First Comes Love

by Heather Heyford

Fingers of fear uncurled inside Alex. Not Shay. Despite their youth, Ty and Trav had a little street savvy about them. Painful as it was, he had survived losing the boys. Kerry couldn’t lose Shay. She’d shatter into a million pieces. He licked dry lips as his pulse started pounding anew.

  “The American authorities think the two may be connected.”

  Kerry must be beside herself. His juices began to flow again. He rattled his chains. “Let me out of here so I can help look for them. Do you really think I smuggled them across the border? Were there three random kids on the flight manifest?”

  “That’s being looked at now, as we speak.”

  There was the sound of a bolt sliding back, followed by the door opening. “He’s free to go,” said another detective. “There were no kids matching their description on the passenger list of his arriving flight.”

  “See? Now, get me out of these things.” He held out his arms and was soon freed.

  “You might have checked that before you hauled me in here,” he muttered, rubbing his sore, reddened wrists.

  “And let you slip through our fingers and fly off to Australia? The Far East? We had probable cause, and we had you contained here, in the airport.”

  Wasting no time, Alex squeezed past the Mountie, exited the substation, and jogged to the ticket counter, where he was told that if he ran all the way to the gate, there was another departing flight he might be able to catch in time to meet his connection back to Portland.

  Before his plane even touched down in Seattle, he pulled out his phone to call Kerry, only now discovering her frantic texts and voice mails. Without taking time to read them, he punched in her number.

  “Alex! Where have you been? I need you.”

  He wanted to reach through the phone and clutch her to him and tell her everything would be all right.

  “Have you found Shay?”

  “School just let out. I came home to see if maybe someone dropped her off, but so far, nothing. Please, come soon. Come home.”

  “My flight’s boarding now. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  * * *

  Fewer than two hours later, Kerry rushed out onto the porch and into Alex’s arms. She clung to him fiercely. “Where were you?”

  Alex closed his eyes and sucked in a breath redolent of pine and lavender and stroked her hair. “I’m here now.”

  Out onto the porch came her father, holding Ella. With him were Rose, a balled-up hankie in her fist, and Chloé.

  Alex held Kerry at arm’s length. “Have you searched the grounds?”

  “My dad and the neighbors did a cursory sweep, but Chief Garrett is convinced she’s with the boys, downtown, so he’s focusing on that area. It’s only been eleven hours, but it’s going to be dark pretty soon. I can’t bear to think of her out there somewhere all night.”

  Keeping one arm around Kerry, he reached out to Chloé with his other, pulling her into a group hug.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” she said, peering up at him with trusting blue eyes.

  He swallowed the plum-size lump in his throat.

  “Who’s that?” asked Kerry, at the sound of an approaching car.

  “Livvie,” Alex replied. “Maybe she’s got news.”

  He and Kerry met Livvie as she climbed out of her car.

  “Alex. I had a hunch I’d find you here. You didn’t see my calls?”

  He shook his head impatiently. “What is it?”

  “The Pelletier boys have been missing for two days.”

  “They were absent from school, too,” Kerry told Alex.

  “Not just truant. Gone. As in overnight, and the parents never reported them missing. We only found out when we followed up with Greg and Deborah, after the school informed us of their absence. You know what this means, don’t you?”

  Alex and Kerry exchanged cautiously hopeful looks.

  Everyone from the house had followed Kerry and Alex into the driveway.

  “Not a judge in the country is going to give them back to the Pelletiers now,” said Kerry’s father.

  “Do you hear that?” Kerry gave Alex a quick squeeze.

  “Any news on Shay?” Livvie asked Kerry.

  Kerry shook her head.

  Alex knelt in front of Chloé. “You remember when Shay was going to take Tyler and Travis to her secret place?”

  Chloé nodded solemnly.

  “Where is it?”

  Chloé shook her head slowly from side to side. “Shay’ll get really, really mad at me.”

  “Chloé. Listen carefully. This isn’t a game. Shay could get hurt. Look at your mom. She’s already hurting. You have to tell me. I’ll tell Shay I made you.”

  “Well, I can’t really explain where it is in words.”

  “Then take me there.”

  She looked around at the circle of worried people. “Just you.”

  Alex stood and met the eyes of Kerry’s father.

  He nodded his ascent. “What are you waiting for?”

  “Let’s go,” Alex told Chloé.

  Inside the screen door, Hobo barked.

  “Let Hobo loose,” said Alex.

  “He’ll run away,” warned Chloé. “Then we’ll have someone else to hunt for.”

  “Or he might help us,” said Alex.

  Kerry dashed inside and jogged out with Hobo on a leash, extending the hand loop toward Alex.

  Alex and the dog followed Chloé out of the backyard, along the edge of the meadow, slightly downhill to a swath of white oak some sixty feet tall or more until they came to a log lying across the narrowest section of a brook. Alex crossed, turned, and reached for Chloé’s hand to help her over, while Hobo splashed through the water.

  They came out into an oval-shaped patch of ground cleared of trees but choked with fern, wild iris, and brambles. There was a rustling sound in the weeds and the leash went taut as Hobo strained after a rabbit.

