by Paula Graves
She couldn’t quibble with that. “I work from home in the afternoons, unless Zachary has a riding lesson. Then I work from wherever I am. But I can check back in near the end of the day.” Her mind was already racing to figure out what she could do with Zachary during the time she was supposed to be meeting with Harlan. Charlotte, Zachary’s preschool special ed teacher, was often happy to help out, but Stacy would never ask her to babysit every afternoon.
“You know you can bring Zachary here if you need to,” Harlan said quietly.
She looked up and found him watching her with a look of sympathy that made her feel like a helpless idiot. “That’s kind of you, but-”
“But you’d rather scramble around every day finding someone to watch him?”
She pressed her lips into a flat line. “I don’t want you to accommodate me. I don’t need special favors.”
“You need to give yourself a break,” Harlan said flatly. “And if it matters, I need you working at full attention, and you won’t be doing that if you’re worrying about your son.”
“I suppose that’s your way of saying you don’t think I can do both? Work this job and be a mother to my son?”
Harlan shot her a frowning look. “I don’t talk in riddles. I say what I mean.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “And thank you.”
His frown faded. “I need to check in with some of my associates, so go ahead and make the calls you need to make this morning, and we can regroup after you pick up your son from school. What time will that be?”
“I pick him up around noon. I usually get him fed and settled down and then go back to work.”
“Perfect. We’ll regroup after lunch.” He gave a nod that she took as a dismissal. With a tiny sigh, she headed out of Harlan’s office and returned to her own, where a long to-do list taunted her from her desk blotter.
Nine in the morning and her head was already starting to pound from the stress. How long was she going to be able to keep juggling her job and her son’s overwhelming needs?
And what would be left of her by the end?
LILA LOCKHART DROPPED BY Harlan’s office around ten-thirty to check on how his first full day at work was going. “Is there anything more you need from me?”
Harlan smiled at the governor. “I think it’s just a matter of getting everything done at this point. Thanks for the files on your staff. It helped to have access to what background checks had already been run.”
“You didn’t find any problems, did you?”
He shook his head. “No. You have good instincts about the people on your political staff. Do you also hire your ranch staff personally?”
“Not all of them. I hired the foreman, and the head groom, Cory, has been with my family for years. Why do you ask?”
“Stacy said you don’t always restrict your political discussions to your office and the main house.”
“That’s true. I don’t,” the governor conceded. “Feel free to have Stacy round up a list of our ranch staff if you think they need to be investigated, as well. I’ll warn them what’s coming so they don’t become alarmed.”
“No, don’t do that,” Harlan said. “I don’t want to tip off someone if he or she is behind the bombing.”
He could tell she didn’t like the idea of screening the ranch staff behind their backs, but she finally gave a reluctant nod. “Speaking of Stacy, how are you two getting along?”
“Fine,” he said, wishing he believed the assurance himself. They’d started off well enough, thanks to the bombing, which had forced them to work together smoothly or else. But real life had blown that camaraderie to bits, and short of another crisis, he wasn’t sure when they’d be on solid footing again.
Damned shame, really. She was the first woman he’d met in a long time who didn’t remind him the least bit of his ex-wife. Alexis wanted nothing to do with kids, for one thing.
Like a fool, he’d thought she’d change her mind.
“Stacy’s an interesting woman.” Lila settled into the chair across from his desk. “Have you read her file?”
It had been the first he’d picked up. He’d told himself that, as Lila’s most trusted aide, she was the biggest potential threat if she was a traitor. But that was total bunk.
He’d just wanted to know more about her. What made her tick. What made her vulnerable.
What made her smile.
“What her husband did to her and that sweet boy is unconscionable.”
Harlan agreed. Maybe Stacy’s husband had other reasons for walking out of the marriage, but that was no excuse to cut himself out of his son’s life. Beyond the court-ordered child support he paid like clockwork, he’d had nothing to do with his son in over a year, if the background check on Stacy was to be believed. The assessor had made a note that Stacy merited close monitoring-not because there was any question about her integrity but because as a mother of a special needs child, she would be particularly susceptible to outside pressures.
