Shouts and screams came from Jared’s house as he pulled into the driveway. Sure he was hearing things, he turned off the motor and raised a hand to shush Libby when she would have spoken to him.
And there it was, just audible in the ensuing silence—a high-pitched feminine voice and deeper masculine shouts carried on the brisk November air. The rain had washed away the pewter clouds, and the mid-afternoon sun was bright and golden.
“Was that…Darren’s voice?” Libby asked, pushing her door open.
A feminine shout was clearly heard this time. “Well, where is she? Where is she?”
Libby turned to him sharply. “That was your mother.”
Where was who? Considering his mother was watching his children, Jared headed for the house at a run, drawing the most obvious conclusion.
He found Carlie, Julio and Darren standing in an animated knot in the middle of the living room, all shouting at once in what could only be described as hysteria.
Near the fireplace, Justy paced with Zachary, who screamed at the top of his lungs.
“I told you it would help if you took her to the park this afternoon!” his mother was railing at his brother. “She had to be in all afternoon yesterday because of the rain. But nooo! You couldn’t stop arguing with Justy long enough to help!”
“I said I’d take her!” Darren roared back. “But I was in the middle of…”
“The baby without marriage discussion. I know!”
“Mom!”
“Carlotta.” Julio’s rolling accent gave the name an exotic sound. “You must stop screaming. Darren did nothing to—”
Carlie rounded on him. “Don’t you dare take his side! All I asked for was a little cooperation…”
“Yes, cara, but to you cooperation must always be on your terms. He—”
“What? Well, maybe you’d…”
“Mom!” Darren shouted, taking hold of her shoulders. “Forget my personal life! Forget taking sides! We’ve got to find Savannah!”
In the moment of stark silence that followed, Jared asked in a choked tone, “Find Savannah?” And as his family turned to him, surprised and horrified by his presence, he asked, his heart lurching uncomfortably, “You mean you’ve lost her?”
His mother began to sob. He heard Libby’s intake of breath as she came up beside him.
Julio put an arm around her and said calmly, “I don’t believe she is lost. Darren brought lunch, and we all ate together. That was only thirty minutes ago. I think she’s playing. Hiding.”
“But where?” Carlie demanded. “I’ve looked everywhere!”
Julio sighed patiently. “If I heard you screaming as you have been, I would not come out, either.”
“I went to the workshop after lunch to see if that oak cabinet would fit in the restaurant’s kitchen,” Darren explained. “I think I’d have seen Savannah leave.”
Libby, heart thumping, followed Jared as he ran through the kitchen and out the back, where only about ten yards of grassy sand separated them from the ocean. She’d walked with Savannah here on quiet afternoons. She looked up and down the beach, hoping the child had simply decided to walk on her own.
There was no sign of her. Reluctantly, she followed his gaze toward the water. The ocean was embroidered with sunlight, the waves gentle. There was no telltale evidence of her presence, no swatch of color on the waves, no waving arm. But would there have been if she’d walked into the water, unaware that…
Then she heard Jared’s swift, pithy curse. She turned, as did Carlie, Julio, Darren and Justy, who’d trailed them outside.
Jared was looking up. She followed his gaze and saw Savannah standing on the railing of the little porchlike detail outside her bedroom window two stories up. She held the window frame for support.
Carlie opened her mouth to shriek, but Julio covered the sound with his hand. Libby felt her own instinctive cry strangle in her throat as Jared and Darren ran into the house.
Savannah saw her and smiled cheerfully. She freed one hand to wave, then lost her balance and flailed the air.
“Savannah!” Libby said her name on a gasp. “Hold on with both hands!” She pushed against the air, as though she could reach her and hold her there.
Julio ran to stand under the little porch. “Hold on, cara!” he called.
The upstairs window opened and Jared crawled out into the narrow space.
“Daddy!” Savannah was still smiling. “I was flying to find Mommy. Like Rosie!”
He had to walk sideways, crablike, to reach her. In an instant he had her and handed her to Darren, who hung halfway out the window.
Carlie threw her arms around Libby and wept. Julio came to put his arms around both of them. “See, now. All is well that ends without difficulty.”
Carlie sniffed and held on.
And that was when Libby noticed the round-faced, redheaded woman standing just beyond them, clutching a file folder and a yellow pad. She wore glasses, a khaki-colored raincoat and an apologetic smile.
“Hello,” she said. “I’m Genevieve Griffin from Children’s Services. I found the front door open and followed the voices.” Her glance went to Savannah’s second-story perch. “I’m a day early, but I had a schedule change and hoped you wouldn’t mind.” She looked upward to where Savannah had been. “You seem to be having quite a day.”
