed. How is that possible?”
Josh, still in uniform, took off his Stetson, set it on the table, and sat next to Jake. “My mother would tell you it’s because I got her good genes, but I’ll tell you I cheated. I went home and took a shower so I’d be ready for my second shift, which starts in an hour.”
“That sucks.” Jake remembered double shifts well. A few months ago, he even welcomed them.
“I bring bad news,” Josh said. “Harvey Dickerson is dead.”
“Might be the most inappropriate thing I’ve ever said, but that is not bad news.” Jake blew on his coffee. “I’d offer you both some, but Kenzie is finally sleeping.”
“I’m good,” Josh said. “You should know that the nurse taking care of Dickerson thinks he might have overdosed. On purpose. Said he’d been talking about doing it for the last few weeks.”
“Coward's way out. I doubt he felt guilt over what he did,” Jake said. “The man I met didn’t care about anyone but himself.”
“Perhaps,” Luke said. “But he was the only person who could testify that your father didn’t know about the baby swap if this thing blows up.”
Jake hadn’t thought about that, but there was no way he could have pushed everything under the rug. Once the news broke, it was going to hurt the farm in way he didn’t think anyone could be prepared for and the one person who could save it was too enraged to see past her own nose to the bigger picture.
He didn’t blame her. He’d felt the same way ten years ago. But he also wondered if he’d come back and reconciled with his father sooner, if a lot of this could have been prevented.
“I did find the girl who had the stillbirth,” Luke said. “She says she had no idea the doctor had done that and she never saw him again.”
“What about the nurse?” Jake asked.
“She won’t talk without being forced to,” Josh said. “Hoping for the thumbs up to bring her in for questioning, but also doing some extensive digging, hoping to be able to get a warrant and then threaten her with an arrest if she doesn’t cut a deal and tell us.”
“She’s the only one who knows where that baby went.” Jake set his coffee on the table, unable to take the bitterness of it as it collided with his upset stomach.
“Not necessarily,” Luke said. “Elsie told me that she was told to take you to the playground that day. On the way out, she realized she’d forgotten your lunches, so she went back and saw Horace Doherty near your father’s office. She never thought anything of it because he was in there a lot.”
“He would have had regular meetings with my grandfather and father, so no surprise he was in the house.”
Luke nodded. “Only Elsie told me your father cleared everyone out and told her that your mother wasn’t feeling well and that no one was to disturb her. That he was shutting down and locking up the entire house.”
“My father never did that.”
“That’s why she thought it strange,” Luke said. “We need to talk with Horace.”
“Kenzie and I will do that.” Jake had made sure he could have the next few days off. He did feel bad that Josh was going to be covering most of his shifts, but no way was he leaving Kenzie’s side unless he absolutely had to. “And Lattimore’s office?”
“Got a few people willing to talk,” Luke said. “From what we can gather it all started with Lattimore when his wife couldn’t have children and he didn’t want to wait. From there, he brought in Dickerson, who did a lot of work at clinics where teenagers tended to go. But it ended when Dickerson and Lattimore retired. Not a big black market operation from what I can gather.”
“There has to be some kind of paperwork somewhere,” Jake said. “I haven’t seen a black market of any kind that didn’t have a form of tracking everything.”
“Totally agree,” Luke said. “I’ll keep digging.”
“Thanks.”
“I best be on my way,” Josh said. “Call me if you need anything.”
“Will do and thanks for picking up the slack.” Jake stood, reaching his hand out. Josh took it in a firm handshake. “If I can ever return the favor.”
“You’ll be the first I call.”
“I best be going, too.” Luke adjuste
d his ball cap as he rose. “I’ll touch base this afternoon.”
Jake rolled his neck as the two men disappeared around the side of the cabin. The sun now fully engaged with the sky. Boats hummed across the shoreline. A family from a few cabins over rolled a cooler down toward the waterfront. The two small children carried fishing poles and a tackle box. Pulling his phone out of his back pocket, he checked the time. Only seven in the morning and they didn’t have to meet with his mother’s friend, Loretta, until nine.
