WCTH Fans – I thought of this idea for a new story. Jack works for the Police Department, but Elizabeth is currently looking for a new job. Jack was previously married until his wife passed away, leaving him with his three-year-old son, Matthew. Both Jack and Elizabeth are looking for a new relationship and are excited to proceed with this new relationship together. I hope you enjoy this story and please let me know what you think. Thanks! :)

Chapter 1 – The Grocery Store

As Elizabeth did every week, she made her way inside her local grocery store to purchase her groceries for the week. Her goal was to be in and out of the grocery store within thirty minutes. It seemed every time she came in here, she would get lost down the aisles and lose track of time.

As she glanced down at her grocery list every few seconds, she grabbed items from the shelves and placed them in her cart. She took her pen and scratched the words off the paper as she placed them in her cart. This went on for a little while before she turned the corner and made her way down the baking aisle. Oh, how she could get lost down the baking aisle for hours on end.

As she made her way around the corner, she about plowed her cart into a small little boy standing a quarter of the way down the aisle by himself. Elizabeth glanced around, uncertain who this little boy was and where his parents were. Looking around, she saw no one and swiftly made her way to the little boy.

The little boy couldn't be older than three or four years old. His bright blonde hair and deep blue eyes would make any parents swoon. Elizabeth could tell he was cautious about her, probably being instructed by his parents not to talk to strangers.

Elizabeth crouched down and quickly smiled at the little boy.

"Hi," Elizabeth whispered to the little boy.

The little boy peered up through his long eyelashes back at Elizabeth's big blue eyes that looked down on him.

"Hi…", the little boy barely murmured back to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth continued scanning the area for any adult to show up to claim the child, but still, no one was around except her and the adorable blonde haired little boy.

As Elizabeth looked back at the little boy, she could tell he was scared.

Elizabeth quickly smiled at the little boy. "What's your name?"

Looking down at the ground and back up at Elizabeth, he told her his name. "Matthew…"

Elizabeth, still smiling, stood up and reached her hand out to Matthew as he took her hand in his.

"Well, Matthew, what do you say we go find your parents? I'm sure they are worried about you."

Matthew looked down at the floor, kicking his feet together and sulking.

Elizabeth, sensing something was wrong, squatted back down to eye level with Matthew.

"What's wrong?" Elizabeth was still holding onto Matthew's hand as an unidentified man walked up gradually behind Elizabeth.

"Matthew." The man spoke and the little blonde-haired boy looked up instantly at the man standing behind Elizabeth.

Elizabeth flung her head backwards and stood up quickly, taking in the sight of the man who was standing close behind her. Her breath caught in her throat as she was lost for words at the sight of this man before her.

The man was tall and very muscular. He was wearing a navy-blue police officer uniform that contoured his well-built and large muscular arms. His hair was dark brown and short, and he had brown eyes.

The man smiled at Elizabeth standing before him, but he wanted to make sure Matthew was alright. He made his way past Elizabeth and crouched down to Matthew who stood in front of him.

"Matthew, I was worried sick. Where did you go? I turned my back for two seconds and you were gone. I told you to stay where you were. What were you thinking? Something could've happened to you. Do you understand?"

Matthew looked up at his father who stood over him and nodded his head, looking back down at the ground and rubbing his shoes together.

As the man rubbed his hand through his hand and took a quick deep breath to gather his thoughts, he had seemingly overlooked Elizabeth standing behind him, watching the conversation between the father and son.

Clearing her throat, Elizabeth garnered the attention of the man standing before her.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, thank you for finding him. I hope he didn't give you any trouble. He likes to run off every now and then and thinks it's funny."

The man looked back down at the little boy standing before him and shook his head.

"You, little man, are in a mess of trouble when you get home."

"Yes, daddy." The little boy muttered while continuing to look down at the ground.

The man turned back to Elizabeth and stuck out his hand.

Elizabeth shook hands with the man and smiled at him.

"Sorry, I'm still frantic and my brain is on overload. My name is Jack Thornton. My son here is Matthew Thornton. Again, I apologize for all of this, and I hope he was on his best behavior."

