As he opened the gate, Dylan walked around the side of the house. Jack smiled when he saw the bucket and spade clutched in his little hands. “Hi, Dylan.”
The six-year-old’s eyes lifted to Jack’s. He stood silently in the middle of the path, a frown creasing his dirt-smeared face.
“I met you at my brother’s wedding on Saturday.” Jack held up the cooler. “I brought a fish for your mom.”
Dylan’s eyes widened. “Can I see?”
“Sure.” Jack opened the lid and Dylan looked inside.
“He sure is big. Where did you catch him?”
“On Flathead Lake. My friend owns a boat.”
“Mr. Jessop owns a boat, but Mom says I can’t go on the lake with him ’cos I don’t have a life jacket.”
“It’s important to be safe on the water.”
Dylan took one last look in the cooler before stepping away. “That’s what Mr. Jessop says, too. Do you want to see Mom?”
“That would be great.”
“She’s in the kitchen.” Dylan turned around and waited for Jack to follow. “Molly’s making ginger cookies, but she always gets stuck on the measuring.”
Jack’s eyebrows rose. Not because of what Dylan said, but because he was continuing their conversation. When he’d sat at Emma’s table on Saturday, Dylan hadn’t said a lot. “Moms are good at weighing the ingredients.”
The little boy’s solemn nod made Jack smile. “What have you been doing?”
“Mr. Jessop gave me some cabbage and broccoli plants for my vegetable garden. See.” Dylan held his bucket toward Jack. “We grew them from little seeds in the greenhouse.”
“They look great. Do you like gardening?”
“It’s fun.” Dylan stomped up the wooden veranda steps. “Mr. Jessop says God gave us hands to create something special. That’s why I like gardening. It keeps people’s tummies full of food. Do you know Mr. Jessop?”
“I do. He works at The Welcome Center.” Jack had met Gordon on his last visit to Sapphire Bay. He’d developed the community gardens into something remarkable, providing food for the center and anyone in need.
“Mr. Jessop used to own a ranch with real cows and chickens and goats. One day, I’m going to work on a ranch. But first I gotta grow tall and strong so I can be just like Mr. Jessop.” Dylan flicked off his sneakers and opened the back door. “Mom’s this way.”
The sweet smell of ginger and cinnamon wafted from the house.
Emma appeared in front of them. Her eyes widened when she saw who was with her son. “Jack?”
At least she’d remembered his name. “I’ve been fishing with a couple of friends. I caught too much trout and wondered if you’d like one for dinner.” Emma’s gaze dropped to the open cooler he held toward her.
“It’s huge. Are you sure you don’t want it?”
“I caught more fish than I can eat. It’s okay if you don’t want it.”
“I love trout, thank you.” Emma looked around the kitchen. Molly was perched on a chair, licking cookie dough from a spoon. “Why don’t you stay for a few minutes? Our first batch of cookies has just come out of the oven.”
“And they’re real yummy,” Molly said with a grin.
Jack looked at Emma. “Thanks, I’d like that.” He handed her the cooler. “I know how to fillet a fish, if that helps.”
Emma seemed surprised. “That’s an unlikely skill for someone who lives in New York City.”
“Granddad taught me. My family owns a cottage on an island not far from the city. Apart from riding with Dad on his motorcycle, fishing was the most exciting thing we did.”
“Dylan likes fishing,” Molly said from her lofty position. “He puts wiggly worms on the hooks, but he doesn’t catch fish as big as yours.”
Dylan reached for a cookie. “That’s ’cos I’m fishing off the jetty. Mr. Jessop said the big fish are in the middle of the lake.”
“Maybe you need bigger worms,” Molly told her brother. “And you can’t have a cookie until you’ve washed your hands.”
Jack smiled as Dylan sighed. He had a feeling he was used to his sister bossing him around.
Emma lifted Molly off the chair. “How about both of you wash your hands before you have anything to eat.”
