Chapter Sixteen

 

 

 

Stephanie

 

 

 

 

 

 

My little nephew, Ryder, had been born early that next morning after about ten hours of labor. Mom and baby were both doing great and my niece and nephew loved their little brother immediately. I also spent quite a bit of time cuddling him during the moments I could.

Eldon was such a dick. When I went in to see my sister at the hospital during my lunch, she was wide awake and exhausted, holding her newborn son in her arms. Eldon, on the other hand, was fast asleep in the chair next to the bed with his headphones in. When I asked Kate if she’d slept, she just smiled instead of answering, telling me enough. When I tried to get her to send Ryder to the nursery she refused, not outright saying so but I knew Eldon didn’t want him to go.

I stayed at the hospital for three hours so that I could take care of Ryder and let her sleep. Eldon woke up right as she did and gave me the shittiest look when he realized I had his son. Luckily my mother walked in shortly after and I knew she would make sure Kate got the help she needed and that Eldon wouldn’t interfere.

February passed quickly. I continued to see Jared once or twice a week, usually during my lunch breaks when I was out of the office but on the weekends, too. We kept our friendship platonic in the physical sense but he’d quickly become one of my best friends. I had fun with him, could tell him just about anything, and spent my days looking forward to when I could see him again.

We had become extremely comfortable with each other, too. Gone was the one cushion barrier we kept between us and I routinely found myself pushed up against his side. He didn’t seem to mind and would usually drop his arm across my shoulders.

“Is it bad if I’m extremely nervous to leave him next week?” Jared asked me the second week of March while I sat on the floor with ten-week-old Chris after we’d eaten lunch on a Thursday afternoon.

“Not at all,” I replied as I leaned over and pressed kisses to the baby’s tiny foot, earning a toothless smile from him. He had just started giving consistent smiles the week before and each one was amazing. “Hell, I’m nervous about it but I checked them out. They haven’t had any complaints or violations.”

Jared’s company had a daycare in the building that he was going to be dropping Chris off at when he went back to working in the office. I had brought up hiring a nanny but he didn’t want to go that route. Besides, the daycare would enable him to see his son whenever he wanted and would also give Chris more social interaction.

“That makes me feel better.”

I twisted my head and shrugged. “I might have also threatened that I’d be doing random drop-ins to check on everything.”

“Of course you did,” Jared said with a laugh. “I hope you don’t mind but I put you down as someone who could pick him up and as a secondary contact if they can’t reach me.”

“I definitely don’t mind.” I lifted Chris into my arms and moved to the couch. “Want me to stay for your video call?”

“If you can. That would be amazing since he’s probably going to be tired and cranky here soon.”

I nodded my head and gestured towards the hallway. “I’m just going back to the office after this. Go forth and be business-like.”

“Thanks, Steph,” he replied as he stood. “It should only be about fifteen minutes.”

Chris and I sat on the couch for ten of those minutes and he cooed at the plastic toy I was holding in front of him. When he started fussing, I went to the nursery to find one of the giraffe loveys he was completely obsessed with. I draped the fabric over my shoulder and settled Chris against my chest while he sucked on his pacifier happily.

“You’re so demanding,” I murmured to him as I pressed a kiss to his forehead. I was almost back to the couch when someone knocked on the door. I froze, unsure of whether or not I should answer it. Normally Howie or Kenneth would buzz up to alert Jared to visitors and I was almost positive I hadn’t missed the intercom sounding.

After a moment of my own indecision, whoever it was knocked again and I pulled open the front door slowly. A woman was standing in the hallway, fidgeting nervously, and her blue eyes zeroed in on Chris immediately.

“Oh. Oh, he’s beautiful.” She stretched a hand out and I stepped back so she couldn’t reach him.

“Can I help you?”

Her eyes flashed to mine and she pushed her brown hair behind her ears. “Who are you? Is Jared home?”

“Jared’s busy.” I shook my head and moved when she tried to touch the baby again. “What do you need?”

“I need my son,” she said simply and my eyes widened as I reached for the door to close it.

“You need to leave. Now.”

She put a hand out to stop me from shutting the door and shook her head. “You can’t keep him from me. I’m his mother.”

I heard the office door open down the hall and Jared’s footsteps sounded on the floor. “That was a big waste of time. Were you able to get him to…?” His voice trailed off as he got closer. I didn’t take my eyes away from the woman at the door as I felt him approach where I was.

She sucked in a breath and offered him a small smile. “Jared.”

“What are you doing here?” His voice was angry and his hand came up to grip my shoulder.

“I wanted to see our son.”

He immediately shifted me so I was standing behind him. “He is not your son. He is my son. You gave up the privilege of being his mother when you left him in the trash.”

I used my free hand to pull the phone out of the pocket of my black slacks. I kept my hand behind Jared’s back and sent a text to both Valerie and Kevin.

