“If he’s worried that Joss needs a blood transfusion, wouldn’t he go to the hospital instead of here?”
Agnes laughed again. “You underestimate me. The car meeting them in Chattanooga knows where to bring them.”
Them. As in Trace and his father.
“Agnes, Trace and I can’t talk with his father with us.”
“I know that, but you also need someone to watch Joss.”
“Trace’s dad is going to watch Joss? Isn’t he like some kind of uptight businessman?”
“That’s how some see him.”
“But not you?”
“Not ever. He’s a good man who is excited at the prospect of meeting his grandson.”
“I just got Joss to bed, Agnes. He’s still recovering.”
“Fine. I’ll call and let Randolph know he’s to leave with the car.”
Chrissie responded to Agnes, said goodbye to the woman, but couldn’t have repeated what she’d said. Her mind was racing.
Trace was going to be there any moment.
What was she going to say to him?
The truth? That she and Joss had missed him? That they wanted him in their lives? That she was sorry for the things she’d said, done? That she knew Joss’s appendicitis wasn’t his fault?
That she’d attacked him because of her own inner beast that had worried he’d kidnapped their son?
He hadn’t. He’d only wanted to love Joss, to get their son to open up to him and love him back.
Would he think her crazy? Selfish, perhaps, if they kept him from leaving to serve the world’s poor, sick and injured?
Maybe she was selfish but she didn’t want him to go back overseas. She wanted him here. With her. With Joss.
A car pulled in her drive and she went to the front door, not wanting Trace to knock in case it woke Joss. They needed to talk without their son overhearing.
She watched him get out of an expensive-looking black sedan, lean back down to say something to whomever still sat in the backseat. His father, she supposed. Looking confused, Trace closed the car door and headed toward the house. When the car pulled away, he paused, frowned, then met her gaze.
What if he was angry Agnes had sent him on false pretenses? How much did it even cost to have a helicopter bring you?
“Chrissie,” he said, stepping onto the porch.
“Joss is fine,” she blurted out.
Looking a bit dazed, he flexed his jaw. “That’s what my father told me right before we pulled into your driveway.”
She nodded. “Agnes said she was going to call him.”
“You lied to her?”
“No,” she quickly denied. “I called for your address, to make sure you hadn’t left yet. Nothing more. She said she’d have you come to me. I assumed she’d talk you into it.”
“He doesn’t need to be dragged around so soon after his surgery.”
“He’s doing great. Played almost normal today.”