Libby gazed heavenward with a “Take me now Lord” plea and waited for lightning to strike, or for some fortuitous tsunami to pull her out to sea. But her prayer went unanswered.
Forced with having to cope, she dredged up a smile from somewhere and led the way inside. She could hear Carlie and Julio arguing quietly behind them as Genevieve Griffin talked about how much she loved the coast and what a treat it was to visit.
In the house, Justy handed Libby the screaming baby and excused herself. “Darren and I’ll make coffee.”
“But I wanted to expl—” Darren began, but Justy pulled him with her toward the kitchen. “Carlie, you want to help?”
“No, I want to tell Miss Griffin…”
But Julio caught her hand and pulled her to follow Justy and Darren.
Jared, with Savannah riding his arm and looking somewhat chastened, intercepted them in the middle of the living room. He extended his free hand. “Mrs. Griffin,” he said. Libby exchanged a look of wry despair with him. “I didn’t see you come in.”
She explained how she’d walked into an empty house. “I believe you were doing a high-wire act when I arrived,” she said with a smile. She had to speak loudly to be heard over Zachary’s screams.
Libby went to kiss Savannah’s cheek. “Sweetie, are you all right?”
Savannah looked put out. “Daddy yelled at me,” she complained.
“Well, you mustn’t climb out the window like that. You could have fallen and gotten hurt.”
Savannah folded little arms argumentatively. “I was gonna fly.”
“Fly,” Genevieve Griffin repeated worriedly.
“Like Rosie in Libby’s book,” Jared said. “It’s a long story. Would you like to sit down?”
“Excuse me a minute, please.” Libby backed away toward the kitchen. “I’ll get Zachary a bottle. That ought to quiet him down.”
The kitchen was a hive of silent activity. No one seemed to be speaking to anyone. Justy was pouring water in the coffee maker’s well, Darren stood over a whirring microwave, Carlie was putting cream and sugar on a tray and Julio sloshed hot water in the shamrock-sprigged coffee server.
Everyone turned to her when she walked into the room. Carlie hurried to take the baby from her while she ran a bottle under hot water.
“We have to explain that it was all our fault!” Darren insisted. “After what that woman saw this afternoon, she’ll yank the kids from you for sure.”
“Darren!” Justy admonished.
“Well, it’s true,” Carlie sniffed, large tears sliding down her cheeks as she held Zachary to her and rocked him. “It was all my fault. I left her coloring because I wanted to wash out bedding and…”
“Please, Carlie.” Libby looked at her over her shoulder as she wiped off the bottle. “I’ve been around Savannah long enough to know she can be gone in a minute. I’m sure Jared will be able to explain.”
And apparently he had. When Libby returned to the living room with a much happier baby greedily sucking on his bottle, she found Jared and Mrs. Griffin in what appeared to be a very amiable conversation.
“A couple of weeks doesn’t seem like a very long acquaintance,” he was saying, “but we had the children in common and that seemed to accelerate our attraction to each other. We were married yesterday.”
“Well. My goodness.” Mrs. Griffin appeared surprised, but not unpleasantly so. “We do like to be kept informed of these things, but I guess we can intrude only so far.” She turned to smile at the gulping baby in Libby’s arms. “He certainly seems much happier.”
“He missed lunch,” Libby explained, “while Savannah was missing.”
Savannah, apparently over her pique, pointed to Jared and told Mrs. Griffin, “This is my daddy.”
The caseworker smiled. “Yes, I know.”
“My other one died in the car.”
“Yes.”
“I was going to fly to find my mommy.”
“You mean…fly to heaven?” Mrs. Griffin asked.
“Not that mommy,” Savannah corrected. Then she pointed to Libby. “Her!”
Libby blinked.
“They had a wedding,” Savannah explained for the caseworker’s benefit. “Now I have a daddy and a mommy. Just like before. Want to see my room?”
“Sure.” Mrs. Griffin stood and offered her hand, and Savannah hauled her upstairs.
Jared took Zachary from Libby and they followed. “Well, didn’t you make a good impression?” he teased softly as they went up the stairs. “Quiet the screaming baby and go from nanny to mommy just like that.”
Libby beamed. “I’m good at this.”
Jared arched an eyebrow. “You’re good at a lot of things.”
Savannah explained in laborious and animated detail about Rosie and Tux and how they flew at night to find out where her mother’s latest trip had taken her.
“And in the nighttime,” Savannah said, “the stars twinkle ‘cause Libby did it with special paint.”