 

Me:            Angela Roberts is at Jared Hart’s home. 8755 South State Street. Apartment 21-A.

 

The response was almost instant.

 

Valerie:      We’re on our way. Be there in less than ten minutes. Is she alone? Is she being violent?

Me:            Just her and not so far. She’s demanding to see the baby.

Valerie:      We’re coming.

 

“You have to understand, Jared,” Angela was saying with a pleading tone. “I never wanted a baby. You know that. I didn’t even realize I was pregnant until about four months after we broke up and it was too late to do anything about it. I was going to tell you but…” She shrugged, like she didn’t know why she never told Jared. “When I went into labor, I panicked.”

I shook my head and stared at her over Jared’s shoulder. “You could have left him at the firehouse. The hospital. You could have left him at a church. No one would have asked any questions and he would have been safe. Instead, you left him in the garbage where he almost froze to death.”

“Who the hell are you, anyway?” She narrowed her eyes at me. “That’s not your baby and this is none of your business.”

“She saved his life. She bonded with him when he had no one. She’s been more his mother in the past ten weeks than you ever will. This is very much her business.” Jared ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “You know that I never would have turned away my own child. You almost killed my son.”

His whole body was trembling and he dropped his hands to his sides, clenching them into tight fists. I brought my own hand up to rest it on his tense shoulder and he relaxed minutely under my touch.

“I messed up. I know,” she said quietly, looking up at Jared with a desperate expression. “But he’s my son, Jared. You can’t keep me from my son.”

“Actually, you have no rights to him legally,” I stated as I tightened my hold on Chris. “Your parental rights were terminated six weeks ago.”

“I am not talking to you,” she seethed, anger on her face.

Jared shifted to the side so he was blocking my view of her and hers of me completely. “You don’t get to see him. You don’t get to know him. What you did was unforgivable and now you need to leave. How did you even get up here?”

Before she could answer, the elevator chimed and I could hear footsteps rushing forward before Kevin spoke.

“Angela Roberts?”

He didn’t give her time to respond before his voice proclaimed that she was under arrest for child endangerment. I heard Angela continue pleading with Jared as Kevin read her rights out loud. I moved so that I could see into the hallway and Valerie was searching Angela’s pockets. After a moment, two uniformed officers took Angela, who was still trying to talk to Jared, towards the elevator and we stepped back so the detectives could come inside.

“She had this on her,” Kevin said as he held up a key card. Jared shook his head as he folded his arms across his chest.

“I thought she turned it in. She must snuck in when Howie was occupied.”

I glanced down at Chris and realized he was asleep with his cheek against my shoulder, his pacifier barely still in his slack jaw. I touched Jared’s arm and he snapped his head to look at me.

“I’m going to go put him down.”

He nodded and I offered him a small smile before walking down the hallway. I gently placed the sleeping baby into the bassinet and tucked the lovey in next to him. He didn’t stir but the pacifier fell from his mouth and I placed it on the nightstand behind the bassinet. I leaned in and pressed my lips to his chubby little cheek, letting them linger for a long minute.

“I love you, sweet boy,” I whispered as I stepped backwards and left the room. Everyone was standing in the kitchen when I made it back down the hall and three sets of eyes landed on me. I raised my brows expectantly. “What did I miss?”

“We were just telling Mr. Hart that we’d call after she was arraigned,” Kevin explained and Valerie nodded in agreement as she studied me.

“Were you doing a home visit today, Steph?”

I cleared my throat and caught Jared’s eye before shaking my head. “I was here on a friendly visit.”

“Ah.” She smiled and I inhaled a long breath.

“Actually, I should be getting back to work.” I walked over to where my heels were and slipped my feet into them before grabbing my bag.

“We’ll walk out with you, Stephanie,” Kevin said as he offered his hand to Jared. Valerie did the same and they both walked towards the door. I went to where Jared was standing in the kitchen and searched his face for a moment.

“You okay?”

He nodded and pulled me to him for a long, tight hug. “Thank you.”

I hugged him back without saying anything and I desperately tried to ignore how perfect being in his arms felt. When I pulled back, he looked at me like he wanted to say something else but Kevin speaking to Valerie behind where we were snapped us both out of our daze.

“I’ll text you later, okay?” I whispered and Jared nodded again.

“Okay.”

I smiled at him and turned to gesture to the door. “Ready?”

Everyone said goodbye and I led the detectives to the elevator. The doors had barely closed before Valerie was grinning at me.

“Are you guys dating?”

“Nope,” I replied with a shake of my head as I watched the floor indicator lights. “Jared and I are just friends and he’s been really open to me spending time with the baby.”

They both exchanged a look and I pretended like I hadn’t seen it. The rest of the ride down was in silence and I gave them both hugs as they went out the main doors to where they’d parked in the loading zone. I smiled at Howie and shook my head.

