Brenda Minton - Reunited With The Rancher

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.