Somebody's Baby by Annie Jones

along with her.
    “Ya-ya-ya.”
    It wasn’t exactly to the tune of “Blessed Be the Tie that Binds” but the child did manage to keep the right rhythm. Of course, every mother thought her own child was some kind of genius. And while Josie didn’t see a musical career in Nathan’s future, she did think he might have an affinity for listening and repeating.
    “Ya-ya-ya.”
    “No. Not ya-ya. Try this, ma-ma.”
    “Ya-ya.”
    “No. No. Listen—” Josie pressed her lips together to sound it out. “Mmmma-mmma.”
    “Na-na-na.”
    “Mama.” She hadn’t encouraged the child to call her that before now. She couldn’t. Not until…
    Josie could not dismiss Ophelia’s fickleness and that, until now, she had to be aware of the fact that there was an unknown father who could show up and take Nathan away. Now she had Adam’s word, knew that his father was a sweet gentleman willing to welcome her into the family—if only on the fringes—and Ophelia’s signature on the proper legal documents that meant that Nathan would soon be hers forever.
    The only thing that could make this day better was to hear him form the name she hoped he’d call her for the rest of his life. “C’mon, Nath. Mama. Ma-ma-ma. Mama.”
    “Na-na-na.”
    “Mmmmmama. Ma-ma.” She pointed to herself.
    “Mmmmmya-ya.” He pointed to himself.
    “No, Nathan, that’s me. Mama.” Just saying it lifted her heart. So she pressed her fingertip more emphatically to her chest and said it again. “I’m your mama.”
    The child touched one finger to her face. “Ya-ya. Na-na. Da-da!”
    “D-dada? Where did that come from?” Why was she asking him that? Even if he could have responded, Josie already knew the answer. “I have had you since the day you came home from the hospital. Walked the floors with you, prayed over you, spent every possible moment I could with you, and you call me the same thing you call your boo-boo bear and your big toe. He has you for a morning and a few hours in the afternoon and already you know the name, Da-da.”
    She hugged her boy close, not minding one bit that he had formed an instant and irrepressible bond with his father. Josie couldn’t help noticing the man’s charms herself.
    “Dada. Da-da-da.” He waved is hand around.
    “Okay, I got it. Save it for when you see—” She followed the line of her son’s finger and gasped. “Adam?”
    Across the street from the Home Cookin’ Kitchen and down about half a block was the unmistakable shape of a man in black standing by a gleaming Harley. He had his back to them and showed no probability of turning around, not when he was leaning with his forearm on a sleek silver car, talking to…someone. She couldn’t see who.
    “Not that it matters,” she murmured to Nathan, thinking that even a one-year-old had to know she had really been talking to herself. “What the man does is his own business. Though…that doesn’t look like business. Unless it’s funny business.”
    Josie pulled Nathan close and stepped into the doorway of the vacant building next to the Home Cookin’ Kitchen. She needed a moment to gather herself. She did not know what Adam was up to, though he’d made it clear he had no intention of telling her, so she couldn’t be hurt by his need for privacy.
    But the fact that it was not privacy that the man wanted but secrecy, that’s what needled her.
    She recognized the signs of it from all her years dealing with her mother and Ophelia. Master manipulators, they always had schemes and small subterfuges working behind the scenes. Always had to be someplace, meet a person here or there, never in the open. Never on the up and up.
    Josie’s heart sank. She would not condemn Adam or write him off based on what little she did know. But she also could not simply believe in him blindly.
    Adam had asked her to trust him and said he would take her into account when making decisions. But judging from his effort to get her not to cook for the barbecue and