Chapter Eight

      Julia stepped into the afternoon light and put on her sunglasses, more to hide the unshed tears welling in her eyes than for sun protection.

      Frank Davis, her attorney, took her elbow to guide her down the steps of the county courthouse. They’d spent the past two hours in a heated session with Jeff, his parents and their lawyer. She couldn’t believe how much information they’d dug up, from the details of her finances, including the business loan that had yet to be approved, to her credit history. Thanks to a loser boyfriend who’d stolen her bank-account information, her credit was spotty, at best.

      They knew all of the dead-end jobs she’d had over the years, including those she’d been fired from or quit without notice, and had a detailed record of her habit of moving from city to city for short periods of time.

      They’d brought in statements from one of her ex-boyfriends and a former employer stating she was flighty and irresponsible. Her old boss even said that she’d threatened to set fire to her hair salon. No one mentioned the woman had skimmed Julia’s paycheck without her knowledge for over nine months after she’d discovered Julia’s learning disabilities. Torching the place had been an idle threat, of course, but it hadn’t sounded that way today.

      “They made me seem crazy,” she muttered.

      Frank clucked softly. “It’s all right, darlin’. A lot of mamas in the South are a bit touched. No one around here’s gonna hold that against you.” He checked his watch. “I got a tee time with some of the boys at one. Give me a call tomorrow and we’ll plan our next move.” He leaned in and planted a fatherly kiss on her cheek, then moved toward his vintage Cadillac parked at the curb.

      Frank had known her since she’d been in diapers. He’d been one of her father’s fraternity brothers in college. Not for the first time, she questioned the wisdom of hiring him to represent her. It was no secret Frank was close to retirement, and from what Julia could tell, he spent more time on the golf course and fishing with his friends than in his office or working on cases.

      Lexi Preston might look like a pussycat, but she was an absolute shark. From her guilty expression every time they made eye contact, Julia knew Lexi was the one who’d researched her so thoroughly. Julia would have admired her skills if they hadn’t been directed at her.

      She glanced toward the courthouse entrance. Jeff and his parents could come out at any minute and she didn’t want them to see her alone and on the verge of a breakdown. She wished now that she’d let her mother or Lainey come with her today.

      She turned to make her way to her car and came face-to-face with Sam.

      “Hey,” he said softly and drew the sunglasses off her nose, his eyes studying hers as if he could read what she was thinking. “How did things go today?”

      “I told you not to come,” she said on a shaky breath.

      “I don’t take direction well.” He folded her glasses and pulled her into a tight embrace. “It’s okay, honey. Whatever happened, we can make it better.”

      She tried to pull away but he didn’t let her go. After a moment, she sagged against him, burying her face in the fabric of his uniform shirt.

      As his palm drew circles on her back, her tears flowed freely. She gulped in ragged breaths. “So awful,” she said around sobs. “They made me seem so awful.”

      “I don’t believe that,” he said against her ear. “Anyone who knows you knows you’re a fantastic mother.”

      “What if they take him from me?”

      “We’re not going to let that happen. Not a snowball’s chance.”

      Julia wiped her eyes. “They’re going to come out any minute. Jeff can’t see me like this.”

      “My truck’s right here.” Sam looped one arm around her shoulders, leading her away from the courthouse steps. He opened the passenger door of his truck then came around and climbed in himself. He started the engine but didn’t make a move to drive off.

      Julia kept her face covered with her hands and worked to control her breathing.

      “Is that him?” Sam asked after a minute.

      Julia peeked through her fingers as Jeff, his parents and the attorney walked out of the courthouse. Shading his eyes with one hand, Jeff scanned the area.

      “He’s looking for me so he can gloat.” Julia sank down lower in the seat. “Jerk,” she mumbled.

      The group came down the steps.

      “They’re heading right for us.”

      “Sit up,” Sam ordered, and she immediately straightened. “Smile and lean over to kiss me when they come by.”

      The urge to duck was huge, but Julia made her mouth turn up at the ends. “Here goes,” she whispered as Jeff led the group closer, his father clapping him hard on the back. She waited until he noticed her through the windshield then leaned over and cupped Sam’s jaw between her hands. She gave him a gentle kiss and pressed her forehead against his.

      “That a girl,” he told her. “Don’t give him the satisfaction of seeing you upset.”

      “I can do this,” she said, and Sam kissed her again.

      “They’ve passed.”

      Julia stayed pressed against him for another moment before moving away. She leaned against the seat back in order to see out the side-view mirror. Jeff and his parents headed away, but Lexi trailed behind the group, looking over her shoulder every few steps.

      “This isn’t going to work.”

      “Yes, it is.”

      She shook her head. “I told you before, I made a lot of stupid decisions in my life. It’s like they’ve uncovered every single one of them to use against me.”

      “Did you kill someone?”

      Her head whipped toward him. “Of course not.”

      “Armed robbery?”

      “No.”

      “Do you know how many people I meet in the course of my job who do bad things every day? Their kids are rarely taken away.”

      “Maybe they should be,” she suggested, too unsettled to be comforted. “Maybe if they had people with buckets of money and tons of power going after them, they’d lose their babies.”

      He wrapped his fingers around hers. “You aren’t going to lose Charlie. Stop thinking like that.”

      “You don’t know, Sam. You weren’t in that room.”

      “A mistake I don’t intend to repeat. I should have been there with you. For you.”

      The tenderness in his voice touched a place deep within her: an intimate, open well of emotion she’d locked the lid to many years ago. She wanted to believe in him, to trust that he could protect her the way she’d never been willing to protect herself or even believed she deserved. The part of her who’d been hurt too many times in the past wanted to run.

      She excelled at running away. She’d practically perfected it as an art.

      That was what she’d been thinking in the courthouse. People disappeared all the time with no trace. She’d wanted to slip out of that room, gather up Charlie and whatever would fit in her trunk and drive away from the threat looming over her. She could cut hair anywhere. Why not start over in a place where no one knew her or her insecurities or all the ways she didn’t