“She’s not.” He spoke instantly, then wondered why.
“She is so, silly!” Addie brought to task, laughing. “Her restaurant is going to be in our hotel, right?”
“Except it’s not ours,” he reminded her. “I’m only working on it.”
“Well, it’s like ours, for now,” she conceded. “And I’m still happy that Miss Josie’s going to be there with us. I think she makes the best French toast ever, and she thinks my hair is pretty.”
“Reason enough to love her, right there.” He settled a dry look on his romance-loving daughter. “Do not try and set me up with Josie or anyone else, okay? I can find my own dates.”
“Then how come you never do?” She sent him a look of frank appraisal as she fastened her belt. “Dad, it’s not that hard. You ask a lady out, you dance and you fall in love. It happens all the time on TV.”
“I suppose that’s true.” But life didn’t copy television. Not generally. “Let things happen as they will, okay? Don’t force God’s hand. And for a quick change of subject, Pawpaw and Memaw are coming to visit next week. They want to see you, and school’s almost over, so they’re going to hang out and visit.”
“I can’t believe this!” Addie slapped a hand to her forehead. “I was just thinking that I wanted to see Memaw and Pawpaw, and this happens! Oh that will be so wonderful, won’t it Dad?”
“It sure will.” He wanted it to be fun, and he was pretty sure it would be, on her end. But if his father pushed like he had at Christmas, criticizing everything Jacob did, then they’d have to have a frank discussion, and Jacob knew his father well. He didn’t like being called out. Maybe…just maybe…something would come along to keep his father’s brain engaged and let Jacob off the hook but for the life of him, Jacob couldn’t imagine what that might be.
* * *
Cissy Gallagher crossed the room and knelt in front of Josie. She grasped one of Josie’s hands while Kimberly thrust tissues at both of them. “You have a daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, baby.” By the time mother and daughter were able to speak coherently, half a box of tissues had disappeared. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have helped you. You’re my daughter, my child, Josie. I’d do anything for you.”
“I’d messed up so badly before, and you begged me not to go.”
“But that was years before this happened. Didn’t you think all that time being straight and true would have regained my trust?”
Josie shrugged. “I can’t say I was thinking all that clearly, except on one detail. I wanted my daughter to have the best chance possible to have a full, normal life as someone’s cherished child. And with the circumstances of her conception, I would either be living a lie or telling a child the heinous truth no child should hear. Plus—” she paused, took a deep breath and faced her mother “—I didn’t think anyone would believe me. You guys knew how badly I’d messed up at Fredonia. I’d betrayed your trust then, and got the whole town talking about the wild Gallagher girl. I didn’t want any of that to sift down to Addie.”
“So what’s changed?” Cissy asked. “Because I can see in your face that something’s gone terribly wrong.”
Josie explained what had happened earlier that week. “I’ve got Drew looking into Jacob Weatherly’s history, and Cruz has a friend who specializes in adoptions. She’s looking into the original transfer from me to the O’Neills. I think they lied on their application,” she explained. “I don’t think they ever intended to stay together, and my request of this agency, a request the agency honored, was to have my daughter placed with a happily married couple. They had to sign an affidavit to that effect. I’ve got nothing against single-parent families,” she added. “But with such a big decision in front of me, I wanted the odds in the baby’s favor. Now it appears Addie’s adoptive father was out of the picture within days of the finalized adoption. As if he couldn’t wait to get out and move on.”