Honey and the few drinkers still in the bar listened while he read it aloud.
“Good.” Honey stacked clean towels. “We need exposure. We have to do something to bring money back to town, Chet.”
“Yeah, and keep the kids here, too, by providing jobs. It’ll work, Honey. Y’all are doin’ a fine thing for the town.”
Local retiree Lester Voile wandered in and sat at the bar. Honey pulled him a draft and set it on a coaster in front of him.
“What was on the menu at the diner tonight?” she asked.
“Meat loaf and garlic mashed potatoes,” he said. “My favorite. Will did this thing with cauliflower. Rolled it in cornmeal and cinnamon and roasted it.”
“Any good?”
“Delish.”
Lester didn’t cook, but he watched the Food Network and constantly brought Vy and Will ideas for new dishes.
Clint and Jamie Enright came in, brothers from different mothers. They were good friends, but sometimes they fought when they got drunk. Wednesdays might be slow, but Honey’s Place still had its regulars.
“You boys be good tonight,” Honey said, pulling drafts. “No fighting.”
“Heard the sheriff has his hands full with a couple of kids. Sad, eh?”
Clint wiped foam from his mustache. A second later, Jamie did the same.
Honey’s phone rang. She leaned against the counter to answer it. Probably Rachel after putting the children to bed and wanting to chat.
“Have you seen Madeline?”
She straightened abruptly. “Cole?” She barely recognized his panic-stricken voice. “What’s happening?”
Alerted by Honey’s tone, everyone in the bar stopped talking to listen in.
“I put the children to bed at eight like you said and just went to see if they were sleeping.”
“And?”
“And Evan’s out like a light, but Madeline’s not in her bed. Or in the apartment.”
Honey’s pulse backed up in her throat. Not in the apartment. Outside? Alone? “You’re sure? You’ve checked everywhere?”
“Of course!” he yelled.
“Okay. Okay.” Honey bit her thumbnail.
“I got the deputies out searching.”
“I can help you search. Where do you think she would go?”
“Hell, I don’t know.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Cole hung up.
“Chet?” Honey said.
He was already heaving himself out of the booth. “What’s up?”
“Madeline’s missing.”
“Missing? Jeez. Seriously?”
“I’m going to go look for her. You need to come to stay with Evan so Cole can get out to search.”
“What about the bar?” He untied his apron and tossed it onto a table.
Jamie and Clint both stood up. “We got this. Go.”
Honey rushed out onto Main Street, Chet hot on her heels. A local rancher slowed his truck to let them run across the road.
She pushed open Cole’s unlocked front door and took the steps up to his apartment two at a time. Big Chet came along behind her more slowly. Without knocking, she burst through the door at the top of the stairs.
“Cole?”
He stepped out from the hallway that led to the bedroom. “Here.”
After one look at his ravaged face, Honey rushed against him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
“We’ll find her,” she whispered, terrified it might not be true.
She felt his hands on her back, in her hair.
“I’m scared.” A huge admission from Cole.
Honey had seen him handle pretty well every emergency the town and the elements had ever thrown at him. The guy was unflappable.
At the moment, he shook. Thank goodness he was wise enough to ask for help.
Honey forced conviction into her voice. “I said we’ll find her and we will, Cole.”
He laughed, but roughly. “I knew I could depend on you to make me feel better. Does nothing ever ruffle you, Honey Armstrong?”
The children and their needs.
Madeline’s disappearance.
You, lately.
On that final admission to herself, she stepped away from him. “How long do you think Madeline’s been gone?”
“At a guess, half an hour. She couldn’t have slipped past while I was reading on the sofa.”
“What happened? Did you fall asleep?” As exhausted as he was, no one would blame him.
“No. I had to use the washroom.”
“Is she so sneaky that she would wait for you to be indisposed?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, but I guess I was wrong.”
“Dear God.” Honey rubbed her temples. “Where could she have gone?”
Cole closed his eyes and shoved his fingers through his hair, leaving it in unruly rills. “I don’t know.”
He looked past her toward Chet.
“You two go,” Chet said. “Check where you think she might be. I’ll stay here in case Evan wakes up.”
“Is he still asleep?” Honey asked.
“I just checked on him,” Cole said. “Out like a light.”
“Okay. Go.” Chet shooed them out the door.
Downstairs on the street, Cole said, “I’m going to check the park. She loved the slide. Remember?”
How could she forget? She’d loved it, too, sliding into Cole’s strong arms time and again.
“Could she have gone there?”
Cole glanced at the darkening sky. “God, I hope she’s not in that park alone.”
After Cole left, Honey paced on the pavement, thinking. Thinking.
Lester Voile left the bar across the street and waved to her. “Gonna check the streets.”
“Thanks, Lester.” The people in this town were so great. She knew she could trust Jamie and Clint to handle customers and take payment for drinks. They’d close down if they had to. She had all night to find Madeline before heading up to her...empty...apartment...
Madeline!
