Once Upon A Half-Time: A Secret Baby Romance (70 page)

I
wasn’t
ready to do this, but I didn’t have a choice.

After a year of quiet investigation, trying desperately to understand
why
someone would burn my shop, it was time for the truth.

And I prayed it didn’t destroy what was left of my family.

Maddox came with me to Willowbend. Even though the news broke of the fire, and Nolan and Chief Craig were arrested, Maddox still garnered concerned glances.

But they didn’t know. The most recent fire was Nolan’s doing…but the first? Maddox’s name wasn’t cleared yet. And I had no idea what would happen when the secrets finally came to light.

Granddad actually stood when I arrived. He enveloped me in a big hug, just like when I was a kid, when we took the picture in the shop that should have burned in the fire.

I carried it with me and brought it back to him. He held it with a smile. I wished I could share it.

“Jo-Jo, I heard the news about that damn Nolan. I’m glad you’re safe, girl.”

He coughed, harsh. I helped him to a chair. He eyed Maddox with a grunt.

“You saved her?” he asked.

“Of course I did,” he said.

“You love her?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Granddad didn’t hush when I told him to let it go. “No one in this town thinks you’re good enough for her.”

Maddox shrugged. “Do you?”

Granddad looked at the photo in his hands. He recognized my pain, patting a shaking hand on my cheek. “Who am I to judge?”

I took the seat next to him. What I had to do would tear me apart, and I wanted to stay close to the man who always comforted me during dark moments like this.

“Granddad, we need to talk.” I took his hand. “And…this is going to be hard.”

“Don’t worry about me, Jo-Jo.”

“I do.”

“I’m your grandfather, you’re my granddaughter.” He made sure I was listening. “It’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.”

He had said that for years. I knew he thought it was true, that I was still the little eight-year-old girl, stealing sweets while Nana worked the counter at the shop.

I sometimes wished it too.

I pulled the papers from the folder I carried and wished they hadn’t trembled.

“Granddad.” I laid the first report before him. “This is the fire marshal’s findings from the arson. He determined the cause was electrical.”

“I remember, Jo-Jo.” He didn’t look. “I know.”

I had to do it. My throat closed as I revealed the second paper. He squeezed my hand tighter.

“I talked to Delta. She works at the insurance firm. You remember?”

“I do.”

“She found the original files from the investigation.” I pointed to the words at the bottom of the page. Could I even say them aloud? “When they first worked on the case, the state fire marshal didn’t know our family. He and the adjustor wrote that it looked like…
insurance fraud
.”

“Ah.”

I waited. He gave me nothing else. I sighed, pulling the lighter from my pocket.

“A few weeks ago, I came home and found that someone had been in my apartment. They left this lighter.” I tapped his hand. “Yours?”

“I just wanted
one
cigarette, Jo-Jo. If I did it anywhere outside in this blasted town, someone would have snitched. I had your apartment key and...”

“You shouldn’t smoke. You’re on oxygen.”

“Did you come here today just to chastise me?”

No. But it was easier that way. Granddad went still. I pulled the last paper. My stomach turned, both dread and the baby’s morning sickness.

I handed him a copy of his will, highlighted with the one change he approved two days before the fire. “This was your revised will. You…gave Maddox your electrical company.”

“That I did.” Granddad smiled at me. “Josie, I had to make sure you’d be taken care of. You know I never…approved, but this worked hard to prove himself to you. I honestly believe he loves you, and I wasn’t leaving you with nothing. He had to provide for you.”

“Granddad.”

“I set the fire,” he said.

It wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it needed to be said. I nodded, tucking everything back into the folder.

He held the photograph, rubbing his finger over the frame. “Couldn’t bear to see this gone.”

“You loved that shop. I loved it. It was Nana’s wish we kept it open. Why did you burn it down?”

“We needed the money,” he said. “I got in trouble at the track and…”

“Granddad, I could have made more money. Worked more hours. Mortgaged the property.”

“I wasn’t taking it from you. I wasn’t making you work through the best years of your life to make up for my mistakes.”

I didn’t understand. “But the insurance money wasn’t enough. We couldn’t pay your debts and rebuild the candy shop.”

Maddox voice rumbled a low warning. “Sweets.”

“We could have handled it,” I said.

Granddad patted my hand. “No, Jo-Jo.”

“It doesn’t make sense. I don’t know if we’ll ever have the money to reopen.”

Maddox called for me again. “
Josie
. Listen to him.”

I turned, facing the man who helped raise me, love me, and taught me everything I knew.

He swallowed. Hard.

“Jo-Jo, I never meant to survive the fire. I wanted you to collect the property insurance
and
my life insurance. I set the fire for it to be the end. Maddox saved me, and…”

I blinked tears I didn’t realize I cried. He wiped them away.

“I let Maddox take the blame,” he said. “I did this to us, Josie. And I am so, so sorry.”

“But…” I lowered my head. “
Why
?”

“I wasn’t saddling you with more debt. I couldn’t.” He cleared his throat to hide his own tears. “You didn’t need me anymore. I’m old. I’m a burden.”

“That’s not true.”

“Josie—”

“Granddad, I’m pregnant.” I didn’t think shocking him into a heart attack would help, but his eyes widened. A smile peeked through a year of silent grief. “Don’t you think I want you to hold your great-grandbaby? He or she deserves to know you, and you should be there for him.”

“Sweetheart—”

“No. We’re going to get through this. We’ll figure out what we can do, together, to right this.”

“Maddox can’t be held responsible anymore,” Granddad said. “I won’t let him carry a record. He needs to provide for you…and the baby.”

