“I think your daddy played on this swing when he was a little boy. Would you like for me to push you on it?”
Again he nodded.
When they got to the swing, she lifted him to the seat and showed him how to hold tightly to the rope. She gave him a push and his hands tightened even more. The next time she pushed a little easier and noticed that he relaxed.
As she pushed the swing she told him about the ranch and about knowing his daddy when he was a boy. She didn’t share the part about how her heart had broken when he left. He hadn’t said goodbye. It had broken her heart because she’d allowed herself to believe the fairy tales they’d spun as they’d ridden bikes and played in the creek. At thirteen she’d really believed that someday they would get married.
And like all young girls, she’d believed in their dreams of a perfect life and a happy home, where no one would ever yell or hurt them. Ever again.
She’d found happiness on this ranch. She felt secure here. And she wondered if Carson was chasing after happiness, too, hoping to help his children feel secure in a life, a world, that had dealt them an incredibly difficult hand.
She looked down at the dark head of the boy in the swing and smiled. She could so easily get attached to him and to his sister. She could get attached to their father, too. She loved Jack like the father she’d never had, and she knew how badly he wanted to reconcile with his children. But she knew it would only be heartache for her if Carson and his children stayed for more than a day.
She glanced at the spot where Skip had been playing with a stick. The puppy and stick were both gone. She slowed the swing and scanned the area but didn’t see a trace of the puppy.
Great. She’d gotten distracted and the Labrador had done what he most loved: wandered off. “Andy, keep swinging. I’m going to look behind the shed for Skip. Stay right here in case he comes back. He would be very sad if he came back and we were gone.”
Andy nodded and he remained on the swing, his little legs kicking back and forth. The shed, a mere twenty feet away, was one of Skip’s favorite places to hunt feral cats. She could hear his low, puppy growl. As she rounded the corner of the shed, he took off.
“Skip,” she called out, knowing it would do no good. He would never make a good service dog if she couldn’t break him of his need to chase cats.
She was coming back around the shed when she saw Carson and Maggie heading their way. He glanced at her and then looked around, his fatherly concern evident even from a distance.
“Where’s Andy?” he asked as he got closer.
“On the swing,” she answered. But he wasn’t. “He was right there. I told him to wait.”
Carson shook his head. “He walks away. I should have warned you. Hold Maggie and I’ll find him.”
“It’s only been two minutes. He couldn’t have gone far.” She took Maggie and the little girl patted her shoulder and whispered, “Oh, Andy.”
Kylie turned in circles, scanning the yard, the fields and the road. Where could Andy have gotten to so quickly? As she started her own search in the yard, Isaac walked out the back door of the house. She waved him down and he headed her way at a lope.
“What’s up?” He pushed the brim of his cowboy hat back revealing just the edge of the scar that ran from his jaw to the place just above his left ear.
“Andy ran away from me. Two minutes and he was gone. If you get Max, he could help.”
Isaac was already walking away. “I’ll get him and a couple of the guys. We’ll spread out in the field and head toward the pond. Kids always seem drawn to water.”
“Thank you.” The words came out choked as tears filled her eyes and clogged her throat.
“Don’t mention it. And don’t worry, we’ll find him.” With that Isaac took off, heading first to the kennel where Max barked as if he already knew he was needed.
Kylie shifted Maggie to her left side, giving her weaker right side a break. The toddler leaned her head on Kylie’s shoulder and started to sing, “Jesus Loves Me.”
“Yes, he does, sweetie,” Kylie told her. “And he loves Andy. So we’re going to pray real hard and we will find your brother.”
They had to find him. Her heart ached, knowing that because of one moment of her distraction it could result in a child being lost. The thought cut deep because it brought back the accident. A distracted moment and their convoy had been attacked.
She’d lost so much that day.
She’d never expected that five years later she would be here. She’d thought her world would never be right again after that day. But she’d managed to save herself and she’d dragged Eric Baker from a burning vehicle. He had proposed on the spot, telling her it was meant to be.
They’d known each other, had dated a few times, but he’d convinced her that her rescuing him that day had sealed their lives together. They’d lain there waiting for help, laughing at every stupid thing just to keep from crying.
Two months later they’d gotten married.
A year later he was gone and she was alone. Again.
Her heart thudded hard as she became frantic, worrying that she wouldn’t find Andy. What if he’d gone toward the road or the pond? What if he wandered to the woods and darkness fell? She glanced toward the west at the sun that was barely a sliver of orange as it sank over the horizon. It would soon be dark.
“Maybe he went inside?” she said to Maggie, but she had fallen asleep in her arms. “Right, well, let’s go check inside.”
She headed for the patio and the back door of the house. As she hurried through the home she called his name. She checked the kitchen, the utility room, the garage. As she walked back through the dining room, Jack called out to her.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
She didn’t want to worry him. He’d already had one spell.
“Well?” he questioned as he reached for water, his arm and hand shaking uncontrollably.
She picked up the water glass and held it for him. “I lost Andy.”
“You lost him?”