In other words, someone might try to use her son against her in order to get to Lila.
It wasn’t an unfounded suggestion. He thought it might be a damned good idea to keep a close eye on Stacy himself, even if his motives weren’t strictly professional.
And now that they were working closely together, he’d have a built-in reason to do so.
“WHO IS HARLAN and why does Zachary talk about him non-stop?” Charlotte asked Stacy when Zachary’s kindergarten class let out at noon that day.
Stacy managed a rueful laugh. “I was hoping he’d be over that by now.” She explained to Charlotte about Harlan McClain’s visit the night before, including the way things had gotten out of hand after Harlan tried to correct Zachary. “I really thought Zachary would have forgotten all about him after that, but I guess he got over the scare and remembered how interesting he thought Mr. McClain was.”
Charlotte walked with Stacy out to her car. “Is he? Interesting, I mean?”
“He’s different,” Stacy admitted carefully. “He’s from Georgia, so he has that accent.” The one that made her nerves quiver just a little every time she heard it. “He’s a former Marine, so he’s got that G.I. Joe thing going for him.”
“Mmm,” Charlotte said with a grin. “Married?”
She’d assumed not, since he’d invited himself to dinner and then spent the next hours after that working at the ranch house office, but what did she really know about him? “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Does it matter?”
“Well, let’s see. Zachary’s crazy about him, apparently, and you’ve been blushing since I brought up the name. So, yeah. It probably matters.”
“We work together. That’s all. You know why that’s all.” Of the people in town, only a handful knew the full story of her marriage breakup. Charlotte was one of them. She knew the way Anthony had let Stacy and Zachary down when they’d needed him most, and she knew that Stacy had no intention of ever letting a man do that to her or her child again.
It surprised her, a little, that she’d let as much slip to Harlan McClain as she had. There was just something about him that seemed trustworthy. Maybe that’s why the governor had chosen him to keep her safe. If anyone could ferret out a person’s deepest, darkest secrets…
“They’re not all like that, you know,” Charlotte said. “Sometimes the guy is the one who gets hurt. The guy who’s the one left behind to raise a kid with problems.”
Stacy gave her friend a questioning look. “Are we talking about someone specific?”
Charlotte chuckled. “The father of one of my students. Nice guy. His wife apparently never grew up, though. She had a bad habit of having three-martini lunches and driving buzzed with her kid in the car.”
Stacy winced. “What happened?”
“Killed herself and a family of three in an accident about three years ago. Only her daughter survived the crash, and she was left with a brain injury that required years of therapy. I had her in my kindergarten class last year-she was a lot be
tter by then, but she still has some issues. She’s in first grade now, doing a lot better.”
“Poor baby.”
“Her dad was left to deal with her therapy and the lawsuit filed by the survivors of the other family that was killed in the crash. It was terrible for him.”
“Hey, you’re talking about Jeff Appleton, aren’t you?” Stacy realized. The deputy had done some moonlighting work for the governor’s security detail from time to time. She’d heard stories about his legal problems and the fact that he had a six-year-old daughter with special needs. The governor had suggested she should let Zachary meet Jeff’s daughter, but Stacy didn’t think her son was really ready for playdates yet.
“Yes. Nice guy. He’s under a lot of stress. Maybe you should get to know him. You have a lot in common.”
Stacy looked at her friend through narrowed eyes. The suggestion had seemed almost rote, as if Charlotte felt it was the polite thing to do, even though Stacy got the sense that Charlotte didn’t really want Stacy to see Jeff as a romantic possibility.
Did she have a crush on the deputy herself?
Before Stacy could pose that question, Charlotte’s eyes widened. She caught Stacy by the arm. “Stacy, where’s Zachary?”
