Bundle of Joy Read online

  “Why?” he heard himself whisper in the silence of his truck cab, where he’d gone to sit during his afternoon break to check his phone messages.

  The answer to his question did not come, so he settled for who, what, where and when as told in texts and missed calls from Denby, Miss Delta, even Tyler.

  “Courtney Collier turned herself in yesterday. She said she had a change of heart and wanted to do the right thing. I suspect that Mandie got Shelby Courtney’s phone number, and our girl’s been doing what she does so well. She may just love that lost lamb right back into the fold yet. If anyone can do it...” Denby had paused, as if he wanted to make sure Jax took a minute to let that sink in. Then the older man had cleared his throat and added, “Just thought you’d like to know.”

  Next came a call from an attorney who would be working on Shelby’s petition to adopt Amanda, with a request to speak to him to get a statement about the night they found the baby. It made him smile to know things had begun to get resolved, and Shelby was making progress toward becoming Amanda’s mom.

  Tyler sent a quick text: Can I ask Mandie Holden out even if I have to testify against her stepsister, or is that against some law?

  “Yeah, against the law of probability that she’ll say yes.” Jax chuckled, then felt badly that the kid might get shot down. He tapped in the only answer that he could think of, then let his thumb linger a moment over the send icon before he touched it and sent the message: Okay to ask but maybe you should talk to Miss Shelby first. She’ll have your answers.

  Miss Delta had called to say that it seemed wrong to charge him for that last night because he didn’t actually use his room at the Truck Stop Inn. She wanted to send him a refund if he’d give her his new address. “Oh, and by the way, that Mitch Warner wanted to move into your room in the inn. Harmon was all set to run him off, but Shelby beat him to it. Said he was one cowboy she had learned could not be trusted.”

  “That’s my girl,” he whispered with a small laugh. “That’s my Shelby Grace. My Shelby Grace,” he repeated, this time not finding even the hint of amusement in the term.

  He took a deep breath and leaned his head back, his eyes shut. When he had first heard of this job and decided it was the thing he needed to get away from Dallas, where people had begun to actually care about him, he hadn’t even heard of Shelby Grace Lockhart. Now it seemed everything, even his misery in this place, this job, came back to her.

  If only he could hear her voice again. If she would just call...

  “Hey! Jack! What’re you doing out here?” A sharp rapping on the window inches from his face gave Jax a start. He turned to find the president of the neighborhood association red-faced and beady-eyed, with his nose almost pressed against the window as he blustered, “Have you forgotten why you came here?”

  Jax pressed a button, and the window rolled down with a steady whir. “What did you ask me? Why?”

  That was the big question that had dominated Jax’s life. Why did he take this job? Why did he take the turnoff to Sunnyside that night? Why was he here?

  Why Shelby Grace Lockhart? Sheriff Denby’s question. The question that had compelled him to stay in Sunnyside when it was not a part of his plans came ringing back in his mind.

  That question was easy to answer. People came to Shelby because she had a servant’s heart. She didn’t just say it, but she believed that with God all things were possible. And despite what she said about trusting cowboys, she trusted God more than her fears.

  If Jax’s heart was changed by knowing her, why was he on the same path he’d started down before they’d ever met?

  “I came here because I thought living in a place where I got a big check to always stay a stranger was the way to keep from ever losing anyone again. The way I lost my mom or all the foster families I lived with.” Jax swung the truck door open, more to encourage the other man to back off physically than because he intended to get out. “I thought this place sounded like a dream come true.”

  “If you want to go on drawing those big checks, you’d do well to do your job.” The man pulled his shoulders up with enough force to make his thinning hair waft out of place, revealing his receding hairline. “Not sit in your vehicle, wasting time on the phone.”

  Jax looked at the device in his hand and realized there was one more call in the voice-mail queue. “My Shelby Grace.”

  “What? Did you hear me?” the man barked.

  But Jax couldn’t hear anyone or anything but the voice on the other end of the line saying, “What are you doing? You know better than...Jax? Jax, I’m sorry. Amanda must have dialed your number. I, uh, I don’t know if I ever told you thank you, but in case I didn’t...thanks for helping me figure out what I want in life and telling me not to be afraid to go for it. I hope you’re doing the same.”

  Shelby had stood up to Mitch; she had worked to help Courtney no matter what others might have thought of that. She didn’t need him to leave to do those things. They were in her all along. It wasn’t her needs that had caused him to leave Sunnyside, but his. What had motivated him? Fear? Grief?

  He had to ask himself, what was in him? Was he a man of faith and service? Was he a family man or...

  “This time is coming out of that big paycheck you say you came here to get.” The man tapped his gleaming gold watch, then turned to storm off.

  “Yeah, well, what if I don’t care about those checks anymore?” Jax climbed out of the truck and took a good long look at his surroundings. They had every luxury, every convenience, and not one single thing that mattered to him. “What if my dreams have changed?”

  The man blustered a moment, then stabbed his finger in Jax’s direction. “You just don’t forget your place, you hear me?”