“Well.” Mrs. Griffin glanced around her at the room that had everything in it a child could want and spread her arms. “This does look like as perfect a situation as one could hope for for two little children.”
“You’re not upset about the…?” Libby pointed to the window.
Mrs. Griffin laughed lightly. “My son once drove our car to the movies.”
When Jared and Libby did not react with appropriate shock, she added with a roll of her eyes, “He was ten at the time. I know children are quick and the effort to keep them safe can often defy the efforts of the most vigilant of us. What we watch for in placing children is the development of a comfort and satisfaction in the everydayness of their lives. And I certainly see that here. Savannah seems very comfortable with both of you. Enough so that she’s willing to move on with her life. What more can we ask?”
“Have you met Lady Barmont?” Jared asked.
She sighed. “Yes. She seems like a nice woman who’d like to make up for what she’s done to her family in the past by raising her sister’s children. Her parents have been gone for some time.” She eyed Libby’s border. “If she had her way, Paris, Rome and London would be part of Savannah’s everyday reality.”
Jared and Libby exchanged a grim glance.
She smiled from one to the other. “But I’m going to give you high enough marks to try to tip the scales in your favor despite her blood connection. Have faith.”
Carlie insisted on walking Mrs. Griffin to her car and assuming the blame for Savannah’s mishap.
“I’m so sorry,” she told Jared after the woman had left. She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “I don’t know what I’ll do if that hurts your case.”
He patted her back consolingly. “She seemed to understand. And she was pleased generally with Savannah’s adjustment.”
Carlie breathed a sigh of relief. “I certainly hope so. How was the bed-and-breakfast?”
Jared saw the interest in his mother’s eyes. She wanted to believe that his decision to marry Libby had been based on more than the need to present to the court a mother for his children.
And he was sure it had been, now that he thought about it. But he had a long history of taunting her by withholding information.
“Very comfortable,” he said. He turned to Libby, who seemed also to have read his mother’s mind and was doing her best to maintain a straight face. “Wasn’t it?”
“Very,” she confirmed. “The woman who runs it makes her own bagels. Imagine that.”
Carlie shook her head at Libby in exasperation. “Married to him one day, and already he’s gotten to you. I don’t want details, I just want to know that you…were able to relax, talk about…what people who are going to spend a lifetime together talk about.”
Darren pulled his mother away from Jared and took her place. “Forget talk. I want details.”
Julio appeared beside Carlie. He had Zachary on his shoulder. “Did I hear there are going to be details? Speak slowly, please. My English is still a little rough.”
Jared laughed, Carlie put a horrified hand to her mouth, Justy covered her eyes and Darren hooked an arm around Julio’s shoulders. “You know, you’re okay, Julio. You’re going to be all right as a stepfather.”
Jared had to agree. Knowing his mother would be loved by this kind and caring man with an active sense of humor would make up in part for her being far away.
Darren turned to Justy. “Don’t you want details?”
She smiled blandly at her employer. “Absolutely. Let’s have them. Did you bathe in champagne? Do it on the dresser? What?”
Jared was accustomed to his family’s and Justy’s incessant teasing, but he’d learned something about himself last night that made taking it lightly difficult.
He turned to Libby, wondering if she was embarrassed, if she needed him to put a stop to this. But he saw that her eyes were alight with laughter. She slipped her arm around his waist and leaned into his shoulder with an ease that pleased him.
“Let’s just say,” she said with a certain primness he knew to be out of character and strictly for their audience’s benefit, “that we made excellent use of the pâté.”
Darren and Julio hooted and exchanged a high five. Justy giggled and Carlie opened her arms to encompass Jared and Libby. “I’m thrilled to know there’s hope for you!” she exclaimed.
Jared exchanged an ironic look with Libby, both of them amused that everyone thought they were kidding.
Carlie stood back to announce, “You understand, of course, that you have Julio and I as houseguests until the court date. I can’t go home until I know the children are yours.”
He had no problem with that. He wanted to believe that things would go well and they would need help celebrating.
“Great,” he said. “You can help me sort through a box of metalwork fixtures, see if there’s anything you’ll want for your shop. Julio? Can you deal with this for a couple of days?”
“Of course,” he replied with a courtly bow. “I am in for the long…what is it?”
“Long haul?” Darren suggested.
Julio frowned. “Hall? As a dance hall?”
“No,” Darren corrected. “Haul. H-a-u-l, as to pull.”
Julio thought about that a moment, then smiled. “To pull things together?”
“Yes!” Darren applauded his perception.
