Believe Me (Hearts for Ransom Book 3) Read online

  Believe Me

  Also by Georgia A Evans

  Extended Family Series

  Book 1 – Making Memories

  Book 2 – Permanent Position

  Book 3 – Because of Bob

  Book 4 – Breakdown Here

  Book 5 – My Baby (2/16)

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  Hearts for Ransom Series

  Book 1 – Counting On It

  Book 2 – Just Practicing

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  And Georgia’s new

  Christian Romantic Suspense Trilogy

  In Shadow

  Book 1 – Hidden in Shadow is available in paperback and Kindle

  Book 2 – Living in Shadow (2/16)

  Book 3 – Staying in Shadow (4/16)

  Evil has come to the small town of Shadow, and danger lurks around every corner. Stalking, criminals seeking revenge, kidnapping, and murder…who will survive? Three love stories…three stories of faith and redemption…welcome to Shadow.

  Believe Me

  Georgia A Evans

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 Georgia A Evans

  All rights reserved.

  Published by Georgia A Evans

  Beecher City, Illinois

  Single mother, Claire Hadley, may be a fictional character, but the fierce love and determination to provide for her children is modeled after a very real person.

  In the early sixties, the term “single mother” wasn’t commonly used. Instead, an unmarried woman with a child was an unwed mother, or sadly something much worse. Many gave their babies up for adoption or “visited relatives” to keep from shaming themselves or their families.

  A young lady named Connie Florey did neither of those. She gave birth to a chubby baby with a “perfectly round” (and bald) head. Then, she showed that little girl off like a prized possession, garbing her in pretty dresses Connie sewed for her, and shoes…cute little shoes. She took her to church every Sunday and sat proudly, teaching her about Jesus and the depth of his love for her.

  Like Claire, Connie worked hard—only she worked in a factory. She worked to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Thankfully, her mom was there to help with her daughter. Connie’s little girl may not have had an excess of material possessions, but thanks to her loving mom, grandma, and plenty of aunts and uncles, she never lacked for love or attention.

  Connie somehow found time to take her daughter on “adventures.” To a long slide built on a hillside, a lake to pedal boat, fishing, visit relatives out of state…even a walk in the state park was something amazing in the way she presented it.

  I could go on and on about this incredible woman. This woman whose love for her baby overshadowed any problems or embarrassment she might have caused. I doubt many women could have done it. This woman who seemed to miraculously know when her daughter needed her, and who would move heaven and earth to be there for her.

  With all my heart and love, this book is dedicated to Connie Florey-Stewart. Thank you for showing with every action and word the depth of a mother’s love; if I’m even half the parent you are, I’ll be satisfied. I love you, Mom.

  EPILOGUE

  “You stay awake, young lady,” Claire Hadley instructed her six-month-old daughter, Zoey, as she sat on the floor next to her. “I don’t know about you, but Mommy is getting tired of trying to stay up all night and work all day.”

  “Pthththth!” was what Zoey had to say about it.

  “I knew you’d agree.” Claire pulled back her arm before it became a chew-toy. “This teething nonsense is for the birds, isn’t it? I’ll put some of that gel on your gums before I put you down for the night, and maybe that’ll help.” She tickled the baby’s chubby tummy and earned some giggles for her efforts.

  “Mom! Mr. G. gave us our permission forms today!” Claire’s son, Spencer, was already going a hundred miles an hour before he barely made it into the house. “You’ll sign it, won’t you?” Her tall, handsome son walked into the living room and dropped his backpack onto the couch. “You’re going to let me take driver’s ed next semester aren’t you?”

  Fifteen years old going on twenty. How was he growing so fast? “I told you I would.”

  Spencer took off his coat and laid it beside his backpack before he flopped onto his stomach in front of his sister and raised himself on his elbows. “What did you do at Mrs. Dyer’s today, Zoey?” He reached out and ruffled her black curls.

  “Tell your brother how you slept.” Claire turned to her son. “Louise couldn’t keep her awake no matter what she tried.” Tonight would undoubtedly be a repeat of the night before. The only way to soothe Zoey was to hold and rock her.

  Spencer looked at his mom. “How’d work go today?”

  “We were swamped.” She reflexively rubbed the aching instep of her foot. “There’s some kind of conference in the Ready to Run building, so the restaurant was full of insurance salesmen.”

  “None of them gave you any trouble, did they?” He started to sit up. Spencer was her defender.

  “They were all gentlemen.” Claire reached over and pulled her purse to her. “Tips were really good today.” She dug around in her purse and pulled out a thin roll of bills for him. “Here’s a little spending money for you. You can use it for whatever you like.”

  He sat the rest of the way up, shaking his head. “You work too hard for that money.” Spencer gently pushed her hand away. “I don’t need anything, and I’m not going to blow any money on junk.”

  Seeing the determined glint in his eyes, she reluctantly returned the cash to her purse. “Have I told you lately how proud I am of you, Spence?”

  He grinned at her. “Thanks, Mom.” A frown brought a few locks of blonde hair precariously close to his eyes. “Did I hear you and Zoey last night?”