Carefully, he twisted the knob and eased his way in, making sure to be as quiet as he could, but still securing the door with the deadbolt. Standing at the end of the bed, he slipped off his shoes before pulling his gun off his belt and setting that on the dresser.
Kenzie had curled up on her side under the sheet, both hands under her cheek, and a pillow tucked between her legs, eyes closed. He wished she looked peaceful, but the lines in her forehead told a different story.
“I’m awake,” she whispered. “I heard you talking outside.”
“Sorry.” He drew back the sheet and climbed in next to her. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Wasn’t really asleep. Any news?”
“Nothing substantial. Lots of leads to chase down.” As he brushed her hair from her face, her eyelids fluttered open, revealing her milky brown eyes. “I opened a real shitty can of worms when I told my superiors about what my father did.”
“I have mixed feelings about that.” She scooted closer, removing the pillow and pressing her leg between his. “I hate what your father did, but it seems the doctor and lawyer did worse.”
“It’s all bad,” he said. “Even if there are no criminal charges filed against my dad, once the news hits about what he, Lattimore, and Dickerson did with the baby, it’s going to affect the farm and everyone on it negatively. We need to think about a plan to salvage it.”
“Had he just told the truth about Delilah and her baby, none of this would have happened.”
“Just with my mother having an affair, there’d be no way to avoid a scandal,” he said. “We could 'what if' this to the point that if I hadn’t up and left, none of this would have happened.” He pulled her so close her belly pressed against his. “We can blame Dad for a lot of things, but we can’t blame him for someone else’s actions. He didn’t have the doctor swap babies. He and my mother agreed to ‘pretend’ her baby died. That entire thing was orchestrated by Dickerson, not my father.”
“But if whoever is doing this to us this other son is, he might not have turned out this way had your father—”
“First, we don’t know that we’re even on the right track with this. We’re chasing it down because it's a good lead. Our only lead. But we’re looking at other possibilities,” he said. “Second, I see good people cross the line all the time, like what my father did, thinking he’s protecting those he loves. The problem with what my dad did was it snowballed and he didn’t have control over what other people did, but he’s not a bad guy,” Jake said. “What this person, whoever he is, has been doing to us isn’t someone making a mistake or bad decision with good intentions, like my father. It’s calculated. Cold. Ruthless. Very different kind of person than my father.”
“So, you’re saying we should forgive and forget what your father did and move on?”
“I’m saying we can’t change it and holding on to it, no matter how bad, hasn’t gotten us anywhere.”
She nodded. “Forgiveness isn’t a strong suit for any of us.”
“I’ve really been trying to put my feet in my father’s shoes.” He pushed her to her back, placing his hand on her stomach. “I’m doing things I thought I never would because of this little person. I don’t think I would have handled my mother’s affair and child the same way, but I know I’d do just about anything to protect our baby, which gives me the ability to, at the very least, have some empathy for what my father did.”
“It’s not that I don’t empathize,” she said. “I was able to lie to you about your mother’s death simply because I knew it would hurt you and I loved you so much I couldn’t stand to be the one to break that news to you. But that’s a little different than letting a woman believe her child died.”
“It is,” he said. “But I believe my father didn’t know what the doctor had planned. We have to remember my mother agreed to giving her baby up, so she knew they were all going to lie about what happened.”
“I don’t understand how you can be so calm and understanding.”
“I’m neither of those,” he admitted. “Half the time I want to put a fist through a wall. The other half I want to walk away again. Forget where I came from. Who my parents are. Neither of those options do me, you, or our baby any good. If we want the farm to survive this, we need to stick it out.”
“You want the farm? Be a part of it?”
That was a loaded question because he still didn’t want to be part of the business, but part of him was tied to her and she was tied to the land. “Staying there this last week I realized I didn’t leave because I didn’t want the farm. I left because I wanted to matter to someone more than the farm.”
