"Josh probably won't answer if we call out to him," she reminded him. Which just made finding the needle in a haystack so much harder.
Tears were standing in her eyes, and he really wanted to comfort her. Reach out and hold her hand or even pull her into a hug.
But he didn't dare.
"Let's try to be logical about this," he said. "You circle the house. I'll circle the barn. Keep your eyes peeled."
If boy and horse weren't within eyesight, they were in for a heap of trouble, because his truck was out of commission, and Jess's sedan wouldn't handle the rough farm terrain.
It was hot out. Josh could get dehydrated in hours. He likely wouldn't freeze if they didn't find him overnight, but if he wouldn't call out to a search-and-rescue worker, how could they find him at all?
This was Luke's worst nightmare coming true all over again.
#
Jess rounded the house at a jog, her eyes straining to take in every angle, every movement. Was that a shadow moving, near the horizon? She fixed her eyes on the spot but no matter how hard she squinted, she couldn't tell if it were a boy or a horse.
"Josh!" She called out every few steps, even knowing it was futile. He wouldn't answer her.
This was awful.
She knew better than to take her attention off a student, but her mom had called with a 9-1-1 that turned out not to be an emergency.
She didn't think Josh could have gotten very far so quickly, but all kinds of horror stories were filtering through her brain.
She was going to have to call Josh's parents, and the school. And probably the sheriff's office.
How could they find one silent little kid out here on such a large acreage?
Shirley stood on the back porch when Jess rounded the house. Luke strode forward to meet her, shaking his head at her hopeful look.
"What's going on?" Shirley asked. "I heard you shouting."
Jess gulped. Confessed, "I lost Josh. He's gone."
"Patches is gone too," Luke said.
Shirley didn't blink at their statements. "Do you think the boy was riding the horse?"
Luke's shoulders rolled beneath his shirt. "She wasn't saddled. I showed him how to put a saddle on earlier this week, but I doubt he could lift it high enough on his own. I guess there's a small chance he could've climbed up on something and ridden her bareback."
Oh, heaven help them. Please, God, don't let that have happened. Surely Josh wouldn't have the gumption to do something like that on his own?
But she knew how stubborn Josh could be, and if he'd set his mind to riding the horse, he might be able to find a way to do it.
"I'll start calling neighbors," Shirley said.
Luke took off his hat, the mention of neighbors obviously upsetting him more.
Jess could see his sweat-matted hair before he ran a hand through the locks. She had been so stressed she hadn't even asked why he'd been late, but obviously something had been wrong for him, too, judging by how rumpled and sweaty he was.
He hadn't even mentioned his own troubles before he'd jumped right in to help her with Josh.
And he didn't protest now, though she could guess he still didn't want to see anyone from Pecan.
"Ask if anybody's got a four-wheeler or ATV. My truck's out of commission, and Dusty's gelding is lame in one foot."
She closed her eyes against tears that threatened. The problems just kept piling up.
And then a warm hand closed over her elbow, startling her into opening her eyes. She couldn't help the tear that spilled out and ran down her cheek.
Luke was right there to brush it away with his thumb. "We'll find him." He spoke the words almost grimly, but she could see the determination in his eyes. She knew this situation must be bringing back all kinds of memories for him, yet he was holding it together. She knew he'd do everything he could to find Josh.
Shirley had disappeared off the porch, probably inside already making calls.
Jess sniffed, trying to hold herself together. And then he wrapped his arms completely around her, surrounding her with his warm, strong presence.
She closed her eyes, letting herself sink into the comfort he offered for the briefest moment before she pulled away.
"I should make some calls too. Josh's parents, the school." She wiped a hand beneath her eyes.
"I'm going to circle, starting from here. Since we don't know which direction he went, maybe I'll stumble over a track or something."
They both knew it was a long shot. There'd been no rain these last few weeks, so the dirt and grasses would be dry, not wet to make prints in. But he probably felt he should be doing something.
Or he didn't want to be here when neighbors started arriving.
"Luke!" Before he'd moved off, Shirley had returned. She had a portable phone tucked between her ear and shoulder, and a bottle of water, dripping with condensation, in her hand. He took two steps toward her and she tossed it to him.
"Thanks, Gramma."
Shirley nodded, obviously listening to someone on the other end of the phone, but her gaze lingered on her grandson for a long moment.
He was already striding away, the bottle tipped to his lips, while Jess began dialing, praying they would find Josh soon. Praying that he was safe.
#
Luke stood in the shadows, well back from the action taking place in the barn.
Night was falling, and they still hadn't located Josh or Patches.
The sheriff's department had set up a search and rescue operation in the barn. Because of Josh's challenges, they'd come out immediately when Jess had made the call.
Somewhere they'd found two sawhorses and set up a crude table. They'd blown up a satellite picture of the farm and surrounding properties and had areas marked where searches had been made in concentric circles. Several people, men and women, were gathered around, talking in low voices.
Josh's dad was out there with a team, somewhere on Starr land. His mom was inside the house with Gramma and several other prayer warriors, too old to be traipsing out over the farm.
Luke had been on two teams so far, as they'd walked in a line formation over land he and his brothers had grown up on. He'd been careful to pick teams that were staying far from the pecan grove, hoping not to trigger flashbacks from his own past. He couldn't help Josh if he was crippled with memories.
They'd turned up nothing. No stitch of clothing. No hoof prints from Patches. Two teams—different ones than Luke had been on—had scoured the creek bank in both directions, because Luke had suggested the horse would head for water.
But what if the boy was leading the horse?
They couldn't really know what had happened, would probably only be able to guess once Josh or Patches were found.
He felt he'd let everyone—Jess, especially—down. Josh should've been found by now.