Dylan frowned. “Will Jack still be here?”
Emma took off her son’s red baseball cap. “Of course, he will.”
With a shy smile, Dylan glanced at Jack before running out of the kitchen.
“Wait for me,” Molly shouted.
As the twins raced down the hallway, Jack smiled. It must be a completely different experience being a twin, especially when Molly and Dylan had such different personalities.
Emma lifted the fish onto a cutting board. “It looks as though you’ve made two new friends.”
Jack hoped it was three. Emma intrigued him, and that hadn’t happened in a long time. “They’re great kids.”
“They have their moments.” She handed him a knife. “If you fillet the fish, I’ll make coffee.”
“Sounds good.” And somewhere, deep inside, Jack knew it was more than good. The only problem was that he wouldn’t be here for long enough to really get to know Emma and her children.
By the time Emma made two cups of coffee, Molly and Dylan had returned from the bathroom. “That’s better,” she said as she poured each of her children a drink. “Come and sit at the kitchen table. Mr. Devlin won’t be long. He’s filleting the trout he caught.”
Dylan hesitated before slowly walking across to Jack. “Can I see?”
“Sure.” Jack showed him the fish. “It’s all finished. And if it’s okay with your mom, you can call me Jack.”
Dylan looked up at her.
Emma smiled. “It’s okay.” She stood behind Dylan, admiring the thick fillets of fish. It wasn’t easy removing all the bones, but Jack had done a great job. “That was quick.”
Jack shrugged. “I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. Mom was happy to cook whatever we caught, but she didn’t like filleting the fish.”
“Cassie told me about your parents. I’m sorry you had to grow up without them.”
“We had our grandparents,” Jack said softly. “That’s more than a lot of children have.”
Emma looked at Molly and Dylan.
“I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay,” she said quickly. The last thing she wanted was for Jack to feel sorry for her children. Even though their father wasn’t part of their lives, they still had one parent who adored them. “I’ll leave your coffee on the table.”
Jack rinsed the plate and ran his hands under the faucet. “The cookies smell amazing.”
Molly stood on tiptoes, studying the filleted trout. “We made apple and cinnamon cookies. They’re our favorite.”
Dylan lost interest in the fish. Before Molly moved, he rushed across to the table and bit into a cookie. “Sometimes we make chocolate cake, too. Next time we’re baking, you could help us.”
“That’s a great idea,” Jack said. “But I’m not staying in Sapphire Bay for long. I’m going home soon.”
Dylan stopped chewing. “When are you leaving?”
“In another week.”
“Is that a long time?” Molly whispered to her brother.
Dylan shook his head.
Before everyone became too sad, Emma changed the subject. “I’ve got good news about this year’s Christmas events.”
“Are we having a Santa parade?” Molly asked.
Emma smiled. “We are. We’re also organizing a Christmas party, a carol competition, and a surprise event.”
Dylan’s eyes widened. “What kind of surprise?”
“The best kind. But I can’t tell you what it is until we’ve talked to some more people.”
“We could draw pictures of the parade,” Molly said enthusiastically. Without asking if her brother had finished, she took both their glasses across to the kitchen counter. “Come on, Dylan. We’ve got work to do.”
; “But I want to plant my vegetables.”
“You can do that later. We need to plan the parade.”
Dylan looked at Emma.
She knew Molly could be bossy, but Dylan needed to learn how to tell his sister what he wanted. “Tell Molly what you’re thinking.”
Dylan’s frown deepened. “I want to plant my vegetables first. If you help me, we could use my new crayons to draw the pictures.”
“The sparkly ones, too?”
Dylan reluctantly nodded. “But we need to plant all the vegetables.”
Molly grabbed Dylan’s hand and pulled him toward the back door. “I can do it real fast.”
With a worried glance at Emma, Dylan disappeared outside.
Jack smiled. “Have they always been like that?”