She hadn’t wanted to sleep in Cole’s apartment. Had the child decided to go to Honey’s place on her own?
Honey raced back across the street and up her stairs to burst into her apartment, breathless with exertion and anxiety.
She turned on a small lamp on a table just inside the door.
Madeline had liked all of Honey’s lace and her big pillows. Thinking the child might have wanted to sleep in Honey’s bed, she ran to her bedroom.
Empty. The bed, untouched by even the smallest depression to suggest the child might have been there at some point, left Honey as hollow as the room.
Her adrenaline deflated. She’d felt so sure...
She swore. She wasn’t much for profanity—she heard too much of it in the bar—but her terror for Madeline’s safety left her shaken.
In the living room, she went to the window to look out. Cole stalked down the street. Madeline wasn’t in the park.
But if not there, where?
On the far end of the town ran a small stream. Maddy couldn’t be exploring that, could she? What if she’d fallen in? What if the child was already dead?
She had to tell Cole to check there.
She spun around to go to him, only to pull up short.
There, in the armchair and afghan cave, one tiny foot stuck out—Madeline, sound asleep under an afghan.
Honey’s legs gave out. She fell onto the desk chair and buried her head in her hands.
Oh, thank God. Oh, sweet freaking Jesus, thank you. Madeline was safe.
Cole would be frantic.
Honey grabbed the phone and scooted down the hallway to her bedroom, closing the door behind her.
He answered his cell on the first rin
g.
“She’s here,” Honey blurted.
“Thank God!” Cole’s voice thundered out of him. “She went back home? But where did she go? Did she say?”
“No. Sorry. By here, I mean in my apartment.”
“Where she wanted to stay earlier.”
“Where she wanted to stay,” Honey confirmed, “but we wouldn’t let her.”
“I’m here.”
When she heard his footsteps on her stairs, Honey hung up.
Cole came through the door like an avenging archangel, big and dynamic. She pressed a finger to her lips, stepped into the living room and pointed to the cave.
He tiptoed around to the front and squatted down. Gently, he pulled the afghan over the child’s bare foot.
He buried his face in his hands and breathed hard. He trembled with the effort to control his emotions.
When he stood, his eyes glistened in the yellow glow of the lamplight.
“What now?” he asked.
“I’ll keep her here.”
“What about the bar?”
“The Enright brothers are down there right now. Chet can come back from your place and take over. He’ll only run into trouble if he needs to cook and serve drinks at the same time.”
“I’ll get Evan and bring him over here. He’ll be upset if he wakes and finds Maddy gone.” He scrubbed his hands over his eyes. “God, I’m sorry, Honey. I’ve been nothing but a pain for you since I returned to town.”
“Not true,” she responded quietly.
He stared, hair dirty gold in the warm yellow lamplight. Eyes in shadow, but his actions intent, he took a step toward her. Maybe she’d let too much emotion leak into her voice.
She held her breath.
Madeline woke up crying. Cole pulled up short. Honey wouldn’t find out what he’d planned to say. Instead, he picked up the child.
“Hey, hey, shush.”
Madeline curled against him with her thumb in her mouth.
“Why did you run away?”
“Want Honey.” Madeline hiccuped. “Get Honey.”
“She’s here now.”
Madeline’s head popped up. When she saw Honey, she stretched her arms toward her.
Honey took her and clasped her to her chest. “It’s okay. I’m here.”
Cole smoothed his hand over the child’s hair.
“I’m going to bring Evan over and we’ll sleep here again tonight.”
“Okay,” Madeline answered. Honey smiled.
Cole left and returned moments later with Evan half-asleep in his arms. He put him in the spare bedroom.
When he tried to take Madeline from Honey to put her there, too, she resisted, her little arms and legs grasping Honey with surprising strength. “No. Stay with Honey.”
“You are staying here, but Honey has to go downstairs to her job at the bar.”
“No,” Madeline wailed, breaking into wrenching sobs.
Honey stared at Cole.
He said, “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “She’s still so close to what happened. She isn’t being a brat. She’s missing her parents. Her mother. She’s hurting.”
“I don’t know what’s right, Honey.”
“Chet can close up tonight.”
He blew out a breath. “I’ll go run the bar so Chet can cook. I’ve done it often enough. That okay with you?”
Honey patted Madeline’s back. “Yes.”
“If there’s no one around, or if no one minds, I’ll close early.”
“Might as well. Knowing what’s going on, no one will mind. There weren’t many customers when I left.” She nodded toward the door at the end of the hallway. “When you’re done for the night, come up those stairs.”
“I’ll lock the street door when I go out.”
“Thanks.”
After Cole left, Honey put Madeline into bed beside her brother and sat on the side of the bed, smoothing her hair until she fell asleep.
She sat in her living room but couldn’t settle down. The latest novel she’d picked up didn’t appeal. There was nothing on TV worth watching. She wasn’t even satisfied with her computer games tonight.
This all felt too strange.
Compassion overrode any anger or frustration she felt, but even so, she should be down in her bar.