“One minute he was on the tree swing and the next minute he was gone. Isaac is getting Maximus and a few of the guys to help search.”
“They’ll find him.” Jack reached. “Let me hold that sleeping princess. It might be the only chance I ever get to hold her.”
Kylie placed the child in his arms. Maggie shifted a little, then settled back into a sound sleep.
“I knew I didn’t have much of a chance of getting him to stay,” Jack said as he studied his sleeping granddaughter. “I’ll take the time I can get. You go help find Andy and the two of us will be just fine.”
“If she wakes up?”
“Rosa is here. She’s cleaning upstairs and she’s going to make soup. We’ll be just fine.”
The housekeeper. Kylie had forgotten that Rosa planned on coming in for the evening because she would be gone over the weekend to attend one of her sons’ weddings.
“I’ll go help them look. You stay put.” She leaned to hug Jack. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”
He grinned. “I know you will. And in the meantime, I get to spend time with sweet Maggie here.”
Kylie gave him a last look and headed out the front door, just in case Andy had gone that way. The look on Jack’s face had been priceless. She knew what this visit meant to him, even if it didn’t go the way he’d planned.
She knew what this visit meant to her, too. It made her question everything she’d believed about her life here. She had spent four years finding herself, building a stable and happy life. For the first time, she had hope. She had real faith. She was truly happy.
And she didn’t want anything to change, because change was unpredictable.
And what was more unpredictable than a man from the past with his two children showing up out of the blue?
Chapter Three
Carson had made a quick search around the stable, the corrals, the dog kennels. When he didn’t find Andy, he headed back to the stable. Andy could very well be hiding in a stall or a storage room in the mammoth-sized facility. There were a dozen stalls, several storage rooms, an office and an attached indoor arena. Plenty of places for a little boy to hide.
Kids loved barns. Dusty barns with haylofts and dark corners to hide in. This wasn’t one of those barns. It wasn’t like the one that Carson and his siblings had played in when they’d been kids living here.
He didn’t have time to think about the changes to the ranch. He had to find Andy before his son found trouble. It wasn’t the first time he had wandered off. Their nanny had lost him twice in the past year. A friend had suggested a phone with a GPS tracking device.
“Andy? Andy? Are you in here?” He paused to listen for any sound that indicated his son might be hiding inside the stable. Nothing. He closed his eyes and felt the closest to praying he’d been in three years.
The night he’d lost Anna.
That night had been a night of prayer. Carson had determined God could and would get his wife through the trauma of the accident. And now, he was about to close his eyes and ask that same God to help him find his son.
He’d believed that his faith died the day Anna died. But if a person’s first thought in crisis was to call on God, maybe he wasn’t so far gone.
After a thorough search of the stable, including stalls where some pretty decent Quarter Horses pawed at the ground or snuffled water from automatic waterers, he exited on the opposite side. Isaac joined him, leading a big chocolate-brown Labrador retriever.
“This is Maximus.” Isaac patted the animal’s head.
He led the dog in a circle, talking to him in a low tone that got the animal’s attention.
“Does he know what he’s doing?” Carson asked as the dog began to sniff the ground.
“Nah, but he’ll do his best. I hope you don’t mind, I helped myself to this jacket in your SUV. I wanted him to have Andy’s scent.” Isaac held up Andy’s jacket that had been left in his car seat. He adjusted his cowboy hat, exposing a military haircut and a scar on the left side of his head.
“We should keep moving. Is there still a pond past the stand of trees over there?” Carson nodded in the direction of the setting sun.
“Yeah, we’ll head that way. Max seems to like that idea.”
“How do we know he’s on the right track?”
Isaac laughed a little. “We don’t know, but I trust Max. I promise you, we’re going to find your kid.”
The way Carson saw it, he had no other options. He had to trust the dog and Isaac. Carson hoped that God realized he was putting some trust in Him, too.
“Kylie is really beating herself up,” Isaac informed him as they continued in the direction of the pond.
“She shouldn’t. Andy has done this before.” Carson scanned the area and then shifted his focus to the horizon. “It’ll be dark soon.”
“I know. We have to keep moving. How often does he do this?”
“Twice in the past year. One time before that.” Carson hated the feeling of loss each time Andy wandered away. Loss and helplessness.
“There’s got to be a way to stop him or to track him,” Isaac offered.
“I’ve thought about several things. I guess I hoped he would grow out of it.”
Max began to bark and started to pull on the leash.
“He’s got the scent.” Isaac unhooked his leash and the dog took off.
Max headed for a stand of trees a short distance from the pond. Isaac stumbled a bit. Carson passed him and went after the dog. His barking increased in frequency and loudness. Carson hurried to the pond bank where the dog seemed to have something or someone cornered. He prayed it would be his son.
He refused to think of other prayers that hadn’t been answered.
“Andy. You have to come out.” Carson stood, listening. Isaac approached, quieter than a man his size should have been.
“Over there.” Isaac pointed to a huddled form sitting on the ground next to a bush, a tiny kitten in his hands.
