Chapter 5
Jared woke from a deep sleep to the sound of a baby crying. At first, he thought he was dreaming, because why would a baby be crying in their house? They couldn’t have babies. He reached for Lizzie, but her side of the bed was cold.
And then he remembered the mother and baby Lizzie had brought home from the clinic. This was their second night in residence, and Lizzie was up with the baby again.
Son of a bitch.
It was so rare for him to be unhappy with Lizzie, he had no idea how to handle feeling that way.
He loved her madly, and under normal circumstances, he supported her in everything she did.
But this… This was too much. They hadn’t begun to deal with the heartbreak of learning that another round of IVF had failed, and she’d brought a newborn into their home?
He was angry with her and self-aware enough to know he needed to get that under control before he said or did something that couldn’t be undone.
For a long time, he lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling as he listened to the baby cry. When he could no longer take not knowing what was going on, he got out of bed, put on gym shorts and went to find his wife.
He found her in the family room, walking the crying baby from one end to the other of the big room.
The baby cried so hard that Jared wondered how she could breathe.
“Where’s Jessie?” Jared asked, looking around for the child’s mother.
“She’s so exhausted after being up with her all night that I told her I’d take a turn.”
They had to speak loudly to be heard over the baby’s cries.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know. I’ve tried everything. I fed her, changed her, burped her, but nothing I do calms her.”
Jared didn’t intend to reach for the baby, but he wanted her to stop crying. He snuggled her into his arms, and she immediately went quiet, looking up at him with big gray eyes.
“How’d you do that?” Lizzie asked, sounding amazed.
“I have no idea.” As he gazed down at the adorable little face, he was filled with an overwhelming feeling that this was not something he ought to be doing.
He shouldn’t be holding this baby who didn’t belong to them.
And Lizzie shouldn’t be holding her either.
Every instinct he had told him this wouldn’t end well for them.
“We can’t do this, Lizzie. We just can’t continue to help this way. ”
“I don’t know what else to do. I can’t let her go to the Beachcomber employee housing with a newborn, and she won’t take our money. I mentioned the Chesterfield apartment to her, but she said she can’t live that far from work.”
“Tomorrow, she has to go somewhere else. I don’t care where they go. Anywhere but here.”
“I’ll try to figure something out for them.”
“Jessie needs to figure something out for them. This isn’t our problem.”
“I know it isn’t, but how do I turn them out when they have nowhere to go?”
“Jessie must have family or friends somewhere that she can turn to for help. We’ll give her money to get whatever she needs.”
“She doesn’t want charity.”
“That’s all well and good, but if she doesn’t have any other options, she has to accept help.”
“I’ll talk to her in the morning.”
“You know I try to support you in everything that’s important to you.”
“Yes, you do.”
“This is too much for me. After everything that’s happened… I can’t do this, Lizzie. And you shouldn’t do it either.”
Her pretty eyes swam with tears, and her chin quivered.
Those tears wrecked him, but he couldn’t back down when he saw them headed for catastrophe. The baby was adorable. If she stayed for even one more day, they would get attached to her, and their hearts would be broken all over again when she left.
“Please tell me you understand how I feel,” he said softly, not wanting to disturb the baby, who was on her way to sleep.
“I do. I’m sorry. I never should’ve brought them home.”
“You did what you thought was right, but tomorrow, we’re relocating them.”
“Okay.”
“Can we take her to her mother now that she’s asleep?”
“Yes, I set her up with a makeshift bassinet.”
“Lead the way.”
They tiptoed into the guest room where Jessie was sleeping and got the baby settled. Jared realized Lizzie had used the baby carriage they’d bought for the baby they’d hoped to have as the bassinet.
He took Lizzie by the hand and walked out of the room, leaving the door open in case Jessie needed anything. They had to get through this one night, and then they’d figure out another plan for the mother and baby.
Back in their room, Lizzie got in bed on her side and turned away from Jared.
That, too, was unusual.
“Come here, honey.”
She didn’t move.
That’s when he realized she was crying.
Damn it.
“Lizzie.”
“It’s not fair.”
“What isn’t?”
“That she can have a baby she doesn’t even want, and we can’t have one we desperately want.”
“How do you know she doesn’t want her?”
“I can just tell. Jessie is very detached. Like she wishes she was anywhere but with the baby.”
Great. This just got better and better. “I know you want to help her, but she has to figure this out for herself, Lizzie.”
