“I told you not to come,” she said on a shaky breath.
“I don’t take direction well.” He folded her glasses and pulled her into a tight embrace. “It’s okay, honey. Whatever happened, we can make it better.”
She tried to pull away but he didn’t let her go. After a moment, she sagged against him, burying her face in the fabric of his uniform shirt.
As his palm drew circles on her back, her tears flowed freely. She gulped in ragged breaths. “So awful,” she said around sobs. “They made me seem so awful.”
“I don’t believe that,” he said against her ear. “Anyone who knows you knows you’re a fantastic mother.”
“What if they take him from me?”
“We’re not going to let that happen. Not a snowball’s chance.”
Julia wiped her eyes. “They’re going to come out any minute. Jeff can’t see me like this.”
“My truck’s right here.” Sam looped one arm around her shoulders, leading her away from the courthouse steps. He opened the passenger door of his truck then came around and climbed in himself. He started the engine but didn’t make a move to drive off.
Julia kept her face covered with her hands and worked to control her breathing.
“Is that him?” Sam asked after a minute.
Julia peeked through her fingers as Jeff, his parents and the attorney walked out of the courthouse. Shading his eyes with one hand, Jeff scanned the area.
“He’s looking for me so he can gloat.” Julia sank down lower in the seat. “Jerk,” she mumbled.
The group came down the steps.
“They’re heading right for us.”
“Sit up,” Sam ordered, and she immediately straightened. “Smile and lean over to kiss me when they come by.”
The urge to duck was huge, but Julia made her mouth turn up at the ends. “Here goes,” she whispered as Jeff led the group closer, his father clapping him hard on the back. She waited until he noticed her through the windshield then leaned over and cupped Sam’s jaw between her hands. She gave him a gentle kiss and pressed her forehead against his.
“That a girl,” he told her. “Don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing you upset.”
“I can do this,” she said, and Sam kissed her again.
“They’ve passed.”
Julia stayed pressed against him for another moment before moving away. She leaned against the seat back in order to see out the side-view mirror. Jeff and his parents headed away, but Lexi trailed behind the group, looking over her shoulder every few steps.
“This isn’t going to work.”
“Yes, it is.”
She shook her head. “I told you before, I made a lot of stupid decisions in my life. It’s like they’ve uncovered every single one of them to use against me.”
“Did you kill someone?”
Her head whipped toward him. “Of course not.”
“Armed robbery?”
“No.”
“Do you know how many people I meet in the course of my job who do bad things every day? Their kids are rarely taken away.”
“Maybe they should be,” she suggested, too unsettled to be comforted. “Maybe if they had people with buckets of money and tons of power going after them, they’d lose their babies.”
He wrapped his fingers around hers. “You aren’t going to lose Charlie. Stop thinking like that.”
“You don’t know, Sam. You weren’t in that room.”
“A mistake I don’t intend to repeat. I should have been there with you. For you.”
The tenderness in his voice touched a place deep within her: an intimate, open well of emotion she’d locked the lid to many years ago. She wanted to believe in him, to trust that he could protect her the way she’d never been willing to protect herself or even believed she deserved. The part of her who’d been hurt too many times in the past wanted to run.
She excelled at running away. She’d practically perfected it as an art.
That was what she’d been thinking in the courthouse. People disappeared all the time with no trace. She’d wanted to slip out of that room, gather up Charlie and whatever would fit in her trunk and drive away from the threat looming over her. She could cut hair anywhere. Why not start over in a place where no one knew her or her insecurities or all the ways she didn’t measure up? She had friends around the country who’d help her if she asked.
The weight of trying to make a new life in a place that was as familiar to her as a worn blanket seemed too heavy. Of course trouble had followed her to Brevia. This was where it had started in the first place.
Sam’s faith had made her feel as though things could work out, the same way Charlie’s birth had renewed her hope in herself and her desire to really try.
What was the use? This morning was a cold, harsh dose of reality and she didn’t like it.
“Stop it,” he said quietly. “Whatever’s going through your mind right now, put it out. It’s not going to do you or Charlie any good for you to give up.”
Because she couldn’t help it, she met his gaze again. “I’m scared, Sam.” A miserable groan escaped her lips. “I’m terrified they’re going to take my baby and I won’t be able to stop them.”
“We’re going to stop them.” He took her hand. “What did Frank say?”
“That all Southern women were crazy, so it wouldn’t be an issue, and he needed to make his tee time and we’d talk tomorrow.”
“Tell me what happened in there.”
“I can’t.” She bit her lip again and tasted blood on her tongue. “I put my mistakes behind me. Or I thought I did. Their attorney knew things about my past I hadn’t even told Jeff. They went after my character and I had nothing to offer in my defense. Nothing as bad as me killing someone, although the urge to wipe the smug smile off of Maria Johnson’s face was almost overwhelming. They made me seem unstable and irresponsible. Two things I can’t afford if I’m going to keep sole custody of Charlie.”
“Then we’ll come up with something.”
“This isn’t your problem, Sam.”
“Hell, yes, it’s my problem. You’re my fiancée.”
The lunacy of that statement actually made her laugh. “Your fake fiancée. Not the same thing.”
“For the purposes of your