At midnight, she gave up trying to entertain herself, made up Cole’s bed on the sofa and headed to her own bed.
An hour later, she woke up with a child on either side of her, fast asleep. They must miss their parents so much.
Giving in to the inevitable, she tucked the covers around them, nestled their heads under her arms and surrendered to exhaustion.
Chapter Nine
Shortly after one in the morning, Cole trudged up the back staircase to Honey’s apartment, rubbing the back of his neck where he carried his tension. He planned to wash up and make up a bed on the sofa as quietly as possible.
Passing Honey’s bedroom, he noted the open door.
He should close it in case the kids woke up.
Reaching for the doorknob to pull it shut, he halted.
Faint moonlight streaming through a gap in the curtains fell on her bed.
She wasn’t alone.
Madeline curled between Honey on one side and the wall on the other. Her head rested on Honey’s outstretched arm. Crooked against the wall, Honey’s wrist looked uncomfortable.
On Honey’s right side, Evan sprawled, taking up an unfair share of the bed.
Cole stepped close. Honey lay on her back, her hair spread around her head in glorious disarray. He understood Madeline’s fascination with it. He’d spent endless hours sitting on a bar stool fantasizing about running his fingers through it.
In her sleep, she looked younger than her twenty-eight years. Always happy, always laughing with her customers, she’d taken on a lot of responsibility, too, in running her business alone since her mother’s death.
Asleep, the worry lines that sometimes made a show disappeared, leaving only peace.
He’d often wondered if, as much as she loved Honey’s Place and liked to run things, it ever felt like a burden.
With the children, he’d added to her burdens.
Shame on him.
Reaching for Evan, he picked up the boy to take him back to his own bed.
Honey stirred and opened her eyes.
Disoriented, her gaze cast about until she saw him and realized what was happening.
“He can stay.”
“No. I’ll put him to bed.”
“Leave Madeline, though. I don’t want her upset again.”
“Okay.”
Cole in Honey’s bedroom. Honey in bed amid a froth of lace. Two children. One in Honey’s arms and one in Cole’s.
A family. Like the dream he’d always had about Honey, while she’d barely been aware of him as a man.
A spear of longing so sharp his eyes watered stabbed through Cole. He hadn’t realized how much resisting making advances toward Honey had cost him all of these years.
He rushed from the room.
Had he been in there without the children, had there been only Honey in her amazing, beautiful glory in her inviting bed, he might have begged her to let him stay.
He felt her gaze follow him out of the room.
In the guest bedroom, Evan clung to him. “With you, Uncle Cole.”
“Okay.”
He set up Evan snugly. The child fell asleep almost right away.
Cole undressed in the bathroom and put on his sweatpants. He climbed into the guest bed beside Evan and stared at the ceiling.
Two children and a man and a woman in one apartment.
Like a family.
Exactly like a family, and yet, Cole lay in one bed
and Honey in another.
Close, but no cigar.
* * *
ON THURSDAY MORNING, a sharp knock on the outside door woke Cole early.
“Stay put,” he told Evan.
When he opened the door at the bottom of the stairs, his parents stood on the street, his mother with a puckered mouth.
“So,” she declared as though having her suspicions confirmed. “You’re sleeping with her.”
Cole just managed to restrain himself from lashing out.
“Follow me.”
Without awaiting a response, he climbed the stairs.
Once at the top, he waited for his aging parents to arrive more slowly. He led them to the guest bedroom. Evan knelt on the bed and scratched his head.
Cole pointed. “That’s where I slept last night with Evan.”
At that moment, Honey opened the door of her bedroom, the one he’d closed after leaving with Evan last night, thank God. Her hair was a rumpled mess and a crease marred one soft cheek.
Her nightshirt, made of thick cotton and falling to her knees, gave nothing away.
Even his mother had to consider it discreet enough for the children.
She carried Madeline, who rubbed sleep out of her eyes and stared at her grandparents, wary. Her lower lip trembled.
Cole’s parents might not be evil, only misguided, but he would never forgive them for making their grievances known in front of the children.
It was obvious to anyone that he and Honey hadn’t slept together.
“Honey and Madeline slept in Honey’s bed. Madeline needed Honey last night.”
“She could have had me,” his mother said.
“Since Sandy’s death, has Madeline let you hold her?” In the living room, Cole took apart the bed Honey had prepared last night on the sofa and folded the blankets. He gestured for his parents to sit.
His mother shook her head, whether in response to his offer of a seat or to his question about Madeline, Cole wasn’t sure, but they both knew the answer.
At the funeral, and afterward, Madeline had turned away from her grandmother. She didn’t know her, and Ada was certainly not warm and fuzzy.
“Honey,” he said, “do you want to get dressed while I put on coffee?”
After a minute in the washroom to brush her teeth, she went to her bedroom and closed the door. She returned shortly looking like a feminine rock star, in her silver and turquoise jewelry and a yellow blouse.
Rodeo Sheriff Page 11
