Page 44 of False Evidence

In sleep, JT’s face was free of the lines he’d earned in the twenty-two years he’d been CEO of a multimillion-dollar international engineering firm. She’d met him six years into his tenure, back when he had his own dreams of entering politics.

The man she’d first met at a Talon & Drake holiday party sixteen years ago had been so very different from the one she’d said goodbye to at the same event nine years later.

Who had he become in the last seven years?

Was he more like his former incarnation or the latter?

Honestly, it was hard to imagine either version of him willingly babysitting a toddler for any length of time, let alone agreeing to care for Gemma indefinitely.

Yet he had. And he’d done a good job of it.

A few hours ago, after the dinner dishes were done and they settled in the living room. Gemma had grabbed her tatteredGoodnight Moonboard book from the diaper bag and climbed onto JT’s lap, demanding he read it to her.

Alexandra’s eyes had burned with tears as he read with gusto and Gemma giggled wildly. It was decidedlynota bedtime story the way Uncle Tee read it.

Her eyes burned again just thinking about it. She let out a soft sniff. She would not cry.

“Hey, sweetheart.” JT’s voice was soft and sleepy. His arm tightened around her. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Gemma’s safe.”

She wanted to protest that that wasn’t why she was fighting tears, but she also didn’t want to admit whathadtriggered them.

She did the cowardly thing and buried her face in his side and let him hold her.

“Your daughter is really amazing, Lex. A genius, just like her mom. You know she told me a knock-knock joke?”

She swiped at her eyes and said, “Did she make a raspberry sound?”

“Yep.”

“She started doing that last week. It will never not be funny.”

“I had no idea kids her age could…have so much personality.”

“What about Grace?”

“I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”

She could believe that. “I should go check on her.”

His arm tightened. “I haven’t heard a peep from the baby monitor. Stay a little longer? Holding you like this…it reminds me of the night we met. I held you all night, sleeping in my slacks even though I had more comfortable clothes down the hall. But I didn’t dare leave you.”

She let out a soft laugh. He was right. They both were still dressed. They’d settled on the couch to brainstorm ways to prove her innocence, and she’d slowly inched toward him until she was snug against his side.

Sliding into sleep had been inevitable from there. It was the first time she’d truly relaxed in days.

“I needed this as much as I needed you then.”

He kissed her forehead. “I will always be here for you, Lex.”

He’d made that promise before. That first night, in fact. It had taken him a lot of years, but he did eventually break it.

But it wasn’t really fair to hold a man to a promise he made to a total stranger and think it would mean the same thing after she’d called off their wedding years later.

She’d been the first to break a promise.

“I appreciate that, but someday, you’re going to meet the woman I could never be for you, and she won’t be thrilled with me coming around for emotional support.”

“Impossible. You’re the only one for me. I’ve known that from the day we met.”

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