The Bridal Path: Danielle

by Sherryl Woods

  Why hadn’t Dani been able to see that his fury grew out of love and concern? He wasn’t an ogre. He didn’t lack compassion. But she had looked at him as if he’d just torn the wings off a delicate butterfly, or something equally horrendous.

  Well, it didn’t matter now. He’d taken a stance and she had disagreed with him vehemently. She had had the audacity to accuse him of being unreasonable.

  In the fast and furious flurry of words that had followed, he was sure he had said plenty that was unfair, but she was the one who’d booted the boys out permanently. Naturally, though, they blamed him for the fact that they wouldn’t be spending any more time with her.

  He winced when he thought of their dismay. Their shock when he had kept them home with him this morning had been visible. No explanation he could come up with had cut through their fierce disappointment. It was worse, in some ways, for Kevin because he had done nothing wrong. He felt betrayed by his father, his brother and Dani.

  Maybe it had been a thoroughly impulsive decision on Dani’s part, but now that she’d made it, he doubted she would back down. Not that he could blame her for that. Everything had gotten wildly out of hand the day before. He had been unintentionally cruel and insulting. He could see that now. No one loved those boys or took better care of them than she did. She loved them as if they were her own.

  But even recognizing that, he couldn’t back down, no matter how much Timmy pleaded and Kevin cried. He knew they missed Dani. Hell, he missed her, too. That didn’t matter. All that mattered was protecting Kevin and Timmy from harm.

  Sara and Jake had tried to intercede the night before when they’d dropped off Kevin, but Slade had told them he was handling the matter the best way he knew how. He could see from Sara’s expression that she blamed herself for everything that had happened. He had told her she wasn’t at fault, that no one could have foreseen Timmy’s determination and resourcefulness, but he doubted he’d managed to put much sincerity into his voice. Timmy’s little escapade had happened on her watch.

  Slade wasn’t sure exactly when he realized that the house was entirely too quiet. He had been assuming that both boys had retreated to their rooms to play games on their computers. He should have known that since they’d made new friends, the computers and isolation no longer held the same appeal.

  He tapped on Timmy’s door, then opened it. There was no sign of the boy.

  Only mildly alarmed, he checked Kevin’s room. When he found that empty as well, he thundered downstairs and systematically checked every room in the house. There was no way to avoid the obvious: now they had both run away.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out where they’d gone, either. Slade sighed and grabbed his car keys.

  All the way to Dani’s he tried to formulate a way of handling this latest escapade without another debacle. He still hadn’t come up with one when he reached her porch.

  The back door was standing open and she was visible through the screen door. Sitting at the table, surrounded by bowls and eggshells and bags of sugar and flour, she was perfectly still. It was that uncharacteristic stillness that made him pause before knocking.

  She looked thoroughly lost, as if nothing mattered to her anymore. Slade was all too familiar with that kind of depression. The fact that he was responsible for Dani’s anguish filled him with guilt.

  Then he remembered why he had driven over here in the first place. He’d come for Timmy and Kevin, and Dani was no doubt hiding them. With his temper revived over this latest interference, he knocked.

  She glanced up, but there was no familiar welcoming smile to warm his heart. There wasn’t even any evidence of yesterday’s anger. There was just a terrible kind of emptiness in her eyes. His heart ached for her, but he pushed the reaction aside as a temporary weakness.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I’m sure you can imagine.”

  “Slade, I don’t have the strength to play games with you. If there’s something on your mind, just say it. If you’ve come to apologize, I accept. Just go.”

  He stared at her incredulously. “Apologize? Me?”

  There was a brief flash of fire in her eyes as they clashed with his. “Isn’t that why you came?”

  “No. I came to get the boys.”

  Confusion registered on her face. “The boys? Why?”

  “Don’t play games, Dani. You can’t protect them forever.”

  “Who’s playing games? They’re not here, Slade. I haven’t seen either of them since you dragged Timmy out of here.”

