My stomach clenched. I’d rather have her yelling at me than looking so defeated.
My little guy was dressed in a green onesie and matching shorts today, gumming on that damn giraffe. At least he could lift my spirits a little. I’d soak up every minute with him I could.
“We’ll be at the farm for a bit,” I explained. “Josh has set up a meeting to discuss…” I trailed off. She knew what I meant. The Sugar Moon mess. It was getting more complex every day.
In the car, I adjusted the vents to blow cold air in my face, needing something sharp and real to cut through the noise in my head.
Louisa’s arrest had hit Maplewood like a thunderclap. The town Facebook group had been flooded with questions and rumors, and every wannabe TikTok true crime expert had a theory. They varied between corporate embezzlement, contamination, and sabotage. But all I could think about was Evie’s face last night, pale and hurt as she held the papers in her shaking hands.
Gabe and Brian had pushed them on me for protection. A safety net. Not a threat or a weapon against Evie. They meant well, but I hadn’t even read them. All I wanted was to be withVincent, this small, astonishing person who had changed my life.
But now Evie regarded me as the enemy.
I had pushed too hard. I’d wanted too much too fast. But I didn’t want to be a visitor in my child’s life. I wanted to be the kind of father my dad had been. Steady, available, helpful. The kind who showed up and had a secret candy stash specifically for the bad days. The kind who would sit for hours helping me master long division.
I wanted Evie to see me as a partner, not a mistake that kept showing up with good intentions.
Evie. I was in love with her, but now she was doubting that.
Over the past few months, she’s slowly revealed parts of herself she kept hidden from the rest of the world. She laughed without censoring herself, and she shared her most vulnerable parts with me. After her encounter with her dad, I had a new appreciation for her strength. She’d built a life for herself and had been surviving alone. But then she’d let me in, and that meant rewriting the story she’d used to keep herself safe.
Every time I looked at the two of them, I felt like a man standing inside a house I hadn’t built but wanted to protect anyway. They were my people. Now I needed to find a way to make her understand that.
The driveway was full of vehicles by the time we arrived. Thank God Josh had upgraded the HVAC and installed central air. The humidity was already crushing, and my shirt was already stuck to my chest.
With one arm hooked under the handle of Vincent’s bucket seat and his diaper bag slung over my other shoulder, I marched toward the kitchen. With any luck, someone inside had details about what had gone down at the festival. Whatever was happening, it was better to know.
Inside, the low murmur of voices hit me first. Then the sharp smell of coffee. Wayne appeared, tail wagging, and I bent to scratch his ears.
In the kitchen, Josh sat at the head of the table, shoulders squared, jaw clenched. Gabe was seated next to him with a dozen or so documents spread out between them. From here, it looked like delivery logs, order forms, and invoices.
Brian and Jess were on the other side of the table, Brian typing furiously on his laptop.
Jenn hovered by the sink, drying a mug absentmindedly. Her curls were piled on top of her head and she had an apron on, like she’d come here straight from the café.
I eased Vincent’s car seat onto the island and freed him from it. With him propped on my hip, I leaned against the counter and took in the scene in front of me.
“We need to steer clear of Sugar Moon,” Brian advised. “Their counsel has already called me twice this morning, insisting the arrest of Louisa Meyer was a misunderstanding. He seems convinced that we have evidence of some kind?—”
“The feds are sniffing around,” Gabe added. “They asked for a meeting at city hall this week. And rumor is that the Department of Agriculture is showing up for farm inspections early.”
Josh stiffened, his already hard face going stony. My brother was not a big fan of regulators. They’d given him the runaround when he’d taken over and combined the farms. If they showed up for a surprise inspection? It would not be pretty.
“The feds are looking at anyone with a connection to Will as well as Sugar Moon,” Gabe said, his focus fixed on his own laptop. “Anything he handled. Anyone he met with. And the shipments.”
Josh’s lips thinned. “The shipments were cleared. The dates match, the quantities?—”
“It’s the signatures.” Gabe nodded at Brian. “They’re the problem.”
As Brian turned his computer toward Josh, I rounded the table so I could see the screen.
“We’ve been going through all the records. See this one?” Brian asked. “Signed J. Lawrence. And it’s not the only one.”
Josh shook his head sharply. “That’s not my signature.”
All eyes turned to me next.
“I don’t sign off on anything,” I said, “I’m barely around.”