“Well, that was an exciting lunch break.”

He looked guilty as he shook his head, too. “I didn’t even see her come in. I feel terrible.”

“Don’t. She intentionally waited until she could get by you. You can’t be everywhere all of the time, Howie.”

I wrapped him in a hug before getting into my car and heading back to work. I didn’t even have a chance to walk through my office door before Robin was calling me into hers. When I made it inside, she looked up at me.

“An email just came through. They arrested the mother in the Hart baby case?”

I fell into a chair that was in front of her desk. “Yeah. She showed up at his place while I was there and wanted to see the baby.”

“Wow. That’s pretty ballsy.” She stared at me for a moment. “You’re spending a lot of time with Jared Hart.”

“We’re just friends,” I insisted for the second time that day. “Nothing more.

Robin’s all-knowing gaze held mine for a moment. “Uh huh.”

“I’m serious.”

“I’ve known you a long time, Gibson. Don’t bullshit me,” she said, eyes still locked with mine. “I don’t know why you’re fighting it but I hope it’s not because of work. I can assign their case to someone else easily enough. Don’t be a chicken. Go after what you want because life’s too short.”

Something in her tone told me that she was speaking from personal experience and I swallowed as I searched her face for something. Anything. “What is going on with you?”

“I’m old and wise, Steph.” She turned to look at her computer, effectively dismissing me. “Just take my words to heart.”

I cleared my throat and stood from my desk. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

For the rest of the afternoon, Robin’s words replayed in my head. I was completely useless at work and ended up leaving around five to head home. When I got there, the house was empty and loneliness hit me hard.

I had no desire to be home. I wanted to be with the boys. I wanted to be with Jared. All of the excuses I had been making suddenly felt so silly. Robin was right- the case could be reassigned. All of the bullshit I’d said about him not having time to date went right out the window because I was already spending my time with him anyway.

I didn’t want to be just friends. Not anymore.

Moving quickly, I changed into a pair of jeans, a short sleeved shirt, and sneakers. I didn’t bother doing anything else before running out to my car. I stopped by the grocery store and loaded up on ingredients to make my favorite chicken pasta dish and headed back to Jared’s place.

I parked in a free spot inside the resident parking lot and grabbed my stuff to head inside. Howie held the door open for me and grinned when I placed a kiss on his weathered cheek.

“Two times in one day. Mr. Hart is a lucky man.”

“Well, I figured I’d make him dinner,” I replied as I held up the grocery bags. “He’s been living on take-out and he has to be sick of it.”

Howie chuckled and nodded his head. “He’s actually down here in the mail center right now.”

“Oh, perfect. Can I leave these here for a minute?” I gestured to the bags and Howie nodded quickly, relieving me of my load. I squeezed his hand and started towards where the building resident’s mailboxes were. I turned the corner and spotted Jared standing in the mail center with Chris in his arms. A smile hit my face but I froze when I realized they weren’t alone.

I stepped back so that I was behind one of the floor plants and out of sight so I could watch him interact with the pretty woman he was talking to. I had seen her once or twice during my comings and goings but had never spoken to her.

She looked to be around my age, maybe younger, with shiny brown hair and flawless make-up. She was petite all around, about five inches shorter than me and a slender frame. I never had any self-esteem issues when it came to my body but I suddenly felt like a giraffe with huge hips.

I couldn’t completely hear the conversation from where I was standing but they both laughed at something Jared said. When she reached up to squeeze his shoulder, he let her and I felt my chest squeeze slightly. Jealously like I’ve never felt in all of my life hit me hard and it only increased when she used that same hand to run her fingers through Chris’s hair.

“So, I’ll stop by later then,” I heard her say and Jared nodded his head, that handsome smile still on his face.

“Sounds good.”

They both began walking towards where I was hiding and I whipped around. Thankful I’d gone home and changed into my sneakers, I tore across the lobby of the building and ducked behind Howie’s counter. He looked down at me in alarm and I just shook my head quickly.

“Please. Don’t let him know I’m here.”

He nodded, his alarm turning to confusion, but he looked away from me and focused his gaze on something else. I watched from my position below as he offered a small smile to someone.

“Mr. Hart, Ms. Swanson. Is there anything I can do for you?”

I heard them both say there wasn’t and Jared bid Howie a good night right as the elevator chimed to announce its arrival. A few moments passed before Howie looked down at me.

“They’re gone, miss.”

I blew out a long breath and ran a hand down my face. I forced myself to my feet and pasted a smile that I was sure looked scary onto my face. “Thanks, Howie. Don’t tell him I was here, okay?”

He started to protest but I just gave him a quick hug, grabbed my groceries, and rushed out of the building. Once I was to my car, I got in and dropped my forehead to my steering wheel.

So much for not being a chicken. I had friend-zoned him for too long and lost my chance altogether.