Page 95 of Chasing Dreams
Austin carried a cup of hot water and a tea bag he’d brought from the lobby and set them on the nightstand beside her.
She dunked the tea bag idly.
Austin’s phone rang and she snatched it up without thinking. “Yes?”
“Shaine? Ken.”
“Well?”
“Are you sitting down?”
Her heart did a back flip in her chest. She groped for Austin’s hand and squeezed it unthinkingly. “Yes.”
“The prints match.”
Her heart stopped: An enormous swell of emotion rose up inside her like a tidal wave. This was what she’d yearned for, prayed for, begged for. Her self-protective shields raised and gave her a moment’s doubt. “Are you sure?”
“We’re sure. They texted a photo. He looks just like the picture you gave me. Older. The footprints match, the description matches, the blood type matches. They’ve just run the DNA. We’re a hundred percent sure this is your nephew.”
Exhilaration and relief pressed up in her throat. She grew light-headed.
“Shaine?” Austin said, when she swayed where she sat.
In shock, she thrust the phone at him.
Austin exchanged a few words with Ken and tapped off the call. His phone pinged immediately. He opened it and stared for a second, then held it out to Shaine.
She took the phone and stared at the image of the child with pale hair and familiar wide blue eyes. Maggie’s eyes. Jack’s eyes. The toddler stared sheepishly at the person taking the photo, one finger in the corner of his mouth.
Promptly she burst into tears.
“Hey,” he said, scooting beside her. He cupped her face in a palm and rubbed her back.
Shaine pulled the phone to her breast and leaned against Austin. “When—when can we go? I didn’t ask.”
“It looks like we’re going to Kansas City again,” he said.
Shaine leaned back and looked up at him. Wiping her face, she got up and hurried over to her suitcase. In its hiding place in a pocket, she found what she was looking for and pulled it to her chest.
Bear.
Chapter 20
Ken McKade had double-checked and assured her a dozen times that the identification was positive. DNA had proven his identity without a shadow of a doubt. The child the agency was bringing to her was Jack. Her self-preservation instincts wouldn’t let her get her hopes too high until she saw him for herself. There had been too many obstacles and delays already. Another would devastate her.
Unwilling to miss the events taking place, Ken met them in the Kansas City airport restaurant that morning. Seems the FBI could pull a few strings to get them into the building and past the checkpoints without plane tickets. Each of them wore an identification bracelet. “How are you doing?” he asked Shaine.
“I’m okay.”
“She’s a wreck,” Austin corrected.
Ken reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a print of the photo she’d seen the night before.
Shaine accepted the photograph, awe and elation mixing with a healthy dose of trepidation in the pit of her stomach. “He’s had a haircut,” she told them.
“He looks a little like you,” Austin said.
“I guess Maggie and I had similar features,” she replied.
