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?”
“I’m trying to find her, too. She’s blown off work the last few days, and no one has heard from her.”
“She had her baby.”
Libby blinked several times. “She was pregnant?”
How had her boss not known that? “Uh, yeah?”
She took a second, seeming to think. “She started wearing larger tops, but it never occurred to me that she was pregnant. Goodness gracious.”
“My sister-in-law Lizzie was asked to help her. Lizzie brought Jessie and the baby home, and now Jessie has left the baby with Lizzie and taken off. We’re desperate to find her, to say the least. We think it’s possible she took the six o’clock boat to the mainland, but we wondered if anyone here has seen or heard from her.”
“I checked with the entire staff earlier, and no one has heard from her in days. They haven’t seen her in the staff housing either.”
“Would it be possible to check to see if she packed up her things?”
“Yes, let me just grab the keys. I’ll be right back.”
While he waited for her, Cooper texted Jared. I’m at the Beachcomber, talking to Libby. No one has seen Jessie since the day before she had the baby. We’re going to check her room to see if she took her stuff.
Thanks, Coop. Keep me posted on what you find out.
Will do.
Libby returned with a ring of keys. “The housing is out back if you want to come with me.”
“Sure. Lead the way.”
As they walked out the hotel’s back door, Libby glanced at him. “That’s a pretty mean-looking wound on your face.”
“Doesn’t feel too good.”
“I’ll bet it doesn’t. Are you the one who stopped the Porsche from going off the bluffs the other night?”
“That’d be me.”
“No one at the fire department can believe you were able to hang on to it.”
“My ribs, face, shoulders, arms and hands are feeling it.”
“You’re lucky you weren’t hurt more seriously.”
“I know.” He followed her up an outdoor set of stairs to the second floor of a white building. In the yard were bikes, a cornhole game, overflowing trash cans and recycling bins full of empty bottles. It was obvious that some serious partying went on there, and he could see why Lizzie hadn’t wanted Jessie to bring the baby to the employee housing.