Bundle of Joy

by Annie Jones

  “So you need to decide. We can take the information Mitch gave us—which amounts to a secondhand tip from an unreliable source—and turn it in to the system, and you can wait and see what happens. Or—”

  “I know what I want.” The instant he had said “You can wait and see,” not “We,” it all became clear to her. Even as she claimed to be an independent-minded woman who trusted the Lord, her whole life she had relied on other people to define her. She couldn’t do both those things. She was choosing independence and trusting God. “I want to be Amanda’s—the baby’s—mom.”

  “All right! I’m gonna be a real grandpa!” Harmon sprang to his feet, took the baby from Jax’s arms and began whirling her around the room.

  “Oh, sweetie, that’s a wonderful idea. I wish I’d had that kind of gumption when I was your age.” Miss Delta rushed forward and gave Shelby a kiss on the forehead.

  Shelby rolled her head just enough to look past the fringe of stiff hair-sprayed blond curls brushing her cheek and temple and find Jax, his unwavering gaze fixed on her. This was it. She was in charge. “And I want you to help me do it.”

  * * *

  Jax called Sheriff Denby first. “I say we work backward from what we know now, and forward from what anyone in town might have known about Mandie and her grandmother years ago.”

  “Makes sense to me. I’ll get the word out,” the sheriff said in a matter-of-fact tone.

  Jax covered one ear to make sure he had heard right in the clatter and chatter building around him at Miss Delta’s. He raised his voice to improve the odds of being heard. “You’re not coming over?”

  “Sounds like you’ve got a handle on things there.” Sheriff Denby also spoke louder than he needed to. “I’ve got more than enough to do here now that we know we’re looking for this Courtney girl in connection with Mitch Warner’s stolen car.”

  “Courtney, Mitch, the car he now says was stolen showing up here on the night the baby was left, the identity thefts of customers of Miss Delta’s place and the Crosspoint?” Jax shook his head. “I can’t help thinking there’s a connection.”

  “Yes, and her name is Shelby Grace Lockhart.” Sheriff Denby paused to let that sink in before adding, “So you take extra care of our girl and call me if you find out anything more.”

  They hung up with that thought in Jax’s mind. Shelby was the point where all this intersected. He had worried initially that this put her at risk of physical danger. Now, having come to know her, he knew she had put herself in danger—not of physical harm but of having her heart broken. He would do anything to protect her from enduring that again. That meant he had to find this Amanda and convince the young woman to make her wishes for Shelby to raise the baby a reality.

  Jax took the lead from that point. He spoke to everyone personally, no “Someone told me” or “I heard this or that” allowed. Between that and whatever Sheriff Denby did on his end, it didn’t take long before people were simply showing up at Miss Delta’s house to volunteer information. This relegated Jax to the front porch, where he could make sure he didn’t miss anyone but could avoid the chaos and the crowd shuffling through the rooms and hallways inside.

  “Hey, Tyler.” Jax stuck out his hand to the kid who worked part-time at Miss Delta’s.

  Tyler, who had been standing at the foot of the front steps, fixated on his phone for at least a minute, raised his head. “Hey, man!”

  Jax waited for the kid to come up the steps and shake his outstretched hand.

  A car pulled up and parked on the street. Headlights flicked off. Car doors slammed. People got out and called greetings.

  Tyler didn’t move. Jax went down the steps and forced the issue. Taking the kid’s hand, he shook it, as if to say, “Be a part of the world, kid. This is how it’s done.”

  The man he was almost two weeks ago, when he left Dallas, would never have made that concession. That man would not have cared that some kid wasn’t participating in the goodness of small town life.

  “Oh.” Tyler caught on and actually responded to Jax’s overture with a solid grip. He even made eye contact and smiled. “My mom told me to come over and see if you needed anything from me.”

  Jax put his hand on the young man’s shoulder, feeling like he’d accomplished a small victory. “Not sure what you could do. Unless you’ve recalled some details from that night you thought you saw Mitch Warner at the pump?”

