Judging Judas (Tarnished Saints Series Book 3) (21 page)

“
All right, time to open gifts,” she said, trying to sound happy. “Kids, who wants to bring J.D. her first present?”

Several of the younger kids rushed forward excitedly, and Candace handed out the couple presents that were there and told them to take them over to J.D.

J.D. opened them, no expression on her face at all, even when she opened the one Laney had gotten her. A wooden baby cradle she could rock even from lying down in bed.

“Mo
m, where is everybody?” she asked, looking up with a pout on her face.

“I’m sure there must have been some sort of misunderstanding
, honey. Maybe they all got the time wrong and are just late.”

“I’m going over to Charolette’s house,” she said, getting out of the chair and making her way to
the door. Laney almost cried because her heart was broken for her daughter. She knew J.D. held things inside and this was probably bothering her more than she was letting on.

Just as she got to the door, Zeb’s ca
r pulled up, followed by Judas in the squad and a few other cars that were trailing along behind them. Suddenly there were lots of people in the parking lot and Judas opened the trunk of his car, and was handing them presents. One by one the people made their way inside.

“Wait, J.D. it loo
ks like people are arriving now,” Laney told her daughter.

“Really?” J.D.
looked up and smiled and went back to the table with Charolette and had a seat.

“Angel, Thomas, welcome back,” said Laney, seeing them heading in the door with their arms loaded down with presents. The kids all rushed over excitedly and when Angel started passing out the presents to the kids she realized they weren’t for J.D.
but souvenirs for their children.

“So how was your honeymoon?” she asked.

“Wonderful,” said Angel. “We had a great time.” She looked over to Thomas and her face glowed with the excitement of a satisfied bride.

“Candace, this is one of our younger brothers, Nate,” said Thomas i
ntroducing her to a young man who was a few inches shorter than him with dark blond hair and coffee-colored eyes. He looked to be about twenty-five years old. He wore a couple of rosaries around his neck like jewelry and some leather friendship-type bracelets on his wrist. And in his hand he carried a guitar case.

“Nice to meet you,” said Laney holding out her hand. Nate s
hook her hand and smiled, tossing her that Taylor charm.

“So I hear you mar
ried my brother Judas,” he said with a calm, cool swag.

“I did. And where is he anyway?”

“Ok, come on in,” came Judas’s voice from the door, directing people who looked suspiciously like tourists into the room and shoving a present into each of their hands as they entered. “You can just put your presents down over there,” he said. “And help yourself to some food.”

Zeb walked in next with a woman on his arm and a smile on his face. “Hi Laney,” he said. “I’d like you to meet . . . what’s your name, honey?” he asked the girl. She laughed and stuck out her chest as she spoke.

“I’m Roxy,” she said.

“Roxy,” Zeb repeated. “Come on sweetie, I’ll buy you a drink.”

Laney grabbed Judas’s arm and pulled him aside. “What’s going on?” she asked, feeling very confused.

“A baby shower. I thought you knew that.” He seemed serious, but she wasn’t going to let him get away with not telling her.

“Pete told me that you made him bring the kids over so it would look crowded.”

“It is crowded,” he said, directly a few more people into the restaurant.

“Who are these people?” she asked him.

“Guest
s,” he replied.

“None of them look familiar and I’m going to guess you just pulled in people from the street because you knew no one was coming.”

“Come on, Laney would I do that?”

“Did you?”

He looked at her with a slight grin and just shrugged. “They’re here for the shower. After all, they have presents, don’t they?”

“Well, yes, but . . .”

“Mom, you were right. Everyone was just late. Can I open the presents now?” asked J.D. excitedly, and Laney noticed the big smile on her daughter’s face. It felt good to see J.D. smile again. It was something she hadn’t seen in a long time now.

“Go ahead,” Judas shouted out. “I’m sure you’re going to just love them.”

“And how would you know that?” Laney asked suspiciously.

“I’m just guessing. After all, isn’t that what people usually say at baby showers?”

Laney had almost started believing that maybe these guests could be legit, until J.D. opened the first couple of presents.

“What is it?” J.D. asked, h
olding up an odd-looking contraption with long elastic bands attached. It looked to her like something Judas used to work out.

“It’s so the baby can work out and get big muscles
. You just hang the baby on the door and give him a push,” shouted out Judas, then looked over to Laney and quickly back to his daughter. “Or so I’m guessing.”

“And what do
I do with this?” J.D. made a face and so did Charolette as they held up the next two gifts. J.D. held up a full-sized pair of footsie pajamas with a sheriff’s badge on it that was so big it looked like it would fit a four-year-old. And Charolette held up the ugliest toy Laney had ever seen. It was some sort of gorilla with sharp teeth and claws, and by the picture on the box it looked like smoke came out of its mouth and its eyes lit up as well.

“That’s so your kid can pretend he’s a sheriff like his grandpa.
And he’ll probably just love playing with the fun gorilla with his grandpa as well,” explained Judas.

J.D. shrugged and opened anothe
r present that was a frilly bright red dress that was a bit too sexy for a little girl, and a set of kiddie nail polishes and dress-up play shoes with wedge heels. J.D. had the oddest expression on her face as she held them up for everyone to see.

“Huh
? Seriously?” asked Laney with a laugh. “Judas, just admit that you bought that present and gave it to a customer to carry in.”

“That’s not true,” he said, looking out of the corner of his eye.

Laney crossed her arms and just waited.

“Zeb picked out that one
,” he finally admitted. “I figured we had to cover all the bases since we don’t know if it’s going to be a boy or a girl. And Zeb swore that girls like those kind of things.”