“Like us,” Justy added, putting an arm around Carlie and one around Darren. “Pulling together so that Jared and Libby get the children.”
“I understand.” Julio put an arm around Darren and one around Jared, who still held Libby to him. “We are backs united.”
Darren tried to interpret that and apparently failed; he turned to Jared. Jared winced and considered the words, trying to make sense of them.
“A united front?” Justy asked.
“Yes! That is it!”
“I hope this thing works out between Justy and me,” Darren whispered to Jared. “When Julio marries Mom, we’re going to need her as an interpreter.”
LIBBY STOOD in the middle of the children’s room at just after two the morning of their court date. She’d spent the past ten minutes going from Savannah’s bed to Zachary’s crib, absorbing the reality of their presence in her life.
She couldn’t fathom what her future could hold without them, without their father. How could it go on in such paltry circumstances when she’d known such riches with them? It didn’t seem possible.
Warm hands came down on her shoulders out of the darkness, but instead of frightening her, they provided her with the comfort she couldn’t find within herself. She knew Jared’s touch so well now after just a week of marriage. She knew every artful and tender fingertip, the protective quality in his palm, the strength in the grip that now wrapped her against him.
“You’re not giving up, are you?” he murmured against her ear.
“No,” she replied softly, but a large tear fell onto his hand, belying her denial. She wanted to believe, but she’d been orphaned as a teenager, tossed around by time and claimed by a pair of children. She knew things could happen over which one had no control.
She wrapped one arm around his, then pointed to the dark, moonless sky beyond the window. The clear, sunny days had finally given way to the more usual cold and rain. “There isn’t even a star to wish on tonight.”
He kissed the side of her neck. “Yes, there is. I have you right here in my arms. You’ve brought light to my days and my nights and every…every itchy, unsatisfied corner of my being. You wouldn’t have been dropped into my life if I hadn’t been meant to keep the children.”
She wanted to believe that. She turned in his arms to look up at him. His eyes and his smile shone in the shadowy room. “You had them before I came into it,” she reminded him.
He nodded. “But you saw how I was doing. You taught me how to enjoy them, how to give to them. How to take what they offer.” He kissed her soundly and crushed her to him. “But you’ve become a part of me in a way that has nothing to do with them. You belong to me as my lover, as my wife, not just as their mother. Do you understand?”
She clung to him, her heartbeat accelerating. Did he mean what she thought she was hearing?
He sensed her uncertainty and clarified it for her. He wouldn’t voice the thought that the children might be taken from them, so he said, instead, “I’m not ever letting you go, Libby. Nothing’s going to take you from me. Nothing. Ever.”
She began to sob, happiness and pain a tangle in her chest.
He lifted her into his arms and carried her back to his room. He placed her in the middle of the bed, climbed in beside her and held her tightly.
She cried her heart out and he let her, because he knew the only true control he had over this situation was his own conviction that Savannah and Zachary were his and nothing would separate him from them.
If he followed the logic of that, he had once thought Mandy was his, and he’d lost her. But now, having known Libby, he understood that it hadn’t been love at all that he’d lost. It had been something more selfish, less substantial. He hadn’t known what love was then.
What he felt for Libby and the children had changed the look in his eyes. Surely a judge would see that. THE COURTHOUSE in Portland was a genteel remnant of a historic past. The mahogany-panelled lobby opened onto various offices, then swept toward a wide marble stairway that led to courtrooms and judges’ chambers. Libby and Jared climbed them holding Savannah between them. She lifted her feet at every other step, swinging between them gleefully. Savannah thought of the day as an exciting family outing.
Since Mrs. Griffin had assured them that even if the judge’s decision did go against them, it would be several days before Savannah and Zachary would be moved, they’d decided against telling her the reason for the visit to the judge.
Carlie, Julio, Darren and Justy followed, Darren carrying Zachary.
A slender, middle-aged woman greeted them in the judge’s office, then guided Jared and Libby and the children into the judge’s chambers.
“I’m afraid the rest of the family will have to wait here,” she told Carlie when she would have followed.
Julio pulled her back toward a bank of chairs. “Come, cara,” he said. “We will sit here with Darren and Justine and be the united front.”
The judge was a tall, bulky man with a receding hairline and shrewd brown eyes. He greeted them with a courteous but professional distance Libby guessed had to go with the job.
He asked questions about their employment and their new marriage. He raised an eyebrow when he calculated that the ceremony had taken place after Lady Barmont had appeared on the horizon.