Stacy looked down at her side, where she’d last seen her son. But he wasn’t there.
She looked around, certain she’d see him nearby, perhaps running laps around the day care’s front lawn. She’d drummed warnings about running off into his head since he was three, and he was usually very good about obeying that rule, since he had an older child’s understanding of the reasons behind it.
But Zachary was nowhere in sight. Nor had he gotten into the car without her realizing it.
He was just gone.
Fear gathered into a hard knot in the center of her chest. “Did you see him go anywhere?”
“No!” Charlotte’s look of rising terror amplified Stacy’s own level of anxiety. “I thought he was right there with you!”
A cold chill washed over her body, spreading gooseflesh along her arms and legs. The world around her seemed to have upended in the span of seconds, leaving her breathless and dizzy in an alien landscape where nothing seemed familiar.
Where was Zachary?
Chapter Eight
A thousand terrifying scenarios rampaged through Stacy’s mind as she tried to remember when she’d last seen her son. She’d gotten involved in the conversation with Charlotte almost immediately, but Zachary was always so good about sticking close to her, and she was generally attentive.
If he’d left her side without her noticing, he must have sneaked away. And Zachary didn’t normally sneak.
“Zachary?” Charlotte called out, looking more and more scared.
“He wouldn’t have left unless he saw something that interested him,” Stacy told Charlotte. “Maybe he saw someone on horseback?”
“Or one of his friends he obsesses over?”
“Let’s fan out.” Stacy tamped down her paralyzing panic so she could function again. “He didn’t have time to go far. We just have to find out where he went.”
As Charlotte hurried down the street toward the bank, calling Zachary’s name, Stacy went the opposite direction, her heart pounding like a timpani in her chest. A sense of disorientation lingered, but she forced aside the crimson veil of panic and reoriented herself as quickly as she could.
You’re in Freedom, Texas. You know this place like the back of your hand by now. So does Zachary. So where would he go? What would interest him enough to make him sneak away?
She checked at Talk of the Town first. Zachary liked the diner as well as he liked any place in town. Faith and the other workers there knew about his condition and treated him well even when he was being a complete pest. Plus, if she put out the alert there, news of her missing son would be around town in minutes-even better than an Amber alert.
She’d barely set foot in the place when she heard a man’s voice call her name. There was no missing the Georgia drawl or the deep timbre of his baritone voice. She looked up to find Harlan McClain sitting at a booth, waving her over. And across from him sat Zachary, reaching across the table to pluck a fry from Harlan’s lunch plate.
“Lose something?” Harlan asked.
Relief overwhelmed Stacy, making her legs tremble. “Zachary, you scared me to death! Why did you wander off like that? You know we’ve talked about that!”
Zachary looked up at her as if she’d lost her mind. “I saw Harlan and I had to say hello.”
“You had to, huh?” Stacy tried to calm down, not sure what she wanted to do more-hug her son or shake him for scaring the life out of her. She saw Harlan watching her with interest, as if trying to read her thoughts. “Sorry he bothered you.”
“I’m sorry he scared you. But he’s no bother. It’s no fun eating alone.” He shoved the squeeze bottle of ketchup toward Zachary, who grabbed it and squirted a ribbon of the sauce onto his purloined French fry.
“You should have called me the moment he came in.” The scolding he deserved came out halfhearted, to her chagrin. They were just sort of heart-melting together, she thought, watching her son mimic Harlan’s movements. Zachary could barely remember Anthony. A boy needed a father, and Zachary seemed determined to find one, on his own if necessary.
If she didn’t know his heart would be broken when it ended, she might be inclined to encourage Zachary’s newfound fascination with Harlan. Harlan McClain seemed lonely-another point against his being married-and he also seemed to genuinely appreciate her son, with all his quirks. God knew, she’d given him more than enough reason to back away from her and Zachary last night, hadn’t she?
And yet, here he was, being kind to her son, letting him filch food right off his plate.
