Matthew's Choice Read online

  Allie raised her hand. “I may have a solution, Judge Stafford.”

  The judge raised her eyebrows. “Ms. Carson, would you please identify yourself for the court record?”

  She addressed the court reporter. “Allie Carson. I am Noah’s school counselor, and I am familiar with his case. Noah is presently staying with my parents, who are approved foster parents, but unfortunately, they’re going out of town at the end of the week. I believe except for a few technicalities, I am approved to be a foster parent.”

  The judge turned to Peter. “How many technicalities are we talking about, Mr. Elliott?”

  “None, Your Honor. I looked over Ms. Carson’s paperwork first thing this morning and signed it. She is now a certified foster parent.”

  Matt leaned forward. Excitement danced from Allie’s eyes. He was glad she was happy. Evidently being a foster parent was important to her, but where was she going with this?

  “Your Honor, Noah has been through enough. He needs to stay in familiar surroundings, whatever it takes. If Mr. Jefferies is agreeable, Noah could continue to stay in Cedar Grove with me during the week, and then on weekends Mr. Jefferies can take charge of him. A home study could be conducted in Memphis during this time.”

  Judge Stafford studied the papers in front of her. Finally, she directed her attention to Matt. “How do you feel about this?”

  “Your Honor, can I take a minute to think about it?”

  “Do I need to recess court?”

  “No, Your Honor. Just give me a minute.” Matt rubbed the bridge of his nose. The enormity of caring for a nine-year-old hit him, and even with Jessica’s help, it would be a daunting task. Neither of them knew the first thing about caring for a child full-time.

  Allie’s solution grew on him. It would solve so many problems, like what he would do with Noah when he had to work until midnight. The one it wouldn’t solve was the biggest one—he’d be forced to make regular trips to Cedar Grove.

  The judge jotted notes on a pad then pinned her gaze on Noah. “While you’re thinking, why don’t we ask the young man involved? Noah, would this arrangement be suitable with you?”

  Noah sat straighter in his chair and locked his fingers in front of him on the table. “I don’t want to leave my mom. And I really like Miss Allie.”

  Judge Stafford’s face softened. “I take that as a yes.”

  She turned back to Matt. “Do you have any objections?”

  Matt stood. “I’m agreeable, Your Honor.”

  The judge brought her gavel down. “I hereby grant temporary custody of Noah Connors to his uncle, Matthew Jefferies, until Mariah Connors is able to care for her son, with the stipulation that Noah remain in Cedar Grove until Mr. Jefferies’s home study is complete. Mr. Elliott, would you please make the necessary arrangements?”

  Peter looked none too pleased, but Matt didn’t care. He drew a deep breath through his nose. He’d won. Sort of. As the next case came forward, he hurried out of the courtroom behind Allie and Noah. When he caught up with them in the hallway, Allie was trying to smooth Noah’s unruly cowlick. “Thank you so much,” he said.

  “I’m not doing this for you.”

  How well he knew that. He squeezed his nephew’s shoulder. “Well, we appreciate it, don’t we, Noah?”

  The boy wiggled out of his grip and planted his feet wide. “You didn’t tell me I had to go to Memphis. Mom was right. I never should’ve trusted you.”

  Matt had been trying to do right by Noah, but still, he felt he’d let the boy down. “I thought you understood. Besides, Memphis is a great place. There’s all kinds of things you can do...play ball, go to the movies—”

  “I can do all that here.”

  Matt’s head throbbed over his left eyebrow, and he massaged the spot. “Well, you’re staying here, thanks to Miss Allie.” He shot Allie a help-me-out-here look.

  She put a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Let’s focus on that, Noah. Okay?”

  Matt mouthed a thank-you, which she ignored. He checked his watch. “It’s almost lunchtime. Why don’t I treat us to another one of those burgers like we had the other night?”

  Noah crossed his arms. “I’m not hungry. I want to go see my mom.”

  Matt got a call from Jessica. “Excuse me just a sec,” he said and walked away as he answered his cell phone. “Hey,” he said, his voice husky.

