Jackson rubbed his eyes with the back of his palm. Sleep would be a futile endeavor tonight. A part of him wanted to ask her what was wrong. When they were in the kitchen she’d whispered that she knew what it was like to be alone, that she had always been alone. Why? Where was her family? He played back all of their conversations in his head and he couldn’t remember one in which Hannah mentioned her family.
And then there was Emily, and the royal putdown he’d received when he told Hannah his plan. He could smile about it now. She was right. How could he willingly let his niece live in foster care when he was more than able to provide her with a home?
His thoughts ran back to their argument before he stormed out of the house. He remembered the exact look in her eyes, the anger in her face as she yelled at him. Jackson sat up in bed as the realization that Hannah had spoken about herself dawned on him. It all made sense. Her fear of him. Her career choice. And tonight’s sudden withdrawal. He didn’t know the details but his gut told him he was right, and for once he wished he wasn’t. The urge to track down everyone who’d ever hurt her gripped him. He wanted to protect her. And he hadn’t felt the need to protect anyone in a long, long time.
He was going to go face his past and future. He was going to try and reclaim a little of the person he had been when his mother was alive. He was going to be the uncle Emily needed him to be.
But he wasn’t going to do it without Hannah.
Chapter Eight
Hannah hadn’t felt this low in a long, long time. It was just like when she was a child, when she thought there was someone to save her, there would be a complication to ruin it, and it broke her heart to see the same happen to Emily.
She zipped up her bag as quietly as she could, not wanting to wake the baby yet. She’d get the car loaded up and then come back in for Emily. The less time either of them had to spend with Jackson this morning, the better. She had failed Em and she had failed Louise. Her instincts had been wrong about Jackson. She’d let her attraction for him cloud her judgment—she had never made so many mistakes at once.
Hannah walked down the hall, patting Charlie when he trotted over to her. She didn’t want to see Jackson. She had no idea how she could look him in the eyes and be able to hide her disappointment. She wouldn’t cry when he said goodbye to his niece today, to her. She’d wait until she was in the car, safely away from the cabin.
She walked into the great room, her heart and feet stopping. Jackson was standing next to the unlit hearth, his eyes on hers, his lips set in a narrow line. Her eyes went from his handsome face to the bag beside his feet. She stared at him, not daring to ask what she hoped more than anything in the world.
“I’m going to adopt her.” His voice broke the silence in the room. His eyes held hers and everything inside her went still. She bit her lip, trying desperately to hold on to her emotions. She didn’t want to believe, couldn’t. His image turned blurry. Those were the words she’d prayed for as a child in foster care. They were the words that would have saved her. She had spared Emily and kept her promise to Louise. Relief and gratitude tore through her. Her bag slipped off her shoulder, falling to the ground with a thud. She tried desperately to find some air, but her breath came in shallow gasps…
Her chin fell to her chest, and she placed her hands over her eyes. Seconds later Jackson was there, with the tenderness he’d shown her last night, and gently moved her hands and folded her into his arms.
“I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing,” he whispered against her hair.
“You don’t have to,” Hannah said, her face against his chest, the warmth she felt from Jackson so addictive.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.”
She nodded firmly. “I’ll be there every step of the way during the adoption process. I’ll help you in any way I can.”
“I have your word?” he asked, leaning back to look at her, an odd light flickering across his eyes.
She’d do anything for Emily. “I promise. I’ll do whatever it takes,” Hannah said, smiling up at him.
…
Hannah opened the door to the dingy, stuffy government office that had been her second home for the last five years. She had only been gone five days and yet she felt as though it had been months. She felt more confident, more determined…but more vulnerable. Her facade was cracking. She was letting people in.
But she had done it. She had convinced Jackson. He was in Hope’s Crossing, ready to start the paperwork. Nothing could have prepared her for the moment he told her he was going to adopt Emily. She didn’t know what prompted his change of heart and at that moment she didn’t need to know.