"Oh, don't worry about it. Matthew here was an angel. I'm just glad I was able to help. My name is Elizabeth Thatcher."

Elizabeth smiled and walked back towards her cart that she had left to the side of the aisle. As she reached for her shopping list and her ink pen, Jack strode over to her slowly.

"Uh, excuse me… I know we don't know each other, but I would like to repay your kindness with a cup of coffee. Would you care to join Matthew and I around the corner at the coffee shop?"

"Oh, I couldn't possibly…"

"Please? I really want to repay you for what you've done. I really appreciate it."

"Well…"

"Tell you what, you finish your shopping, and Matthew and I will get us a table. How does that sound?"

"Well, I guess it's a yes. I haven't even scratched the surface yet on my grocery list, so I'll just check out what I have, put them in my car, and meet you guys over there."

"Great! Well, I guess we will see you in a little bit. Thanks again for finding Matthew. I really am grateful."

"Oh, no problem. Trust me, he was on his best behavior, weren't you Matthew?"

Matthew glanced up and smiled at Elizabeth, nodding his head.

Jack and Matthew headed out of the grocery store and walked next door to the coffee shop, choosing a booth off to the back where they wouldn't be interrupted by the hustle and bustle of the customers coming through the door.

About fifteen minutes went by and Elizabeth made her way into the front door of the coffee shop. She glanced around for Jack and saw him in the back of a booth with Matthew. They had already got their drinks and Matthew was eating a piece of cake.

As Elizabeth walked towards Jack, he noticed her and stood up to welcome her into the small booth.

"Thanks for coming. I really appreciate it."

As Elizabeth sat down, Jack offered her the menu. She looked over the menu and decided to have an iced coffee with cream and sugar.

The waitress soon approached and took her order, making sure that Jack and Matthew didn't need anything before returning to the counter at the front of the shop.

Elizabeth looked over and watched quietly as Matthew ate his piece of cake. He was watching a video on Jack's cell phone and was immersed in the video as he ate. She stole a glance at Jack who was watching Matthew and happened to look over at Elizabeth. Their eyes met and both glanced downwards, knowing they'd both been caught eyeing at one another.

To say that both weren't intrigued by each other was an understatement. Jack had observed she wore no wedding band and Elizabeth had noticed the same thing. Sure, Jack had Matthew, but Elizabeth wasn't against giving him a chance.

The waitress broke Jack and Elizabeth's thoughts as she brought Elizabeth her iced coffee and placed it on the table in front of her.

"Did you guys need anything else?" The waitress spoke as she smiled at the couple and the little boy.

"Uh, no, we're good. Thanks though." Jack spoke as he nodded back to the waitress as she walked away towards the counter again.

Elizabeth began drinking her iced coffee and tapped her fingers absentmindedly against the table, looking off towards the direction of the window near their table.

After a few moments of silence, Jack was first to speak.

"Uh, so, Elizabeth… What do you do for a living?"

"Oh, funny thing. I was working recently part-time as a typist for a local law firm, but they decided to let me go because they no longer needed my services as they hired a new secretary. Unfortunately, I've been looking for a couple of weeks for a new job, but nothing so far."

As Elizabeth sat in silence, she quickly asked Jack about his job. "I guess from your uniform, I can assume you are a police officer?" Elizabeth laughed slightly and smiled at Jack as he smiled back at her.

Before Jack could answer the question, Matthew spoke up, looking up from Jack's cell phone in his hands.

"Daddy is a po-weece-man!" Matthew beamed as he looked over at Jack and then at Elizabeth, delighted that his dad was a policeman.

"Wow! I bet that's an exciting job! Do you like policemen, Matthew?"

"Yeah! Dey are so cool! Dey chase bad guys and get to wide around in cars with siwens."

Jack smiled slightly and shook his head at how innocent Matthew was telling Elizabeth about his job. He did love his job, but putting his life on the line every day was very stressful and he hated coming home in the evenings to no one except Matthew.