  Suddenly outright panic replaced all the anger and tension. He grabbed her shoulders. “Are you telling me the truth?”

  Furious sparks flared in her eyes. “I have never lied to you, Slade, and I resent you thinking I would about anything as important as this.”

  “I was so sure…” he began, and let the words trail off. He sank down on a chair then and stared at her. “Where could they be? Where the hell could they be?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Dani couldn’t look away from Slade’s frightened, devastated face. Every angry thought she’d had about him, every furious curse she’d muttered during a long and lonely night vanished at the sight of his anguish. All that mattered right now was finding Timmy and Kevin. The disappearance of the boys they both loved had, at least for this one terrible moment, united them.

  Trying not to let his panic fuel her own fears and immobilize her, she reached for Slade’s hand to offer comfort and, hopefully, to restore calm. She needed his strength, as well.

  Instinctively, he gripped her hand so hard she was certain he would crush the bones. She ignored the pain and hung on to him for dear life.

  “When did you last see them?” she asked quietly.

  He stared at her bleakly. “Right after breakfast. When they realized they weren’t coming here today, they threw a tantrum and bolted for their rooms. I thought they were still there, but when I checked a few minutes ago they were gone.” He closed his eyes. “Damn, I should have known they were too quiet. That always means trouble.”

  When she realized that until Slade’s arrival she had been so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t know the time, Dani glanced at the clock. Relief washed over her. “It’s not even lunchtime yet. They can’t have been gone long,” she said, hoping to reassure him.

  “Please, Dani,” he protested. “You and I both know that a couple of hours is a lifetime when you can stir up trouble the way those two can.”

  “Okay, let’s be logical,” she said, though she was feeling anything but. She wanted to give in to panic as Slade already had.

  She could see so clearly now what she hadn’t the day before; she could visualize all the dangers that could befall an intrepid boy. Slade, a product of life in bigger cities than Riverton, had seen them at once, but she’d been focused entirely on the fact that Timmy was with them and safe. She hadn’t allowed herself to look back at what might have been.

  Nor had she considered the possibility that he might repeat the same act less than twenty-four hours later. Perhaps this was the terrible struggle parents waged constantly, forced into a good cop-bad cop scenario when it came to discipline.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, clearly surprising him.

  “About what?”

  “Yesterday. I didn’t understand what you were trying to do, that you wanted Timmy to feel a healthy fear of the dangers he’d risked by running away. All I could see was that he was scared and hurting.”

  “Didn’t you think I saw that, too?”

  She shook her head. “To be honest, no. I thought you were just being a bullheaded disciplinarian. Maybe if I hadn’t taken Timmy’s side, if I’d backed you up, he wouldn’t be missing again.”

  “Stop,” Slade insisted. “This isn’t your fault. I was with them. I should have known they’d take off the first chance they got. I should have bolted the damn doors.”

  Dani managed a weak grin. “And put boards over all the windows?” sh
e teased, finding a sliver of humor amid the desperate fear that was crowding in more and more with each passing second.

  Slade sighed heavily. “No, I suppose nothing I could have done would have stopped them from leaving if they were intent on running away. But where would they go, if not here?”

  “Back to the ranch?” Dani suggested.

  He shot her a wry look. “I doubt it. Kevin loves it, but Timmy clearly doesn’t. That’s what started this, remember? I don’t think he’d take refuge there.”

  “Maybe he went to apologize to Annie and Sara and Jake for what happened yesterday. He certainly felt guilty about worrying them so.”

  Slade looked skeptical, but he said, “I suppose you could be right. I’ll call.”

  “And I’ll run down to check with the Hinsons and the Bleeckers,” she offered. “They might be hiding out there with their friends.”

  But her trip up and down the block was wasted. None of the other children had seen either Timmy or Kevin all day. Though she hadn’t exactly doubted the trustworthiness of their word, she had checked with their parents, too. They hadn’t seen either boy. All volunteered to help search for them.

