“I don’t even know your name.”
The baby boy’s mouth opened and he howled distraughtly, tears gathering in his eyes and rolling in fat drops down his reddening cheeks.
Anxiety.
He could barely think, beyond holding the little boy to him and rubbing his back as he spoke soothingly to him and closed the front door. He sat down on the couch and opened the diaper bag to search for the birth certificate. The fact that Tamar hadn’t even bothered to give him the baby’s name gave the whole experience a sense of finality. If ever he’d wanted closure of any kind with her, he had it now. He dialed Jayne’s number. Seth felt lost, unprepared, and awkward. She would know what to do next.
The baby continued to cry and Seth murmured as he looked into his tear-filled eyes. “What have we gotten ourselves into, buddy?”
* * * *
“Feel better?” Grace asked as Jayne sipped her root beer float. Grace had met her at the Dairy Queen on Main Street since she was already in town, and they’d been sitting in the fiery-orange Formica booth talking for the last twenty minutes.
“There’s not much in this world a soft-serve ice cream and root beer float can’t make feel better, but this is huge.”
“I wonder what she wants.”
“You should’ve seen his face, Grace. I wanted to rip her limb from limb for doing that to him. I’m almost afraid to know what’s going on. I don’t want her to stay in Divine, or even Morehead, for that matter. But that little baby, Grace. He was…”
“Spitting image?” Grace asked sympathetically, handing her a paper napkin.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s Seth’s. He’s beautiful.” Tears sprang into her eyes despite her best attempts with the paper napkin. “And he didn’t act like most babies, fussing to get down, wanting to explore, or at the very least, cuddling to his mother.” Pointing outside at the growing dusk, she added, “And this is the worst time of day for him, if he’s been traveling. He’s probably hungry, tired, and cranky with all this crazy crap happening around him. He seemed like he was on guard.”
“So what’s his name?”
Jayne’s eyes met hers. “I have no idea.” Her phone buzzed and then the ringtone version of “Truck Yeah” by Tim McGraw began playing on her phone. She scoffed and rolled her eyes as she recalled Grace’s latest hijinks.
“You needed a special ringtone for your sweetie. Come on, admit it, you love it,” Grace said with glee as Jayne rifled around in her purse looking for her phone. Jayne couldn’t figure out how to change it back but was grateful for the slight break in tension as she answered on the fourth ring. “Hello?” She could hear the sound of a squalling baby in the background. Grace must’ve heard it too because she made a sympathetic sound.
“Baby, she’s gone. Can you come? I…I need some help.” She’d never heard Seth sound so out of his element. Almost panicked.
One minute later, Jayne and Grace hurried out to their vehicles parked side by side in the Dairy Queen parking lot. Grace had a short list in her hand and her phone to her ear as she called out to Jayne, “Give me forty-five minutes to marshal the troops and get through the store.”
“Thank you, cousin! I’ll make it up to you someday.”
Into her phone, Grace said, “Hey, Rachel, hang on a second.” To Jayne she called out, “You and Seth can babysit for us someday! See you in a bit!” The engine on her pretty blue BMW Z4 revved to life, and the stereo blasted until she turned it down, carrying on her conversation with Rachel Wolf. The plan was for Rachel to get on the phone and call everyone while Grace ran to the grocery store for baby things, since she was used to shopping for that stuff.
Jayne inserted the key in the ignition, shock still coursing through her nervous system. Seth was a father. A new single dad. Everything was about to change.
“Shoot! I still don’t know his name.”
She put the car in gear and hoped that Hank Stinson wasn’t sneaking around with his radar gun, watching for speeders.
Chapter Seventeen
At Seth’s house, she rang the doorbell and blinked in surprise when the door was jerked open a second later. Seth must’ve seen her pull in. Relief was written all over his face, and she smiled at the sight of him with the crying baby boy in his arms. The small but solid-looking child clung to him like a little monkey, screaming inconsolably in his ear. Seth seemed anything but stoic and calm and Jayne’s heart went out to him.
With one arm he pulled her to him and kissed her soundly on the lips then said, “I was afraid.”