Page 16 of False Evidence

“Remember when Auntie Erica told you about me?”

Of courseshe didn’t. She’d been half-asleep. And she was only what…a year old? Wait, he knew her birthdate. He’d needed it for the trust. She was born in September of last year, making her a year and three months old now.

Was she still a baby or was that a toddler? He’d forgotten to ask Erica if she could walk. Felt like something he ought to know.

He tried to remember the soft tone Lee used with Grace. Was that how he should talk to Gemma?

Did he even know how to make his voice sound like that?

“So…ugh…” He pitched his voice higher. “Sweetie. You need to stop crying.”

The sound she made… Were his ears bleeding?

He debated pulling over, but a car parked on the side of the highway at nearly five in the morning…it would get attention sooner rather than later.

He steeled himself against the onslaught to his ears and took the next exit. He followed the signs to the nearest gas station, then pulled up to a pump.

He didn’t need gas, but he didn’t want to look suspicious. He twisted in his seat and faced the child who was strapped in the middle of the backseat.

“Hey, kid,” he said softly. “You’re okay. I’m going to take care of you for a few days.”

Tears dripped down pudgy baby cheeks. He’d thought she was cute when she was sleeping. His heart had done a weird kind of twist when he saw her hair was blonde like her mom’s.

This was Alexandra’s baby daughter.

He thought of the woman who would always have his heart and took a deep breath. He thought of the quiet moments when they’d snuggled on the couch and he’d held her and known paradise. With thoughts of Lex in his mind, he found a softer register and said, “Hey, cutie pie. I’m sorry your mommy isn’t here, but Uncle JT is going to take good care of you.”

She paused in her shrieking, but her chin still quivered. “Mommy?”

“She’s going to come home as soon as she can. Promise, honey.”

“Panny?”

JT scanned the backseat and didn’t see the stuffed bear. He unbuckled his seat belt, climbed from the SUV, and opened the rear door.

Panny had escaped to the floor. He scooped up the bear and handed it to her. She sniffled as she held it to her chest and…nibbled on an ear, which might have made him shudder a bit.

His car was clean, but what if she dropped the toy on the Metro? Or in on a station platform?

Gross.

How had humans survived as a species?

“Hungy,” she said.

He had baby food, but he couldn’t exactly sit in the gas station parking lot and feed the kid orange goo.

This was a Lexus with leather seats. But more important, he supposed, was the fact that someone might spot them. Thanks to the surveillance detection route, they were still more than an hour from the gate to the Catoctin cabin.

It was still dark. Surely, Alexandra didn’t feed the girl at five in the morning. She drank milk, not formula… That meant she’d been weaned, right?

He paused, wondering if Lex had nursed her daughter. Erica had nursed Grace, but Mara hadn’t been able to nurse her son, if he remembered correctly. He’d tried to avoid those conversations, but once two couples in a friend circle had kids, it was baby, baby, baby all the time.

Now Isabel was pregnant, he’d lose Alec to the proud-dad club in the spring. He gave thanks that Keith and Trina had no plans to procreate.

They were his people.

Except, he felt uncomfortable with all the happy couples, whether they had kids or not.