Bundle of Joy Read online

  So it seemed the most natural thing in the world for his whole mood to lighten when he spotted them in the back of Miss Delta’s store, in front of the community bulletin board, bright and early the next morning.

  “Good morning, beautiful!” He raised his hand in greeting as he came up to them.

  “Jax! Shhhh.” Shelby ripped off a phone number from an Apartment for Rent flyer, glancing around them. “It’s not that I’m not flattered, but you’ve seen how fast gossip spreads in this town. I do not need anyone thinking there is anything between us but—”

  “Amanda,” he said, finishing for her, then squatting down to stroke the head of the baby happily gurgling in her carrier on the floor near Shelby’s feet. “I was talking to Amanda.”

  “Oh.” She blushed from the collar of her Texas Longhorns T-shirt to the tips of her adorable ears. Pushing her hair back from her eyes, she acted as if she suddenly found the phone number and info on the one-bedroom apartment fascinating.

  “Though you are pretty easy on the eyes yourself.” He stood and grinned at her. “And I don’t care who knows I think so.”

  “Thank you, but I think you’re being generous. Maybe you didn’t see the dark circles under my eyes.” She scanned the flyer again, running her finger along the line that included the monthly cost. Without comment, she shook her head and crumpled up the phone number. “Turns out one of Amanda’s beauty secrets involves getting plenty of exercise, mostly by screaming, kicking and crying all night long.”

  “Is she okay?” Jax went down to peer into the carrier again. He placed the back of his hand to the baby’s forehead, not actually sure what he would feel if she had a temperature, or what he would do about it.

  “Doc Lovey looked her over and said she seems fine.” Shelby knelt down beside Jax. She fussed with the small quilt cushioning the now sleeping baby. “Maybe it’s because of a change in formula or all the travel or just being overly tired from her big day. Doc’s advice was to note how often it happens, keep a journal of feedings and so on...and to find an apartment with very thick walls.”

  Jax chuckled at that.

  “Right now I’d settle for an apartment I can afford.”

  “Well, I don’t know how thick the walls are.” Miss Delta poked her head around the corner of the wall where the notices were posted. “But I do have a place where I think you’d be happy—and the price is right.”

  * * *

  “Miss Delta, are you sure?” Shelby strolled through the hallway of Miss Delta’s rambling Victorian home. “You’ve always been so protective of your privacy, which is no small feat here in Sunnyside. Renting a room to us when Amanda has sort of been adopted by the whole town is kind of like throwing the doors open to everyone, isn’t it?”

  “Are you kidding, honey? I’d love for folks to think they can come over for a visit whenever they please.” Miss Delta ushered them into the large kitchen. She directed Shelby to settle Amanda on the table and take a seat. “Ever since I inherited this place from my late aunt and uncle, I dreamed of filling it with a big family. But since Mr. Right never came to Sunnyside, I missed out on that for myself.”

  “If Mr. Right didn’t show up here, why didn’t you go looking for him?” Shelby got Amanda situated, then sat and took a good look around at the bright, roomy old-fashioned eat-in kitchen, which already felt like home to her. “Or for whatever it was you wanted in life?”

  “Because I had what I wanted in life—people who love me, work I enjoy, a home. Fetch me some tall glasses from up there, won’t you, Jax honey?” She pointed to an upper cabinet, then reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a big pitcher of iced tea. “I wanted a Mr. Right to add to my life, not to make it from me.”

  Was that meant as a message to Shelby? What did Miss Delta know about the plans Amanda’s arrival had disrupted? Shelby shifted restlessly in her seat.

  “Besides, even if Mr. Right did show up here, I suppose there was always a chance he wouldn’t stick around.” Miss Delta took the glasses from Jax and clunked them down on the counter. “Not everyone finds the sense of belonging in Sunnyside that I do. Wouldn’t you agree, Jax?”

  Jax cocked his head.

