In Search of the Long-Lost Maverick

by Christine Rimmer

  Panic. They’d rushed in every direction, looking, calling his name. Nothing. Silence. The breeze through the treetops the only sound when they’d forced themselves to stop and listen.

  Her mother was on the phone with 911 when Sadie emerged from behind a tree, shaking her head, tears streaming down her face. “Danny!” she’d called out as loud as she could, trying to keep the fear out of her voice so as not to scare him if he could hear her. Silence.

  At footsteps, they’d all turned expectantly and rushed over, but it was a young couple with hiking poles. No, they hadn’t seen a little boy with blond hair and orange light-up sneakers. Sorry. They’d help look, though, they’d said.

  Converse County search and rescue, park rangers and local police were there within minutes. A tall, dark-haired man, his orange shirt emblazoned front and back with Badger Tree National Park Search and Rescue, Axel Dawson embroidered on the right chest, appeared with a dog, a yellow Lab, and asked for something with Danny’s scent. Sadie pulled Danny’s hoodie from her backpack, and Axel held it under the dog’s nose, then stared at the photos of Danny on Sadie’s phone. He’d had her text a few to him, and then he’d rushed into the woods near the last spot the women were sure they’d seen him. Two hours later, Danny was still lost, radios crackling, areas checked rattled off. Axel Dawson had reappeared to speak to Sadie, asking for special words Danny liked, songs he knew, and she’d been so out of her mind she’d barely remembered his favorite word was nana—for banana, not grandmother—and he liked the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” song.

  Axel had put warm, strong hands on her shoulders, looked her right in the eyes with his startling blue ones and said, as the sun went down behind him, that he’d find her son. He’d said it with such conviction in his voice, in his expression, that she’d believed him more than she’d ever believed anything.

  Twenty minutes later, the radios of the park ranger and police officer who’d stayed with the family had blared to life, and the ranger screamed, “Danny has been found! He’s alive and well, and they’re heading here!” Cheers went up among the group, including the EMTs at the ready. Sadie dropped to her knees with relief. Her mom, aunt and cousin were crying and staring in every direction, waiting. And then out of the tree line came Axel Dawson, his right cheek bleeding from a long scrape, holding Danny tight in his arms as the boy sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and made the spider hand gesture up to Axel’s chin, the yellow Lab following them.

  Sadie had gone flying over, sobbing thank you over and over as she’d reached out for Danny. She’d held her son close, covering him with kisses, and then the EMTs had led her over to the ambulance. Danny seemed okay but had his share of scratches. He’d been chasing a woodland critter and had ended up crawling through brush and vines into a well-hidden badger’s den and fallen asleep. Dude, Axel’s search and rescue K-9 partner, had sniffed him out and stayed put until Axel got in and got the boy out.

  Sadie had heard this all secondhand from the police and EMTs, who’d heard it from Axel via radio when he’d been rushing the boy out of the woods. She’d looked for him to thank him again, but he appeared to be getting a serious dressing-down from another man in a park search and rescue shirt, and then she and her family had gone to the hospital to have Danny checked out, and she hadn’t seen Axel Dawson again. She’d returned the next day, bringing a pie from her mother, a strudel from her aunt and a hundred-dollar gift card from her cousin to a local restaurant, but she’d heard he’d left town for a while.

  Apparently, he’d broken a few rules to find Danny and had been sent home on enforced “rest and relaxation” for two weeks. Sadie had felt terrible about that. A couple of days later, when she’d gotten Axel’s address and gone to his cabin nestled at the base of the mountain to thank him in person and apologize for whatever had happened, a fellow ranger had said that Axel had gone to his family’s guest ranch out in Bear Ridge for a while. Sadie’s mom had immediately tried to book their annual family reunion at the Dawson ranch, but there were no openings till winter—and the family needed all six cabins. A few days later, though, Sadie’s mom had gotten a call from the Dawson ranch that a corporate retreat had canceled for the last week of August, and voilà: thirty-eight of Sadie’s relatives had descended on the rural Wyoming property.

  “Remember, he’s single,” her mother whispered into Sadie’s ear.

  Ugh. How did Viv Winston always know what she was doing? How could her mom possibly know that Sadie was thinking about Axel Dawson? Though technically, Sadie was thinking about what happened three months ago. The man was a huge part of that, though.

