Page 17 of False Evidence
He returned his focus to the living nightmare in a car seat. “We need to drive a bit more. Then we’ll have breakfast.” And a nap. JT had been up all night, and he was too old to pull all-nighters, especially when sex wasn’t involved.
They’d get to the cabin. He’d feed the kid, and then he’d put her in the portable crib, and they’d both sleep for six hours. Easy-peasy.
But no sooner was he pulling away from the gas pump after putting in a token amount of gas than Gemma was screaming again.
Now she was chanting, “Hungy! Hungy! Mommy!”
He was screwed. He couldn’t drive an hour with her catlike high-pitched yowls. He couldn’t drive five minutes.
He saw a sign for a motel across the highway and took the overpass.
Shit. How would he get a room with the kid screaming? Would the clerk think he’d abducted a child?
He pulled out his phone and downloaded the app for the motel and gave thanks that he could book a room—and get a key—with his phone.
Five minutes after pulling into the lot, he was checked in. Now, he just had to convince the girl to be quiet while they made their way to their second-floor room.
He climbed from the driver’s seat and moved to the back. She quieted as he took the seat next to her and closed the door. It didn’t feel right to just reach in and grab her when he’d never so much as touched her before. He would take this slowly. Let her get used to him.
He found the soft tone to his voice that Lee used with Grace and said, “You want to eat, honey?”
Her wet cheeks glistened in the dome light as she nodded. “Hungy.”
“I got us a room here.” He pointed to the motel and wondered if he was being ridiculous. Would she understand any of this? But he figured it couldn’t hurt and might help win her trust.
Huh. He’d never figured someone so young could have complex emotions like trust. Grace had just accepted him, but then, he’d been present in her life from the get-go, while Gemma hadn’t seen his face until he handed her Panny several minutes ago.
“I’m going to unbuckle you and carry you inside. Then you’ll get breakfast. ’Kay?”
“Mommy?”
“No, baby. Your mommy isn’t here.”
Her face crumpled, and she let out a keening sort of sound. But at least it was quiet.
He studied the car seat. She was strapped in like a racecar driver.
As an engineer, he was impressed by all the baby gadgets he’d looked at in the store. The portable crib was an engineering marvel. It had to be, given it was essentially a safe-baby jail.
It wasn’t easy to unbuckle the safety harness, but finally, he got the button to release. He moved the straps off her shoulders and said, “Can I pick you up?”
She gave a small nod. He scooped her up, then sat back, holding her so she faced him.
He stared into her eyes, seeing they were the same blue as Alexandra’s, and said, “I love your mommy more than anyone in the world, Gemma. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He pulled her to his chest, and she shocked him by leaning against him and popping her thumb in her mouth.
He found it hard to breathe as his eyes burned.
This wasnothinglike the first time he’d held Grace. But then, that moment hadn’t been fraught like this one was.
He was terrified for Lex, and according to Erica, he couldn’t let Gemma pick up on that.
He placed a hand behind her small head, his fingers touching her soft hair, and he just breathed, taking in this moment. Holding Lex’s precious baby for the very first time.
His heart ached, but it was also filling in the weirdest way.
These emotions were uncharted territory. He’d grown used to being without Alexandra, but now that he’d opened the part of him he’d walled off for his own survival, he felt this small girl slipping inside.
When all this was over—and he was determined that this would end happily for everyone involved—there was no way he’d be able to return to a life that didn’t include Alexandra. She would never love him again, but maybe they could find a way to be friends.