  Another message. No denying it. Shelby crossed her arms. “Miss Delta, much as I appreciate this offer, I’m afraid my moving in here with a baby for an indefinite amount of time will be too disruptive for you.”

  “Don’t you see, Shelby? That’s why you should move in here. I could use a little disruption in my routine.” She waved her hands to shoo the man toward the refreshments on the table as she smiled impishly at him and said, “Everybody can, don’t you think, Jax honey?”

  If he planned on answering that, they’d never know, as Miss Delta directed him wordlessly to the large pitcher of tea and went on talking to Shelby.

  “For years this quiet old house has been my sanctuary.” She raised her head for a moment, as if listening for something, but only silence answered her. “A place where the woman every single person in town feels they can order around gives the orders.”

  “Order around? You?” Jax scoffed, setting the pitcher on the table next to the glasses without having poured a drop.

  “When you run a business like mine in Sunnyside, you become like a mama to everyone who walks through the doors, young man.” She grabbed the pitcher by the handle and raised it, as if offering him a toast, before she tipped it and began pouring out the icy amber liquid. “And they have expectations that like a mama, I will always be there to do what they need doing.”

  “And like a mama, you don’t hesitate to tell them what you think about how they are running their lives,” Jax observed, sidling up next to her to relieve her of the heavy pitcher and take over tea pouring duties.

  “And like most kids, even full-grown ones, they do not always listen to my wise advice.” She scowled at his intrusion but did not fight his assistance.

  “Oh, all right, all right. I’ll take a room with you.” Shelby got it. The whole stubbornness about accepting help, the hidden messages about how her life might end up like Miss Delta’s—not one bit of the subtext had missed her attention. That didn’t mean she couldn’t still make her own decisions concerning what she did about it. “But I am paying rent.”

  “You don’t have to pay me anything.” Miss Delta picked up the glass of tea that Jax had just finished pouring and set it down decisively in front of Shelby. “In fact, I think you should quit the café and take care of Amanda full-time while she’s with us.”

  “Miss Delta, as the town mama, I’m shocked you didn’t hear that I already quit the café.” She lifted the glass and took a sip, giving that time to sink in.

  Miss Delta took a seat at the table even as she raised her finely plucked eyebrows in surprise. “I had heard a rumor, but you know that as a good Christian woman, I don’t take stock in town gossip.”

  “You know it’s not gossip when I tell you that I have been saving money since I was a teenager. I have enough to...” To get me out of Sunnyside and into a whole new life. Shelby thought of her savings tucked away, half in the local bank, half in her suitcase. Now that that plan had fallen by the wayside, Shelby decided she didn’t want anyone in town knowing about it. It would only make for another story about how Shelby’s big heart always got in the way of her big dreams. “Enough to allow me not to work and to take care of Amanda for a while and pay you some rent. And she is a ward of the state, so her needs will be taken care of financially. So I have to pay rent.”

  “All right.” Miss Delta threw up her hands, then pushed back her chair. “If y’all will excuse me a minute, I want to go upstairs and make sure your room is ready before I show you to it.”

  Miss Delta’s magnolia-scented perfume had not faded from the air when Jax braced both palms flat on the table and leaned in close over Shelby to say, “She’s going to take whatever mo
ney you give her and hold it back for you, you know.”

  “I know.” She searched his face and got lost for a second in the warmth of his brown eyes, in the way his mouth seemed just about to break into a grin. Her pulse thudded in her ears fast, then faster. Suddenly the fact that he was so close she could notice all these things made her panic. She shot up from her chair, trying to put herself on a more equal footing with him. “I’m surprised you figured that out about Miss Delta, though. You’ve only been in town a few days, but already you seem to know folks.”

  He did not step back, as she had expected he would. “There are some folks I’d like to know better.”

  “Some folks take time to know—to really know them.” With anyone else, she would have retreated a step, maybe all the way across the room. But with this man, she didn’t feel the need to back down, to try to do as everyone expected and give in to the image of softhearted Shelby. Her newfound confidence rushed out in her voice as she added, “Even then, I bet they could surprise you.”

