Her hand rubbed over her tummy. “The sooner the better.”
Just what I wanted to hear, to see. She cupped her belly where our baby would grow, and I could only imagine a happiness that I never knew, never experienced, never thought I’d have.
In my grasp.
In her arms.
Her groaned pitched higher as I drove myself into her, harder, faster, softer, gentler, anything I could offer. She moved with me, and together we built to that amazing moment where I abandoned everything and just gave myself to her.
I came, flooded her, and, for the first time, I didn’t hope something would come of it. I had my woman.
I had my baby.
And we sunk into the bed, spent and dizzy and overwhelmed with each other.
I held her against me in silence. I expected her to sleep. She didn’t. And I knew what was coming.
“Maddox?” Her voice was soft. She gripped my chest, nuzzling her head against me.
I didn’t open my eyes. “Yeah?”
She hesitated. The tension built in her body. I held her close, but I couldn’t protect her from this.
No one could.
“I know who set fire to my shop,” she whispered.
I considered pretending that I hadn’t realized the truth as well. But what was better—staying ignorant or facing the problem head on?
“Yeah,” I said. “Me too.”
“I have to talk to him.”
“You sure you want to hear what he has to say?”
Josie bit her lip, but she was determined. “I have to know.”
So did I.
Even if that meant confronting Matthias Davis.
Chapter Twenty Four – Josie
I wasn’t ready to do this, but I didn’t have a choice.
After a year of quiet investigation, trying desperately to understand why someone would burn my shop, it was time for the truth.
And I prayed it didn’t destroy what was left of my family.
Maddox came with me to Willowbend. Even though the news broke of the fire, and Nolan and Chief Craig were arrested, Maddox still garnered concerned glances.
But they didn’t know. The most recent fire was Nolan’s doing…but the first? Maddox’s name wasn’t cleared yet. And I had no idea what would happen when the secrets finally came to light.
Granddad actually stood when I arrived. He enveloped me in a big hug, just like when I was a kid, when we took the picture in the shop that should have burned in the fire.
I carried it with me and brought it back to him. He held it with a smile. I wished I could share it.
“Jo-Jo, I heard the news about that damn Nolan. I’m glad you’re safe, girl.”
He coughed, harsh. I helped him to a chair. He eyed Maddox with a grunt.
“You saved her?” he asked.
“Of course I did,” he said.
“You love her?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Granddad didn’t hush when I told him to let it go. “No one in this town thinks you’re good enough for her.”
Maddox shrugged. “Do you?”
Granddad looked at the photo in his hands. He recognized my pain, patting a shaking hand on my cheek. “Who am I to judge?”
I took the seat next to him. What I had to do would tear me apart, and I wanted to stay close to the man who always comforted me during dark moments like this.
“Granddad, we need to talk.” I took his hand. “And…this is going to be hard.”
“Don’t worry about me, Jo-Jo.”
“I do.”
“I’m your grandfather, you’re my granddaughter.” He made sure I was listening. “It’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.”
He had said that for years. I knew he thought it was true, that I was still the little eight-year-old girl, stealing sweets while Nana worked the counter at the shop.
I sometimes wished it too.
I pulled the papers from the folder I carried and wished they hadn’t trembled.
“Granddad.” I laid the first report before him. “This is the fire marshal’s findings from the arson. He determined the cause was electrical.”
“I remember, Jo-Jo.” He didn’t look. “I know.”
I had to do it. My throat closed as I revealed the second paper. He squeezed my hand tighter.
“I talked to Delta. She works at the insurance firm. You remember?”
“I do.”
“She found the original files from the investigation.” I pointed to the words at the bottom of the page. Could I even say them aloud? “When they first worked on the case, the state fire marshal didn’t know our family. He and the adjustor wrote that it looked like…insurance fraud.”
“Ah.”
I waited. He gave me nothing else. I sighed, pulling the lighter from my pocket.
