Page 29 of Be Courageous

“Sure. But I need to talk to Grayson first.”

Concerned, Grayson glanced toward their rented beach house. His mother stood on the main deck holding eleven-month-old Mary Mae, who wore a bonnet to rival Fitz’s straw hat. “Am I in trouble?”

“’Course not. Let’s go put our feet in the water.”

That was about all Fitz really did, unlike his father who used to take Grayson a hundred yards into the deep blue so they could catch waves on their boogie boards.

They went to stand where the water swirled around their ankles and the sand shifted under their feet.

“I’ll get right to the point.” Fitz slanted him a sidelong look. “I’d like to marry your mother, but I want your blessing first.”

The ocean pulled away from them and Grayson sank deeper into the sand. The words came as no surprise. Fitz had been part of their lives nonstop since his abduction. But, as far as Grayson could tell, his mother never had him up to her bedroom. Sometimes when they kissed, though, it went on and on, prompting Grayson to look away.

He searched himself for resentment or anger, but all he felt was inevitability. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Yeah?” Fitz pivoted so they were facing each other. “You sure?”

Meeting the man’s bright-green gaze, Grayson realized he couldn’t ask for a better father for his sisters. With “Fitzy” in her life, Olivia would forget her old daddy. And Mary Mae had never met her father. Only Grayson would hold on to the memories. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t rely on Fitz from time to time. He nodded while swallowing the lump in his throat. “Positive.”

Fitz sent him his trademark ghostly smile. “Thank you. I had a son once,” he added unexpectedly. “Well, two sons, actually, but Collin was just a baby. My older son, Rory, was about your age. He would have liked you.”

Surprise and then pity stole into Grayson. His mother had mentioned once that Fitz had lost his entire family to mob retaliation. “I’m sure I would have liked him, too.”

They shared a pained smile.I could never hate this man,Grayson thought.

Olivia’s voice broke them apart. “Fitzy, come see!”

Fitz, who suffered his nickname with stoicism, headed back to Olivia. “Oh, I see. You made a drawbridge.”

“So crabs can get in.”

“Oh, a castle for crabs. I guess I’m not moving in.” His attention fell to her shoulders, and he pulled a tube of sunscreen from the pocket of his shorts. “Time for more protection, Livvy.”

“Aww.” As Olivia brushed the sand off her hands and stood, Grayson watched them together, acting like daughter and father already. Jerry Saunders would have wanted that. It was like he’d hand-picked Fitz to take his place.

Is that true?Grayson put the question to his father, confident that he could hear him.

His dad hadn’t spoken to him in an audible voice since the kidnapping. But a wave rolling onto the shore behind him seemed to say, “Yes,” as it foamed across the sand. A seagull gave a cry of exhilaration while winging toward the water’s surface. And Grayson sensed his father was smiling.

BE NOT AFRAID

PROLOGUE

Ruby Bonheur gaped at the test strip in her hand. The shock rolling over her stole her breath as she beheld the double-pink stripes. That second line wasnotsupposed to be there. She had taken precautions—well, as consistently as she was capable of being.

The test had to be wrong. Only it said right there on the box: 98 percent accurate. And she had been feeling a teeny bit sick every morning for the past two weeks.

I’m pregnant.

Her heart beat a tattoo of denial. What was God thinking? This couldn’t happen now with her journalism career in full swing!

A lead investigative reporter, Ruby had exposed corruption and fraudsters all along the East Coast, including, most recently, the powerful Centurion Cohort down in Savannah, Georgia. At that point, WTKR had stolen her away from WAVY television by offering her an obscene salary just to track down every corrupt cop, corporation, or politician she could find.

For a girl who’d once wasted her degree in journalism by waitressing at Showstoppers, she’d sure come a long way. And she owed a lot of her success—most of it, in fact—to her new husband, Tony, and her newfound faith in God. Tony had taught her that all things were possible when she relied on God for strength. This was the first time God had let her down.

I can’t have a baby.

It would ruin everything. The fabulous run on her career would come to a screeching halt the moment she shared her news with anyone. Tony would view her pregnancy as a reason for her to cut back on her hours at work. They might have to move since their beachfront rental wouldn’t accommodate a growing family. And then there was her boss who would pull her off the set the minute she started showing—pregnant news reporters were bad for the ratings.

---