“Jared hired me as the children’s nanny,” Libby explained, careful not to look at Jared. Technically, that was the truth. She hadn’t said she was a nanny. “And we fell in love.”
The judge flipped a page on his report. “After two weeks?” He looked up at Jared.
Jared met his gaze. “I was in love with her in two days,” he said. “I waited two weeks to give her time to adjust to the idea.”
The judge studied him with damnably unrevealing eyes. Then he turned to Libby.
“And how long did it take you?”
She smiled because this answer was really true. “Until the first time I saw him deal with Zachary during a sleepless night. It takes a big man—a big anybody—to remember the baby’s needs and not your own when you’ve been up twenty hours.”
The judge smiled fractionally. “We had colicky twins. I know what you mean.” He grew serious again. “So you’re telling me two single people accustomed to doing what they want when they want and with a freedom this decision could change inextricably and forever are willing to turn their lives upside down for two little children?”
Libby shrugged. “Actually, Jared and the children have turned my life right side up. So yes, I am.”
The judge allowed himself another small smile and faced Jared. “And you?”
“Yes.”
“Right side up or upside down?”
Jared laughed softly. “Depends on which day you catch me. But every day they make it all worthwhile.”
The judge made a few notes on his report, then turned his attention to Savannah. “What did you have for breakfast, Savannah?” he asked with a cheerful grin.
“Eggs Ben-a-dick,” she replied, banging together the toes of the patent-leather shoes sticking straight out ahead of her.
The judge blinked and turned to Libby. “Eggs Benedict? Really?”
Libby pointed to Jared. “Jared’s brother is a chef. Savannah loves his cooking. He came over this morning to provide…moral support.”
“He’s waiting out there with Grandma.” Savannah pointed to the door through which they’d come.
“Do you like your new house?” he asked.
Savannah nodded. “I have Rosie and Tux on the wall and stars that twinkle up high. Libby made them.”
Jared explained about Libby’s artistic abilities and the border project.
The judge raised an eyebrow. “And what if you sell your book,” he asked Libby, “then find that the care of two small children puts some of your goals out of your reach?”
“Then I’ll be like every other working mother in the world.” She smiled as Savannah came to scramble up into her lap. “Actually, I imagine it’ll be easier to write books for children with children surrounding me.”
The judge refocused his attention on Savannah. “Do you like living with Jared and Libby, Savannah?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she replied gravely. “My other mom and dad went to heaven. But I can’t go there yet. So I’m gonna stay with them.” Her mood changed with a sudden bright smile. “And this time I have a grandma and a uncle.”
The judge’s expression grew warmly indulgent. “What do you like to do best?”
Savannah launched into a litany that seemed without end. “Painting, walking with Libby on the beach, wearing Daddy’s goggles in the workshop, playing with Spike and Tippy and Scarlett, cooking with Uncle…”
The judge leaned back, a smile on his face as she carried on at length. When she finally finished with the regret that she couldn’t curl his hair because her things were at home, the judge closed his folder, then stood and held a pen across the desk to Jared and turned a legal document toward him. “Sign there. The first X.”
“What is it?” Jared asked, scanning the small, tight print. “Affixed hereto this twentieth day of November…” he began reading.
“The adoption papers,” the judge replied.
Jared’s head came up in surprise. He heard Libby’s little gasp. The judge came around the desk to take the baby from her. “You, too, Mrs. Ransom. Sign the second X.”
“What about Mrs. Barmont?” Jared asked.
Zachary made conversational noises and the judge bounced him around on his hip, the professional neutrality suddenly gone. “Withdrew her petition this morning. Seems her therapist advised her against it, that she wasn’t doing it for the right reasons or something. Anyway, she changed her mind. But I wanted to learn a little about you before going with Mrs. Griffin’s overzealous report. She seems to think you should both be canonized.” He touched his first two fingertips to his forehead. “But I think just a friendly salute from one parent to another will do it. Good luck.”
There were tears and cheers in the judge’s outer office when the family heard the news.
Savannah and Zachary were hugged and passed around and kissed and promised treats.
Darren insisted on taking everyone to dinner. “This is your town, Libby,” he said. “Where’ll we go?”
“Truffles!” Libby replied without hesitation. “Sara and Charlene and I used to go there all the time.” She turned to Jared. “Do you mind if I call and ask them to join us?” She grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pulled him close. “They’ll be so excited about how everything is working out.”
He kissed her, his heart swollen with happiness and goodwill. “Of course not. I’m excited myself. We’ll all stay at the Rockland tonight and drive home in the morning.” He looked at their companions. “Okay with everyone?”
The endorsement was unanimous.