“It used to be worse. I’ve tried telling Molly it’s important to let Dylan choose what he wants to do, but it’s a slow learning curve. Thankfully, Dylan’s starting to stand up for himself.”
“Noah and I were exactly the same, except I was the one who told him what we should be doing.” Jack took a sip of coffee. “I saw Kylie this morning. She’s excited about the Christmas program.”
“So am I. It’s a lot of work, but it will be worth it.”
The relaxed expression on Jack’s face disappeared. “When I was talking to Kylie, she told me about Molly’s Christmas wish.”
Emma blushed. “She shouldn’t have said anything. Molly has wanted to see her dad for a long time, but it’s not going to happen.”
“Because you don’t want him in their lives?”
She searched Jack’s face, wondering how much Kylie had told him. He seemed genuinely interested in her answer and not ready to condemn her for a situation that was out of her control.
“Mark has never wanted to see Dylan and Molly. Until six months ago, I regularly emailed him photos of the twins, but he never replied. If I knew where he was living, I’d invite him to Sapphire Bay, but he’s disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“Does his family know where he’s gone?”
Emma shook her head. “The last time his mom and sister saw him was about the same time he left me.”
“What about his father?”
A cold chill ran down Emma’s spine. “He died when Mark was seventeen.” Her ex-husband’s father was a violent alcoholic. Some of the stories Mark had told her were horrific. But it was the tragic circumstances around his father’s death that haunted Mark the most.
“My company could search for your ex-husband.”
Emma wrapped her hands around her coffee mug. “I thought about hiring a private investigator when the twins first asked to see their dad. It was incredibly expensive.”
“We do a few pro bono cases each year. I could add your case to the projects we consider and see what the team thinks.”
Emma frowned. “I don’t need charity. If Mark wanted to see Dylan and Molly, he would have contacted me. I still have the same email address and his mom and sister know where we’re living.”
“It’s not charity. Lost and Found work with a number of law enforcement agencies and extremely wealthy people. A percentage of our income goes toward funding cases that otherwise couldn’t be investigated.” When Emma didn’t reply, Jack sighed. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
A lump formed in Emma’s throat. “Mark could be dead.” It made her sad to think about her ex-husband’s life, the choices he’d made to protect himself, and the possibility that he might never see the wonderful children they’d created.
Her parents thought she was crazy to want Molly and Dylan to meet their father. But she wanted them to know where they had come from, what Mark liked and didn’t like. But most of all, she wanted them to know they were loved.
Jack studied her face. “At least you’d know what happened to him.”
Emma sighed. After all the time she’d spent trying to find her ex-husband, how could she say no? Without Jack’s help, Dylan and Molly might never meet their dad. “Okay, I’ll accept your generous offer. But I can’t let you do it for free. If someone in your team could let me know how much it will cost, I’ll work out a way of paying you.”
“It isn’t necessary.”
Instead of disagreeing, she picked up her coffee mug and walked across to the counter. “I’d better see what Molly and Dylan are doing. Would you like to see the vegetable garden?”
“I’d love to. Do you think Dylan would let me help?”
“Absolutely, but I’d better warn you that he takes his gardening very seriously.”
Jack smiled. “I’ll do my best to follow his instructions.”
Emma smiled as she opened the back door. She could see why Dylan enjoyed talking to Jack. He was calm, relaxed, and slotted into their family as if he’d always been here.
All she had to do was remember he was leaving soon.
Jack sat on the veranda of Acorn Cottage and opened his laptop. Before he’d left Emma’s home, she’d given him as much information as she could about her ex-husband.
After dinner, he’d searched some of the databases his company used to locate missing people. Although it wasn’t easy to vanish off the face of the planet, Mark Lewis had done a good job of covering his tracks—which made Jack wonder whether his disappearance was as unplanned as Emma thought.
“You’re deep in thought.” Noah stood on the edge of the veranda with two mugs in his hands.
“I’m trying to find Emma’s ex-husband.”