“I did try. You must have your phone off.”
She pulled her phone from her purse and found that she’d put it on vibrate that morning during their meeting and had never switched it back to ring. “Sorry. I guess I was so freaked out I didn’t feel it vibrating.”
“You hungry?” Harlan asked her. “My food just got here. Y’all could join me.”
“I’m hungry,” Zachary said in a plaintive tone.
“Double-teaming me, are you?”
“We can make it a working lunch if you like,” Harlan said. “I spent my morning going over that list of ranch staffers you compiled. Thought I’d pick your brain about a few of them.”
The adrenaline that had driven her into the diner was leaking away as if someone had unplugged a drain. Her wobbly knees made the decision for her. She slid into the booth next to Zachary. “Let me call someone first.” She made a quick call to Charlotte and told her she’d found Zachary safe and sound. Then she turned her attention back to Harlan. “Okay. Pick away.”
Harlan’s lips curved, eliciting another appearance of the dimples that she was beginning to find downright fascinating. “How about we get you two some lunch first?” He waved at Faith, the diner owner, who was wiping down the counter at the front. She smiled and waved back, tucking the rag under the counter and grabbing a menu from the holder on the counter.
“Your usual?” she asked Stacy, then bent to look Zachary in the eye. “And chicken fingers and apple slices for Zachary?”
Zachary nodded. “And can we get an apple for the horses?”
“I’ll sneak one just for you.” Faith smiled brightly at the little boy. She had a brand-new baby of her own, no doubt napping somewhere in the back. Stacy wondered how she did it.
The answer to her question emerged seconds later from the back of the diner, holding tiny little Kayleigh in his muscular arms. Faith’s fiancé, Matt, cooed at the little girl, his face one big smile.
Matt spotted Faith standing at their table and made a beeline for her, looking nearly as besotted at the sight of her as he had been when he’d been talking to Faith’s baby. “She laughed!” he announced without preamble. “I made her laugh.”
Faith’s eyes lit up. “Are you sure
it wasn’t gas?”
“It was a laugh! Watch.” Matt made a silly face at the baby and, sure enough, little Kayleigh responded with a gurgling noise that sounded for all the world like a little chuckle.
Stacy felt a squirming sensation in her chest. Zachary had laughed at three months old. His first two years, he’d seemed normal in every way. His problems weren’t obvious until later.
Faith grinned at Stacy and Harlan. “Did you hear that?”
“I did,” Stacy admitted, smiling back at her and sending up a little prayer that Kayleigh would live a gloriously uncomplicated and happy life.
She glanced at Harlan, a little curious to see how he was reacting to the Kayleigh show going on beside their table.
He was looking down at his plate, his expression uncomfortable.
She felt another squirming sensation in her belly, this one hotter and queasier. So, Harlan McClain didn’t like babies.
Or, she thought as she watched Matt bend and kiss Faith as if the rest of the world had disappeared for them, was it just the idea of happily ever after in general that Harlan found so hard to handle?
“Matt, hate to interrupt this nauseating display,” Harlan said with a smile that Stacy didn’t entirely buy, “but aren’t you supposed to be working with Wade on those background checks I need by Friday?”
Matt shot him a black look. “Who died and made you Bart Bellows?”
Harlan’s smile faded. “Someone’s trying to kill the governor. I’d think that would be a top priority for everyone around here, not just Stacy and me.”
Matt dragged his blazing black eyes away from Harlan’s face to settle on Stacy’s. He gave her a look of bleak sympathy. “I’ll get back to it as soon as I finish lunch. Or are you the only one allowed to eat, boss?”
Harlan’s expression softened. She thought she might even see a hint of red rising in his neck, as if he was aware he’d overstepped with Matt Soarez. “I’m sorry. Just having one of those days.”
“Worse than yesterday?” Matt softened, too, turning the baby around to pat her on the back as she started fussing. “I don’t imagine it was fun seeing the ex again-”