  Chloé looked around with a frown. “It looks different. I can’t see the path.”

  “The foliage is at its peak this time of year. Look. I see it,” said Alex, pointing to spots where the long grass lay faintly flattened. “Someone passed this way not long ago.”

  It was the perfect place for a hideout. To the right was the brook in the stand of trees, and to the left rose a steep hill.

  When he heard voices, he broke into a run, pulling up short at the sight of sleeping bags arranged around a campfire.

  Tyler leaped to his feet, his eyes as big as saucers. “Alex!”

  “Alekth!” In his panic, Travis didn’t watch where he stepped and stumbled on a rock.

  “How did you . . .” said Shay, stunned.

  “You okay, kiddo?” asked Alex.

  Chloé stomped clumsily up behind Alex, red-faced and out of breath.

  “Chloé!” snapped Shay in an accusing tone.

  “You should be thanking your sister. Everyone’s been worried sick. Chloé saved the day.”

  “I did?” Chloé asked, blinking up at him, brushing her hair out of her eyes. There was a small twig tangled in it.

  Tyler looked around wildly for an escape, his body gathered up like a spring, poised to flee.

  “There’s no need to keep running,” said Alex, approaching him gingerly, the way he’d approach a wild animal. “All the running is over. We’re going to be together, now. For good.”

  Tyler relaxed a little. He and Travis exchanged suspicious yet hopeful glances.

  Alex called Kerry on his cell to let her know Shay was safe.

  The day before, when the boys had appeared from out of nowhere just as school ended, Shay had hustled them onto her bus, forging a note to the driver saying it was okay to drop them off at her house. Back at the farmhouse, she’d collected some food and the sleeping bags draped on the porch railing and taken the boys to the secret place to spend the night, returning before Kerry got home from work. This morning, she had pretended to walk up the lane to the bus stop but detoured around the meadow and joined the boys here. />
  They left the sleeping bags to be retrieved later.

  Alex was amazed at how quickly the boys could shift gears, especially the younger one. Walking out of the meadow, they were already romping with Hobo, no longer stiff and anxious.

  “Did you see that?” asked Travis. “A bluebird. I wonder if ith looking for a home.”

  Alex tossed an arm around Travis’s shoulders. “We can fix that.”

  Travis gazed up at him and grinned.

  But Shay lagged behind the others, looking sullen and defeated.

  Until she saw two girls running full speed across the meadow toward them, excitement all over their faces.

  Chloé turned around. “Look, Shay. It’s Mia and Addison. Their moms have been calling to see if you were all right. I guess they were worried about you, too.”

  A grin spread slowly over Shay’s face.

  * * *

  Later that night, he and Kerry were sitting out on the lawn, watching the lightning bugs, drinking a glass of wine, while five kids were safely tucked into beds upstairs.

  “It’s nice here,” said Alex, looking up at the moon.

  “I’m glad,” said Kerry.

  “Your house is so . . .”

  “So what?”

  He took a deep breath and then let it go. “Homey.”

  “After being unsettled for so long, I was craving homey again. Something safe and solid. What about you? Tell me about the house you grew up in.”

  “Contemporary Craftsman with big stone pillars out front and long curtains in the living room.” He gave her a sideways glance. “My mother had excellent taste.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  He huffed. “Decorating was all my mom cared about. She had a successful interior design business in Vancouver. Started it before I was born. Bad timing to have a baby. I always felt like I cramped her style. The memory that sticks in my mind is of her walking out the door, dressed to the nines, leaving me to figure things out on my own.”

  Kerry reached over and took his hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “Hard to miss something you never had.”

  “Where was your dad?”

  “He was a lot like Greg Pelletier—never around. He had a store that sold home hardware and lighting fixtures. That took up all his time. He didn’t see the shift away from brick and mortar to Internet commerce coming until it was too late. Retail has always been tough, but especially in those days. When I was nine, he died of a heart attack. After that, my mom moved from her rented space into the building where the store had been.”

  “I hate to think of you growing up lonely.”

  “Don’t feel sorry for me,” he said, sitting up straighter. “I survived. Taught myself how to ride the bike they bought me. That gave me the freedom to go out and find things to do outside the house. Hang with other kids.”

  “Just look at you now. You have this rich, rewarding life. You serve the community every day in so many ways, through your job and your volunteering. And now, you have your children.”

  They gazed out at the silhouette of the mountains, inhaling the scent of juniper released by the late summer heat that seemed to emanate from the earth in waves, even though the sun had already set.

  “I grew up feeling useless. Never knowing what I was here for. Who cared for me enough to want me around. What kind of legacy I’d leave behind.” He looked over at her. “Now, I know.”

  Epilogue

  Two months later, a Sunday afternoon in November

  Travis opened the back door of the farmhouse and in bounded Hobo, his feet covered with mud. Ever since Travis had moved in, the leash hung, unused, on the coat rack. Hobo was never far from Travis’s side. “Come thee, everyone!” shouted Travis from the doormat.

  Kerry dropped her newspaper to the kitchen table and got to her feet.