“Hey, buddy, what do you have there?” Carson asked as he picked his son up.
“I saved it,” Andy said. He leaned his head on Carson’s shoulder.
Andy was a little muddy, wet and obviously cold. “Hey, Isaac, do you have that jacket?”
Isaac leaned down to pet Max, giving the dog a treat from his pocket. Carson repeated the request for the jacket. This time Isaac looked at him and then shook his head. Carson pointed to the jacket.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.” Isaac handed over the jacket with an easy grin. And Carson knew there had to be more to the excuse.
They headed back across the field. As they walked, Isaac texted Jack, Kylie and the men who were helping in the search. As he texted he moved to the opposite side of Carson. The side without a scar, Carson realized.
“Go easy on her,” Isaac said.
Carson knew he meant on Kylie. “I don’t need to be told what to do.”
“You don’t seem to be the most forgiving guy in the world.” Isaac grinned at him and then stuck a toothpick in his mouth. Carson could smell cinnamon.
“And you’ve come to that conclusion because I don’t want to take Jack up on his clinic offer? I’m a trauma surgeon, not a family practitioner. And I need to live in a larger city. I need to make sure we’re somewhere that Andy can get the resources he needs, the education he needs.”
Isaac’s expression softened as he looked at Andy, clinging tightly to Carson’s neck. “Yeah, I get that.”
“Thanks.”
Isaac shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt you to look at the clinic. And you could at least tell the old man that you forgive him.”
“Yeah, I guess I could.” Carson kept trudging along on the uneven ground. Isaac walked next to him, the toothpick between his teeth and a thoughtful expression on his face. It didn’t take a genius to realize the other man looked a lot like family, more like Carson’s younger brother Colt than Carson, but the resemblance was there.
So were memories of his parents fighting, shouting things that his younger self had tried to ignore.
“You really want to raise your kids up there?” Isaac asked.
“There or another city like Chicago. I’ve got to find a job in a city that offers what I’m looking for.”
“Right, of course.”
They were getting closer to the stable. Carson could see people moving, watching. “How many people live here on the ranch?”
Isaac took the toothpick out of his mouth. “Usually a dozen or more. I don’t count them all. Jack likes to take in strays.”
“Interesting hobby for a man who let his wife take his kids.” Carson heard the edge to his voice and stopped there, because Andy had looked up at him, gray eyes troubled.
“You all just need to talk. But I guess that won’t happen if you’re leaving tonight.”
Andy shook his head. “I don’t want to leave.”
“I know you don’t,” Carson responded.
“Give the kid a break. Let him get a good night’s sleep. Does it matter if it’s here or a hotel?” Isaac shook his head. “I thought I was stubborn. You keep making excuses about how you have to get on the road and get your kids settled. But you won’t stop to think that maybe staying a night here could be the best thing for them.”
Carson glanced up and saw Kylie a short distance away, listening and worrying her bottom lip. She’d done that even at thirteen.
“I’m sorry,” she immediately said. Tears filled her eyes.
“You don’t have to apologize. He sometimes wanders away. It happens. It’s happened to me, and to his nanny in Dallas. We do the best we can to keep him safe.”
Andy’s arms went around Ca
rson’s neck, an unusual moment for the two of them. Andy was rarely affectionate. The kitten Andy had shoved between them wasn’t quite as affectionate. He climbed away from them and jumped to the ground, running fast in the direction of the shed where the rest of the litter now played.
“Where’s Maggie?” he asked as they walked through the gate that Isaac had opened.
“Asleep on your...on Jack’s lap.”
“Oh.”
She put a cautious hand on Andy’s arm. “I was worried about you, buddy.”
“Sorry,” he said without looking at her.
“We have stew and biscuits,” Kylie said. “Would you all like to eat before you leave?”
Andy tried to get down from Carson’s arms. “I don’t want to. I don’t like the car. I want to go home.”
Home. Carson sighed. They no longer had a home. They had possessions in a storage facility. They had clothes in suitcases in the car.
He followed Kylie to the back door of the house. Inside they were greeted by a dozen people lined up in the kitchen preparing for dinner. This was Jack’s life, his mission. Or was it a ministry? A group of people starting over. If anyone knew how to help veterans, it would be Jack.
“Well?” Kylie asked, smiling when she noticed where his attention had gone. “This is Mercy Ranch. You should at least take a little time and see what Jack has done with the place.”
“I can see what he’s done. It’s a good thing.” It was easy to admit. A man couldn’t deny what was right in front of his face. The cosmetic changes to the ranch were obvious, but the people were the main reason for the ranch. He got that. He understood why this would mean something to Jack.
“It is a good thing.” Kylie looked over the crowd of people and then her attention turned to Andy. “You should feed your children. There’s plenty.”
“We would like to eat,” he said. With those words Andy relaxed in his arms. “I should get Andy cleaned up first. And let Jack know that he’s safe.”
They could spend the night. He could let his children rest. He could give Jack time and listen to his explanations.
Reunited with the Rancher Page 3