“A few weeks ago, I came home and found that someone had been in my apartment. They left this lighter.” I tapped his hand. “Yours?”
“I just wanted one cigarette, Jo-Jo. If I did it anywhere outside in this blasted town, someone would have snitched. I had your apartment key and...”
“You shouldn’t smoke. You’re on oxygen.”
“Did you come here today just to chastise me?”
No. But it was easier that way. Granddad went still. I pulled the last paper. My stomach turned, both dread and the baby’s morning sickness.
I handed him a copy of his will, highlighted with the one change he approved two days before the fire. “This was your revised will. You…gave Maddox your electrical company.”
“That I did.” Granddad smiled at me. “Josie, I had to make sure you’d be taken care of. You know I never…approved, but this worked hard to prove himself to you. I honestly believe he loves you, and I wasn’t leaving you with nothing. He had to provide for you.”
“Granddad.”
“I set the fire,” he said.
It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it needed to be said. I nodded, tucking everything back into the folder.
He held the photograph, rubbing his finger over the frame. “Couldn’t bear to see this gone.”
“You loved that shop. I loved it. It was Nana’s wish we kept it open. Why did you burn it down?”
“We needed the money,” he said. “I got in trouble at the track and…”
“Granddad, I could have made more money. Worked more hours. Mortgaged the property.”
“I wasn’t taking it from you. I wasn’t making you work through the best years of your life to make up for my mistakes.”
I didn’t understand. “But the insurance money wasn’t enough. We couldn’t pay your debts and rebuild the candy shop.”
Maddox voice rumbled a low warning. “Sweets.”
“We could have handled it,” I said.
Granddad patted my hand. “No, Jo-Jo.”
“It doesn’t make sense. I don’t know if we’ll ever have the money to reopen.”
Maddox called for me again. “Josie. Listen to him.”
I turned, facing the man who helped raise me, love me, and taught me everything I knew.
He swallowed. Hard.
“Jo-Jo, I never meant to survive the fire. I wanted you to collect the property insurance and my life insurance. I set the fire for it to be the end. Maddox saved me, and…”
I blinked tears I didn’t realize I cried. He wiped them away.
“I let Maddox take the blame,” he said. “I did this to us, Josie. And I am so, so sorry.”
“But…” I lowered my head. “Why?”
“I wasn’t saddling you with more debt. I couldn’t.” He cleared his throat to hide his own tears. “You didn’t need me anymore. I’m old. I’m a burden.”
“That’s not true.”
“Josie—”
“Granddad, I’m pregnant.” I didn’t think shocking him into a heart attack would help, but his eyes widened. A smile peeked through a year of silent grief. “Don’t you think I want you to hold your great-grandbaby? He or she deserves to know you, and you should be there for him.”
“Sweetheart—”
“No. We’re going to get through this. We’ll figure out what we can do, together, to right this.”
“Maddox can’t be held responsible anymore,” Granddad said. “I won’t let him carry a record. He needs to provide for you…and the baby.”
Maddox agreed. “I will, but you have to come forward.”
Granddad pulled me into a hug. “I don’t want you implicated in this, Jo-Jo. I’m an old man, and I’ll take responsibility for my actions. You…” He kissed my forehead. “You have a baby on the way. You’ve got a family of your own. And you deserve every opportunity for a good life.”
“We’ll figure it out,” I said. “Together. I promise.”
I sat with him a while longer, deciding on a lawyer and who to call. Maddox pulled me away when both Granddad and I grew too tired to continue. He took me home, rested beside me on the couch, and held me close.
“We’re doing the right thing.” He kissed my hand. “I know it doesn’t feel like it.”
“It doesn’t.” The shock hadn’t passed yet. “It’s not revenge. It’s not justice. It’s not…fair.”
“I know, Sweets.”
“Not the best way to begin our life together.”
“Of course it is.” He pulled me onto his lap, letting me straddle him. “It’s our life, and our first step is a big one. But I would stumble without you, and you know it. We can work through it…for the baby.”