“While you’re contemplating where he could have gone, here’s a coffee.”
Jack took the cup from his brother. “Thanks. Isn’t it a little late to be over here?”
“I couldn’t sleep. When I saw your lights were still on, I thought I’d come and annoy you.”
“You can annoy me anytime if you bring coffee. Why couldn’t you sleep?”
Noah pulled a chair closer. “We’ve had a few delays with the launch of a new product. We might have made a mistake when we contracted the company who is making the furniture.”
Most people would assume that managing an online retail store would be less time-consuming than a bricks and mortar store. But Jack had seen the long hours his brother worked. The success the company enjoyed hadn’t come easy and no one, including Noah, was taking the future of the company for granted.
“When will the furniture be ready?”
“If we’re lucky, in two weeks. I’m flying to Louisiana on Tuesday to make sure the first shipments are on track.”
“It’s just as well you decided to postpone your honeymoon until October.”
Noah ran his hand through his hair, a sure sign he was as tired as he looked. “Part of me can’t wait to travel to Europe with Cassie. But I’m worried about what will happen while I’m away. All Stacey needs is another hold-up like this and our winter catalog will be in trouble.”
“Don’t worry about Stacey. She keeps everyone on their toes as much as you do.”
“Maybe, but it doesn’t make going away for four weeks any easier.” Noah shifted his gaze to Jack’s laptop. “Why can’t you find Emma’s ex-husband?”
“Either he’s living off the grid and doesn’t want to be found or he knows more than the average person about hiding his electronic footprint.”
“What do you think?”
Jack stared across the backyard toward Flathead Lake. “Mark had a rough childhood. He learned from an early age how to keep a low profile and stay away from his father. His military career would have taught him how to survive in the toughest of conditions. My guess is that he’s living off the grid.”
“Does Emma have any idea about where he’s gone?”
“She gave me a list of the places she’s already checked. Mark didn’t have a lot of friends but, after he was discharged from the Army, he worked for the same construction company for a few years. Someone there might know where he’s living.”
“You know what’s going to happen, don’t you.”
“I’ll fin
d Mark and everyone will live happily ever after?”
Noah shook his head. “You’ll find Mark and open a can of worms. Family relationships are complicated at the best of times, let alone when someone doesn’t want to see their children.”
Molly and Dylan were great kids. How anyone could turn their back on them was as foreign to Jack as walking on the moon.
“What will Emma do if Mark wants to be part of their children’s lives?”
Jack frowned. “I don’t know.”
“You’d better find out. If she isn’t prepared for the possibility of shared custody, she might want to reconsider looking for her ex-husband.”
“Dylan and Molly want to see their dad.”
Noah sighed. “When I was ten, I wanted to sail around the world but it never happened.”
“This isn’t the same.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s worse. How many times does Lost and Found deal with young children looking for their parents?”
Jack knew what his brother was about to say. “I know this case is unusual, but it’s important to Emma.”
“What if you find him and he doesn’t want to see Dylan and Molly?”
“I can’t answer that question. Emma needs to work out what will happen if I locate Mark.”
Noah wrapped his hands around his cup. “Do you remember what Granddad said when you started Lost and Found?”
How could Jack forget? When his grandfather told him to think with his head and not his heart, he’d thought he was being cold and callous. But as the years had gone by, Jack and his team had learned to distance themselves from their clients. Becoming emotionally involved in any search for a missing person not only left you vulnerable, it took away your biggest advantage—a logical perspective on what had happened.
“I’m not emotionally involved in the case.”
Noah’s eyebrows rose. “Really? If any of your team was on vacation, what would you tell them if they started looking for a missing person?”
“It would depend on the situation,” Jack muttered.
“I don’t think so. You’d tell them to wait until they returned to work or send the information through to the office.”
His brother was right, but it was too late. Jack had promised Emma he’d help find Mark. And until he ran out of leads, he would do everything he could to make that happen.
Christmas On Main Street Page 5