  The kid held up his phone, as if to say that was where his attention had been focused.

  Jax nodded, mulling over whether he should say more about life going on all around them and not missing it. Around them, fireflies had begun to flicker and flit, and Jax had to strain to make out faces in the dimming light. A pang of guilt hit him. Who was he to tell someone to be more engaged in life? Up until he’d come to Sunnyside, the only reason he’d paid attention to people and his surroundings was to try to figure them out, to make his case or to keep them from getting close.

  He tapped the edge of his own phone. Then had a thought. “Hey, Tyler. You were texting when I drove up to the Crosspoint the night we found Amanda. Any chance you mentioned seeing Mitch to whomever you were texting with?”

  “Uh.” He looked down at his phone and hit the contact icon. “Yeah. I think I did.”

  Jax stepped in closer, a bit stunned to see the number of contacts scrolling past under the boy’s skimming thumb.

  “I think I said I hoped he didn’t fill up and take off,” Tyler said. “Because I knew how much it would embarrass Miss Shelby for her old boyfriend to be caught stealing from Miss Delta.”

  “Can you check back through your old texts and find out what time that happened?”

  “It’ll take a couple minutes, but sure.” Tyler nodded.

  “Come inside and join the party while you do that.” Jax gave a jerk of his head and headed up the steps.

  It pleased him more than he could ever have anticipated when Tyler followed his lead, came into the foyer and actually interacted with people even as he searched through his old texts.

  Shelby came up behind the young man and gave him a friendly shake. “Hi, Tyler. The light for that’s better in the kitchen. And there’s food.”

  “Cool.” Tyler didn’t have to be told twice.

  As he disappeared into a cluster of folks laughing and talking, Shelby sidled up to Jax, who chose to stay close to the screen door. As they stood side by side, she folded her arms and said, “You know, I worried when you started asking people to come here to talk to you directly that Miss Delta would resent the intrusion.”

  “Are you kidding?” Jax took the whole scene in, in a long, sweeping glance. “She’s like a queen holding court. And with Harmon in the kitchen? They’re putting everyone at ease, making my job easier.”

  Shelby looked up at him. Her face, lit by moonlight on one side and the mellow glow of the old crystal chandelier above them, took on a kind but wistful expression. “Well, if nothing else comes out of this, I will always consider it a blessing that I got to see Miss Delta get at least a taste of her lifelong dream.”

  Jax opened his mouth to ask something that had nothing to do with the task ahead of them. Nothing to do with figuring out anyone’s motivations. Nothing to do with anything but listening to Shelby, sharing a moment with Shelby. “What do you mean?”

  Shelby’s eyes met his, and for a moment he thought she might just shrug it off, but when she spoke softly, almost achingly, about Miss Delta’s dream, he understood why.

  “You know that Miss Delta said she always wanted to have a home filled with love and family here in Sunnyside.”

  She might as well have been talking about herself. Jax had no doubt about that. It touched his heart, but it also set off an alarm in his head. He might have made that dream come true for one night for Miss Delta, but he couldn’t do the same for Shelby. H
is future lay down a different path.

  So he did his best to redirect the conversation. “I was asking what you meant by ‘if nothing else comes out of this’?”

  “I mean...” She blinked. Tears washed over those beautiful blue eyes. Her lower lip quivered. She tipped her chin up, and in an instant her composure returned and she spoke with grace and acceptance. “I mean that even if we find Mandie, Jax, there is no way of knowing how it will all turn out.”

  He should have been relieved. He had thought the same things again and again, but hearing it from Shelby, it got to him. He took her in his arms and held her close, hoping to provide some comfort as he said, “I know. But, Shelby Grace, I have to believe it will be okay. Clearly Mandie wanted you to have Amanda. We just have to make that happen through the proper channels.”

  For a moment she just stood there in his arms.