  “Not that single,” Sadie whispered. “I told you what the park ranger said.”

  Three of the rangers, two female and one male, had come to the hospital to visit Danny and bring him stuffed toys, which had been incredibly kind, and as they were leaving, Sadie had heard one say, “Is McGorgeous here?”

  The other had said, “Give it up, already. I told you I heard Axel Dawson doesn’t do commitment.”

  “I know, but I like to look at him,” the other said, and they chuckled.

  Sadie had filed that tidbit away. Axel was nice to look at, and he’d found her son and brought him to her. The combination was potent. The past few months, she’d had a passing thought or two or a hundred about getting to know him better while at the reunion on his ranch. But better to think of him as a superhero like her family did instead of a man she could actually get to know better. Sadie Winston did not, repeat, did not want anything to do with a man who didn’t “do commitment.”

  “Oh flibberty-poop,” Viv said with a wave of her arm, her ash-blond bob swinging by her chin. She smiled at two of the children who were following a chicken, then sidled closer to Sadie. “Everyone wants love.”

  Sadie sure did. A nutritionist specializing in geriatric patients for the Converse County General Hospital in Prairie City, which was a town over from Bear Ridge, Sadie had a rewarding job, a nice small house in the center of town, friends, a big family, but she was sick to death of showing up alone to weddings and family parties. She was fine on her own, sure. But she wanted her life’s partner, dammit. Someone who’d care if she was running late. Someone to be there. Someone to wake up with, share her day with. Someone to share life with. Someone who’d love Danny the way she did. She’d married Danny’s father after a whirlwind courtship, despite his telling her he’d never thought he’d be the settling-down kind. She’d believed he loved her so much that he’d change. But when she told him she was pregnant, he’d disappeared with the rodeo—faster than she could even fill out paperwork to change her last name. Ever since, Sadie’s motto was when someone tells you who they are, believe them. Axel had made it clear to everyone he wasn’t the settling-down sort either. She should believe it.

  “Zul!” Danny shouted, pointing.

  Sadie’s heart sped up, and she glanced around. Zul was Danny’s attempt at saying Axel. Thanks to her family referring to the man as the family hero for the past three months, Danny had turned one of his stuffed animals, a floppy yellow lion with a shaggy brown mane, into “Zul.” Sadie’s grandmother Vanessa had made a little red cape for the lion, and the hero worship was complete. It was Danny’s lovey, and he took it everywhere. Sadie knew her aunt was holding it right now so that Danny could pet the animals. “When Zul?” Danny had asked every day as he flew the lion around.

  Finally, Sadie had a real answer for him. Because as the little boy took off running past the goats toward the open barn door, Sadie watched a tall, dark-haired, ocean-eyed man in a Stetson stop dead in his tracks as her son sprinted straight for him.

  Axel Dawson.

  * * *

  A toddler—two years old at most—in a straw cowboy hat was running full speed right at Axel. Whoa there, little guy. In about a minute, the tyke would collide with Axel’s knees. And since Axel had almost done his left knee in this morning from rescuing Hermione, the ranch’s fame
d runaway goat, from a narrow cliff up Clover Mountain just behind the ranch, he didn’t think it could take twenty-five pounds of flying energy.

  The hat flew off the boy’s head, his mop of blond hair flopping as he sped toward Axel, who stood about twenty feet away near the barn door. Two women in their fifties hurried after the bolter.

  Axel squinted in the bright sunshine. Holy molasses. Was that little Danny Winston barreling his way? And his great-aunt and grandmother behind him? The grandmother’s name was Viv, if he remembered right, but he couldn’t recall the great-aunt’s name.

  Axel’s throat went dry, and he swallowed, the late August afternoon suddenly hotter than it was five seconds ago. Let me be seeing things, he thought. Correction: prayed.

  “Danny, slow down!” one of the women called.

  Prayer denied. That little boy in the dinosaur-covered T-shirt, blue shorts and orange light-up sneakers was definitely Danny Winston.

