Sarah and the Single Dad

by Deanne Anders

  They lay there together and stared up at the twinkling stars above them. They could have been the only two people in the world right then and that would have been all right with her.

  “We have to go back,” David said, though he made no move to stand.

  “I know,” she said as she turned toward him. “Thank you for tonight.”

  “It was my pleasure,” he said as he turned so that they were facing each other.

  She had never screamed during sex before and she would have thought she would feel embarrassed, but she didn’t. Maybe she’d run out of feelings after purging so many from herself tonight.

  She heard the buzz of a phone from the pile of clothes that lay scattered across the grass. “It’s Jack,” she said recognizing the ring tone as the one she had set up for him and hoping she hadn’t worried him because they had been out longer than they had planned.

  They both stood and started searching. She located her jeans and slid them on before she pulled her phone from the back pocket. It just didn’t feel right talking to her father-in-law while she was undressed even if he was a couple miles of trail away and there was no way he could see her.

  “Hey, Jack. What’s up?” It took a minute for his words to cut through the pleasant haze that had formed in her brain. “Are you sure? Yes, we’re headed back right now. We’re on our way. It’s okay. We’ll find him.”

  She ended her call then looked up into David’s eyes. She knew he had heard the conversation and had to have realized what had upset Jack, but she made herself say the words out loud. “Davey’s disappeared.”

  * * *

  David tried to fight down the panic that had gripped him as he had listened to Sarah on the phone with Jack.

  Davey had to be safe. It wasn’t like he was lost in the mall where someone could have stolen him. He had always loved playing hide-and-go-seek when he was younger. He had to just be playing with Jack. By the time they got back to Sarah’s house, Jack would have found him.

  Fortunately, Fancy seemed to pick up that there was an urgent need for them to return to the ranch. Following behind Sarah, she’d sped up to keep pace with Sugar, but with only the moon to light their path they were unable to travel very fast. Finally they reached the road.

  “Hold on,” Sarah hollered back at him as Sugar took off in a run. He had just enough time to grab the saddle horn before Fancy followed her. He hugged the horse with his thighs and bent low as he saw Sarah do. He could see the reflection of light in the dark night and knew that they had to be close to the house.

  Finally they topped a small hill and he could see the house in front of them. It was lit as bright as an airport landing strip with flood lights shining from each corner of the house.

  His horse came to a stop so fast that it almost sent him toppling off. They were both off their horses and running for the door when they saw Jack coming around from the backyard with a large flashlight in his hand.

  “Humphrey’s gone too,” Jack said as they sprinted up to him. “I’m so sorry, David. I only left him for a minute. I can’t imagine where he’s gotten off to.”

  The older man’s hands shook, sending the beam from the flashlight skittering across the yard. Sarah took the flashlight and handed it to David, then took both of Jack’s hands in her own.

  “Tell us what happened,” she said, as she walked Jack up to the front porch and sat him down in the closest rocking chair.

  Jack looked pale and David could see that the man was visibly shaken by Davey’s disappearance, but right then they needed to be out looking for Davey. As if reading his mind Sarah turned back to him.

  “We need to figure out where Davey might have gone,” she said, then turned back to Jack. “Start from the beginning. What did the two of you do after David and I left?”

  David tried not to fidget as he listened to Jack tell them about the supper of hot dogs and chips and then how Jack had taken Davey down to the big stables.

  “We came back up to the house as soon as I finished locking the doors. I could tell that Davey didn’t feel well, but all he complained of was his throat hurting. He was in the family room, I’d put on a movie for him, and I left him there while I went into the kitchen to get him a teaspoon of honey. I thought maybe it would soothe his throat a bit.” Jack turned back toward him, his eyes full of pain. “I’m so sorry, David.”

  “It’s not your fault, Jack,” he said as he let his hand rest on the older man’s shoulder. It wasn’t this man’s fault. He wasn’t responsible for Davey’s disappearance. If the blame rested anywhere it was on David. He’d known his son was acting out of character and that something had to be wrong, but he never would have thought Davey would run off from Jack.

  “You said you locked the stables. Did Davey know that they were locked? Would he have gone back there to see one of the horses?” Sarah asked.

  “I told him I was locking it up and he saw the keys I had,” Jack said. “At first I thought he was just in the bathroom. When he didn’t come back I checked the bathroom downstairs and then the one upstairs.”

  “We played a lot of hide-and-go-seek when he was younger. Did you check under the beds?” David said as his mind searched for any explanation for his son’s disappearance.

  “But that doesn’t explain Humphrey being gone,” Sarah reminded him. “Jack, you go back and clear the house. Maybe the two things don’t have anything to do with each other. Either way we need to know for sure that Davey’s not in the house. I’ll check out the stable behind the house with David.”

  He followed Sarah around the back of the house then down a hill where a much smaller building stood. Like the house, the building’s bright lights shone from each corner. He could tell Jack had been in a hurry to meet them as he had left the double doors to the building wide open.

