“My mom doesn’t want to buy anything today,” the girl announced with the practiced apathy of a preteen. She went to close the door, but Ruby braced a hand against it.
“Wait,” she gasped. An ache gripped her belly and unleashed turmoil inside of her. The shaking anger shuddered through her until she couldn’t hold her hands steady. Instead of befriending a girl who desperately needed someone to reach out to her, this girl had picked on her daughter…
“Who’s at the door, sweetie?” A woman appeared behind Charlotte. She had the same hair, the same eyes, but a friendly way about her smile. “Can I help you?” she asked politely.
If Ruby had met her on the street, she would think this woman was kind and approachable. So different from her daughter.
“I’m Ruby Hawkins.” Or at least she was supposed to be. Tomorrow. “I’m Brooklyn’s foster mom. She goes to school with your daughter Charlotte.”
“Oh,” the woman chirped. “So nice to meet you, Ruby. I’m Stephanie Taylor.” She stuck out her hand and shook Ruby’s, her warm skin providing a brief reprieve from the cold. “I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Brooklyn. Charlotte just adores her.” She glanced down at her daughter, but Charlotte’s face had paled and her eyes were as wide as Brookie’s got when she was caught in a lie.
Yes. She was definitely caught, but Ruby hadn’t come here to tell this woman all of the terrible things Charlotte had said. “Brookie is missing,” she choked out, keeping her gaze firmly on the girl’s face. “She ran away this morning.”
“Oh my God,” Stephanie gasped. “How awful.” She stepped out onto the porch, her expression genuinely horrified. “What can we do? How can we help?”
Charlotte seemed frozen in place.
Ruby held out a flyer they’d been distributing at the park. Anger still thundered through her, churning her stomach, tightening her chest. “We’re going door to door to ask if anyone has seen her. Or heard from her.”
Stephanie took the flyer and glanced at it. Tears glossed the woman’s eyes. “Oh, this is awful. I’m so, so, sorry. I can’t even imagine…” She sank to her knees in front of her daughter. “Do you know anything, Char? Anything at all that will help them find Brooklyn?”
Ruby saw the girl swallow. She shook her head, eyes fallen. “No. I don’t know anything. I swear. I haven’t seen her.”
The fear in her eyes disclosed the fact that she knew exactly why Brookie had run away.
Stephanie stood. “We’ll help you search. Do you have extra flyers? We can knock on doors, too. That way you can cover more ground.”
“Yes. Thank you,” Ruby said, her throat hot with the gathering tears. How could such a wonderful woman have such a cruel child?
“I’ll go get our coats.” She squeezed her daughter’s shoulder as she retreated down the small hallway, obviously thinking that Charlotte’s sullen silence had something to do with worry over her friend.
After her mother was out of earshot, the girl started to cry. “Brookie’s really gone?” She sniffled.
“Yes.” And it didn’t appear that she had to remind the girl why.
“I can’t believe it,” Charlotte whispered, wiping away her tears as though she was afraid her mother would see them. “Did she…say why? Did she leave a note?”
A pain radiated low across her stomach. Ruby placed a hand there, massaging and poking, but it wouldn’t go away. “She didn’t leave a note,” she said. “But I know she was afraid we didn’t want her.” The pain deepened into a stabbing sensation that cut across her entire abdomen. Wrapping an arm around her stomach, she hunched and tried to lessen the sudden pressure.
“I’m so sorry,” Charlotte cried softly. “I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings. I shouldn’t have said those things to her…”
“What things?” Stephanie asked. She rushed back to the front door. “What things did you say to Brooklyn?”
Charlotte glanced up at Ruby, but she couldn’t stand straight anymore. She couldn’t think past the terrible cramping that squeezed her stomach. Oh God. Was something wrong? She turned slightly, so she could lean her back against the brick wall.
“I told Brookie her mom and dad wouldn’t want her if they had their own baby,” the girl confessed.