  Jax wondered if he had crossed a line. If he should let go, back away and make a joke or—

  Shelby wound her arms around him, tentatively at first, then tightly. She buried her face in his chest. She did not cry, but sighed the way someone does when they finally surrender their burdens, if only for a little while.

  Jax closed his arms around her and laid his cheek against the soft waves of her hair. He inhaled the scent of her and the night and the aroma of home cooking, and felt the loneliness of his past melt away. He might not carry that feeling for the rest of his life, but he would have this memory.

  “Uh, sorry to break this up, y’all.” Tyler stood beside them, his phone in one hand, a grilled cheese sandwich in the other. “But I got that text time for you, Jax.”

  Jax reluctantly pulled away from Shelby.

  She let her hand drag across his arm as she moved back. With each step, her smile grew from weak to reassuring.

  Jax smiled, too, then checked the phone. “Okay, I wasn’t expecting this.”

  “Everything okay?” Tyler asked.

  “Yeah, that was a lot of help. Thanks, Tyler.” He patted the kid on the back to send him on his way. When the young man slid the phone into his pocket and joined a group talking in the parlor, Jax shook his head and scowled. “Something’s off here, Shelby. And it goes back to Mitch and his story about this mysterious Courtney. According to the time of Tyler’s text, he saw that red car at nine thirty-nine. The silver SUV ran me off the road around ten thirty-five. There is almost no chance that Mandie sat in a big silver SUV at the café for at least an hour with nobody noticing.”

  “I admit I was distracted that night, but it doesn’t seem likely, does it?” Shelby pivoted just enough to stare out the screen door at all the vehicles parked outside, as if confirming she would have noticed the SUV in that amount of time. “Wait! I missed a call in the middle of the night from an unknown number. Is there some way to trace it and see if it was Mandie?”

  “Let’s see.” He held his hand out. “Give me your phone.”

  Even after handing over her phone, Shelby’s fingers flitted around the edge of the small device resting in Jax’s palm.

  “Even though it showed up unknown, the police can find out the number, right?” she asked.

  Jax saw the time and date. “They can, but they won’t have to.”

  “Why?”

  He pulled his own phone out and flicked the screen on. “Because I’m the one who called you that night.”

  “You?”

  “Yeah, I’d just found your note and...” The memory of reading her words and knowing he had to come back to her twisted in his gut. “And I called to tell you I was coming back.”

  “I see,” she whispered.

  “Maybe I should add my number to your contact list to keep that from happening again.” He wasn’t asking to do it; he was telling her that they needed to have each other’s information because it wouldn’t be long before he’d be gone again.

  “Thanks.” The tremor in her voice told him she understood the implications of his offer. “I’d hate to feel like every time I got a call from an unknown number, I might think it’s you, telling me you’re coming back.”

  Jax froze. He stared at her phone in his hands because he couldn’t look at her. He wanted to say something, but what?

  “The lady told me to speak to the deputy?” A middle-aged woman came marching down the hall, aimed directly at them. Just before she got to Jax, she stopped and gave him a puzzled look. “But you’re the busboy at the café, aren’t you?”

  “I’m both,” he admitted, a little glad for the interruption. “And, honestly, I’m neither.”

  She frowned.

  “If you find that confusing, imagine how I feel.” Jax laughed.

  Shelby laughed, too, and hers sounded as strained and hollow as his had.

  The woman shook her head and jumped in with what she had to say. “I bought Louella Holden’s old house. I have contact information for her son. Would that be any help?”

  “Everything new that we learn is helpful.” Jax put his hand on her shoulder. “This might just be the information that brings this whole case together.”

  Miss Delta came waltzing by to offer a glass of tea as he slipped into a quiet room to make a quick call to Louella’s son. It was a brief conversation, and filled with tension, but he did find out where Mandie was living now—and one other thing, which shook his whole system of looking for motivations in people to the core.

