Dakota’s Mary Janes dug uncomfortably against the bandages covering the wounds from his neck down, but he didn’t dare move her from his side.
He’d taken pains getting them all dressed up, including a bath—which, given that those came about once a week, emphasized the importance of this moment. Even Dakota’s neck brace couldn’t diminish how beautiful she looked in her frilly pink dress with a bow that looked more appropriately sized for a sailboat.
He felt the tug of Drew in his right hand. Before Sarah had ducked off with Sunny she’d dressed him in a tiny gray vest with lime-green bowtie. Jett had reminded him only thirty times not to take it off on the car ride here.
From the stroller, even Timothy’s small fingers played with the button on his own matching vest.
“Jett . . .” Hesitation and hope filled Cassie’s eyes as she stepped forward. Her voice was soft, unsure, as though afraid he was an illusion. “I thought you had a date?”
Drew began to pull Jett’s arm toward the candy table, but he didn’t move. Jett’s lips turned upward slowly, eyes flashing with a hint of mischief. “I do. I just thought you might like to join us.”
Dakota lifted her head from Jett’s chest, and he let go of Drew’s hand long enough to swipe the curl blocking her view behind her ear. Even with several large unicorn bandages covering her cheek, she was beautiful. “I’d like you to meet Dakota. My niece.”
Cassie lifted her hand, a look of recognition dawning. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dakota.”
“And Drew. Her twin brother.” Jett tugged on Drew’s arm, and Drew paused long enough to give a toothy smile.
Jett turned the stroller by degrees. “And this here is Timothy. Their little brother.” He paused significantly. “And they’re the children of whom I have legal custody.”
Cassie paused as she bent over the stroller. She stood upright slowly. “In your custody, you said?”
He nodded. It wasn’t easy to make that motion. For Trina, whom he and the kids had visited in the hospital every day since Dakota had been released, it wasn’t easy. In the hours they had sat beside her, trying to comfort her—their mother. Through the grief of facing broken bones and charges of vehicular homicide for the death of an innocent forty-one-year-old man, it sure wasn’t easy.
“Three kids.”
Jett nodded again.
And Cassie’s smile broke out like the rainbow after the flood. She looked down at all three. “Well, I must say I’m very, very happy to make your acquaintances.”
She shook each of their hands, even the youngest, who continued staring at his button.
“May I?” she said, pausing with both hands on little Timothy’s sides.
He paused, his tone holding the steadiness of the deeper question. “If you want to.”
Nobody could’ve nodded faster than she had. “I do, Jett. More than you know.”
She cupped Timothy’s legs beneath the crook of her elbow, pressing his small body to her. “Is he hurt anywhere?” she asked, touching his back lightly.
“You heard?”
Out of the corner of his eye Jett saw Donna Gene and Edie gliding by, holding on to the arms of two elderly gentlemen. Edie lifted her maroon-feathered hat and waved.
“More than heard. I was just a few cars back.”
Jett nodded solemnly. Even mention of that incident brought storm clouds overhead. “The boys had a few cuts. Dakota here gave us a scare for a few days but—” His voice sounded unsteady. He cleared his throat. “Forensics called it a true miracle. For her to come out with a neck fracture as minor as it is. For the roof not to have been crushed completely right away. Well, I was in that car, I know what an inch lower would’ve meant.”
He wrapped his arm tighter around her dress, hating even the memory of that awful day. For five days he’d sat in the intensive care unit of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital in Nashville, watching Dakota breathe. Waiting. Hoping. Praying. His life had been turned upside down the moment he heard the description of the accident over the radio, taking the stack of priorities in his life and throwing them in the air, over and over and over again, until they came down newly ordered and filed. And one of the top things on the list was being here. Now.
He bent down and whispered in Drew’s ear. Drew, with several gleeful, Tigger-like bounces, hopped for the covered pool table full of candy jars.
A couple of girls followed him.
Jett resumed. “She was quite the snuggler before, weren’t you, Dakota? But now I have a feeling I’m going to be wearing one of those kid carriers for the next eight weeks. Between Timothy and Dakota, I’ll never see my arms again.”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Cassie turned her head toward Bree and the others and gave them a look that screamed Beat it.
Bree just stood there, however, taking a long, slow sip of Cassie’s tea, grinning like she’d landed the best front-row seat in the house.
Ignoring her, Cassie slid a heel his way. “You’d look pretty dashing in one of those twin carriers that straps one kid to the front and one to the back. Would make you a real winner with the ladies.”
His brows rose, interest sparking his eyes. “Is that so? And here I was wasting my energy on pull-ups.”
“Well, nobody’s saying you should quit that.” With Timothy pressed closely to her side, Cassie’s free hand drifted upward and grabbed his tie.
He grinned as she began to tug him down to her level, his smile dropping slightly as his focus moved to her lips.
But just as his face was an inch from hers, the flapping, tooting music of the jazz era stopped, replaced by an obnoxious ringing coming over the speakers and throughout the room. Everyone stopped dancing.
Cassie lifted her voice, her eyes still steady on his. “Cancel it, Caden. Press the red button.”
The teen nodded and pressed the button, the beat of “Blue Suede Shoes” erupting once again through the room.