  “Hobo!” She ushered the dog back to the door by his collar. “Out!”

  “Thome bluebirds are building a netht!” continued Travis. “Down in the houth we hung in a tree by the thtream!”

  Shay and Ty were on the floor, frowning over a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle scattered across the large, square coffee table. “Cool,” said Ty as he worked a puzzle piece in.

  Alex came in, briskly rubbing his hands together to warm them. “I thought the western bluebirds should be getting ready to fly south for the winter, but it turns out, the mountain bluebirds stay here in the Willamette year-round.”

  Chloé put a bookmark in her book and set it carefully atop the towering pile that threatened to topple over. “I’ll go see it with you,” she said to Travis.

  “You will? Come on! Let’th go!”

  Kerry grabbed a pink hoodie from the hooks by the door and dangled it, swinging, in Chloé’s path. “Sweatshirt.”

  “All riiiiight.” Chloé snatched it and tore outside after Travis.

  Then Kerry disappeared mysteriously up the stairs.

  Alex looked after her as he slipped off his jacket and hung it on a hook. He heard the latch close on the bathroom door. She seemed a little out of sorts these past couple of weeks. He wondered if it was cause for concern.

  Then again, she had just started working on a new case, and with five kids, a dog, and him to deal with, who wouldn’t be tired on the weekends?

  He sat down with his laptop, praying for five minutes of quiet to jot down some notes from a bottle he had opened last evening. If he were honest, he’d begun to regard blogging with more dread than anticipation. There were other things he liked better, like kicking a soccer ball around with his boys, reading to Ella—even the challenge of trying to figure out adolescent girls’ mood swings.

  No sooner had he logged on when his phone rang. With a sigh, he rose and strolled into the dining room as he slipped his phone from his pocket.

  Minutes later, Kerry came back downstairs as Travis and Chloé appeared on the porch waving drooping pussy willows.

  “Wipe Hobo’s feet,” Kerry said, handing the kids an old towel through a crack in the door.

  Then she sprawled back in her favorite chair, resting her head on the upholstery, and blew out a breath.

  “I got news,” Alex said from the middle of the living room as Hobo bounded in, ecstatic, followed by the kids.

  “Down.” He shooed Hobo off the couch to his rug in front of the fireplace as everyone looked up from what they were doing.

  “That was the chief. He said yes to my invitation to Christmas dinner.” He’d forgiven the chief for suspecting him of kidnapping as soon as he’d heard how that had come about.

  As for Seamus, he’d changed his tune from the moment Alex brought his granddaughter out of the woods and into his waiting arms. He’d even invited Alex to join Rotary, where Alex got satisfaction from speaking to high school students about a career in law enforcement.

  Though her brothers would never tire of giving him a hard time, he was learning to give it right back to them, gaining their grudging respect for doing so.

  Kerry paled.

  “I know you’re beat from getting the paperwork ready for the house closing and the mortgage and everything, but the roofers are under strict orders to have the roof done early this week, and the pounding will be over with.”

  “At least we have a dishwasher,” said Chloé, ever the optimist.

  “I should have cleared it with you, but what with Chief’s wife’s staying with her sister in Boise while she recovers from her operation, he was going to be all alone for the holidays. Don’t worry. We can order the whole Christmas dinner pre-cooked.”

  Kerry lolled her head to the side.

  Now he was getting a little concerned. He took a step closer. “What’s that in your hand?”

  She rolled her head back to meet his eyes and held up a plastic stick.

  He frowned. “What?”

  Shay leaped up from the floor, dashed over to Kerry, grabbed the stick, and held it in Alex’s face.

  “Hold on,” said Alex, patting the pocket of his flannel shirt, then loo
king around the room. “Where are those reading glasses I got at the drugstore last week?”

  “I saw them on the table in the foyer.” Tyler dashed out of the room and was back with them in a flash.

  “Thanks, Ty.” Clumsily, he unfolded them and slid them onto his face and frowned at the stick until a pale blue symbol swam into focus.

  “A plus sign. What’s that mean?”

  “Don’t you know anything?” asked Shay with a roll of her eyes and a teenage, supercilious grin. “We’re having a baby!”

  A thrill ran through Alex’s body. He sank to one knee before Kerry’s chair, opening his arms, gathering Shay, with Ella hoisted on her hip, Chloé, and the boys into a circle.

  Gazing at Kerry with wet eyes, he opened his mouth, struggling as he always did to find the right words. But how could he possibly describe the fullness of his heart, aching with pride and gratitude and, at long last—belonging?

  “Shh,” Kerry said. Nestled in her favorite chair, surrounded by those she loved best, she smoothed her thumb across the frown lines between Alex’s eyes.

  “You don’t have to say a thing.”

  His devotion was as plain and simple as the ray of autumn sunshine streaming through the window onto his shoulders. Because deep down, that was what Alex was. What he had always been. Solid. Steady. And true down to the core.

  More wine and romance to come

  In the Willamette Valley series!

  And don’t miss the first book

  THE SWEET SPOT

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  Heather Heyford

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  Lyrical Press

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