  Chapter Fourteen

  He motioned for Shelby to follow him to the back porch. They stepped into the serenity of the late spring night, and the chaos filling the old house seemed a million miles away. So did her fears and anxieties. She inhaled the smell of wonderful food, night-blooming flowers and Jax’s aftershave. Years from now, when someone asked her what she remembered about the stranger who had come to town and had found the baby she hoped would then be her daughter, she would think of this moment. She knew it.

  Jax leaned against the railing and held up his phone. “I spoke to Mandie’s father.”

  Shelby closed her eyes to say a quick prayer for peace and good judgment, no matter what followed from this moment on. She opened her eyes and squared her shoulders. “Did you get her number?”

  “I certainly hope not.” He shook his head. “Shelby, Mandie’s father hasn’t spoken to her in years.”

  “Years?” She tried to comprehend that. “I can’t tell you how many times that summer someone would say to me that Mandie came from a broken home. I guess I had no idea how broken.”

  “He knew nothing about any baby, though the idea seemed far-fetched to him.”

  Shelby chewed her lower lip for a moment before admitting, “You know, it does to me, too. Nothing about leaving a baby in the night fits with the girl I knew.”

  “Her father had no phone number for her, but he could tell me that when he and his second wife split three years ago, she stayed in Westmoreland to finish her senior year of high school. He believed Mandie could still live there.” Jax curved his hand around her shoulder and lowered his head, putting them eye to eye. “Because last he heard, she’d been living with her stepsister, Courtney. Oh, got a last name on her, too, finally. Collier.”

  Shelby’s breath stopped. Just stopped, as if the wind had been knocked out of her.

  “Mandie and Courtney...” She tried to make the pieces fit together. “You think Mandie was part of it all, of stealing from my bank account?”

  Jax didn’t say a word.

  That told Shelby more than she wanted to know, so she decided to tell him a thing or two. “I don’t believe that. I can’t. Not for one minute, and I think we need to find her and get this all sorted out as soon as possible. How do we do that?”

  “We could find a place to set up a laptop around here and do some searching online and see what we come up with. Or...” He held up a scrap of paper. “We could sneak out of
here, get in my truck, drive out to this address and see what we find.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Of course, they couldn’t really sneak away. As an acting deputy, Jax had to let the sheriff in on their plan, such as it was. And Shelby had to get Miss Delta to agree to take care of baby Amanda. Still, they managed to do that without telling her, or anyone else at the house, why they needed to dash off.

  “You know, some people will jump to conclusions about why we left,” Jax told her as he opened the door to his truck and offered his hand to help her climb in.

  She hesitated, stole a look back at Miss Delta’s bustling Victorian, then slid her hand into his. “Let them talk. People will do what they do. You can’t stop them. You can only love them and live so that no matter what they say, you know God is pleased with your choices.”

  She stepped up into the cab. When she settled in, she found Jax still standing in the open door, inches away.

  “What?” she asked.

  He leaned in from the shoulders up, close enough now that she could see the muscles in his cheek twitch, as if he were holding back a grin. “Just a week caring for Amanda has changed you, Shelby.”

  “For better or worse?” she whispered.

  “I honestly didn’t think you could get any better,” he said in a voice almost as still and quiet as hers. “But you have.”

  She broke away from the intensity of his searching gaze. “Everyone can always grow for the better, Jax.”

  “See? There you go again, better and better.” He chuckled deeply in that engaging way he had. Pushing away from the truck, he slammed the door shut.

  Shelby took advantage of his absence to fan her cheeks, which she hoped hadn’t gone positively scarlet over the man’s nearness.

  Seconds later, Jax got behind the wheel and shut his own door. His presence seemed to fill the cab of the truck, and when he started the engine and looked her way, his gaze homed in on her as keenly as his observation. “‘Everyone can always grow for the better’ is not the sentiment of a girl who wrote about never trusting again, who decided to give up on her dad and friends and hometown rather than believe she could find her dream right here with them.”