Maddox agreed. “I will, but you have to come forward.”

Granddad pulled me into a hug. “I don’t want you implicated in this, Jo-Jo. I’m an old man, and I’ll take responsibility for my actions. You…” He kissed my forehead. “You have a baby on the way. You’ve got a family of your own. And you deserve every opportunity for a good life.”

“We’ll figure it out,” I said. “Together. I promise.”

I sat with him a while longer, deciding on a lawyer and who to call. Maddox pulled me away when both Granddad and I grew too tired to continue. He took me home, rested beside me on the couch, and held me close.

“We’re doing the right thing.” He kissed my hand. “I know it doesn’t feel like it.”

“It doesn’t.” The shock hadn’t passed yet. “It’s not revenge. It’s not justice. It’s not…fair.”

“I know, Sweets.”

“Not the best way to begin our life together.”

“Of course it is.” He pulled me onto his lap, letting me straddle him. “It’s our life, and our first step is a big one. But I would stumble without you, and you know it. We can work through it…for the baby.”

Where had my optimistic, sweet Maddox come from? Or was he always there, buried in a darkness I finally shone through? I glanced into the kitchen, biting my lip. My mind busied itself with new plans and opportunities.

“Sweets?” Maddox asked. “What are you…”

“I should get baking.”

“Now?”

I hopped off the couch. “Of course now. You said it. We’re starting this life together. Why wait?”

He checked his watch. “Because it’s nine o’clock at night, and you got that look in your eye like you’re about to harvest cocoa beans.”

“So?”

He surrendered. “Point taken. What can I do to help?”

I pulled him into the kitchen, teasing him with a soft kiss. “You can start by grabbing me the sugar from the top shelf. Then you can tell me what flavor cake it should be.”

“Who’s the cake for?”

I grinned, wondering how my bad boy ever became so naïve.

“It’s ours, Maddox. I’m making a cake for our wedding.”

T
he grand reopening
of Sweet Nibbles wasn’t without its initial disasters.

I ran out of chocolate cake within the hour, thanks to Benjamin Ducacas’s sweet tooth.

Three of Mrs. Greentree’s Shih-Poo puppies tumbled around my tables, upsetting two plates of sample cookies and spilling Councilman Grossi’s coffee.

And of course, my baby stole most of the attention away from my prized cupcakes. But that was okay. Little Angel coo’ed in my arms and she helped me serve her namesake—the strawberry angel food cake that I practically subsisted on during my pregnancy cravings.

“Josie, everyone loves the cake pops,” Chelsea said.

“How many have you eaten?”

She blushed. “Only two. Well, three. The baby had a bite.”

Chelsea ran the register with a shrewd eye and common sense, even if she had a hard time greeting the townsfolk who never once had a kind word to say to her. That was before they realized how sweet, trusting, and beautiful she really was. When she was given a chance.

When she was given a real family.

I smirked, bouncing Angel in my arms. She was getting heavy for such a little thing. My baby grew from newborn to six months old in record time. I asked the doctor, but he said it was normal for her to grow up. I couldn’t keep her little forever.

“Josie, we need more meringue cookies!” Chelsea called from the front.

“We’re out of the meringues. Everyone will just have to come back tomorrow.”

A playful groan echoed in my store, echoing off the pristine walls of vibrant red. I stacked the space with gold tables and a spotless, black-and-white checkered floor. Just like the ice cream shop Nana opened fifty years ago.

The town flocked to my opening, bought everything I had to offer, and insisted it was better than ever. Even Granddad agreed, though he said he wouldn’t attend the grand opening because of the trial. Fortunately, it looked like the courts would grant him leniency even without a batch of cookies as a bribe.

The mortgage on the new property was scary, but we’d manage. Maddox never shied away from hard work, especially for me and the baby. He popped in through the back, stealing a cookie and taking Angel from my arms. She squealed for her daddy and tugged at his hair as he kissed me.

“Sorry, I’m late.” He grinned. “Had a big job.”

“And?”

“I got the gig. Wiring the new hospital.” He kissed me again. “And the foreman wants to keep me on. He’s giving me something steady.”

He tickled Angel until she gasped from giggles. I scolded him and took her back. She immediately whined for her daddy, making grabby hands until I relented and shuffled her into his arms again. That only started the tickles once more. They both loved it.

“It’s more money, Sweets. A lot more.” He glanced over the crowded store. “Though I doubt we’ll have problems unless you drop everyone here into a sugar coma.”

Chelsea passed by, pinching her niece’s cheek. “It’s a possibility. Go on. I can take care of everything down here.”

Maddox took my hand, leading me to our little apartment above the shop. Two bedrooms was hardly big enough for the family we envisioned, but it was perfect for now.

“Know what today is?” He set Angel in her bouncer and faced me with a mischievous arch of his eyebrows.

I thought it was pretty obvious. “My…grand opening?”

“Yeah…” He took me in his arms. “Today is an anniversary.”

I grinned. “Our first date.”

“You remember?”

“Of course. It started and ended here…” I giggled. “Well, in the old shop.”

“Best thing that ever happened to me,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d be without you, Sweets.”

I looked away. He brushed my cheek.

“What is it?”

“You were in prison for a
year
. I lost you for that long.”

“Yeah. I lost one year of my life.” He shared a smile with his beautiful daughter and gazed at me. “Doesn’t matter, because now I get to spend the rest of my years with you.”

A
LSO BY SOSIE FROST

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ad Boy’s Series

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S
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