  “Yeah? People don’t usually surprise me at all. The idea of someone I could never completely figure out is...” He inched close, until his face was over hers. Not quite as if about to kiss her, but as if making the promise of a kiss to come.

  Shelby took in a deep breath.

  The doorbell rang. Shelby jumped and pulled away from Jax so quickly, she bumped the table.

  Amanda roused and began to fuss quietly.

  “I know that sound. If I don’t calm her down right now, she’s going to work herself up into a wail.” Shelby practically dove for the baby.

  Jax headed down the hallway toward the front door. His footsteps stopped as the door creaked open and Sheriff Denby’s voice bellowed, “So here’s where everyone got to! Came into the café and Truck Stop Inn to catch up on the case with my newest deputy and ended up talking to myself!”

  “About the case,” Jax said, sounding not the least bit distracted by what had just happened. “Maybe you and I could have a word alone?”

  “Alone? In Sunnyside?” The sheriff laughed softly over the sound of his keys jingling. “’Less you plan to accuse one Shelby of leaving that baby herself—again—or call Miss Delta a conspirator...”

  Miss Delta came hurrying down the stairway to the foyer and stood with her hands on both hips right where Jax could see her. Shelby hoisted Amanda onto her shoulder and, patting the baby’s back, took up a position right behind Miss Delta.

  Jax shot a look straight past the older woman, targeting Shelby. His cheek twitched, and then he sighed and shook his head. “I just think not enough’s been done to find that red car, the one Tyler thought belonged to Shelby’s ex-boyfriend.”

  “You don’t know what I’ve been up to while you were...” The older man gave the younger man a slap on the back and concluded pointedly, “Taking care of the girls here, son. I’ve known Mitch Warner since I had to give him his first talking to for rowdyism while he was still in middle school. I’ve made it known that I want a word with him. It may take him a while, but he’ll give me a shout.”

  Jax looked at the sheriff, then at Miss Delta, then at Shelby and the baby. He clenched his jaw, then exhaled. “Okay then. Looks to me like everything that can be done has been done.”

  “The social worker said that statistically, mothers are usually reported or turn themselves in, in cases like this,” Shelby offered. “So from here on out, it’s just a matter of waiting, right?”

  “Yup.” Sheriff Andy’s thinning white hair shone almost ghostly in the bright sunlight streaming in from the window of the front door. “No idea how long it might take. If you want to stick around and wait it out, Stroud, I could use an experienced deputy around here. Been looking for one I could train to run for sheriff one day, finally let me retire.”

  Jax shook his head. “Much as I’d like to see how all this turns out, I have a job waiting for me in Florida.”

  “Dream job,” Shelby reminded him softly.

  “What?” He homed in on her as if it were just the two of them standing there.

  “When you talked about it before, you said it was your dream job,” she reminded him.

  “Oh, did I? Yeah. I guess.” He ducked his head slightly and ran his hand through his dark hair like a cowboy who suddenly wished he had a nice wide hat brim to hide under to get out of the directness of her gaze. “Except, after the dream I had about it last night, I’m hoping I’m wrong about that.”

  “Well, if you’re going to be hitting the road, son, I’m going to need your badge.” Sheriff Andy seemed oblivious to the quiet intensity of the exchange between Jax and Shelby. He held out one beefy hand to the man.

  “It was only temporary.” Jax handed the badge back. “I don’t even know why I pulled off at your exit that night, anyway.”

  “Probably because you realized there was something in Sunnyside you needed,” Miss Delta offered, reaching out to give the man’s arms a squeeze.

  Jax frowned. Not an angry frown, but the kind a man made when he wasn’t quite sure what was being said to him, or how to respond.

  “She means you were hungry or tired or thirsty,” Shelby explained, giving Miss Delta a warning glare not to try to make more of this than it warranted, especially on Shelby’s behalf.

