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"No willing to take her about it. That's my daughter. She belongs with me. Had I known about her, she would have known who she was, and who her family is. She looks just like Nikki did at that age. Even the curly hair."
“It’s hard to miss that.” Jude looked right at him. Those green eyes of hers were definite soul stealers. No wonder Michael had fallen so hard for her. "Look, I'll level with you. If Noah stays where he is, he's facing some bad odds. And he'll maybe see her once a month, and that's a generous schedule for sibling visitations right now. It’ll be more like once every three months. They will grow apart, fast. Unless we can get him transferred to Martin and you can arrange things with Martin. Or..."
Realization hit him at what she was about to say. His stomach clenched again—not that it had unclenched from the first moment Jude had said she’s your daughter. "Or I take him myself. Be his father for real. I would have. Seven years ago. I thought I loved his mother, Jude—and I did love him. Very much. When I’d end a run, I’d go home to her and Noah. Or at least, I thought that was what I was doing. She didn't love me, though she sure liked the paycheck I so willingly shared with her. She found someone she liked better, who had a bigger paycheck, I suspect, and told me to hit the road. And that was that. I never heard from her again. She knew how to contact me. She’d even met Phil a few times; I’d brought her up here to meet him and his wife once. She could have contacted him, too. I wasn’t hard to find. She could have looked up any Tyler in the Masterson phone book and found me. Just a couple of phone calls."
No. She’d kept Nova a secret deliberately. To hurt.
"Then she is the one who obviously missed out. Are you saying you are willing to take Noah as well? As fictive kin? Keep the siblings together?” she asked slowly.
"I am. And then..." Nick wasn't stupid. He knew what she was asking. “We take it from there.”
Nick couldn’t stand the thought of that kid he’d once cared about out there in a group home alone. Noah didn’t deserve it. Not for a minute. No kid did.
It was in Nick’s power and means to fix it.
Why the hell wouldn’t he?
"May I use your office for a few moments? I can call his caseworker now. And then, Linsey or I can hopefully get up there and back before business day ends. We can call in some favors between the two of us. Try to get things moving quickly.”
"Then make it happen, honey. Get him here where he belongs. Make it happen. That little one in there is a Tyler. And Tylers—"
"Take care of Tylers. I know how it works." Jude impulsively gave him a quick hug. She was skittish with men, so it shocked him a bit. "I love it when things work out for the kids involved. Sometimes that just doesn't happen often enough."
He thought of the kinds of things this girl most likely saw on the job each week. “No, I don’t suppose it does.”
But for his kid—and her brother—he was going to make certain that it did.