  Slade was outside when she came back. “Any sign of them?” he called out.

  “Nothing. They’re not at the ranch?”

  “No, but Sara said she and Jake would start looking. They’re calling Ashley and Dillon to ask them to begin searching, as well.”

  “The other parents in the neighborhood are already deployed to check out nearby streets,” she told him. “We’re going to find them, Slade. I promise.”

  He looked straight into her eyes then and lingered, as if drawing strength from her gaze. At that moment, she felt closer to him than she ever had. As bleak as things were, she felt hope.

  “Thank you,” he said quickly.

  “Don’t thank me. We haven’t found them yet.”

  “But you’ve forgiven me for the hard time I gave you yesterday, haven’t you?”

  “You were scared out of your wits. How can I blame you for that?”

  “You do know that everything I said came out all wrong, that I didn’t mean half of it?”

  She regarded him wryly. “But the other half you did?”

  He winced. “No. Damn, I can’t get anything right.”

  She dared to touch his cheek. “It’s okay. Your mind is on Timmy and Kevin, where it belongs. Let’s just concentrate for now on finding them.”

  “I don’t even know where to begin looking.”

  He sounded so spent and frustrated that her heart ached for him. “What about the park?” she suggested. “They liked going there. Timmy loved playing baseball and he was so proud that you were his coach.”

  Slade looked doubtful, but he nodded. “You check there.” Then, his expression defeated, he added, “I think I’d better go to the bus station and the train station.”

  Dani stared at him. “You think they would actually leave town?”

  Slade raked a hand through his hair. “To be honest, I don’t know what the hell they’d do. I didn’t even think to check to see if they’d broken in to their piggy banks to take money with them. It just seemed like the logical next step.”

  “But where would they go if they left here?”

  “Home to Denver, maybe. Or to Texas to meet my folks,” he speculated.

  “Do they even know where in Texas your family is?” Dani asked.

  “No,” he said wearily.

  Sensing that he had to do something concrete, Dani encouraged him to go to the bus and train stations, even though she had a feeling that the boys weren’t likely to stray away from Riverton. Maybe it was conceit on her part, but she was certain that they would eventually turn up at her house. If the threat of not seeing her was what had made them defy Slade and run away, then surely they would commit the ultimate act of defiance by seeking her out.

  Before she could head for the park, Dillon and Ashley screeched to a stop in front of her house.

  “Any sign of them?” Ashley called out.

  “No. I was just going to the park to look.”

  “We’ll go there,” Dillon offered. “You stick close to home in case they turn up here.”

  Dani wanted to argue. She wanted to be doing something, not just sitting at home all alone, worrying and waiting, counting the minutes until they got some sort of news. But Dillon and Ashley were right. This was where she belonged. She’d thought it herself only moments before their arrival.

  One by one the neighbors checked in with their reports. None of them had discovered any trace of either boy. Sara and Jake called to say there was no sign of Timmy or Kevin on the highway between the ranch and town. They’d started checking some of the less traveled roads out of town.

  By one-thirty Dani was giving in to a full-blown attack of panic. She jumped at every noise. She clutched the portable phone so tightly it left an impression on her hand. Her silent commands that it ring went unheeded for the most part. When it did ring, the news was bleak. It was as if Timmy and Kevin had simply vanished without a trace.

  At five minutes after two she heard a whispered hiss from the hedge between her house and Myrtle Kellogg’s. Going to investigate, she found her highly agitated neighbor beckoning to her.

  “Mrs. Kellogg, what on earth?” Dani demanded as the woman tiptoed toward her own back door.

  “Shush,” the older woman said. “If they find out I’ve told on them, they’ll be fit to be tied.”