  “I’m so sorry.” She was afraid that would happen. “I tried to keep her as quiet as I could. How long did we keep you awake?”

  “I slept okay.” His reassuring smile warmed her heart. “I just woke up for a few minutes once and thought I heard Zoey fussing.”

  Claire looked at her daughter, now happily gnawing on one of her teething toys. “She’s cutting teeth again. The only way I can get her to stop fussing is to rock her.”

  Spencer leaned toward his sister and addressed her. “Are you keeping Mom up all night? She has to work all day, you silly girl.” Zoey squealed and bopped her brother’s nose with her toy. “I’ll get your toy basket, so we can play while Mom takes a nap.”

  Before Claire could protest, he had jumped up and disappeared down the hall. He was back in just a few moments, carrying a small wicker basket full of baby toys.

  He spoke to his mom as he resumed his seat on the floor and placed the basket in front of his sister. “Go lie down. I’ll take care of her.”

  He was such a sweet boy. “What about your homework?” She didn’t want his grades to suffer. He was trying to maintain a perfect grade point average, in the hopes he would receive an academic scholarship when he graduated in two and a half years.

  “I got most of it finished in study hall.” He gestured toward his book bag. “I can do the rest after you get up.” Zoey’s slobber-covered toy landed in his lap. She was pulling toys out of the basket and launching them in every direction. Spencer laughed at his sister. “I think you’re going to be the first female Slammer, Zoey. You already throw almost as hard as Logan.”

  Logan Taylo
r pitched for the Simpson’s Slammers, one of the best fast-pitch softball teams in Indiana. The members all lived right there in Ransom, a town halfway between Evansville and the Illinois state line.

  “I think she’s a little too short,” Claire watched with her son as Zoey gurgled and threw a rubber duck in the air, only to have it land on her own head. The baby looked at her brother accusingly, as if he were the guilty party. Claire and Spence both laughed at her antics. Claire could sit and watch her daughter play like that for hours, especially when Spencer was interacting with her. She doubted if many fifteen-year-old boys would patiently sit and play with a baby.

  She didn’t want to take advantage of her son’s generosity, but she really was exhausted.

  “Give me that permission slip before I lie down.” She knew how much it meant to him. “I don’t want to forget to sign it.”

  “Okay.” Grinning from ear to ear, he leaned back and dug a folded sheet of paper out of the front pocket of his jeans. “Mr. G. helped us fill out everything we needed to on it. All you have to do is sign and date it.”

  Claire accepted the form from her son. Glancing at it, she saw the words Parental Permission Slip, and farther down, the class was listed as Driver’s Education. She still couldn’t believe Spencer was old enough for this. She took a pen out of her purse and placed the paper on the table so she could do as he requested. Once she had it signed and dated, she handed it back.

  “Thanks, Mom.” Spencer refolded the paper, but instead of returning it to his jeans, he crawled over and put it in the outside pocket of his backpack. “Mason told me he’d help out, so I can get in all of my driving hours before my birthday. I have to drive fifty hours, and I know you’re too busy.”

  A lead weight settled in her stomach. “Mason will help you, huh?”

  “Yeah.” Spencer obviously didn’t notice his mother’s lack of enthusiasm. “Since we don’t want to use his Charger, Mrs. Taylor told us we can borrow her car any evenings we want to. I’m glad Mason plays ball with Logan and they work together. It would be nice to work for your friend, wouldn’t it?” He grinned at her. “You know I’m the luckiest one of our whole big brothers group. The best catcher in the state is my big brother. Doesn’t that make me lucky, Mom?”

  “Yes.” As much as she loved her son, she couldn’t bring herself to sit there and listen as he sang Mason Wright’s praises. “If you’re sure you don’t mind watching your sister, I’ll lie down for an hour. Is pizza okay for dinner?”

  “Yeah.” He tossed a small string of beads back within reach of Zoey’s short arms. “But I can feed Zoey and put a pizza in the oven. I’ll wake you up when it’s ready.”

  “Thank you, Spence.” She would have loved to lean over and kiss her son, but at his age, he didn’t appreciate that anymore. He tolerated hugs, in private, but kisses were taboo.

  Claire slowly stood, only to discover that one of her legs had fallen asleep while she sat on the floor. Grimacing, she limped down the hall and into her bedroom.

  She softly closed the door and pulled her long hair out of its ponytail before she lay across the soft, hand-made quilt that covered her bed. Her two children were her life…her everything. She would do anything for them. They were all the family she had, and she was their only parent.

  She was fifteen when she found herself pregnant with Spencer. His father hadn’t wanted anything to do with her or her baby, had in fact denied both of them. Her strict, morally upright parents gave Claire an ultimatum. She would either give up her baby for adoption, or they would disown her. So at the ripe old age of sixteen, she had gotten herself declared an emancipated minor, and then swallowed her pride enough to depend on state aid to take care of her son and herself.

