Having Noah in her life was going to complicate things. Everything he'd told her last night was a matter of public record. Chad's death had made the news. Noah had never been formally charged. The police and coroner and everyone who'd mattered had ruled it an accident. But that hadn't stopped the local newspapers from printing all the gritty details. He still had a grainy black-and-white photo burned into his memory bank from a front-page story.
Jilly couldn't have a boyfriend with that kind of trouble in his past. He'd muck everything up.
And he was blind.
Surely any judge in his right mind wouldn't award her the kids if she were in a serious relationship with him.
Inside the cubicle, the social worker was making noises like she was getting ready to leave. Fabric rustled as she picked up her coat and put it on.
He had to get out of there. If Jilly saw him, she'd feel obligated to introduce him. Or things would get awkward, and she'd have to lie.
His cane tapped the floor in time with each thundering beat of his heart.
For one shining moment last night, he'd believed that he could have everything he wanted. Jilly in his life. The kids too, for as long as Jilly fostered them.
He hadn't expected this, hadn’t ever considered that a stupid decision he'd made when he'd been a kid would wreck this too.
He found himself outside on the sidewalk and ducked around the side of the building. He felt like he was falling into a dark, bottomless abyss. What was he supposed to do now?
Jilly wentfor a coffee run as a nurse and orderly transferred PJ from the ER to a regular hospital room.
She needed a few minutes to compose herself. Lindsey and Casey were with Callum and Iris. PJ was going to be fine. He was awake and alert, and putting on a calm facade so he could stay calm was exhausting.
She didn't make it to the cafeteria before her phone rang. Noah.
She needed a shot of Noah right now. One of his hugs would be divine, but she knew how stressful he found it to be in the hospital. How much he hated it. She could have her hug tomorrow morning when PJ was released.
Tears burned the back of her nose as she took the call. "Hey."
"How are you holding up? What happened?"
"I'm fine." She knew he'd hear the tears in her voice and what herI'm finereally meant. It was such a relief to let him in. She sagged against the wall in a corner where she was out of the way of foot traffic.
She told him about finding the kids missing from their beds, about that terrible trek out in the snow. The kids had walked across her farm and onto the huge ranch that bordered her property on the other side. The ranch was owned by an out-of-state corporation, and no one lived there. If she hadn't been able to track the kids because of the snow...
"PJ was really out of it when I found them," she whispered. Her arms and back still ached from carrying him nearly a half a mile at a dead run. She'd put him in the van while the other two had clambered in the back, knowing that an ambulance would take too long to reach them.
"By the time we got to the hospital, he was screaming."
He'd been in so much pain as his body had warmed back up. The doctors hadn't told her much as they'd worked on him, and she'd retreated to the hallway because she'd had a wide-eyed Lindsey and a worried Casey in tow. Callum had shown up soon after and whisked the kids home with him.
"Is he going to be okay?" Noah asked.
She swallowed back the tears. If she let them out now, she wouldn't stop crying. There would be time for that later. She still needed to get her coffee and get back to PJ. "Yeah. The doctor wants to keep him overnight, just to be safe. He'll be ready for more flag football in a week or two."
"Yeah."
But he didn't sound as if he was smiling. His voice was cool and distant when he asked, "Do you need anything? I can have Aiden send some food up there for you."
She'd been so focused on her own worries and fears that she hadn't considered how this might be affecting him. He cared about the kids, too.
"No. I'm okay."
She wanted to ask him to come, but she wouldn't be that selfish.
There was a strange sound on the other end of the line. Like he'd groaned but muffled it with his hand.
"Noah?"