“Charlotte!” Stephanie gaped at her daughter. “Why on earth would you say something like that?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed. “I don’t know. Sometimes foster parents aren’t very nice. Like in Anne of Green Gables. But I didn’t know she would run away!”
Ruby closed her eyes, the pain taking her over. It wasn’t the stress. Wasn’t the emotions. It was the baby. Something was wrong…
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” Stephanie said, stepping closer. “I’m horrified. I can’t believe Charlotte’s behavior.”
Ruby tried to answer, but her heart rate had spiked and her lungs couldn’t keep up.
The woman placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right? We’re going to do everything we can to help you find her,” she assured her.
Ruby clamped her hand on to the woman’s wrist. “My friends,” she murmured. “I need you to find my friends.” She couldn’t stand anymore. It hurt so much. Slowly, she sank to the sidewalk.
“Oh no.” Stephanie sank with her. “Are you sick?”
“I’m pregnant.” A fresh batch of tears welled. God, please let the baby be okay. She couldn’t lose this baby. Sawyer couldn’t lose this baby. “My friends should be around somewhere. They were going to the neighbors’ houses.”
Stephanie glanced up at her daughter. “Go find her friends.”
“Paige and Avery,” she called as the girl hurried away.
“Do you want me to call your husband?” the woman asked.
“No.” She shook her head. “No. Please. He has to keep searching for Brookie.” If they called him, he would come. And Brookie needed him more than she did. Panting against the waves of pain, she pulled her knees into her chest.
“Oh, honey,” the woman murmured. “Should I call an ambulance?”
“No.” God, no. Paige and Avery could get her to the ER. “I’ll be fine. Maybe just some water.” She was so thirsty. When was the last time she’d even had anything to drink?
“Of course.” Stephanie shot to her feet and disappeared right as Paige and Avery sprinted up the walkway.
“What happened?” Avery cried, dropping to her knees next to Ruby.
“Are you okay?” Paige shrieked, panic rising in her eyes.
“Cramps,” Ruby managed. She slung an arm around her belly.
“Oh no,” Avery whispered.
“Is that bad?” she asked her friend, the cold fear she’d felt all morning icing her over again.
“No,” Paige insisted, glaring at Avery. “Everything’s fine. The baby’s fine.”
“I’ll call Bryce and have him find Sawyer,” Avery said, already going for her phone.
“No,” Ruby nearly shouted. “He can’t stop searching. Not now. Not until they find her.”
“But…don’t you want him with you?” Avery demanded.
Yes. More than anything. She always wanted Sawyer with her. But once he heard about the baby, all he would want to do is be by her side, and their daughter needed him more right now. “I have you two,” she said, trying to smile. “That’ll do.” Until they knew what they were dealing with. “Like you said, everything is fine.” She glanced at Paige for a shot of the woman’s confident encouragement. Lord knew she needed it right now.
“That’s right,” Paige declared with a definitive nod. “Everything will be fine.”
That’s what Ruby was counting on.
Chapter Eight
Sawyer tried not to glare at the gas station owner, but that was quite the challenge. “So you’re telling me a little girl came in here at six this morning—alone—and bought a package of powdered doughnuts and you didn’t think it was strange?”
“She told me her parents were waiting outside,” he shot
back, standing at full height as though telling Sawyer to back off. He was a big guy, tall and bulky, skin inked like a badass, but Sawyer had adrenaline on his side.
“And you didn’t think to glance outside and check?” He stepped up to the guy, fully knowing his anger was misplaced but not caring enough to harness it.
“What’d you want from me? This is Aspen. Not Denver.”
Exactly. Things like this shouldn’t happen here. To a family that was just starting out, to parents who’ve waited so long for children.
“Enough, Sawyer.” Bryce pulled him away.
“Thanks for the info,” Ben said to the gas station owner. “We appreciate it.”