  “Yeah, that’s what I said. There was something that you knew you couldn’t get on that long, dark highway.” The squeeze turned into a pat. “Something that you knew wasn’t waiting for you at the end of your trip.”

  Jax studied Miss Delta for a moment. He did not contradict her. Or laugh at her conclusions.

  Amanda drew her knees up and waved her fists, gurgling red faced against Shelby’s tensed shoulder.

  “Maybe you’re right, Miss Delta,” was all Jax said before he leaned over and gave the wriggling baby a kiss on the head. As he did, his eyes met Shelby’s.

  It seemed like the whole house fell silent for far too long before Sheriff Andy stepped up, lifted Amanda from Shelby’s hold and said, “Didn’t you get all that cantankerousness out of you last night, little one? Let Uncle Andy take you for a walk and see if we can’t improve your mood.”

  “Hang on. I’m coming with you. We’ll take her upstairs and pick out which room will be her nursery.” Miss Delta swept her hand out, directing the sheriff along ahead of her. She put one foot on the bottom step, then turned to Jax. “I’d say goodbye, but I have a feeling I’m going to see you again. Whatever led you here? This truck stop mama does not believe you found it yet.”

  Jax opened his mouth to reply, but Miss Delta had whipped around and hurried up the stairs, calling out to Sheriff Andy to go to the room all the way at the end of the hall and see if he didn’t think it was meant for Shelby and Amanda.

  That left the pair of them standing alone in the foyer.

  “I guess this is the part where I thank you for everything you’ve done to help me with Amanda.” Shelby started to hold her hand out for a firm goodbye handshake. When he kept his hands stuffed in his pockets, she quickly pretended she needed to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

  “I didn’t do anything, really, except some really fancy minivan driving.” He held his hands up, as if steering the van, grinned and gave her a wink.

  “You looked good doing it.” She laughed.

  “Naw...” He feigned humility.

  “You did. You know you did,” she teased. “And you gave me a few hours of fun at Buffalo Betty’s, which I hadn’t had in forever. I’ll always be grateful for that.”

  “You say it like you don’t expect to have any fun again for a long time.”

  “Well, I do have some responsibilities,” she said softly. “So I...uh...just want to say...”

  Only she couldn’t say it.

  Jax nodded. “Me too.”

  “I didn’t say anything,” she protested.
r />   “You didn’t have to. Remember, I know what folks are thinking.” He smiled, tapping his temple. He turned his back and reached for the doorknob.

  Selby paused for a moment, not sure what to do next. She’d been stalling, just hoping that somehow she’d suddenly find a way to tell Jax how much his brief time in her life had meant to her. She wanted the nerve to let him know she wished they had met at a different time, under different circumstances.

  If Shelby needed to tell him anything—and she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to tell him—she had to do it now. “Or maybe you just think you know what people are thinking, because that means you can keep thinking instead of feeling what you don’t want to be feeling.”

  He froze in his tracks. “I don’t know how I feel about what I think you just said.”

  Shelby didn’t even know what she’d said, and when she realized that, she broke into laughter. Jax joined in. It was the kind of laugh that people share to break the tension, sweet and a little bit silly. It created one last special moment just between them. Just what they needed to bring things to an amicable end.

  “It’s really been good getting to know you, Shelby Grace.”

  Know her? Jackson Stroud was never going to really know her. He was going to drive away and take his dream job in Miami, believing she was nothing more than what the town saw—softhearted Shelby. He’d never see the woman she so desperately longed to become. He’d never know that she had bigger dreams than being a waitress and that she had had, if only for a brief moment on a dark, momentous night, the courage to follow them. He’d never know that unless...

  “Goodbye, Jackson Stroud. I’ll be praying for you. Have a safe trip, and don’t forget us.” She went up on tiptoe and, with every ounce of her fleeting confidence, kissed him once on the lips.

  And, unbeknownst to him, she slipped the note she had meant to leave on the door of the Crosspoint Café that night they met into his pocket.