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Cissy snugged an arm around Josie’s shoulders.
Kimberly and Drew were there, and Cruz had left Rory with the kids to touch base on things. “He’s hired a lawyer,” Cruz told her.
Of course he would. She’d recognized the fear in his face, behind the ice-cold anger. “Understandable. He thinks I’m going for custody.”
“Does he even have a clue what brought all this about?” Cissy demanded.
Josie put her hand over her mother’s. “Easy, mama bear.” When Cissy flushed, Josie hugged her. “It’s better this way. Really. We’ll let things wind down, they’ll leave and life goes on.” Her mouth said the words while her heart hung heavy in her chest. “It will get better, Mom. I promise.”
“Because you’ve done this twice before.” Kimberly whispered the words, and her face… Kimberly’s beautiful face was etched with sorrow. “Josie, I wish I could do something. Anything. I hate that I can’t.”
“I know.” Josie stood and swiped her hands to the sides of her shorts. “We’ll keep busy. We’ll pray. We’ll move on, because the only thing I ever wanted in this whole mess was for my daughter to be happy. And she is. End of story.” She dabbed the tissues to her cheeks one last time. “Cruz, call off his lawyer as best you can. I’m keeping a low profile, out of sight, out of mind, and heaven knows I’m busy enough at the restaurant to keep my days full. In time, this too shall pass.”
She didn’t wait to see if she’d convinced them.
She couldn’t.
She’d cry again, and that had been her modus operandi whenever she wasn’t at work, so she’d worked long, hard hours for three days straight.
If thoughts of Addie and Jacob swept over her at work, she used an old trick of breathing deep, through her nose. Exhaling slowly, through her mouth. Methods she’d used in the past, that worked still. Picturing silly things, funny things.
But mostly she worked because if her hands were busy, her mind couldn’t easily go to the amazing joy that had just been wrenched away from her once again.
* * *
Two days left.
Jacob would be finished with his stake in the Eastern Shore project on Friday, and the day couldn’t come fast enough. He’d take his four weeks of vacation, and he’d relocate his life away from verdant hills, vineyards, cattle farms, amazing sunrises and prettier sunsets.
Away from here. Away from her.
His assistant buzzed him shortly after two o’clock. “Jacob, there’s a Cruz Maldonado to see you. He says he’s an attorney.”
An unannounced attorney visit could come from only one source: Josie.
He wanted to refuse this guy entrance. He almost barked for him to make an appointment, but Jacob understood the positive effects of just stopping by, utilizing the surprise factor. He’d done that to Josie, that first day. He swallowed what he wanted to say and stayed professional. “Send him in.”
He stood, but he wasn’t about to reach out and shake this guy’s hand. He kept his expression bland and pretended his blood wasn’t boiling inside. “Generally people make appointments to see me, Mr. Maldonado.”
“Cruz, please. And frankly, the only reason I’m being this cordial and polite is because you have no idea what’s led up to our current state of affairs, and I’m about to fill you in.” The other man stood tall, square-shouldered and resolute, as if Jacob was the one causing a problem. The base of his neck went tight. So did his hands.
“Mr. Weatherly, I don’t know you,” Cruz began.
“Then we’re even.”
Cruz conceded that with a calm look. “Two months ago, my wife’s cousin came to me.”
“Josie.”
“Yes. And she told me a story that few knew. Certainly no one here was aware of the fact that she had a daughter, or that she’d given up that child for adoption over six years before.”
“Once a liar, always a liar?”
Cruz winced and Jacob felt instantly ashamed because he wasn’t normally a jerk, but there was nothing normal about the current situation.
“I understand where you’re coming from, but that’s not how it was. And I’m not here to give you the details. That’s up to Josie, if you’re man enough to hear them. And that part’s up to you.” Cruz kept his gaze and tone level. “But let me just say that at no time in all of this was Josie at fault. She endured an unspeakable act, but she found the strength to move forward, put her life on hold in New Orleans to give birth to a child, and researched agencies who would give her child the best possible chance at a strong, balanced family—the kind of family Josie had known, growing up here.”
