Page 68 of I Found You
Kara asked Angela to hand her the baby so she could hand her to me while I stood statue still, waiting for the proverbial feather to come and knock me over.
I held Jane to my chest and kissed her head, holding any tears at bay while I talked to her and told her how lucky she was that she had her own family now. We bustled around the house, packing some clothes, diapers, and wipes. She was already growing out of her bassinet, so I didn’tbother dismantling that, but I knew she would want her favorite bounce chair. I would give Angela the portable crib as well, but I needed two hands to take it apart, and I wasn’t giving up even one second of holding Jane before I absolutely had to.
Ten minutes later, Kara came back in alone.
“Angela is waiting in the car. Are you going to be alright?”
“Are you sure this is what’s best for Jane? I’ll be fine if you can promise me that this is in the best interest of this little girl. And I’m not so sure that it is,” I told her.
“I know it seems that way, but if we have a chance to put one of our foster children with a willing and able family member, it is always considered in the best interest of the child to do so. She’s a little rough around the edges, but she’s family. Sunshine deserves to have a chance to be brought up around her own family.”
I knew she was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to hand Jane over to her. While Kara was bringing her back out to the car, I gathered the bag that I packed and the bounce chair and brought them out too. After Jane was secured in their car seat, Kara came back inside with me to help collapse the portable crib while Angela sat in the front seat of the car, talking loudly on the phone to someone.
Even inside the house, I could hear Angela telling whomever she was talking to that she was going to be getting regular checks from the state and not to worry about what she owed. I wanted to believe it was a legitimate debt collector, but something in my gut told me that it wasn’t anything as innocuous as that.
I watched them drive away a few minutes later and had just sunk into the couch when my front door opened again.
28
Wyatt
“Hey, was that Kara I just passed? Did she come to tell you anything else about this mysterious relative?” I asked Maeve when I walked in the door. I took my boots off on the mat so I wouldn’t track grease throughout the house. When I looked up, waiting for Maeve to answer me, I saw her chin quiver and her eyes well up. Rushing over to her, I grabbed her arms and pulled her toward me into a hug. “What’s wrong? What happened?” Even as I asked her that, my eyes scanned the living room, which looked larger and emptier.
The portable crib that usually sat against the wall was gone. I spun my head to where Jane’s favorite bounce chair should be. Gone.
Anger flared in my chest. Where was my little girl? I pulled back from Maeve’s embrace and held her upper arms. “Maeve. Where’s Jane?” My voice was tight as I tried to contain my growing irritation.
“They took her. She’s going to live with her grandmother now,” Maeve said as a tear fell from her eyes. I wanted to wipe it away, tell her it was all going to be okay. But I couldn’t. Icould barely even look at her right now.
“You just let them drive away with her? I don’t even get to say goodbye?” I threw my hat off my head and ran my hands through my hair. “What the fuck, Maeve! I’ve been here from the beginning. I’ve been part of that little girl’s life just as much as you have.” I was yelling now, my anger bubbling up inside of me.
“She wasn’t even nice. She was kind of cold, actually. And you know what she told me? She said that Jane’s real name was Sunshine. Sunshine Moon.” A sob escaped Maeve as tears ran down her face. “It was like she was looking for handouts. She wanted all of Jane’s things, and she asked about the state’s payments to caregivers at least three times. She reminded me of Mrs. Trunchbull.”
“And you just let her leave with them?”
“I didn’t have a choice, Wyatt. That’s part of the deal. I was only taking care of her until her family was found. And they were. The Department of Children and Family Services came out to collect her and take her to her family. What was I supposed to do? Tell them no, they can’t have her because I don’t like the vibe from the lady?” Maeve was shouting now too. I knew in the back of my mind that I should walk away. Walk away before I said something I would regret. But I was too pissed to care.
“This is bullshit. Did it even cross your mind to call me, to text me? You didn’t think this was something I should fucking be here for?”
“Of course I did. Have you checked your phone? I called and texted you. I wanted you here for this, Wyatt, for Jane’s sake and yours. And mine…I didn’t want to do this alone either.”
I hadn’t looked at my phone all day. Guilt and anger warred within me. Maeve shouldn’t have had to deal with everything by herself. I should have been here for her, for Jane. She could have tried harder to get in touch with me, though. She should have done something, anything, to make sure I was here for this. In my haze of emotions, anger won out.
“Let me guess, you never even bothered to ask them to wait another ten minutes for me to get home. You wouldn’t want to inconvenience anyone by having a fucking backbone.” I spat my words out with spite.
Maeve walked toward me, stood toe and toe, and looked up at me, staring into my hard eyes. “Fuck you, Wyatt. Get out.” She didn’t scream or shout but gritted out her words with bared teeth.
Gladly. Without another word, I turned on my heels, rammed my feet into my boots, not bothering to tie them, and walked out the door.
I slammed my hand on my steering wheel before I turned the ignition and drove away. My heart felt like it was being torn out of my chest. I couldn’t go back to the garage; Jackson was still there tinkering around on his truck, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with that.
I drove to the other side of town where my neglected house sat. I had been keeping up on the yard maintenance, but otherwise, I was almost never here. It hadn’t felt like home in a while. And besides that, I realized how little food I had here.
I was angry and full of adrenaline and fire. I needed to do something with my hands to get some of this aggression out. I placed a call to Luke first, but he was on shift until eleven. It was only six o’clock now. There was no way I was going to sit quietly, waiting for him to get off shift. Wes was nexton my list. It had been some time since Wes and I had spent some time together anyway. I probably wasn’t going to be very good company, but hell, what were best friends for if not to hang with you when you were in a dick mood.
I also sent texts to Reid and Seb, both of them replying that they were game for a night out. Sitting at a bar wasn’t high on my list, so Wes suggested we do a little target practice at the local axe-throwing joint. It was a bring-your-own-booze, outside-food-welcome kind of place. We stocked up on beers, pizza, and wings and made our way over there.
The music was bumping some early 2000s R&B hits, the lights were dimmed, and some small televisions that were placed around in strange locations showcased a dog-jumping competition. The entire atmosphere was odd and perfect. Reid and Seb had already arrived by the time we showed up. There were different bays, kind of like bowling lanes, but because the place was converted from an older business, it wasn’t as well organized. There were two bays in the back corner that were away from everyone else. Reid or Seb must have specifically requested them when they got here, which I was really fucking grateful for.