  “Yes, actually, I do. I hear you loud and clear, and I think that’s very sound advice.”

  * * *

  Shelby finished filling the last of the ketchup bottles in the café and twisted the cap on tight. With the expenses of the adoption process looming ahead of her, she was happy to pitch in whenever Harmon needed a hand, especially at night, when Miss Delta was all too happy to watch over the baby. They had almost finished closing up when a flash of headlights drew her attention. She checked the clock. “It’s almost eleven. Should I lock the door?”

  “Do it,” Harmon called back. “Tyler’s still got some customers. If somebody’s hungry, they can grab a snack over there. I’m bushed.”

  “Not too bushed to go over and visit the baby, like you do every night, I bet,” she joked as she headed to the door to turn the lock.

  “I love my granddaughter,” he called back as he hung up his apron and reached for his beat-up old straw cowboy hat hanging on the wall.

  “And it doesn’t hurt that when you visit her, you get to spend time with Miss Delta, does it?” After all these years, for her father and Miss Delta to have realized their happiness might just be right here in Sunnyside with each other warmed Shelby’s heart. It also made her wonder about her own future.

  She stole a peek through the blinds on the café door, looking past the lot with a cluster of vehicles still in it to the road that led to the highway and beyond. “After all the papers are signed, Amanda and I can live anywhere, can’t we?”

  “You thinking of running off somewhere, sweetheart?” Harmon snapped off the lights, and the café went dark except for a faint glow from the light kept constantly burning in the kitchen.

  For one fleeting moment, that thought took Shelby back to the night she had thought her only chance to make a life for herself lay in running away. She closed the blinds and shook her head. “No. I belong here. Amanda belongs here. That doesn’t mean there won’t ever be times that I won’t look in the direction of, say, Florida and wonder—”

  A scuffing noise outside the door cut her off. She acted quickly and swung the door open.

 
“Sorry, we’re...” A dull thunk and a gray cowboy hat tumbling backward on the café’s front deck made her gasp. She raised her eyes, and her heart stopped. “Closed.”

  “I can see you’re closed.” Jackson Stroud didn’t even bother to scoop up his cowboy hat. “That’s why I came here. I was hoping to catch you alone before the whole town heard I had come back and started deciding how you should feel about it and what you should—”

  Shelby threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

  “Do,” he said, finishing his thought when he got the chance to take a breath.

  “Nobody tells me what to feel or how to act anymore, cowboy,” she said, unable to keep from smiling as she looked into Jax’s face.

  “Good. Because I know some people might say we haven’t known each other long enough for me to say this, but Shelby Grace Lockhart, I love you and I came all the way from Florida to tell you so.”

  “Florida,” she said in a wistful, faraway voice. “I was just thinking Amanda and I might want to go there someday.”

  “Yeah? I hear it’s a great place to take kids on a vacation.”

  “Or to live.”

  “I guess so, if that’s where you belong.” He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her feet off the ground. “Me? I’m kind of thinking of settling down somewhere else. Got any thoughts on a place called Sunnyside, Texas?”

  “Now, what would ever motivate a man like you to do that?” She touched his cheek.

  He put his nose to hers. “Did you not hear me say that I love you, woman?”

  “Yeah.” She smiled a smile that seemed to shine from her eyes all the way down to her toes. “I thought I did hear that.”

  “Funny, I didn’t hear the same from you.”

  “Maybe if you said it aga—”

  “I love you, Shelby Grace Lockhart.” He set her down and kissed her. Then he kissed her again. Then he laughed and said, “I love Amanda. I love this nosy little town and the people who are, even as we speak, peering out the café and emporium windows and taking videos with their cell phones....” He glared at Tyler, standing only a few feet away. “And I have come all this way to tell you this is where I need to be, this is where I want to be and you are who I want to be here with.”

  “A simple ‘I love you’ would have been enough.” She sighed. “Because I love you right back, Jackson. I love this town, too, and I want to raise Amanda here...with you.”

  “Shelby Grace, are you proposing to me?”

  “Oh, I... That’s not... I just meant...” She stepped back. “Jax, I’d never...”

  “Well, I would.” He got down on his knee, started to reach into his pocket, then turned back to Tyler, who was still standing nearby. “This I don’t mind if you record on your cell phone.”

  “Yes, sir,” the kid said, holding the object out.

  Jax fished a small box out of his pocket and opened it as he said, “I know we haven’t known each other long, but I have never felt so at home as I feel when I’m with you. Will you marry me?”

  Shelby’s eyes filled with tears, and her heart filled with joy. The word turned to dust in the tightness of her throat, but that did not stop her from nodding her yes.

  In a heartbeat Jax swept her up in an embrace. Jax kissed her, and the people around them cheered.

  “Yes,” she said, louder this time. “I can’t wait to start a life with you, Jax.”

  “You may have to write some new rules for living, you know,” he teased as he slid the ring on her finger.