  “Who?” Dani asked, then realized the question was absurd. Mrs. Kellogg had been protecting Timmy and Kevin, of course. Relief flooded through her, followed almost at once by fury that they had been so close and Mrs. Kellogg had done nothing to let her know that. One look at the older woman’s worried expression, though, told her that she had done the only thing she thought she could. Dani followed her next door, praying that she’d guessed right, that she would find Timmy and Kevin there.

  Sure enough, there they were, sound asleep on the floor in front of the TV, the familiar soap opera blaring away in front of them. Tears welled up in Dani’s eyes at the sight of them.

  “I came as soon as my show went on,” Mrs. Kellogg explained. “They were so tuckered out, it put them right to sleep.” She faced Dani indignantly. “Would you mind telling me what you and that father of theirs have been doing to upset them so?”

  Dani was still trying to gather her thoughts. She couldn’t believe the boys had been practically under their noses all along. “They’ve been here all day?”

  “Since nine-thirty or so,” her neighbor admitted. “They got hysterical every time I mentioned calling you or their father. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “You’re the adult,” Dani said impatiently. “Couldn’t you have insisted? Didn’t you realize we were scouring the whole town for them?”

  “Well, of course I did. Do you think I couldn’t see all that commotion outside? But they said neither of you wanted them and begged to live with me. That is not the kind of thing I take lightly.” She glowered at Dani. “Now, something isn’t right here and I want to know what it is.”

  “They have it all wrong,” Dani swore to her. “It’s just a huge misunderstanding, I promise. Please, keep them with you while I go let Slade know they’re okay.”

  Mrs. Kellogg blocked her path. “Not until you’ve explained.”

  “Just let me find Slade. I’ll explain later. It’s a long story.”

  Mrs. Kellogg’s expression was intractable. “I’m listening now,” she said. “Those boys wouldn’t have come to me with such a tale unless something was terribly wrong.”

  Dani sighed and conceded defeat. Clearly, her neighbor wouldn’t be satisfied until she knew the whole story. Dani opted for the short version.

  “Slade and I disagreed over how to handle something that happened yesterday. We argued. I told him not to bring the boys back. When they found out, I guess they assumed I didn’t want them and they were mad at their father for causing the rift in
the first place.”

  “But this was just a misunderstanding?” Mrs. Kellogg demanded. “I’ve watched the lot of you all summer long. I could just tell that something special was brewing. Surely, you and that young man are not foolish enough to break up over a silly misunderstanding. That’s the trouble with young people today. They just cut and run the minute things get too difficult for them.”

  “I don’t want to run, but it’s not entirely up to me,” Dani said with regret.

  Suddenly Mrs. Kellogg’s attention shifted to the doorway behind Dani. “What about you, young man? Do you intend to put things to right?”

  All of Slade’s attention was focused on his sons. The relief that washed across his face was visible. “Thank God,” he murmured. “They look worn out. Did someone find them and bring them back?”

  Dani shook her head. “They’ve been here all along. They thought neither of us wanted them anymore, so they begged Mrs. Kellogg to take them in.”

  Slade looked thunderstruck. “How could they think that?”

  “A few actions, a couple of offhand comments and very vivid imaginations,” Dani suggested. “We gave them all they needed to reach that conclusion.”

  “And my relationship with their mother didn’t help.” He looked at Dani. “I have to show them that things are different with us.”

  Dani’s heart filled with hope.

  “And I want to know how you intend to fix things,” Mrs. Kellogg said, looking from one to the other. She waved them toward her kitchen. “In there, both of you.”

  Slade started to protest, but she cut him off. “They’ll be just fine where they are. In the meantime, I want some answers. It’s not right for these children to think they’re unwanted.”

  “Mrs. Kellogg, nothing could be further from the truth,” Slade insisted. “I would give my life for those two.”

  “So would I,” Dani said softly.

  Slade’s gaze caught hers. There was guilt reflected in the depths of his eyes. “I’m sorry if you thought I didn’t know that. You’ve been wonderful with them. Sometimes I’ve envied you the rapport you’ve built with them in such a short time.”