Annie Jones - Bundle of Joy

“Dad?”

Shelby turned to look at Jax.

Before she could tear into him for listening in on a private—if intriguing—conversation, Jax said, “I was actually thinking it might be smart to start looking around for any clues now, before too many people disturb things.”

She sighed, then gave him a single nod. For just a moment, he thought she might cave in to her father’s wishes and stay. She certainly wasn’t quick to rush off, and her tone carried the heaviness of resignation as she finally agreed, “You’re right. Let’s go out the back way and walk around to the front. The sooner we get this behind us, the sooner I can get on with what’s ahead of me.”

Chapter Four

With one hand firmly wrapped around Amanda’s carrier handle, Jax hustled them outside, where the aroma of pancakes and bacon followed them. The damp warmth of the café kitchen met the fresh morning air, and Shelby took a deep breath.

“Guess that old saying is true,” he said with a quiet intensity. “Everything looks different in the light of day.”

Shelby scanned the view behind the café. It all looked familiar to her. Too familiar. Sunnyside, Texas, from any vantage point, was not the view she’d expected to greet her this morning. She turned to fix her gaze on the tall figure at her side, now holding the baby easily against his chest. That sight was different.

He glanced her way and shook his head, a smile playing over his lips.

Her heart fluttered. “I...I don’t know...what you mean.”

“This changes everything.” He motioned toward the back parking lot.

Shelby frowned. “It does?”

“It was so late when I got here last night that most of these houses already had their lights out.” He narrowed his eyes, his gaze fixed on the row of neat little homes across the small lot and a strip of grassy ground beyond it. “I didn’t realize all these houses were so close back here.”

“Oh. Well, it’s a small town. Everyone practically lives on top of everyone else. At least it feels like that some days.” Shelby’s shoulders ached, and her head began to throb. “You said it changes everything?”

“Sure. Last night I was thinking that whoever left the baby came by car, so they made quite a trip in order to reach you. But with people living this close? Maybe it wasn’t you but the café that was the draw for the baby. They left her someplace they could watch to make sure she was okay.”

A cloud passed over the rising sun. Shelby shivered.

“I’m going to look around and see what I can find.” He settled the baby carrier down on the wooden slats at her feet and gave her a nod before heading out.

He expected her to stay put and watch over the foundling. Clearly the man did not understand that Shelby was done doing what other people expected. It took her only a moment to bend down and unsnap the safety latches holding Amanda in place. She lifted the baby up and cuddled her close, even as she headed to the steps to follow Jax onto the gravel that served as an employee parking lot.

“No one in Sunnyside would have been able to hide a pregnancy, much less a baby, for three months, let me assure you.”

“You honestly think there are no secrets in this town?” He looked back over his shoulder at her. “Would you say everybody here knows all there is to know about you, Shelby Grace?”

She pulled up short. Her stomach clenched. It was like he was looking right through her. She thought of the note she had written last night, of her deepest fear, which she was sure no other living soul knew or would understand.

“You know who owns all three of these vehicles?” Jax motioned toward the dust-covered blue pickup truck, the ten-year-old minivan and the lime-green convertible parked side by side in the lot.

Shelby forced her mind back to the task at hand—gathering information to find whoever had left Amanda. “Um, the convertible is Miss Delta’s, the minivan is mine and the truck—”

“Is also yours,” he said, finishing for her, sounding somewhere between speculative and show-offy at having come to that conclusion. “That’s the payment you need your dad to take on, I’m guessing.”

“I bought the van so I could cater some local events once I saved up enough to... Well, it doesn’t matter now. My dad’s truck bit the dust, and he couldn’t get a loan for a new one. So good ol’ Shelby got one for him.”

“Good ol’ Shelby,” he muttered as he strode on from the back parking lot to the side of the building. He kicked the toe of his boot at a clump of grass, then lifted his head and studied where the paved customer lot ended just by the edge of the deck.

The baby squirmed in her arms and made a soft, fussy sound, pushing at the blanket flap swept over her head and wadded against her now-warm pink cheek.

“Do you really think we might find something helpful out here?” Shelby rearranged the blanket and baby so that Amanda could wave her arms freely. That allowed the sun to shine on her sweet, round face.

“It’s not so much about thinking at this point.” He raised his hand to his temple, his expression a mask of concentration. He was completely immersed in the moment. Cool. Focused. Intense. “Trying to outthink the situation is how people jump to conclusions. That can tempt them to try to prove themselves right instead of trying to find the truth.”

Shelby glanced over her shoulder, back at the café, where she had thought through her own situation hour after hour. She had felt trapped in a role not of her own making, unable to spread her wings. She had obsessed over the fear that she would never own her own business. That no man would ever love her enough to be faithful to her. That Mitch Warner was the best she would ever do and that she would end up like her father, always chasing a dream forever out of her reach. As she stood here now in the daylight, Jax’s words went straight to her heart. Had she been trying to prove her conclusions about life in Sunnyside, or had she been seeking the truth? “Man, you’re good at this. Anyone ever tell you that?”

He glanced up and met her eyes. A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. “I haven’t even done anything yet.”

“But you’re going to.” Shelby had no idea how she knew that, but she knew it beyond the shadow of a doubt. After a lifetime spent around men who didn’t seem able to do anything, she knew. “So just what is it that you’re going to do?”

“Right now?” He lifted one shoulder, then let it down. “I’m gonna look around.”

“Oh.” That should not have disappointed her as much as it did. “So you don’t have any hunches?”

Before he could answer, Amanda sneezed.

“Oh! God bless you, sweetheart,” Shelby whispered.

Jax turned, and his expression warmed as he, too, mouthed “God bless you” to their tiny charge. No sooner had the words left his lips than his shoulders stiffened and his voice went hard. “No. No hunches. Other than that whoever left that little cutie did it in a hurry.”

“In a hurry like someone committing a crime?” She settled the baby on her hip and made a quick swipe to wipe the tiny pink-tipped nose. Once she had thought of it, the theory came quickly to her lips. “Like somebody kidnapping a baby and then panicking and deciding to ditch it somewhere?”

He frowned.

“Or in a hurry like someone ripping off a Band- Aid?” she asked, feeling a bit like she should have led with that. “You know it’s going to hurt, so you do it as quickly as possible. Get it over with.”

“Yeah. Yeah, like that Band-Aid thing,” he muttered as he scanned the tall grass, his eyes narrowed to slits. “I don’t think it’s a kidnapping case. I’m sure Denby checked to see if there are any alerts for a missing infant and acted on that right away.”