Mad said something equally exciting then laughed.
Jake joined in the laughter. He loved hearing his son’s giggles. They’d been missing for more than a few weeks after Renee had taken him.
In those early days after Jake had gotten Maddox back, he’d done everything he could to comfort his boy—and himself—and as the weeks progressed into months, they’d both gotten closer to how they’d been before that horrible day last May.Hemight still suffer from irrational fears and nightmares but Maddox slept, as they said, like a baby.
The little guy went out and didn’t wake for a solid eight hours, sometimes more. And nothing woke his boy once he went down which was why he needed to get them home and in a bath before Mad nodded off in the truck.
Luckily Ry and Maz didn’t live far from the center of Sunnyville and Mad was still babbling away when Jake pulled into his best friend’s driveway.
God. He loved being able to say that again.
His best friend.
He’d missed Ry in those two years they’d had no contact. It had taken them a lot of phone calls and many visits over the last eight months to sort out most of what had happened to fracture their friendship. The majority of it could be attributed to Renee and her lies and manipulations.
He still didn’t understand why she’d done what she had. Oh, he knew she’d tricked Ry into marriage to get back at Jake for refusing to buy her a ring. Although neither he nor Ry knew why she’d been so desperate to get married in the first place.
She’d nagged Jake for months before they’d had the blowup that saw her spend a drunken night with his best friend.
Jake had suspicions that nothing had actually happened between them, Ry certainly couldn’t remember the details of that night, and he knew Renee hadn’t actually been pregnant at the time like she’d told Ry.
The thing was, if she’d come tohimwith the positive pregnancy stick she’d somehow gotten her hands on, he’d have married her; she’d have gotten what she wanted from him after all.
Why she’d chosen to trick Ry instead, they would probably never know.
God knew he had no intention of speaking to the woman ever again. He was in the process of trying to get her to sign away her parental rights. His lawyer thought they had a good chance because she was appealing her conviction and sentence and the prosecution had agreed to use it as a bargaining chip. If she signed away her rights, they’d recommend lowering her time behind bars.
Jake hoped she signed and the judge refused to reduce her sentence anyway. He wasn’t proud of that but he couldn’t help the way he felt about her now.
He’d already been appalled by her behavior after the way she’d dug her claws into Ry. The things she’d done and said—lied about—when Ry had been shot down had repulsed him further, and keeping his son from him had tipped Jake toward hating her, but when she’d taken Maddox, what she’d done to him in those three weeks…
Jake couldn’t help the snarl that vibrated through his chest and into his throat. She disgusted him. He never wanted to lay eyes on her again. And he’d do everything in his power to make sure she never saw Maddox.
Never got the opportunity to hurt his son ever again.
His fingers cramped around the steering wheel.
No. She’d never see or hurt Mad again. He’d make sure of that even if he had to disappear and change their names.
Easing his grip on the wheel, he took a breath and let go, put the truck in park. Mad continued to chatter away in the back and Jake’s gaze moved to watch his boy in the rearview mirror.
It never got old seeing his son happy, healthy. He’d fight any battle he had to to protect Maddox. Even if the person he was forced to protect him from was the woman who’d given birth to him.
Shaking off the dark thoughts, Jake switched off the engine and pulled out the key. “Ready for your bath, Madman?” He twisted to look between the seats and grinned when he saw Mad’s pudgy little fingers trying to unlock his belt. “Not so fast, buddy, wait for Daddy to come get you.”
Jake hopped out and raced around the front of the truck. When he opened the back door Mad stretched his arms out.
“All right, hang on. Let me get that buckle.” He made quick work of extracting his son and snagging the diaper bag. He debated grabbing the stroller but decided he could sneak out to get it once Mad went to bed. They weren’t due for any rain so it would be okay for a few hours.
Taking them in through the front door, Jake locked it behind them and headed straight for the in-law suite he and Mad were occupying until he found them a house of their own.
He didn’t need a job to fund the purchase so he could get started on the hunt right away. Which he should have already done but he’d wanted some time with Ry first.
Of course now the baby was here—or almost—he should get out of their way.
The suite he and Mad were in was behind the garage, tucked off the side of the kitchen on the bottom level, but he was sure Ry and Maz would prefer not to have someone else—twosomeones—living in their house when they brought their son home.
Both of them had argued against him beginning the search last week but now that they’d have the distraction of a newborn, he doubted they would have the energy to argue with him.