  Axel’s sister, the ranch’s guest relations manager, had told him a family reunion was being held on the property, every bed in the six cabins filled, including cots brought in for the smaller kids. The clan was arriving today—and clearly had, given the crowd in the petting zoo. Had he asked their name? Probably not. Axel’s job at the ranch revolved around guest safety and leading wilderness tours through the forest and up Clover Mountain. Knowing names and stocking the cabins with welcome baskets that catered to allergies and favorites was his sister’s thing. Axel was more interested in sizing up guests’ likelihood of getting lost and needing rescue; he kept watch over those types. There were lots of those. City slickers and country-bred alike.

  “Zul!” Danny shouted as he came flying at Axel, twenty-five pounds of energy. The boy wrapped his arms around Axel’s leg and squeezed.

  Aw. Danny remembered his name. Well, half of it. “Hey there, partner,” Axel said, scooping the tot up in his arms, the solid weight of him a reminder of three months ago.

  “Hi, Zul!”

  “Hey, Danny. Nice to see you again.”

  The boy beamed up at him with his bright white baby-teeth smile and those huge hazel-brown eyes. He was surprised Danny recognized him after three months, but maybe one of his relatives had pointed him out. There’s that nice man who rescued you from the mountain, he could imagine one of the Winstons saying.

  “Our hero!” called a woman’s voice.

  Axel glanced at Danny’s grandmother as she approached. Her sister, Danny’s great-aunt, was right behind her and holding a stuffed lion with what looked like a red cape.

  “We hoped you’d be here!” the grandmother said. The Winstons had a strong family resemblance. Many were blond. The grandmother was tall and strong, her own ash-blond hair cut to her chin with a sweep of bangs. She extended her hand, and Axel shifted Danny so he could shake it. “I’m Viv, Sadie’s mother. We decided to hold our family reunion on the Dawson Family Guest Ranch in your honor as a thank-you for finding our Danny.”

  The great-aunt stepped closer and extended her hand. “I’m Tabby Winston, Viv’s sister.”

  As Axel shook her hand and smiled, he noticed Viv send her a scowl. He could feel the tension between the two women all around them. He wondered what that was about.

  “I live here now,” Axel explained. “Home was a cabin at the base of the Badger Mountain where I used to work, as you know, but I decided to move home—here—a few months ago. My brother, the foreman, and my sister, the guest relations manager, like having a search and rescue specialist on the property twenty-four/seven, and turns out I miss the cowboy life, so here I am.”

  That wasn’t quite the whole story of why Axel had returned to the ranch he’d vowed to steer far clear of for the rest of his days. But then his brother Noah had become a dad—of twins—and his sister had a baby, too, and family tended to bring family around, didn’t it? That wasn’t the reason he was here either, but he liked the less messy versions of the truth. Poking around in his gut had never appealed to Axel. On mountains, in dangerous situations, when clocks were ticking, there wasn’t much time for that kind of thing. Ranch life was a lot safer, and unfortunately, Axel had had a little too much time to think about a lot of things. Including his inability to stop thinking about Danny Winston’s mother, Sadie. He glanced around the throngs of her relatives gathered around the barns, pointing at the alpacas and hoisting children to laugh at the goats’ antics. He didn’t see her.

  “Zul!” Danny said, leaning toward his great-aunt and reaching out his hand.

  “Here you go, sweets,” the woman said, handing him the lion.

  “Are we both named Zul?” Axel asked, unable to contain a grin.

  “He turned his lion into Axel the Super Lion. Takes it everywhere,” Viv said.

  Danny flew the lion high and low. “Soup Zul!”

  Axel felt a soft one-two punch land in his stomach, the effect that pure sweetness sometimes had on him when he didn’t quite know how to digest it. “Well,” he said, awkwardly leaning Danny toward his grandmother so he could transfer him to her.

  Viv took him. “He’s been saying your name ever since we told him we’d be going to the ranch where the hero who rescued him lives.”

  Hero. Axel hardly thought of himself as that. For a bunch of reasons.

  A beautiful woman with long, light blond hair and pale brown eyes he’d never forgotten suddenly burst through a group of preteens. Sadie Winston.

  “There you are, Danny!” Sadie said, taking a deep breath. “My little sprinter likes to take off and make his mother a nervous wreck. He’ll keep you on your toes this week,” she added to Axel, those eyes finally landing on him.

