Free Her Valentine Family by Renee Andrews Page B

arms cradled her as lovingly as if she were holding her own child. She rocked gently, while Lainey’smouth puckered around her balled up fist, her tiny thumb hooked within her lips.
    â€œJess,” he whispered, and his heart melted at the sight of her holding his child.
    She’d been watching him, he realized, as he crossed the room. While his eyes had been adjusting to the dimness, hers had been completely aware, and she’d apparently known that he was coming. Known that this was his little girl that she held in her arms.
    â€œHey,” she whispered, so softly he had to move closer to hear. Then she shifted and eased herself up out of the rocker. “Do you want me to carry her to your car?”
    He almost said yes, just so he could see Jessica holding Lainey a little longer, but then he thought better of her offer and edged closer, close enough to slide his arms under Lainey’s back and shift her to his embrace. “I won’t take you from your class,” he whispered. Then he paused, his fingers brushing against Jessica’s arms as they moved his sleeping girl.
    â€œYou have her?” she asked, before she slid her arms away, and he nodded.
    â€œJess,” he said, and the emotion of the moment, of the rightness of it, caused words to fail him.
    Jessica looked at him, her dark eyes peering into his, then she sighed as her gaze moved to Lainey, still sleeping in his arms. “You’re right,” she whispered an easy smile lighting up her face. “She is pretty amazing.”
    â€œYes,” he answered, just as quietly. “She is.” And he wondered if she realized that he wasn’t only talking about the angel in his arms.

Chapter Six
    â€œI wonder whether Chad and Lainey will be at church tonight,” Anna Bowman said, stirring a large pot of bubbling potato soup on the stove as she spoke.
    Jessica donned a green oven mitt, removed the cast iron skillet from the oven and poured the sizzling grease into the cornbread batter. “I don’t think so,” she said, folding the hot oil into the mixture then pouring it all back into the skillet. “When he called me on my way home, he said that he had a ton of papers to grade, and when I mentioned that I was glad my Wednesday class schedule allowed me to go to the night service, he didn’t say anything about coming.” She returned the skillet to the oven and waited, knowing there was more on her mom’s mind than whether Chad and Lainey would be at church tonight.
    Her mother picked up the wooden pepper grinder and gave it several good twists, adding a healthy dose of black pepper to the soup. Then she tasted a spoonful and nodded her approval. “You know, Jess, I’ve been thinking about Chad and Nathan and everything. That boy looks quite a lot like his father. He’s got your mouthand nose, but those eyes. Those are undeniably Martin eyes. Don’t you think it’d be better to tell him the truth before he sees Nathan and figures it out for himself?”
    Jessica had been thinking the same thing all afternoon, particularly after she’d spent so much time with Lainey. Seeing those baby blue eyes on Chad’s daughter and knowing she must have inherited that feature from her mother made Jess realize how extremely unique Nathan’s eyes are and how it’d be nearly impossible for his father not to notice. But thanks to her conversation with Chad during her drive home, she now knew that she had a couple of chances in the near future to tell him about their son. Even if she didn’t know how he’d react to the news.
    â€œChad wants our children to meet and get to know each other, and he’s invited Nathan and me to go to Hydrangea Park Saturday with him and Lainey.”
    Her mother stopped stirring and turned the heat down on the stove. Then she wiped her hands on a dish towel and leaned against the kitchen counter. “And what are you going to do