Free Somebody's Baby by Annie Jones Page B

off to Josie if he should need to.
    “Thank you,” Conner whispered and it was clear he meant it as heartfelt gratitude to God.
    That humbled Adam but did not reassure him.
    Then Conner placed his hand on Adam’s sleeve, balled the fabric in his fist then pulled both Adam and Nathan into a tight embrace. “My prayers are answered. You’ve come home.”
    Adam stiffened.
    Come home? Is that what he had done? He sought Josie. When their eyes met, he tried in one look to convey his confusion, his uncertainty, his panic.
    She smiled. A wonderful smile that spoke of long longed-for reunions, at the joy of homecoming, of hope.
    Conner took a deep breath and exhaled in short huffs as if he were… sobbing?
    Adam tried to swallow. He had no idea how to respond to this. Anger, bitterness, rejection, even hatred—he had steeled himself well for any of those. But this?
    “I, uh, I don’t—” He started to pat the old man’s back but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Again he fixed his eyes on Josie’s.
    “You know what, Mr. Burdett? Why don’t you come into the kitchen and have a seat while I dish you up a big old slice of that pie I promised?”
    Adam had charged out ready to come to Josie’s defense no matter what it took and here she had ended up rescuing him. And with nothing more substantial or less significant than pie.
    “Hmm?” Conner pulled away at last.
    “Pie?” She laid her delicate hand on the curve of his shoulder to draw his attention toward her. “It’s cherry. And if you’ll have a seat, I’d be honored to serve you up a piece.”
    “Thank you, my dear.” He gave her a nod. “But first, give me a moment. I want to…” He raised his hand.
    Without thinking, Adam shied away, caught himself and forced his body to go perfectly still.
    Conner’s dry, trembling palm brushed along the side of Adam’s face.
    “I just…” Conner touched Adam’s cheek, his jaw, then dropped his hand to his shoulder. “I just want to look at my boy.”
    My boy? Even commanding up every ounce of anger and disappointment he had ever felt toward this man, Adam could not make those words sound pejorative or hard-hearted. There was just so much yearning in them, so much peace and pride.
    Don’t you mean your stray? Adam wanted to say. Yes, wanted to say it with all his being. Not because it seemed appropriate but because he wanted to push the old man away.
    He wanted to throw a barrier up between them. One that had existed there for so long. Adam had based his every decision the last eighteen months on the belief that that barrier justified his contemptible plan. And now…
    And now Conner Burdett was standing before him, a shell of his former self, wiping a tear from under his eye with one gnarled knuckle. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, Adam. Not before…well, not before we met again in heaven.”
    “Oh.” The softest, saddest sound ever escaped Josie’s lips.
    Adam looked at her, knowing she was thinking not just about him and his father but also about what she would have given to have heard such conciliatory words from her own mother or even her sister. The sweetness of her sorrow penetrated Adam’s life-hardened exterior and opened something up in him that had been closed off for far too long.
    “And this little fellow.” Conner gave Nathan’s plump leg a shake. “Hey! I know who you are. Do you know who I am?”
    “Ya-ya-ya.”
    “Um, uh…” Adam had no idea what to say.
    Conner didn’t wait for him to come up with something. He lifted Nathan’s small body from the crook of Adam’s arm. “You know who I am, little man? I am your daddy’s daddy.”
    “Since when?” Adam muttered, needing to put things back in perspective. He stepped forward to take the child away.
    “Since the first time I held you in my arms. You were about the same age as this young fellow.” Conner patted the small boy’s belly. “Looked a lot like him, except you were a skinny thing, with big, sad eyes,