“Maybe girls that Zeb dates, but not for babies. Honey, no
ne of these presents are appropriate. You really have no idea what baby showers are all about do you?”

“Well, neither does Zeb.”

“And all these people are tourists aren’t they?”

“Laney, don’t get mad at me. When I found out Mabel turned the whole town against J.D. and no one was coming I knew I had to do something fast.
”

“Well, what are we going to tell J.D.?”

“Nothing. She doesn’t really know who lives here and who doesn’t. Besides, I thought by offering these tourists a free meal in exchange, it’d be good business for Levi’s restaurant. Maybe they’ll like it and come back.”

Laney just sighed and looked over
to her daughter who no longer seemed to care how odd the presents were or that nobody paid any attention to anything but the food table. She had a smile on her face. And she was happy. And Laney had Judas to thank for that.

“Laney, say something already will you?”

She reached up and yanked her husband toward her and plastered a big kiss right on his lips.

“Does that mean you’re not angry with me?” he asked.

“That means I’m very happy with you, Judas Taylor. You did something for our daughter that means a lot to me. You’ve made her happy, even if it was in an unconventional way.”

“Well, I can’t say I’ve made Mrs. Durnsby or the others very happy. She want
ed to cut a deal with me in order to even show up, but I wouldn’t do it.”

“What did she want you to do?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, his eyes roving over to Levi on the other side of the room as he said it.

“She wanted you to take the goats off the roof, didn’t she?” she guessed by the
way he’d looked over toward his brother.

“She did, but I told her no, Laney. I’ve worked too hard to make headway with Levi to blow it all now.”

“Well, don’t worry about Mrs. Durnsby and the other women of the town,” she said. “Because I plan on changing their opinions about J.D. and all of us very soon.”

“And how are you going to do that?” asked Judas. “You barely even know her.”

“Well, then I guess it’s time I start to get to know the people of t
his town. And I plan on doing something about it as soon as possible.”

Chapter 20

It had been over
a week since the baby shower, and Laney had done everything to try to get to know the townspeople. She’d attended a town council meeting and even joined the Sweet Water’s Ladies of Leisure Club that was really nothing more than a coffee clutch with a bunch of gossipy women that were nearly twice her age. She had even volunteered to help Mabel Durnsby head the annual church bazaar and bake sale that was to take place during the Labor Day Festival and Sweet Water car show. Still, she could not seem to change the woman’s mind about her daughter.

J.D. had been changing a lot since the baby shower. She didn’t seem to roll her eyes or swear as much any more and had even stopped chewing gum at work. She hadn’t admitted it, but Laney got the idea she enjoyed working alongside Judas at the police station
after all.

Of course, maybe part of it was that she respected him more since she’d seen him in action and had the crap scared out of her when Judas had to wrestle a drunk to the ground right in front of her the other night and throw him in the cell. She’d even been on such good behavior about
showing up to work on time, that Judas had decided to take the ankle bracelet off her as well.

Judas had been giving her more responsibility and
the last Laney had heard, J.D. had even managed to secure a band at such short notice for the big festival and car show that was to take place in town this weekend. It was the last big fling to attract tourists for the season since it was Labor Day weekend. Right afterwards things would die down at the lake and the kids would go back to school.

This would have been J.D.’s senior year in high school if she hadn’t gotten pregnant. Laney had convinced her to finish
out her junior year back in Big Rapids, but J.D. made it quite clear she wouldn’t be going back to school. And how could she, now that she was going to be a mother? There were so many things they needed to decide concerning J.D.’s future, but it just seemed like her daughter never wanted to talk about it, and Judas never seemed to have the time.

“Al
l right, Mrs. Taylor, we set the table for your tea party and also put out the disgusting-looking snacks and brought the brewed tea over from the restaurant,” said Charolette walking outside to join Laney with the McGill brothers right behind her. Laney was arranging the furniture out front hoping to catch someone’s eye so they’d buy it. “Is there anything else you want us to do before we leave?” asked Charolette.

“No, that’ll be fine,” she said. “Thank you.
I’ll tell Judas that you three worked off your community service today. You did a great job painting the upstairs room yesterday too.”

The boys left right away, but Laney called Charolette back over.

“What is it, Mrs. Taylor?” asked Charolette.

“I just wanted to say thank you for being friends with J.D.”

“You don’t have to thank me, J.D.’s awesome. I only wish she was going to be in school with me, cuz I’ll miss her.”

“Well, you know she made some unwise decisions and now she has to deal with the consequences.”

“I know. You really should have told her about birth control.”

“Charolette!” said Laney in surprise. “She was sixteen, I thought I had some time yet.”

“My mom told me about it when I was twelve and I started using it when I was fourteen.”

“Really?” Laney’s jaw dropped open. “And what does your father think about that?”

“I don’t know my father. Never did. He dumped my mom when she was pregnant, kind of like J.D.’s dad did to you.”

“Now, that’s not really what happened.”

“It doesn’t matter. Because J.D. is lucky to have a father in her life. And the coolest part is - he’s the sheriff.”

“That’s a good thing?” Laney asked.

“It is when he cares enough to let us work off our debts in community service instead of putting us in the slammer. I told J.D. but sometimes she’s pretty bull-headed and doesn’t want to listen.”

“You’re telling me.”

“Is there anything else, Mrs. Taylor, because if not, I’m meeting J.D. at the police station. As soon as she gets off work I’m taking her to the mall in Benton Harbor to pick out something cool for the baby to wear as soon as it’s born.”