His friends formed a barrier around him, giving him no choice but to go outside. In front of the glass, he paced, trying to relieve the pressure. If Brookie had been here at six, that meant she’d already been gone an hour and a half by the time they’d discovered she was missing. The gas station sat on the very western edge of the town, which meant she’d either continued on down the highway or headed up into the mountains. Neither scenario calmed him.
While he paced, his friends stood in a circle, trading theories.
“Wouldn’t she go somewhere she was familiar with? Somewhere comfortable?” Isaac asked.
That stopped Sawyer cold.
“I mean, she’s only eight. If they didn’t find her at the airport or the bus station trying to get out of town, maybe she went someplace she knows.”
Someplace she knew. Someplace comfortable. “The ranch.” God, why hadn’t he thought to search there in the first place? He looked at Bryce. “Did you see anything before you took off this morning? Her bike?”
A look of sudden understanding dawned on his cousin’s face. “I didn’t see anything, but I couldn’t find Moose before we left. We were in a hurry, so I didn’t worry too much about it…”
Moose, Bryce’s massive Bernese mountain dog was missing. Brookie was missing. And those two loved each other.
Sawyer took off running for his SUV. “We have to search the ranch.” It wouldn’t have taken long for Brookie to get there after the gas station. It wasn’t more than three miles up the road.
They all climbed into the car, huffing and out of breath.
“I should’ve looked around before we left,” Bryce said. “I didn’t think she could get all the way to the ranch by herself.”
Sawyer jammed the key into the ignition and started the engine. “You’d be surprised what she can do when she’s determined.” The girl had learned how to fend for herself. That would be her greatest strength someday, but it could also hurt her. She had to learn to let people in, to let people help her. She had to learn how to depend on other people just like he did.
Flicking on the lights and siren, he tore out of the gas station parking lot.
“When we get there, Isaac and I’ll search the lodge,” Ben offered. “You two know the grounds much better.”
“And I’ll text Thomas and tell him to bring the search party to the ranch,” Bryce added.
“Thanks.” Hope soared through him for the first time in what felt like a dark eternity. “I should call Ruby,” he said, digging out his phone. He hit the speed dial and braced it against his ear, maneuvering around the cars that pulled over.
It rang until finally her voice mail picked up.
“Can you try Avery?” he asked his cousin. He had to tell her they’d found a real lead, that they were getting closer.
Bryce called his wife and clicked on the speaker. “Hey, babe. You know where Ruby is?”
There was a long pause.
“Um. Yeah. I’m with her,” she finally said.
“Tell her we’ve got a lead,” Bryce said. “We’re heading out to search the ranch. We think she might be there somewhere. That she might be with Moose.”
“Oh. Good. That’s great,” Avery answered in an uncharacteristic monotone.
Sawyer and Bryce exchanged a look. She should’ve been ecstatic.
“Everything all right?” Bryce asked her.
“Yep!” Now Sawyer detected too much enthusiasm.
Something wasn’t right. Sawyer held out his hand. “Let me talk to Ruby.”
“Um. Now’s not a good time.”
“What?” Sawyer demanded. What the hell did that mean? He snatched the phone away and took it off speaker. “Look, Avery. I need to talk to Ruby. Put her on the phone. Please,” he added before she hung up on him.
“S-he…um…well…c-can’t talk right now,” Avery stuttered.
“Why the hell not?” Sawyer was done being polite. Their daughter was missing and she couldn’t talk to him right now?
“She’s…in the restroom.”
“Oh.” Why hadn’t she told him that in the first place? “Have her call me, then. The second she can.”
“Of course,” Avery said quickly. “I have to go. She’ll call soon.” The phone clicked. He tossed it back to Bryce.
“Everything okay?” Isaac asked, leaning between the seats.
“That was weird,” he said. He couldn’t get Avery’s shaky tone out of his head. “Something’s up. She was acting strange.”
“Yeah, she didn’t sound normal,” Bryce agreed.
“Want me to call Paige?” Ben asked.