“Oh, Jake. I didn’t mean to make you—”
Gently, he kissed her lips. “I take ownership in how I sabotaged our relationship. I put you in a lose-lose situation. I had no right to ask you to choose.” His hand no longer covered her entire belly. With each day, she grew larger, and in his eyes, sexier. He slipped his hand under her shirt, rubbing her protruding stomach.
“You think the farm can withstand this kind of scandal?”
“I think with you at the helm, it can, but it isn’t going to be easy.”
“There are some changes I’ve wanted to make, but Charlie and Ethan have been fighting me on them.”
“Then maybe now, since we have my father’s blessing, it’s the perfect time to make some radical changes,” he said. “For the sake of our…holy shit.” Against the palm of his hand, he felt a little jab. “Did you feel that?”
“I did,” she said, a smile spreading slowly across her face. “You felt it?”
Jumping to his knees, he lifted her shirt up and poked. Immediately her stomach twitched. He cupped her middle with both hands. “There’s really a little person in there.” His callused palms scraped across her soft skin. In the throes of chaos, this child was the glimmer of all that was good in this world. “What does it feel like on the inside?”
“A combination of butterflies and gas.”
He laughed as he slid back down on his side, propping his head up with his hand. She’d always carried herself with an air of confidence. A strong woman both physically and emotionally. Willing to do whatever it took to get the job done. He’d always admired her determination, often watching her from a distance as she worked with the horses, or gave lessons, or simply walked from one place on the farm to the other.
“Do you want to find out if it's a boy or a girl?”
“I do,” she said. “But if you don’t want to—”
“I’m good with finding out,” he said. “Have you thought about names?”
“I have a couple in mind.”
“Like what?” He traced a finger under her chin, lost in the moment, as if they’d put a protective bubble around them so the ugliness of the outside world couldn’t touch them.
“When I was little I liked the name Matilda.”
“Seriously?”
The way she smiled at him he would have said yes to any name she wanted.
“Just one of many names,” she said. “I think for a girl my favorite right now is Emma, but that could change.”
“I like Emma, but what if it's a boy?”
“Jacob?”
“Don’t want a junior,” he said. “I don’t want a family name. Not just because of what my father has done, but maybe it’s time to take the traditions and toss them out the window and start a few of our own.”
“I like the name Noah.”
“That’s a good name,” he sa
id.
For a long while, they held each other’s gaze. There was so much he wanted to say. To tell her. But it wasn’t the right time. For now, he’d enjoy the normalness of this stolen moment.
Chapter 14
KENZIE WISHED SHE HAD FELT better after talking with Ethan on the phone. He sounded so much better, and even with all the changes that were about to happen, she couldn’t let herself get excited. She slipped her arm around Jake’s waist, hooking her finger through one of his belt loops. “Charlie gave me a hard time on the phone and I’m afraid he’s going to try to see Ethan at the hospital to change his mind.”
“My dad is still as stubborn as ever. Charlie doesn’t stand a chance. Besides as of Monday morning I own the farm and you will officially be CEO, and not in a temporary capacity.” Jake’s hip gently collided with hers as they walked across the clearing between the cabins and the Heritage Inn’s main building. A breakfast buffet was served there every morning and they had told Loretta to meet them there.
“Charlie thinks he knows better how to not only handle the scandal when it breaks, but thinks the breeding business…that all aspects of the farm will be ruined with me in charge.”
“Charlie actually said that?”
“He was nice enough, stating it was more of an age and experience thing, but he really does think you and I are influencing your father negatively. Manipulating him somehow.”
“My father will set Charlie straight.”
“I know.” Kenzie said. “Charlie feels like he was left out of the loop and left holding the bag at the farm with all the employees. And he kind of was.”
“What about Kicker?”
Kenzie laughed. “He’s having fun giving Charlie and Trevor a hard time. He’s enthusiastic to implement some of the changes your father…well you…are finally going to let me make.”
The sun dipped behind a big white puffy cloud as she took the steps that lead to a magnificent wrap-around porch off the main building that over-looked the lake. Thankfully, there was an empty table.