  “I’ve been thinking about you. How did it go?” Jessica said.

  At last, a friendly voice. “We just finished.”

  “So you’ll be bringing your nephew with you this afternoon?”

  “Ah...not exactly. He’ll be staying here for the time being.”

  “What happened?”

  “I should’ve listened to you and brought in your attorney. It’s complicated, but probably for the best. I’ll explain when I get home later today.”

  Her sigh came through the phone. “I can’t wait to see you. Have you missed me?”

  “Of course I’ve missed you.” He caught a glimpse of Allie and Noah. “I’ll call you when I get on the road.”

  “Be careful on the drive back. Love you, ’bye.”

  “You, too—’bye.”

  Matt approached Allie and Noah. “Okay, have you decided where you want to eat? The hamburger place, maybe?”

  Refusal flashed in Allie’s eyes. “We don’t want to hinder your departure to Memphis.”

  He counted to five. He had more to do than stand around arguing. “I have time to take you two for a burger. Besides, we need to discuss a few things, like Patches and clothes for Noah.”

  The no morphed into a maybe, and she knelt beside Noah. “We can’t visit your mom until two o’clock, and those are pretty good burgers. How about it?”

  Noah shrugged an indifferent okay. “He can’t make me leave Mom, can he?”

  Oh, great, now it was back to “he” instead of Uncle Matt. He squatted to reach eye level with his nephew. “Noah, I’m doing the best I can here. Until Miss Allie offered for you to stay with her, Memphis was my only option. I promise you from now on, I’ll make sure you know my plans, and I’ll try to work with what you want, but I’m not going to promise you’ll always like my decisions.”

  Noah stood up straighter. “I’m not leaving my mom.”

  “I hope you never have to.” He stood on creaking knees. “So, are we going to get something to eat or not?”

  * * *

  NOAH BLEW ON the French fry then popped it in his mouth. He’d quit listening to his uncle and Miss Allie after they decided Patches would stay with him in Cedar Grove. He kicked the side of the booth and tried to read Matt’s upside-down watch. “What time is it?”

  “Five minutes past the last time you asked,” Matt said. “And stop kicking the booth.”

  Noah stilled his foot. His uncle didn’t have to be so grouchy.

  Miss Allie patted his back. “One o’clock.”

  He huffed a sigh and sagged into the booth just as the door to the restaurant opened, and an older black woman and twin boys walked in. He gulped and sank deeper, trying to make himself invisible. He hadn’t seen Miss Sarah since he ran away.

  “Hey, look! There’s Noah!”

  The twins might be hard to tell apart sometimes, but he’d recognize Lucas’s voice anywhere. And they were coming to the table. Today Lucas was dressed in a plain blue shirt and Logan wore another sweatshirt with stars on it.

  Miss Sarah stopped at their table. “Why, hello, Allie. And, Noah, I’m so glad to see you and hear your mom is better.”

  He ducked his head and mumbled a thank-you. The care in her voice made Noah feel bad that he’d run away from the shelter. He hoped Miss Sarah didn’t get in any trouble about it.

  “Would you like to join us?” Allie asked. “We can
put the boys at the next table. That way you can meet Noah’s uncle, Matthew Jefferies.”

  Since that suited Miss Sarah, Noah reluctantly moved his plate and drink to the table Lucas and Logan had claimed. He tried to listen as the adults talked, but when Lucas swiped one of his French fries, he covered his plate with his hand. “Hey, that’s mine. And I don’t give anything to rat finks.”

  “What’re you talking about?” Lucas bit the end of the fry and eyed Noah’s ketchup.

  “You told on me, and they sent Jason to find me.”

  “No, we didn’t,” Logan cried. “I told you there was an alarm on the door. Thanks to you, they’re watching us like hawks now.”

  They didn’t tell on him? Noah removed his hand from his plate, yet he was still skeptical.

  “What’d they do to you?” Lucas grabbed another fry and dragged it through the ketchup.

  “Nothing. They’re letting me stay with Miss Allie during the week while my uncle is in Memphis.”