Cassie shrugged with a smile, her breath on his face. “Work. What are you gonna do?”
Dakota reached out from him just as he closed in again, grabbed for the string pearls around Cassie’s neck. Jett swiftly grabbed her hand, stilled it as he leaned down.
He was close enough to feel the tip of her petite nose against his.
The music stopped again. The infernal ringing blasted the room.
He felt his tie slacken. Felt her hang her head momentarily on his shoulder. Then, she lifted her finger.
“Just one second. One.” Her grin was bright enough to light the whole room. “Stay right there. Don’t move a muscle.”
She moved quickly to the teen, who was now mouthing apologies, and took the phone, making as though to cancel it again. But as Jett watched her face, she stilled. Her lips parted. She yanked the USB cord connecting the phone to the speaker, and the room went silent as she turned her back to the crowd and pressed the phone to her ear.
“I kiss you, Uncle Jett.” Dakota gingerly moved her neck up toward him and pecked his cheek.
Jett grinned and kissed her cheek back. “Thanks, baby girl. How about some candy?”
He moved slowly toward the candy table, sending furtive glances to Cassie while he loaded down a plate. She appeared very intent on whatever conversation she was having.
Food in hand, he moved over to Drew’s table, where his feet swung merrily between a flock of teen girls. His fingers and mouth were covered in chocolate.
Cassie’s head tilted down and, still clinging to Timothy on one hip, she began to nod rapidly.
“Sit here a bit?” Jett sat Dakota in front of a plate loaded with chocolate. “I’m going just over there for one minute.”
Dakota barely registered him as she stared at the plate then shoveled a handful of M&M’s as though they were jewels.
Jett swiftly went up to Cassie’s side. She was nodding to the floor. “Well, I’m very glad she told you to call me.” She spoke rapidly, the soft husk of the former moment long gone. “No, I don’t need a night to think on it.”
She paused, listening.
“I understand, and I’m prepared for that, sir.”
Again, pause.
“Right now. I’ll be there in three minutes.”
And before he knew it, the phone dropped to her side, where she began sliding it against the hip of her dress as if expecting a pocket. When none magically appeared, she pressed the phone to his chest, followed a second later by Timothy. “I’ll be right back.”
She danced around him, then began to sprint across the room.
“Where are you going?” he called back. “Don’t you want your phone?”
“Consider it collateral,” she shouted back.
Suddenly she stopped and plucked the heels off her feet, then bent down, lifted Bree’s legs one by one, and yanked Bree’s flats right off her.
Five seconds later, she was streaking across the yard.
Jett sidled up to Bree, who was holding the heels in her hands like they were jellyfish. “What’s happening?”
But Bree just shook her head. “I don’t know. The klepto took my shoes and left.”
They both looked out the window. “You know, I prepared myself for the possibility of her running away after seeing these kids. I just didn’t expect it so literally.”
For fifteen endless minutes he sat at the table beside Dakota, taking intermittent sips of tea, keeping his eyes on the door. Where could she have gone? What phone call could be so important she would, quite literally, drop everything and go? Not only deserting him midkiss, but the very program, the whole building she oversaw.
Just as his tea was at the dregs, the doors opened. His eyes lifted. He set his cup down and rose.
Light from the hallway shone upon her. Her biceps were taut as she gripped two young girls against her sides. Her formerly polished hair now sputtered out in different directions. Black smears just beneath the eyes hinted that she had shed tears. But while many in the room didn’t notice all of these details, he knew one thing they all did see: she was positively radiant.
Cassie caught Jett’s eye and walked through the gazing crowd, glancing often to the teen walking beside her. “Jett,” she said when they arrived in front of him. She took a breath. Then another. “Allow me to introduce you to Kennedy.”
The little girl peeked her eyes out from beneath Cassie’s neck.
Jett nodded, unsure of what was happening. “Nice to meet you, Kennedy.”
“And Deidre.”
The girl outstretched her hand silently, and he shook it.
“And Star, one of my most wonderful Haven teens.”
As he began to shake her hand, Cassie added, “And one of the three in my custody. Permanently.”
His grip tightened on Star’s fingers as his face jolted Cassie’s way. “Three?”
Cassie nodded, the spark in her eyes just daring him to question her.
Couples swirled around the stuffy room, the scent of chocolate heavy in the air. Slowly, Jett took in the faces around him, from the syrup dripping off Drew’s chin to the baby in his arms. From Dakota sitting so sweetly in her chair to the two young girls on Cassie’s hips. Finally, to the teen standing, beaming, beside Cassie.
“So, what’ll it be, Mr. Don’t-Want-Kids?” Cassie said. “The ball’s in your court.”
Without waiting one second more, he bent down and met her lips.
There are moments in life when time stops and the objects in the world around you quiet into hovering silence. Important moments. Critical moments.
This was theirs. And he could practically taste the hay barrels, the porch swings, the summer’s-eve sunsets in it.
Gently he moved his hand to her face, feeling the soft curls of her hair on his fingertips as he slowly stepped back. When he did, he saw the unmistakable twinkle in her eye.
“I’d say it’s about time we joined the same team.”