whether the two incidents were related. No one had yet to answer those questions. But the coincidence had made Ross suggest that Cooper take a look at Jane Doe.
Sure enough, Coop had identified her as Lulu Carlton and provided his son’s mother with a proper burial.
In the course of all that, Ross had had several dealings with state and local police, so it was no surprise that news coming through those same channels that involved the Fortune family would still go to Ross first.
“It seems,” he was saying, “that the man who was working at the church as the groundskeeper in January was arrested for stealing a car and robbing a convenience store in Dallas a couple of days ago. His name is Charlie something-or-other. He wasn’t alone, he had that Courtney woman with him—the one who brought Anthony to Max Allen—”
“Max Allen?” William asked, obviously lost.
Lily placed a reassuring hand over William’s where it rested on the picnic table. “Remember you met him—he’s Kirsten’s brother?”
“Oh, that’s right—that pretty girl my son Jeremy is going to marry. Max is her brother.”
“Right,” Ross confirmed. And apparently because William was drawing a blank, he explained what everyone else knew. “Courtney was Max Allen’s old girlfriend. She showed up on his door with Anthony, saying he was Max’s baby. Max didn’t believe her, and it was because he brought Anthony to the attention of the authorities that we figured out that Anthony belongs to Coop.”
“Ah,” William said.
Because the older man seemed to have grasped that, Ross continued. “Police in Dallas came down pretty hard on both the church’s former groundskeeper and this Courtney, looking for prior bad acts. Courtney broke down, gave enough information for the cops to use as leverage with the groundskeeper and—between the two of them—got the whole story. Apparently the groundskeeper found Anthony on the back doorstep of the church on what would have been the wedding day.”
“And all this time we’ve been thinking that Anthony must have been in the accident with Lulu? That someone took him from the scene?” Coop said.
Ross shrugged. “No one knew where else he might have come from.”
“But now it seems as if Lulu left him at the church?” Flint asked.
“We’re thinking that maybe she saw the announcement of Uncle William and Lily’s wedding somewhere, and thought that if she left him there that day, one of us would find him. That when we saw the medallion strung around him, we’d figure he belonged with us.”
“But none of us did find him,” Coop put in.
“So the groundskeeper took him,” Ross went on, “and pawned Anthony off on this Courtney woman. She actually got attached to the baby, which was why she wanted to make sure he got to someone she thought might do right by him when it occurred to her that she couldn’t keep him herself. That was when she went to Max Allen.”
“And if I’m remembering right,” Kelsey interjected, “First Courtney claimed that Anthony belonged to her and Max, then her story changed and she swore Anthony was her son with the groundskeeper.”
“Right. But like I said, Max Allen got suspicious,” Ross repeated. “And thanks to that and the medallion that these two less-than-upstanding citizens didn’t take from Anthony, we were able to do the DNA test that connected him with Coop.”
“We’re so lucky this worked out the way it did,” Coop said, choking up.
“It could have been so much worse,” Kelsey said.
“But he ended up with the two of you,” Flint reminded to soothe his brother and Kelsey’s fears before they got unduly out of control with what might have been.
“Anthony ended up with his family,” William confirmed victoriously. “That’s all that matters.”
“That and that we have you safely back, too,” Lily put in, squeezing William’s hand on the picnic table.
“Even if my memory is full of more holes than Swiss cheese,” William joked.
They all laughed at that before assuring the older man that everything would come back in time—what Flint knew was just wishful thinking at that point.
Then, to Kelsey, Lily said, “We shouldn’t keep you when you have so much work to do. Maybe we could just take that little peek at Anthony while he’s sleeping and we’ll get out of your way.”
“I know I could use a peek at him,” Coop said, still sounding unnerved by the thought of the complicated path his son had taken to get to him.
As everyone stood up from the picnic table, Kelsey turned to Flint and said, “Don’t get back on the roof. I have jobs for you to do with Jessie today.”
That brought a jab of Jessie’s elbow into Kelsey’s ribs that made Flint wonder if Jessie was unhappy with the prospect of working side by side with him.
But as Jessie began to gather empty coffee cups to take into the house, he hoped that that wasn’t the case.
And not just because the morning sunshine glistened off her hair like spun copper.
But because as home repairs went, doing them side by side with her took all the chore out of it for him.
“When I says g’night to my grampa I kisses his cheek. But Grampa says that when other mens says g’night they pro’bly shakes han’s.”
And with that explanation, Adam held out his tiny hand for Flint to shake.
Jessie watched Flint fight to keep from laughing, smiling instead as he accepted Adam’s outstretched hand and shook it. “Good night, Adam. Sleep tight.”
“Tha’s what my mama says,” Adam exclaimed before he ran off to join his brother, sisters and grandparents as they all went in the rear door of Jessie’s house.
“Your son cracks me up,” Flint said, releasing the laugh he’d been so obviously holding in.
Jessie smiled at Flint’s comment as she watched her youngest disappear inside.
The day had ended the way it had begun—at a picnic table. Only tonight it was the picnic table in Jessie’s backyard where she, her four kids, her parents and Kelsey, Coop, Anthony and Flint had all shared the grilled chicken that Jeannie Hunt had prepared for dinner.
It was nearly nine o’clock now, however, and much the way the rest of the day and evening had gone, Kelsey had orchestrated things so that she and Coop took Anthony home at the same time that Jack and Jeannie Hunt were dispatched to put Ella, Braden, Bethany and Adam to bed, leaving Jessie and Flint sitting directly across from each other at the picnic table. Alone.
“They’re all great kids,” Flint added. “And every one of them looks like you. Especially Ella—she’s a miniature version of you.”
“I can see their father in each of the kids in small ways,” Jessie answered Flint’s observation, trying to hide her embarrassment at her sister’s less-than-subtle manipulations to put them together.
