Epilogue 1
Tyler
“Look at his little feet.” Glee suffused Hannah’s voice, adoration lighting her face at the strip of sonogram photos Jase had just handed her.
Today was all about appointments. We’d had our twenty-week scan that morning, and Jase had taken the day off so we could have lunch before meeting with Scott, who’d been researching and prepping for Jase’s custody bid.
We couldn’t do anything until the baby was actually born, but Scott wanted to be ready to file a request for paternity testing and a custody hearing request as soon as she was confirmed to be Jase’s daughter.
We were still stuck in the mud there, as Jase liked to say, since Elizabeth wouldn’t cooperate and nothing existed in Georgia law to compel her to allow a prenatal DNA test.
“Hey.” He spoke from his office doorway and waved us toward the room. “Glad you’re here. I just got off the phone with McMillian.”
Eyes wide, I looked at Jase, who took the sonogram photos back from Hannah and nudged me toward Scott’s door.
McMillian was the local DA. He’d offered Elizabeth a plea deal for the charges over the video of Jase she’d posted, and if she took it, Scott hoped to leverage that plea in Jase’s custody case.
Scott settled in his chair while we took the ones before his desk as we had over several visits. “She refused to plead out.”
Jase froze, and I laid a hand on his knee. I wasn’t surprised. She was hard-headed and didn’t seem to consider the future at all. She just . . . did stuff and let the consequences fall wherever.
He leaned forward, gaze fixed on Scott’s face. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not.” Scott shrugged, mouth pinched with disdain. “Refuses to admit she did anything wrong.”
Jase passed a hand over his eyes. “Shit.”
He’d hoped. We all had, but at the same time, we knew. She would never admit she’d done anything wrong.
“McMillian intends to put it before the grand jury. If he gets an indictment and I think he will, we can still use that. And if she’s indicted, she may decide to plead out.”
“No.” Jase shook his head, jaw tight, a muscle flicking in his cheek. “She won’t. Not if her mind is made up.”
“If he gets an indictment, she could go to trial as early as the fall.”
“When the baby’s due.”
“Or shortly after.” Scott scoffed. “Stupid if she lets it go to trial. It's a felony with possible prison time.”
“She doesn’t care.” Weariness dragged at Jase’s shoulders. “She doesn’t think anything will happen.”
“And as I’ve said before . . . that little girl's seriously delusional. If she gets convicted and she ends up in front of Judge Holton? He’s not going to play with her.”
And that might be the best thing to happen to her.
She was still playing stupid games, posting negative rants and running her mouth around town.
The thing was that sure, she had a small audience who ate up the gossip and drama, but locally, people knew Jase for who he was and respected him.
They—the people who counted—were tired of her antics.
Even Gail at the Hickory House had called her out in public, had asked her to leave the restaurant after refusing to serve her, and that was saying something, apparently.
So we remained in limbo with both the custody case and the legalities of what she’d done to Jase, but our baby was healthy and growing.
Our relationship did the same, each challenge drawing us together even when we didn’t quite agree on how to proceed.
Outside the office, Jase handed me into the truck’s passenger seat, although I wasn’t that pregnant yet and could get in fine all on my own. Still, the caretaking was part of him, and even though I didn’t need him sheltering me, I loved it.
I loved him.
He kissed me, while snapping my seatbelt, then grinned at me before closing the door and jogging around to the driver’s seat. Behind the wheel he tucked the strip of sonogram photos behind the visor, folded to a shot of our boy curled up in my womb.
He fired the engine, letting the AC run, and a warm palm landed on my thigh. “So, sugar dumpling, we both have the rest of the day off. What are we gonna do?”
An irresistible smile tugged at my lips. I tilted my head toward Scott’s office. “Well, you’ve already done the hard stuff–”
“I’ll show you hard,” he muttered, winking, and I laughed.
“Take me home, Jase, and I’ll show you easy.”
He leaned sideways to kiss me again. “Sugar, everything’s always easy with you.”