"Well, I'm sure that your daddy is a wonderful policeman." Elizabeth smiled and glanced over at Jack again. He looked back at her and smiled.

"He's awesome! He takes me with him to wok sum-times and I get to see dah cool tings!"

"Okay, okay. I think Elizabeth here knows how exciting a policeman's job is. I'm sure I'm not the best policeman there is." Jack chuckled and ran his hand through Matthew's blonde hair, messing it up.

Before they realized, they had been at the coffee shop for over an hour and Elizabeth still needed to finish her grocery shopping.

As they made their way outside, Jack placed Matthew in the back of his truck and shut the door, meeting Elizabeth at the driver's side door.

"Well…"

"Well…"

Both spoke at the same time and chuckled. Elizabeth nodded for Jack to go ahead.

"Elizabeth, thank you again for finding Matthew. I didn't want to say anything in front of him, but he's going through a lot. It's been over a year since his mother died and I think he's missing her quite a bit. It's a lot for a three-year-old to go through at such a young age. Again, I really am grateful that you found him. He likes to run off and hide from me, thinks it's a game. I've told him time and time again that it's not safe for him, but he isn't at the age to understand that it's not a game. So, thank you. I really do appreciate it."

Elizabeth's heart broke for this man standing before him. To lose a wife and raise a child at such a young age was enough to make anyone's heart break.

Jack opened the truck door and climbed inside, shutting the door.

Elizabeth stood on the driver's side window and looked back at Jack, smiling as he started his truck.

About ten seconds went by and Elizabeth had noticed Jack was staring straight ahead and then glanced back at her. He hung out the window slightly and smiled at Elizabeth before he spoke.

"Elizabeth, how would you like to join us for dinner one day this week? Mine and Matthew's treat."

Elizabeth could hear Matthew in the back seat cheering Elizabeth on to come over to their house. Jack rolled the back glass window down so Elizabeth could see Matthew smiling ear to ear.

"Beth can come over and see all my toys, Daddy! Won't dat be fun?"

Jack laughed and glanced back at Elizabeth, who was trying to hold back her laughter. Apparently, Matthew was already smitten with "Beth". There was something about this woman that he couldn't figure out just yet. He was willing to give it a chance.

"Well, what do you say? Is that a yes?"

Elizabeth smiled brightly as she nodded her head, quickly saying yes to Jack's invitation.

"Let me give you my cell number and you can text or call me and let me know what day and time. Sound good?"

"Sounds great. Let me grab a pen and paper, one second."

Jack grabbed a pen and a scrap piece of paper and proceeded to write down Elizabeth's cell number.

"555-2824."

"Perfect. Well, I guess we'll be off. Thanks again, Elizabeth. We'll see you sometime this week."

As Jack began to drive off, he left the windows down and Matthew was smiling and waving with all his might to Elizabeth, grinning from ear to ear, as his blonde hair began blowing in the wind.

Elizabeth watched as Jack's truck drove off through the parking lot and smiled at the thought of this man, she knew basically nothing about. The thought did frighten her a little bit, but she was excited to proceed with this relationship with Jack and see where it led.

As she made her way inside the grocery store, she pulled her cell phone out and sent a text to her mother. She knew her mother would want all the details. She was worried to death that Elizabeth wouldn't get married and had mentioned to Elizabeth numerous times that she wasn't getting any younger and wanted grandchildren soon. Elizabeth laughed inwardly as she remembered that comment her mother had made about wanting grandchildren.

As she sent a text to her mother, she heard a chime come across her cell phone and looked down at the text from her mother that read, "I need all the details now, young lady! Come by the house after you get home. Love you, dear!" Elizabeth responded back that she'd be by within the hour and went back to her grocery shopping.

As Elizabeth went through the grocery store getting her groceries, her mind continued to drift back to Jack and Matthew. The thought of both made her smile. She hadn't been this excited in a long time. She was nervous about whether this relationship would work, but she would do what she could to make it work. She was open to learning more about this remarkable man named Jack Thornton.