  When she was eighteen, she found her way to Ransom. She met Judy Dyer in the Laundromat one day and after striking up a conversation with each other, Claire and the petite, auburn-haired woman with the friendly, green eyes clicked. Two-year-old Spencer had taken an instant liking to the other woman, and she became Claire’s best friend. Judy even helped Claire get hired as a full-time waitress at Butlers, one of the nicest restaurants in Ransom. Thanks to her friend, Claire was finally able to go off food stamps and welfare checks. The two of them decided it had to have been fate that brought them together since Judy was only there that day because her mother’s washing machine was on the fritz.

  Judy’s mother, Louise, had turned out to be a godsend, offering to keep first Spencer, and then Zoey, while she worked and refusing to accept any money for it. She claimed to have Claire’s children around kept her feeling young again. Claire had no doubt they did help the other woman since Louise had an anxiety disorder that kept her housebound.

  Spencer had Claire’s coloring, with blonde hair and blue eyes, but Zoey… With her head full of black curls and big, brown eyes, she looked so much like her father, it was often difficult to see her without thinking about him. And if she could see how much Zoey looked like him, one of these days Spencer was going to see it, too. Then he was going to ask her why his sister looked so much like Mason Wright, his “big brother.”

  Claire had known absolutely nothing about Mason when he was assigned to Spencer in the two-week mentoring program run by a local church two years earlier. Assuming the church would have carefully screened the men they assigned the boys to, she saw no reason to refuse when they both wanted to maintain their relationship after the two weeks were up.

  By the time she heard the rumors about his “love ‘em and leave ‘em” lifestyle, Spence had bonded with him to the point it would have hurt him very much to abruptly end their friendship. So, she confronted Mason and laid down the law. He had, so far, somehow managed to keep his “love life” separate from Spencer, even helping her son understand it wasn’t okay for him to use and dump the many girls who were chasing after the then thirteen-year-old boy.

  If; however, she ever had the slightest inkling that he let his sexual endeavors cross over into his relationship with her son, Mason would no longer be allowed anywhere around him. He agreed and had kept his word, continuing to somehow be a positive influence on her son while living his own life in the exact way he kept telling Spencer was wrong.

  Then, that night…Claire never drank alcohol…never. But Spencer was spending the night with Austin Nichols, one of his “brothers,” and a group of her co-workers finally persuaded her to join them at Butlers Bar after work and have a few drinks with them. Just to relax, they told her.

  She was relaxed, all right, when one of them dropped her off at home a few hours later. Mason was sitting on the front porch waiting to talk to her. He wanted her permission to surprise Spencer with a trip all twelve of the big brothers and their charges were taking to World of Wonders, a theme park not too far from Ransom. He didn’t want to say anything to Spence until he had Claire’s permission.

  Somehow, while they were talking, they ended up kissing. Then she didn’t really remember anything until some time later when she woke up in her bed, wearing nothing and definitely having had sex. Mason was setting a speed record putting his clothes on; he even stuck his socks in his pockets, rather than put them on. Of course, she had just been another one of his easy conquests.

  After that night, he seemed to want to avoid her as much as she did him. But then her period was late. Claire found out she was pregnant, and her baby was due in May. For some stupid reason, she felt obligated to tell Mason about the baby. But before she gave him the chance to suggest abortion or offer to help in any way, she told him he wasn’t fit to be her baby’s father. Her child would never know him or who he was. No innocent child deserved a man like him in her life. In fact, he didn’t even deserve to lay eyes on her child.

  He hadn’t said a word in response, just walked away. She figured he was probably relieved. She’d just let him off the hook, free and clear.

  Claire made good on her word. Mason hadn’t so much as glimpsed Zoey. And unless Spencer had innocently shown him a picture of her, the man didn’t e
ven know what she looked like. She made sure Spence was ready and waiting at the door when Mason picked him up, and if there was a chance Mason might see her daughter when she dropped Spencer off or picked him up, she left Zoey with Louise or Judy.

  If she could figure out a way to get Mason Wright out of Spencer’s life without hurting her son, she’d do that, too. Maybe when Spencer turned sixteen and got his license, he’d like doing things with his peers more and ease Mason out of his life. Claire hoped so.

  Getting Mason Wright out of her life couldn’t happen soon enough.

  Mason Wright looked at the clocks over the bar—when did they put up three clocks? Trimbles was the best place in Ransom to pick up a woman, but he never noticed the—wait, the bottle on the clocks was flashing off and on. Was that a warning? Did they all need to get out of there before something blew?

  Blew…blow. Something was gonna blow, all right. He looked around at the waitresses with their skimpy tops barely covering huge chests and stretched belts posing as skirts and knew most any one of them would entertain him tonight. And by gosh, he was gonna get some action tonight.

  He had been drinking steadily for a couple of hours, but he was a big man at nearly six feet tall and over two hundred twenty pounds of muscle, so he could hold his liquor. Just because he hadn’t gone on a good bender in a while, didn’t mean he still didn’t know how to do it.

  There she was. A young waitress with long, blonde hair like a beach babe and pretty blue eyes—he thought—he couldn’t get past her chest when he tried to look up at her eyes—sat across from him at the table.

  “Do you need to talk?” she asked in a soft-spoken voice.

  “You’re pretty,” he told her bosom.

  “I’m off work if you need to talk.” She sounded too…nice.