Annie Jones - Bundle of Joy

“Why?” Sheriff Denby chuckled as he pulled out a badge. “Think a hotshot lawman from... Where did you say you were from, son?”

“I’m not from anywhere. Until yesterday, I lived in Dallas. As soon as I leave Sunnyside, I’m going to live in Miami for a while.”

“Dallas,” Denby said as he pulled out a file and slapped it on the desk. “That’s the one I called to check you out.”

“You what?”

“Ran your license plate last night, after I left here. Made some calls.” The white-haired sheriff met Jax’s eyes, almost in a challenge at first. A pause, then a slow, kindly smile followed. “Didn’t think I’d trust you with our Shelby without checking you out first, did you?”

Jax looked at the woman standing at his side with her mouth hanging open, those fire-spitting eyes fixed on the man behind the desk. He laughed. “Blame you? I’d have done the same things myself.”

“I know you would have, son. That’s why I’m asking you to step up now and help us all out.” Denby opened the file and pointed at the paper. “Sign here, and I’ll swear you in.”

“What do you mean, trust him with me?” Shelby came forward. If she hadn’t been holding Amanda, Jax got the sense she would have pushed her way around the desk and met Denby nose to nose, or as close to his nose as she could get beyond his rounded stomach. “I can take care of myself, Sheriff Andy.”

“I’m sure you can, but for now your job is to take care of Amanda, so just for today I think you need someone else to look after you. I can’t leave the office, so...” Denby snatched up a pen and offered it to Jax. “Just for one day. For Shelby.”

She shook her head. “I don’t need—”

For Shelby.

Jax took the pen and signed his name, even knowing that somewhere along the line he was going to pay for letting himself get involved like this.

Chapter Five

Shelby fidgeted with the seat belt, when she really wanted to stretch back and check the straps holding Amanda’s car seat in place. Why she thought she would know how to buckle in the carrier better than Jax, she didn’t know. In fact, as far as babies went, the man seemed to have a lot more experience than she did. Slyly, she glanced over at him from under a spiral of hair that had fallen over her forehead and cheek.

“Ready?” he asked in that deep, resonant Texas drawl of his.

“For what?” she almost whispered. She would have had to have whispered it, because meeting his gaze in these close quarters had all but taken her breath away.

The minivan lurched forward. “Let’s do this.”

He had not made up some reason to make her drive, as her dad would have. He did not whine about the one-hundred-twenty-mile round trip or mutter about how long it might take with the social services department. Her ex, Mitch, would do that every time they spent more than a few minutes doing something that didn’t interest him. No, Jackson Stroud just did what needed to be done.

Shelby marveled not just at that, but also at how impressed she was. She wanted to tell him so but couldn’t help thinking that “Thanks for doing what you do” was an odd compliment. So as they passed the sign reading Buffalo Betty’s Chuck Wagon Ranch House, 19 Miles, she blurted out the first thing that came to her lips. “You look good behind the wheel of a minivan.”

“I what?” He gave her a sideways glance, then fixed his cool dark eyes on the road ahead and gave a deep-throated chuckle. “Shelby Grace, are you... Was that your way of flirting with me? Because if it was, I’ve heard better.”

“I wasn’t...that is... I didn’t...” Shelby gulped in the big breath she had been about to take.

His chuckle opened into a warm, soft laugh. “Relax. No man wants to hear he looks good driving a minivan. I’m just having some fun with you for saying it.”

“Fun. That must be why I misunderstood.” She took a deep breath and slouched back against the gray upholstered seat. “It’s been so long since I’ve done anything truly fun, I’m afraid I don’t even recognize it when I see it anymore.”

“Maybe that explains it.”

“Explains what?”

“The sadness on your face last night, when I first looked into your eyes.”

“Oh, that. Actually, I...” She didn’t owe him an explanation. Her whole life had built up to that moment when she had finally decided she needed to get out of Sunnyside, to start fresh somewhere else. Somewhere where nobody thought of her as softhearted Shelby and did things like leave their infants in her care. She thought of the note she had written detailing her feelings. A swirl of emotions followed and carried with it the memory of that first instant that she’d laid eyes on Jax. Then of praying over Amanda with him. How had all of that led to this?

She turned her head to watch the familiar landscape slide by for a moment before she decided the best course was to change the subject. “What happened to your cowboy hat?”

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