Page 23 of Hide My Heart
She rolls her eyes. “I am one of the town gossips, and it’s embarrassing that I was the last to know about my own grandson. I hate being the laughing stock. What if Sharon comes back and it turns out Beck’s not your son after all? Do you have his birth certificate?”
“No, I don’t.”
“So, this Sharon person shows up one night and hands you a baby. And no money.”
“Something like that.”
She thumps me on the head. “We can barely make ends meet with the Bluebird closed on Sundays. You might have to take on another job.”
“Where? There’s nobody in town so flush they can take on any help.”
“You have to do something. This baby’s another mouth to feed. Needs babysitting, too. We can’t afford to hire a barmaid so I can stay home with him. I think your Sharon should quit the Army and come live with us. I’m sure they’ll let her off with an honorable discharge.”
My nerves are fraying, and her voice grates like chalk on slate. “Beck’s my problem, okay? If you don’t want to help, don’t. I’ll figure something out.”
She cuddles the baby. “What does Sharon look like? Is she fair like Beck? Because he’s got blue eyes, and yours are brown. Blond too.”
“Blue eyes are recessive, means they skip generations.” I grab Amber’s backpack and pull on my down coat. “Got to go. Motels and bars don’t run themselves.”
It isn’t my fault I got saddled with a bar and a motel. Not that there’s anything wrong with our businesses, but times are hard. Maybe it’s time to sell and start a life somewhere else.
All I need is to find Amber, let her spend Christmas with her grandmother, and then give her baby back to her when she goes back to California.
Except she’d still be on the run because Beck’s daddy wants him dead.
I slip the picture of Amber and the man out of her backpack and stare at it some more.
A memory curls at the edge of my mind, and I blink several times.
Have I seen this man before?
Strangers pass through all the time on their way to the national forest.
I shake the cobwebs from my head. No, I would have remembered a guy with such pale blue eyes—just like Beck’s.
Just like the guy at the convenience store.
A thud punches me in the gut, and I pick up the phone while racing to the Redbird. If this guy had stayed there, maybe Darlene would remember him.
“It’s him, the guy in the picture,” I tell Detective Dalton.
“Then how do we know she isn’t in cahoots with him to rob the store? The cashier says she went willingly with him.”
“She was with me,” I reply. “I told you already. I drove down from Divine with her, and she needed to buy something from the store.”
“How do you know she wasn’t setting up to meet him there? Security camera shows him speaking to her inside the store. It’s only when you burst in the door that everything went crazy. This picture proves they knew each other, so we’re looking at this as an armed robbery, not a kidnapping.”
THIRTEEN
Amber
“Uh, Hunter, I stink.” Icross my arms over my breasts and back away from him. “I’ve been hitchhiking and haven’t had a shower in forever.”
“I don’t care.” He scratches his armpit. “I don’t shower much out here. Come on, let’s go.”
He grabs my breast and I wince, the pain shooting up.
“Wow, you’re bigger than before,” he says, eyebrows shooting up.