  “Nice to see you again,” he said. Quite the understatement. Seeing her again wasn’t exactly nice. The sight of her engendered all kinds of insane feelings he wasn’t particularly interested in delving into. Her pretty hair caught the sun and held his attention for a second. She wore a white T-shirt, olive-colored pants and gray sneakers.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed her mother, Danny in her arms, moving over to where a bunch of chickens were pecking the ground. The great-aunt went to join another group by the alpacas’ pen.

  Just the two of them now. He had a sudden flash of putting his hands on Sadie’s shaking shoulders, telling her he’d find her son. The look on her beautiful face, the absolute fear in her eyes. He wasn’t returning to base a second time without the boy, and he hadn’t.

  He cleared his throat. “It was nice of your family to book the reunion here. Unnecessary, but nice.”

  “You’re all my family has talked about the past three months. So trust me, it was necessary.” Her smile lit up her face. “I hope saving Danny didn’t put your job at risk,” she added.

  “It wasn’t saving Danny that put my job at risk—it was me and ‘my stubborn inability to follow protocol,’ according to my boss. But it was for the best. It brought me home after a long absence and—” He stopped talking, realizing he was going off on tangents he had no interest talking about. So why did you bring it up? he wondered.

  He’d broken some rules to find Danny, mostly concerning Axel’s own safety because the sun had just set. His punishment was two weeks enforced R&R, which had been fine with him. He’d surprised himself by returning to the family guest ranch that he and his siblings had inherited when their father died almost a year ago. And he’d never left. He liked his job here, patrolling the vast property on horseback to make sure all was as it should be, guest-wise, ranch-wise. And boy, were there always a lot of kids at the ranch. His niece and nephews—three babies, two his brother Noah’s and one his sister Daisy’s, and then countless kids of all ages as guests. At first, Axel had been overwhelmed by all the kids, but then he’d settled into the sight of them, charged with their safety on hikes in the forest and the minimountain just a mile behind the ranch. He’d thought being responsible for them would do him in, but instead, it f
illed him up, gave him back a tiny piece of himself every time he stopped a kid from careening off a cliff.

  “Oh, my!” a voice yelped above the fray.

  Axel turned; a very elderly woman in a wheelchair was on the path in the main petting zoo, a white chicken on her lap. Fluffernutter. She liked human laps and loved being picked up and snuggled by kids. Most of the chickens accepted their hugs for the extra grain they knew would be coming their way. Any chickens that nipped a two-year-old’s hand for daring to come too close were kept in a separate coop with a kid-free run.

  “Declan,” a younger woman shouted, “take the chicken off your great-great-auntie’s lap this instant!”

  “Sorry, Great-Great-Auntie,” a boy with light brown hair said, scooping up the chicken and setting it down.

  “Don’t be sorry, Decky!” the elderly woman told him. “I asked him to put the chicken on my lap,” she called out. “I miss having my own chickens.”

  The younger woman nodded at the boy, who put the chicken back on his great-great-aunt’s lap. The smile on the elderly woman’s face managed to warm Axel’s heart.

  “That’s my great-grandmother, Izzy,” Sadie said, her gaze on her relative. She turned to Axel. “She’s ninety-nine years old. It was Izzy who started the tradition of annual family reunions. She used to hold them at her small ranch, but she lives with one of her daughters in town now, and no one has a property big enough to hold us all and keep the kids entertained.”

  “She looks happy to be here,” Axel observed, the joy in Izzy’s eyes clear from where he stood.

  Sadie’s mother returned with Danny, the boy still flying his superhero lion. “Axel, we’d like to invite you for a toast tonight at a bonfire by the river. Around eight o’clock? The young ones will need to get to bed soon after, so it’ll be quick. Please say you’ll come.”

  He glanced at Sadie, whose eyes had widened as though she’d had no idea such a thing would be happening. The knowledge he’d see her tonight was both very welcome and a problem he didn’t want to think about too deeply. Something about her had gotten inside him in a way nothing had for three years. He’d recognized it right away—pure attraction, an inexplicable chemistry out of nowhere, an emotional pull. He’d tried to chalk it up to the situation on the mountain, the frayed nerves, the promise he’d made and would have died to keep. Anyway, Axel Dawson wasn’t going back to that time three years ago when a single mother had torn his heart in two.