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In fact, this building felt like an office building and nothing more. The guard who’d met her took her into a nondescript room, where Lawrence waited with Connor.
Joy filled Ginger as the little boy spun in one of the chairs around the long, oval table. He had hair the color of cornsilk, and she wondered where that had come from. Nate had medium-to-dark brown hair, with blue eyes. So maybe there were some blond-haired, blue-eyed genes in his ancestral line.
“You must be Connor,” she said, putting a wide smile on her face easily. Ginger had always loved children, even if she didn’t have any of her own.
Connor looked at Lawrence, who nodded. He got down out of the chair and came toward her as he approached him. She crouched down several feet away and set the backpack on the ground. “Guess what I brought for you?”
The little boy peered at the backpack, but he didn’t guess. She unzipped the top of it and reached inside slowly. “Did your daddy ever let you have…chocolate?” Ginger pulled the candy out of the bag and showed it to Connor.
His face split into a smile, and he said, “Yes, ma’am. Daddy bought me chocolate.” His tiny, high-pitched voice tugged against her heartstrings, and he came all the way over to her and the pack.
“I brought two now,” she said. “One for you.” She handed him one of the chocolate bars. “And one for your uncle Nate.”
“Uncle Nate loves chocolate,” Connor said.
Ginger grinned at him. “I’ll bet he does.” She handed the child the second bar. “So you hold it for him, and when he comes out, you can give it to him. Okay?”
Connor took the candy but handed his back. He didn’t have to ask for Ginger to know what he wanted. She got to work on ripping open the top of the package, and she gave it back to him. “It’s got squares, so you can just break off what you want.”
“It’s the cookie kind.” The child looked at her with wonder in his clear, bright blue eyes. “I love these.” He broke off the top square and stuck it in his mouth.
Ginger wondered where his mother was, but she hadn’t asked Lawrence. She straightened to do just that when the door in the back of the room opened.
Nate walked inside, wearing his prison uniform and carrying a medium-sized bag. It was clear, and Ginger could see everything he owned right there in his hand. Her heart beat out a song of remorse for him too, because she had no idea what it was like to have her entire existence reduced to what she could carry in a single, see-through bag.
“Uncle Nate!” Connor ran toward him, and Nate bent down to scoop the boy into his arms. He pressed his eyes closed as he hugged the little boy, and Ginger actually found herself getting emotional.
Ridiculous, she told herself, bending to pick up the backpack and zip it closed. She shouldered it and then squared her body toward Nate so she’d look tall and imposing. She was tall for a woman, she knew that. But she’d have to gain at least fifty pounds to even start to appear on the cusp of imposing.
Nate didn’t look her way anyway. He set Connor on his feet and stayed down at the boy’s level while they talked. Only when Connor gave him the chocolate and then turned to point at Ginger did Nate lift his eyes to hers.
That same magnetic power that had clenched their gazes together a few days ago roared to life. Nate straightened and opened his chocolate, biting off the first square while he simply stared at her.
“You have his clothes?” Lawrence asked, approaching her.
She blinked and ducked her head, glad for the distraction. “Yes.” She handed him the backpack, and he took it over to Nate.
“Five minutes,” Lawrence said after Nate had taken the pack and Connor back through the door. “And then he’s all yours.” He turned back to the table and picked up a folder. “Here’s all the paperwork you need for him, as well as the first month’s check. The address for the funeral is in there, as well as all of his family contacts.” He looked at the other man who’d come in, and he too wore the uniform of a high-ranking officer at the facility. “Anything else?”
“I don’t think so,” the man said. “We’ll say our good-byes out here. When he comes back in, he’ll be ready to go.”
“Great.” Lawrence collected his bag and walked toward the door Ginger had come through at the same time the officer left through the one where Nate had disappeared.
She turned in a full circle, one door closing right after the other and sealing her inside the room alone. Alone, to wait for Nate and Connor to come back.
Then, they’d all leave together.
Every time she did this, Ginger felt so surreal. After all, who in their right mind would lethertake a prisoner back to the ranch? Didn’t they know she had no idea what to do for him, what to say, or how to help him?
Her legs urged her to flee. She could drop off the folder at the front desk and say she’d made a mistake.
Before she could move, the door opened and Nate walked through it, now wearing the dark suit, the black shiny shoes, and the blue and cranberry tie he’d requested for the funeral.
And Ginger couldn’t move at all.