  “Why didn’t you go with him to Memphis?”

  Leave it to Lucas to want to know something dumb. “’Cause my mom’s here. I’m not leaving her.”

  The waitress set fountain drinks in front of the boys, and Logan eyed his fries. Noah shoved his plate toward him. “You can have one, but I want one of yours when your plate gets here.”

  Logan drew a circle in the ketchup. “School starts tomorrow.”

  “But we’re only going to be here this week,” Lucas added. His brother elbowed him, and Lucas clapped his hand over his mouth.

  “What’s going on?” Noah asked.

  Lucas lowered his voice to a whisper and glanced toward the table with the adults. “Our dad’s coming to get us.”

  “Then you’ll have to go to court, like I did today. There’s nothing to it.”

  “You don’t get it. We’re running away,” Logan said. “We don’t want to go with him.”

  Noah shook his head to clear it. “But...I thought you said he was in jail.”

  Lucas scowled at him. “I told you before, he’s gonna bust out. Our cousins said so.”

  “You’re crazy. Your dad wouldn’t tell if he was going do that. Your cousins are just messing with you. Maybe he’s getting out on bail.”

  “I told him that,” Logan said.

  Lucas shot out his jaw. “It doesn’t matter how he gets out. He’s coming, and we’re not going to be here. You can come with us, if you want.”

  “Uh-uh. I’m staying where my mom is.”

  Lucas sent him a warning glance as the waitress approached with their hamburgers and set them on the table. “Here you go, boys,” she said. “Eat up.”

  Noah sipped his drink while the twins dived into their food. Maybe he should tell Miss Allie about Lucas and Logan’s dad, just in case it was true. Just as fast as the thought came, he shook it off. That’d be snitching. And he wasn’t a snitch.

  * * *

  AFTER MATT CHECKED his watch for the second time, Allie patted Sarah’s arm. “As much as I’m enjoying your company, I need to get a couple of things from Matt before he leaves.”

  Sarah leaned forward. “Didn’t mean to hinder you...but could we talk a minute in private before you leave?”

  Allie shifted her gaze to Matt, and he nodded. “I’ll get Patches and wait for you at your house. Maybe take Noah with me?”

  “Good idea.”

  At first Noah seemed hesitant to go with Matt, and Allie resisted the impulse to intervene. Matt had to learn how to reach his nephew on his own. She hid a smile when he mentioned Patches and Noah immediately jumped up. Matt would do okay. As soon as they were out the door, she turned to Sarah. “What’s going on?”

  She held up her finger. “Let me take care of the twins first.” She fished a couple of dollars from her purse and called them over to the table. “You boys finished?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Even though Allie taught the mischievous twins in her reading class, she’d never been able to tell them apart. Sometimes she believed they even switched identities.

  Sarah nodded her head toward the arcade in the back of the restaurant. “How would you like to play a couple of video games?”

  “Really?”

  “Cool.”

  As the boys raced toward the arcade, she called after them, “Don’t run!” They barely slowed to a walk, and she shook her head. “Those two will keep you on your toes.”

  “How do you tell them apart?”

  “Logan always wears a shirt with stars on it. Unless they decide to switch. But they’re good boys. Only...”

  “Only?”

  Sarah glanced back toward the arcade. “They’re at the shelter because their dad was arrested for cooking and selling crystal meth and none of the family could take them. I think there are distant cousins here. At any rate, the dad has arranged for bond and will most likely get out this week. Somehow he’s found out where they are, and I’m afraid he’s going to try to kidnap them.”

  “He won’t regain custody of them automatically?”

  “Oh, no. That man is pure evil. Robbery, drugs—he even made the boys deliver packages of crystal meth to his customers. Department of Human Services will never let those boys go back to him.”

  “What happened to the mother?”

  “Died less than a year ago.” Sarah glanced back toward the arcade. “I don’t know what to do. They won’t talk about their dad or their mom.”

  “Is Peter aware of the situation?”