  “Let’s talk about that later.” She looked at her ring, glittering in the moonlight, and laughed. “Right now, let’s kiss again!”

  Another cheer went up from the onlookers.

  They did kiss again, then hurried off to tell Miss Delta, Sheriff Andy and Doc Lovey and, of course, to hug Amanda.

  Epilogue

  Six Months Later

  “Who do you think should walk her down the aisle?”

  “If you want my vote, I say her daddy. It’s what all the cool girls are doing today.” Harmon adjusted his bow tie and held his arm out properly crooked for his daughter to slip her hand through.

  “Her daddy,” Shelby murmured, her heart so filled with love and joy she wondered if people would see it beating through the intricate white lace of her gown. “I like that.”

  “Imagine how he feels.” Harmon chuckled.

  Shelby didn’t have to imagine. One look at Jax’s face as he stood waiting at the altar with Amanda in his arms, and she knew. The man loved her. And he loved the little girl who had toddled down the aisle, clinging to his strong, sure hand moments earlier. The little girl they had found one night when they both felt lost and alone, who would officially become their daughter right after Shelby and Jax returned from their honeymoon.

  They took their vows before the Lord and everyone they loved, then headed to the Crosspoint Café for their reception. When it came time to leave and for Shelby to throw the bridal bouquet, she lifted it high, gave a wink to Mandie, her maid of honor, then picked her target out in the crowd.

  “Oh!” Suddenly she froze with the bouquet over her head.

  “What?” Jax asked.

  She brought the bundle of roses and jasmine down and slipped a folded piece of paper out from inside the satin binding.

  “There.” She handed the single page to him, cocked her arm, aimed and let the bouquet fly.

  Miss Delta didn’t even bother pretending she thought Shelby ever planned to toss the flowers to anyone else. She caught them single-handedly, then hoisted them up like Lady Liberty with her torch. “You know what this means, Harmon Lockhart. I’m the next one to get married, and if it ain’t you, then I may have to snag the next cowboy cop who happens by in the night for my own self!”

  The wedding party cheered, and the party went on. Jax and Shelby slipped away, and as they got into the truck with the just-hitched sign on the tailgate, Jax unfolded the paper and read it aloud.

  “To whom it may concern, and the only one it does concern, my loving husband, Jax.

  I’m not going anywhere. No matter what. Because I love you and I know now there is only one rule I need to make a life with you.”

  “With God all things are possible,” he said without having to even read it.

  “With God all things are possible,” she echoed.

  And with one more kiss, they left the café behind them, though only for a five-day honeymoon, and started their new life as husband and wife.

  * * * * *

  If you enjoyed this story by Annie Jones,

  be sure to check out the rest of the

  Love Inspired books out this month!

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt of Reunited for the Holidays by Jillian Hart!

  Dear Reader,

  It will be no surprise to you after reading Bundle of Joy that I have a soft spot for babies. And cowboys. As a mom who is now seeing friends and family become grandparents, I get my baby fix often enough, and once a year a visit home to Oklahoma reminds me why I love those cowboys.

  You might also gather that I love small towns with charming characters and cafés. I have lived mostly in small towns the past fifteen years and can say there has never been a shortage of any of those things. I especially adore my own small town’s efforts to keep the downtown area updated without losing its sense of history. So it was an easy choice to find the romance in all that and to share those things with readers.

  Along the way I found myself putting in some glimpses into my former life as a caregiver for children in need, and to honor the many people I know who have been part of the adoption process. Helping children is a difficult and often thankless job, and I want to shower those who do it with appreciation.

  I hope you
enjoyed Bundle of Joy and that your life is blessed with friends, family, happy surprises and joy by the bundle!

  Annie Jones

  Questions for Discussion

  Both Jax and Shelby think that moving away is the only chance they have to live the way they want. Have you ever felt this way?

  Shelby feels that other people are keeping her from realizing her dreams, and she must change that. What is the negative side to this kind of thinking? The positive?

  Because Jax is suspicious of people’s motivations, he wants to live a life helping people without letting them get to know him. What do you think would be the result of living like this?

  A baby on a doorstep is an old story line. Have you ever heard of someone actually finding a baby? What emotional impact did the story have on you and others?

  Miss Delta chose a life serving others in her small town, where she was happy, over going out to seek someone to love. Would you have made the same choice?

  Do you think the story portrayed a small community accurately?

  Shelby worked as a waitress while saving for her dream. Have you ever had a job you considered just temporary until you saved up enough to go on to something better? What was it?

  What do you think was the greatest takeaway or lesson of the story?

  Shelby was a longtime Sunday school teacher who had a big impact on her students. Have you ever taught Sunday school or something similar? Did you have a special student you will always remember?

  The sheriff doesn’t want to retire until he can find someone who will serve the town properly. Have you ever had a job you knew you should leave but couldn’t because of the people who counted on you?

  Did you have a teacher who had a long-lasting impact on you? Who was it? How did they affect you?

  What about the romance felt the most realistic to you? What was most romantic part of the story, in your opinion?