“I know, and that’s what’s so unfair. I’d give anything to have that baby, and she’d give anything not to have her.”
Jared slid across the bed until his body was pressed up against Lizzie’s and put an arm around her.
“You’re right that it’s not fair. None of this is fair.
But we have to take a step back and let Jessie deal with this situation.
We can offer her any kind of help she needs, except shelter in our home. ”
“I’ll talk to her in the morning.”
“I’m sorry your heart is hurting, sweet Lizzie.”
“I’m sorry yours is hurting.”
“We’re going to find a way to be parents. I promise you.”
“I don’t think I can do any more fertility treatments.”
“Then we won’t do that. Maybe it’s time to hire a surrogate.”
“Maybe,” she said with a sigh. She’d resisted that avenue up until now, preferring to continue the fertility treatments in the hope of carrying her own child.
“It’ll happen. We just have to be patient, and we need to protect ourselves from more hurt.”
“I know.”
“Try to get some rest. We’ve got Quinn’s wedding coming and lots of happy things to look forward to.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“That’s the only thing that matters to me—that you’re okay and not hurting. Having the baby here is hurting us both.”
“I wish we could keep her.”
“Lizzie…”
“I know we can’t. But I wish we could.”
Jared wished with all his heart that he could give her the baby she wanted so badly, but it wasn’t going to be Jessie’s baby. They needed to get that baby out of their house before a bad situation got worse.
Cooper didn’t see Gigi the day after their date, or the day after that.
He’d heard from Jared that she sometimes disappeared for days at a time when they were filming the show.
The first two days with broken ribs had totally sucked, but after that, Cooper started to feel better.
His mother used to marvel at how quickly he bounced back from illness and injuries, and he was thankful for that trait now.
While he was hoping for another chance to see Gigi, his brother Quinn married his love, Mallory, in a gorgeous ceremony at the Chesterfield, a home that Jared and Lizzie had turned into an elegant wedding venue.
The festivities had been interrupted when Maddie McCarthy went into labor and had her twin baby girls in the helicopter on the way to a Providence hospital.
But that hadn’t been the most dramatic development at the wedding.
Nope. That’d happened when Jessie brought the baby to Lizzie at the Chesterfield in the middle of the wedding and then left.
She’d been staying at Jared and Lizzie’s for a couple of days by then, and they’d all helped out with the baby as needed.
Even Cooper had taken a few turns holding the baby girl.
Since Jessie had mentioned finding somewhere else for her and the baby to live, none of them could’ve imagined she would bring the baby to Lizzie during the wedding and then take off.
Jared had asked Cooper to go after her, to track her down at the Beachcomber, but there’d been no sign of her there or at Jared’s house, or anywhere else, for that matter.
He’d returned to the Chesterfield, aching from all the activity, to figure out what he could do to help Jared and Lizzie, who were stunned by the day’s events.
“I checked everywhere I could think of,” Cooper said. “I even went by the clinic in case she was there.”
“Thanks for trying,” Jared said. “The police chief has people looking for her.”
He was as stressed as Cooper had ever seen him.
“What’s going on, you guys?” Quinn asked when he came upon them gathered in the foyer. “And whose baby is that with Lizzie?”
“The baby belongs to a woman named Jessie, who Lizzie was helping after she gave birth,” Jared said. “She dumped the baby with Lizzie and took off. We’re trying to find her, but we think she might’ve left on the six o’clock ferry.”
“Holy shit,” Quinn said. “What can I do?”
“Go back to enjoying your big day,” Jared said. “We’re doing what we can.”
“Are you sure? I can help if you need it.”
“No need, but thanks, Q. We’ll be back in when we can. I’m sorry this is happening on your big day.”
“Don’t sweat it. Do what you need to. Nothing could ruin this day for Mallory and me.”
After Quinn had walked away, Jared glanced toward Lizzie and the baby before his gaze shifted to Cooper.
“We have to find her. Maybe she didn’t get on the boat.
Will you go to the Beachcomber and ask around to see if you can find someone who knew her?
Talk to Libby, the manager, and see what she can tell you. ”
“I’ll get on it.”
“Thanks.”
As he drove back into town, Cooper took a closer look at everyone he passed. He went right to the Beachcomber and found Libby in the manager’s office. “Hi there, I’m Cooper James. You might know my brother Jared?”
“Of course. What can I do for you?”
“I’m trying to find one of your employees. Jessie Morgan?”