  “We talked this morning. He mentioned moving them to another shelter, but you know how it is when shelter kids start a new school. The other kids can be brutal, and Lucas and Logan seemed to be doing pretty well in Cedar Grove. Besides, none of the other shelters in the state have room for two boys. They’d have to be split up, and I don’t want that.”

  “No, that wouldn’t be good. Let me think about it. How long do you think we have?”

  “Maybe a couple of weeks,” Sarah said. “I put in a call to the sheriff in the county where he’s being held, but haven’t heard back.”

  “Maybe it’s all talk, from the father, I mean.”

  Sarah shook her head. “That kind of man doesn’t make idle threats.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  MATT GLANCED IN his rearview mirror and caught Noah rubbing the arm of his jacket. “You like it?” He certainly hoped so, since he’d shelled out a hundred bucks for it. When did kids’ clothes get so expensive?

  Noah nodded. “I never had a coat this nice before.”

  Matt hadn’t intended on shopping for a coat much less buying such an expensive one before he left for Memphis. He had other pressing needs, like two texts, one from his client, J. Phillip Bradford, requesting a meeting for later in the afternoon. The other message was from his boss, William Winthrop. Jessica’s dad had given him no idea what he wanted, just said to call him when he could.

  He’d intended on calling his boss when he and Noah left the restaurant, but a cold north wind reminded Matt it was January, and that the thin windbreaker Noah wore would do little to keep the boy warm. At the store, the longing in his nephew’s eyes when he spied the jacket among the cheaper coats loosened the strings on Matt’s billfold. They’d walked out of the department store with Noah wearing the jacket, and his windbreaker in the bag.

  Matt glanced in the rearview mirror at Noah. “So, are we good again?”

  Noah shrugged. “I guess.”

  Translation—not yet. “Noah—”

  Patches let out a yowl bigger than she was. The boy leaned over and spoke soothing words to the kitten, and then he lifted his head. “Are we almost there? She doesn’t like traveling.”

  “Almost.” Matt made the turn onto Allie’s street. She stood by her car in the drive, and he parked in front of her ranch-
style house. It shouldn’t take any longer than an hour to wrap up things, and with any luck at all, he would be at his office by four and in his client’s office by five.

  As Matt unloaded the kitten and the litter box, Noah scrambled out of the car and raced to Allie’s car, showing off his new coat. At the front porch, Matt sent Noah to get Patches’s bed. He held up the carrier. “Where do you want her?”

  Allie raised her eyebrows. “This will be temporary, right?”

  He grinned. “I figure the kitty will be wherever Noah is.”

  She shook her head. “You’re probably right. Put her down anywhere. We’ll put the litter box in the laundry room. Oh, by the way, nice coat you bought him.”

  At least he pleased someone. “Thanks. I’ll give you a check to buy whatever else he needs.” He followed her into the house and set the carrier down as Noah clattered in behind him.

  “Can she sleep in my room? Please?” Noah begged.

  “I suppose,” Allie said. “I’ll help you get her settled.”

  After they left, Matt glanced around the open room. While Allie’s house was nothing like the farmhouse, it exuded the same warmth, with touches of her personality everywhere. He wandered to the fireplace and examined the painting that hung over it. She had gotten quite good. How many times had he sat on that pier and watched the sun go down?

  He drew his gaze to a smaller painting, one of Allie’s horse, and then he caught sight of a framed collage of snapshots on the mantel. In the center was Mrs. C, evidently on a recent birthday, her face bathed in the glow of candles. But the other photos were taken years ago, and for a second he was caught in a time warp. Allie on Bridger, one of her on her bicycle, Clint and Allie at the lake when they were young, Allie holding up a string of catfish, Clint on a Jet Ski. Another one—Mr. C with one arm around a teenage Clint, the other around...Matt?

  He remembered that day. His gaze shifted to a photo tucked in the corner of the frame. It was the same golden autumn day Allie had taken the picture of him manning Mr. C’s small wooden sailboat. He ran his finger over it, marveling at how she’d captured his intense concentration, one hand on the tiller, the other holding the mainsheet.