  “Davey,” Sarah called out as they entered the building. Though smaller, this building was set up much like the bigger one with a short aisle running between stalls that faced each other and a larger room at the end where tools and horse tack hung.

  “Davey, are you in here?” David called as he went from stall to stall to make sure his son wasn’t lying alone in one of them hurt and unable to call for him. Several of the stalls were empty, their floors swept clean. An older horse eyed him warily as he climbed up the metal bars of the stall door and looked past him, but the only thing besides the horse in the stall was a bed of fresh hay.

  “David,” Sarah called to him. Jumping down for the gate he ran toward her with visions of his son lying bleeding on the ground flashing through his mind, but when he made it to her all he could see was Sarah staring at a spot on the stable wall.

  “Humphrey’s saddle is gone,” she said as she turned to him.

  “I don’t understand,” he said. “Davey doesn’t know how to put the saddle on the pony.”

  Sarah face fell. “Remember the other night when he was asking me questions about the horse book you had bought him? We went all the way through on how to get a horse ready to ride and he already knew the name of most of the tack parts.” She headed back to where the stall doors stood open. Inside the stall he saw a small two-step platform.

  She turned toward him, her eyes wide with fear that hadn’t been there when they had been talking to Jack, and then she pushed past him running out of the building. He found her at the edge of woods that ran behind the building.

  “Davey,” she called out into the dark trees, and then ran blindly into the woods. He followed her, calling out his son’s name. And soon was unable to tell which way led back to the stable and house. If Davey had gotten lost so easily, how was he supposed to find him? How was Davey supposed to find him? He saw the light from the flashlight Sarah still held and used it as a guide back to her. What had he been thinking to leave his son alone? Davey was a precocious little boy who was always pushing the boundaries. And now his son was lost in the dark because
his father hadn’t been there to keep him out of trouble.

  “I thought I’d lost you too,” Sarah said as she threw her arms around him and waited for him to pull her closer, to comfort her like she was trying to comfort him.

  “It’s my fault,” David said, his eyes staring out into the dark woods behind her. “My son is lost out there because of me.”

  “You can’t think that. He’s just a little boy who’s fascinated with horses who decided to go an adventure,” she said as she once more tried to get David to look at her. “We’ll find him.”

  “He wanted to go with us and I told him he couldn’t. He was tired this afternoon and I should have kept him home, but I was looking forward to spending time with you. I should have kept him home, Sarah. I’m his father, I’m supposed to put him first,” he said before he turned away from her and headed back toward the house.

  CHAPTER NINE

  AS DAVID TOOK his car and headed back to the stable to look for Davey, Sarah sat Jack down and they went over the night again. She tried to not let the things David had said bother her. He was scared for his son and it was natural that he would blame himself, but it hadn’t been his words that had hurt. It had been the way he’d pulled back from her. He’d shut her out with his actions more than his words.

  She made herself concentrate on what was important right then. There would be time for her and David to talk later. Right now they needed to find Davey. She would have to call the police and ask for help, something she didn’t want to do if the boy was just hiding nearby.

  “The only thing that makes sense is that Davey took Humphrey to go look for David,” Jack said. “I just don’t understand why that pony hasn’t brought him home by now. Most of the time all he does is meander around in the yard. The only time he’s ever been out of the backyard was...”

  “You said that he should have come home,” she said as she jumped up and looked for the keys to the ATV. “Remember where he went a couple months ago when someone left the gate open?”

  “Yeah, he’d gone back to that little stable you and Kolton built,” Jack said as he started to stand, realizing what Sarah had as well.

  “Exactly. Stay here. I’ll call you as soon as I get to the house. Tell David I know where Davey is.”

  * * *

  Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier? Kolton had built a two-stall stable after they had bought the pony for Cody. It was where they had kept Humphrey until Sarah had moved back in with Jack. It had been Humphrey’s first home with them, it only made sense that he would head there if he was let out.

  Sarah turned the key and hit the gas. The four-wheeler jumped to life, hit the corner of the front ditch in her urgency then righted itself as she turned it up the clay road. She remembered to turn the lights on after a close call with a tree-lined curve.

  She left the ATV running with the lights on as she grabbed her flashlight and jumped out. She ran toward the house then stopped. She’d had the utilities turned off after a few months of living with Jack. The idea of walking back inside the house after losing her family had been too painful. Her momma and her brother’s wife had packed up her clothes and a few other things that they felt she needed and Sarah had chosen to leave the rest of things where they had been that last day that Kolton and Cody had left the house. She stood staring at what was supposed to have been her forever house. She wanted to turn her back and walk away, but there was a little boy lost and she had to make sure that he wasn’t here.

  “Davey,” she called as she walked up the driveway, then followed the sidewalk up to the front door. She checked it even though she knew she’d find it locked. “Davey, can you hear me?” she yelled as she headed to the back of the house where Humphrey’s stall had been.

  Davey, please be here.

  The door to the tiny stable stood open and she pointed her flashlight inside. A large shadow moved startling a scream out of her that quickly became a laugh. Standing in the dark, was the pony giving her a very put-upon stare. “Davey, where are you? It’s okay, you can come out.”