“Nah. Ruby’ll tell me what’s going on when she calls me back.” She wasn’t the kind of person to keep things from him. Back when they’d first met, she’d kept everything from him, but since then he’d earned her trust. He may have royally screwed up earlier, but he would make it up to her. Gunning the engine, he raced to the ranch’s driveway.
“Let’s go find our little girl.”
* * *
“Bryce called me,” Avery announced as she barged into the closet-like ER exam room.
Ruby shifted, trying to get herself comfortable. Once they’d found out she was pregnant, they’d whisked her to a room faster than a hot knife could cut through butter. Since then nurses had been in and out, fussing over her, forcing her to change into one of those hospital gowns.
Generous, the term “gown.” It was more like a small square of cotton that flapped open in the back every time she moved.
She smoothed the blanket over her legs, grateful for the extra coverage. “You didn’t tell him anything, did you?”
“Of course not. But I’m such a bad liar. He has to know something’s up.”
That was true. The woman told her husband everything. Every. Thing. She should’ve told Avery not to answer her phone.
Avery crossed the room and sat in the chair next to the gurney. “They said they have a lead on Brookie, though.”
A bolt of hope struck her chest. “What? Where? Where is she?”
“They think she might be somewhere around the ranch.”
“The ranch?” Could she have been eight miles away from home this whole time?
“We couldn’t find Moose before we left,” Avery explained. “I let him out at five when I woke up with Lily. But then we all went back to bed until Elsie called.”
“You think Moose is with her?” Huge tears bubbled up and spilled over. That meant Brookie wasn’t alone. Moose would protect her. He would watch out for her. “Oh my God.” She let her head fall back against the pillow. “That’s such good news. So they’re there now? Looking for her?”
“That’s where they were headed when he called.” Avery breathed out a sigh. “I really think you need to tell Sawyer what’s going on,” she said quietly. “He deserves to know. And I told him you would call him back.”
“No.” She rested a hand on her belly, massaging gently, trying to quiet the ache. “I’m not telling him yet. We don’t even know what we’re dealing with.” But she refused to consider the possibility that the baby was in trouble. The nurse had already come in to interview her; then she’d taken her vitals and found the baby’s heartbeat. Oh, that sound! It was the pounding of life and hope, and it had beaten into her own body, strengthening her heart. She had yet to see the docto
r, but that sound—that soft little pulsing had stayed with her, replaying over and over. The music of life. Everything would be okay. The baby was healthy. Sawyer was about to find Brookie. She had to believe that.
“My God, trying to find coffee around this joint is like searching for the Holy Grail,” Paige complained on her way back into the room. She must’ve been gone for twenty minutes on her quest for a caffeine fix.
“So what’d I miss?” She plopped down on the bed next to Ruby.
“They think Brookie is at the ranch.” She squirmed again, breathing shallowly through another hollow pounding in her abdomen. “They’re there looking for her.” She should be out there, too. The ranch had thousands of acres. They’d need a whole search party to help…
“Really?” Paige leaned in and hugged her neck. “That’s great news. Oh God. I hope she’s there.”
“I talked to Bryce,” Avery informed Paige. “And I’m pretty sure he could tell there’s a crisis.”
“You let her talk to Bryce?” Her friend whapped her shoulder. “Are you kidding? The woman who can’t keep a secret to save her life?”
“I didn’t know who was on the phone when she stepped out to answer it.” Otherwise, you can bet she would’ve stolen the damn thing and thrown it out the window. The last thing Sawyer needed was something to divert his focus when they were so close to finding Brookie.
“I’m not good at keeping things from my husband, okay?” Avery gave them her best glare, but Ruby could still see the shadow of her friendly smile. “You act like that’s a bad thi—”
The door busted open. In charged Elsie, followed by Julia, who was giving Lily a ride on her wheelchair.
“Ruby!” Elsie gushed, scurrying right for the gurney. “Oh, my dear girl. I can’t believe this. Are you in pain?”
“I’m okay.” Instead of sharp, shooting pains, the discomfort had eased into more of an intermittent cramping. Still uncomfortable, but getting better.
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