  Pushing past Humphrey, she searched the stall then ran around to the other stall. He wasn’t there? That couldn’t be right. Davey would surely have stayed with the pony. Unless he had fallen off. What if he had fallen off? What if he was lying out in the woods hurt? Would the pony have left him? She didn’t think so, but she never would have thought that Davey would have taken off on the pony either.

  She left Humphrey in his stall and retraced her way back to the ATV.

  “Davey,” she hollered louder now. “Davey?”

  She listened for an answer as she checked behind the overgrown hedges that lined the front of the house. As she passed one of the windows she thought she heard something. She checked both sides of the bushes, then heard a soft cough. It was coming from inside the house. She ran back to the front door but it was locked just like the first time she had checked it. She sprinted to the back door.

  “Davey?” she called as she turned the knob. The door opened easily. Using her flashlight she checked each room as she came to it, flashing the light into each corner. Another cough came from the end of the hall. She entered the room for the first time since she’d lost Cody. Her light hit the blue curtains that hung over the window and then came to rest on the little boy curled up on a bed way too small for him. She bent down and picked the boy up and wrapped him in the animal-covered comforter.

  “Davey, it’s Sarah.” She touched her hand to his forehead then checked his pulse. He was warm and his heart rate was a little fast which could be explained if he had a fever, and though his respirations were even they did seem a little labored. She carried him out to the four-wheeler and laid him on the seat, then pulled out her phone, her fingers trembling as she went through her contacts. She’d managed to hold the tears off until David answered and she heard the desperation in his voice.

  “David, I’ve got him. I’ve got Davey,” she cried through the tears.

  * * *

  David took his first deep breath since Sarah had received Jack’s call telling them Davey was missing. He’d been about to dial the emergency number after he hadn’t found Davey anywhere around the stables when Sarah had called. He still didn’t understand why his son would have gone off like that, but he did know that it wasn’t something he would be taking a chance with ever again.

  Pulling his car up to the house, he could see the lights of the ATV as it topped a hill on the road and he held his breath as he watched it headed toward him, then stop in front of the house.

  “Hey, Daddy,” his son said as Sarah lifted him off the bench of the vehicle and handed him to David. “I’m tired. Can we go home now?”

  “Hey, buddy. Let me check you out first,” David said as he hugged his little boy tight to him. There had been so many times in his son’s life that he had thought he might lose him, but he had never imagined that he could lose his son like he had tonight.

  “Let’s get him inside. He’s a little warm. I’ve got a thermometer in the house,” Sarah said as she opened the door for them.

  “We found him, Jack. Humphrey went back to the house, just like you said,” David heard Sarah shout as she entered the house.

  He followed her, then stopped when he saw the man that Sarah considered a second father sitting at the table looking tired and older than he had ever seen him.

  “It’s okay, Jack,” Sarah said as she went to the man David knew she loved as much as she had loved his son. “Davey’s okay.”

  Only David knew exactly how Jack felt, and he wasn’t sure how easy it would be to get back to being okay.

  * * *

  David fixed the faded blanket decorated with cartoon animals so that it covered his son better as he watched Davey sleeping on the bed in the ER. He wondered exactly how many times he had sat in emergency rooms just like this one while he waited for Davey’s lab tests and X-rays to come back. Ten? Twenty?
More?

  He should have been more in tune with what was going on with his son. He knew that Davey wasn’t usually such a fussy child. He should have known that he was getting sick. He of all people knew how fast a small infection could turn into something worse where his son was concerned.

  The night’s growth of stubble scraped against his hand as he rubbed at his face, trying to remain awake. He’d spent many long nights sitting with Davey and even more on his rotations through his residency, and he’d still been able to function the next day, but the stress of the night was taking a toll on him. He jumped up as the door to Davey’s room opened and the petite blond doctor that had seen Davey when he had first arrived came back into the room.

  “You’ve got the X-ray back?” he asked before the women could speak.

  “We did, and the labs too. If you want to go see them, we can walk back to my desk,” she said.

  David looked down at Davey. He wanted to see the labs and the X-ray film for himself but what if his son woke up while he was gone? Davey had been alone for hours in the woods; he couldn’t leave Davey alone now.

  “That’s okay. I’ll look at them later. What did the radiologist report say?” he asked. He couldn’t remember the doctor’s name though he was sure she’d introduced herself earlier.

  “There is a small pleural effusion in the left lower lobe, but from the rest of the lab work I think Davey might have a slight case of pneumonia. I’ve sent all the results to Dr. Benton for a second opinion, but from the complaints that he had earlier that’s my professional opinion. His white count is just above thirteen so I’ll start him on some antibiotics. There’s a nasty respiratory infection going around the schools right now. Whether exposure to that is the cause of Davey’s infection or if it’s his increased risk due to his transplant, I can’t tell you. But I’m going to start him on an IV infusion and I’d like to admit him for observation at least for the next forty-eight hours just to be safe. Do you have any questions?”