Every hour spent out in the elements made things more dangerous for the kid. And now that it was almost full dark, it would be even harder to spot a child like Josh. They had flashlights and floodlights, but would it even do any good?
"Here. The coffee shop in town sent a bunch of coffee. You look like you could use some."
The feminine voice wasn't the one he'd expected. He turned, finding Linette at his elbow, paper coffee cup in her outstretched hand.
He took it, because he didn't know what else to do. "Uh…thanks, Linnie."
She smiled wanly. "Nobody's called me that since high school."
He hid a wince by sipping the coffee. "Sorry."
"It's okay."
He expected her to walk off—he was shocked she'd brought him the coffee at all—but she remained at his side, a friendly distance between them. They watched the action as the local sheriff and several others pointed to locations on the map, their heads bent in conversation.
"Is Aaron out there now?" he asked, voice emerging a little rusty. Both Linette and Aaron had been friends back in high school, part of the group he and Sean had run with.
"Y
es. We're on the prayer chain too."
He'd forgotten about the prayer chain. It'd been a part of their home church since his grandma's generation. If someone needed it, the prayer chain started praying.
"Thanks for coming. For…this." He held up the coffee cup. "I know Josh's parents appreciate it."
She turned to him. "We didn't come for them. We came for you."
He stared at her, stunned. He couldn't process her words. They didn't make any sense.
Her smile was a little sad this time. "No matter how long you've been gone, we're still your friends."
"How can you say that?" The words burst out, though he kept his voice low. "After what happened?"
She touched his forearm. "It was a horrible accident. Sometimes I wish I could erase my memories of that day. But it was an accident. And I'd rather not lose two friends over it."
Her voice had gone husky, and tears stood in her eyes.
He couldn't fathom what he was hearing. Yes, it had been an accident, a horrible one. He'd been driving. It had been his fault. She had every right to hate him.
And yet, she still wanted to be his friend.
She squeezed his forearm. "You should think about sticking around town awhile longer. I'll be praying for you."
He was a mess of roiling emotions as she walked away, moving to one of the cars crowding Gramma's drive, then taking two carriers stuffed with coffee to the men and women in the barn.
He should get back out there. Exhaustion weighed him down. Someone had provided a spread of sandwiches and chips for the volunteers, but he was too nauseated to eat, thinking about Josh out there in the dark. Probably scared.
Before he could move into the barn and find out where they wanted to send him next, a heavy hand clapped on his shoulder, nearly upending his coffee.
Daniel.
"What are you doing here?" He looked over his shoulder to see a matching figure stepping down off of the porch. Dusty.
Daniel slapped him on the shoulder blades again, again almost spilling his coffee.
"We heard you were having a spot of trouble."
"You cut your honeymoons short? Came to clean up my mess?"
It rankled. Made the muscles in his shoulders tighten up.
Dusty was close enough now to insert himself into their conversation.
"We weren't here for you six years ago," Dusty said. "We let you run off, and we let you avoid us, and we never solved anything."
Daniel shifted his feet. "We're here now."
"Lindsey wants to talk to you too. I figure if she can forgive an ornery ol' cuss like me, she can forgive you too."
Luke shook his head, but his brothers apparently weren't going to let him off so easy.
"You going out again?" Daniel asked.
Luke kept his eyes focused on the deputies poring over the map. Shrugged. "Probably." He'd been out twice already, but something was tugging at him. "I was thinking about going down to the grove. The big one, where—"
He couldn't say it, but the pregnant pause and the shared look his brothers gave each other told him they understood.
The grove where Sean had died.
"We'll go with you," Dusty said.
Dan nodded, expression serious. They knew how much it was going to cost him to go back there.
But maybe it would be worth it, if they could find Josh.
Chapter Nine
Jess couldn't help but notice that something had changed for Luke during the night.
It was almost dawn, and there was still no sign of Josh or Patches. Her heart ached, and her whole body shook from the grief and worry over her lost student. She couldn't imagine what his parents were going through.
Luke seemed poised on a knife's edge, tension visible in every stride, every movement. Which side would he tip over?
His brothers had shown up unexpectedly last night, along with their wives. If it had been her parents, she'd have run to them and thrown herself into her mom's arms and sobbed, like she wanted to do right now.
But Luke held himself apart.
The brothers' relationships were strained. Daniel and Dusty seemed to totally accept Luke, while his walls were up, and high.
It was a problem for another time. She was so frazzled from being up all night, bleary-eyed with tears and exhaustion, that she could only focus on one thing: finding Josh.
The breaking dawn painted everything in silver, misty tones.
The sheriff's office believed they'd covered the entire farm and several acres of the surrounding properties during the night, and the fact that Josh hadn't been found was frightening. It made it more difficult that he wouldn't return a shout or call of his name.
So this morning, the sheriff's department had sent volunteers out to comb the farm all over again, hoping that somehow they'd missed Josh or some sign of him in the night.
They walked in a line with maybe ten or fifteen feet between each person. Luke was to her right, with his brothers on the far side of him, following a natural dip in the land. Full, green-leafed trees rose in tall, elegant lines.
A soft noise drew her attention. Was that…a horse's whicker?
She looked over to Luke, whose face had turned to her. "Did you hear that?" she called.
He nodded, but she couldn't read any hope on his face, just tension. As if he were too afraid to hope.
He turned to speak to his brother, on his other side, and she did the same to the high school principal, on her other side.
And then she and Luke converged, drawing closer together as they approached the first of the trees.
Disappointment tightened her throat as she looked around in the still-lightening morning gray. Nothing.
Then the sound came again, a soft neigh.
Was that…? There was something large and brown half-hidden behind a tree about fifteen feet beyond. Patches.
Hope rose. Her heart began pounding.
Luke whistled softly, and the horse neighed again. It didn't move from where it was. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
She barely refrained from running, holding herself to a walk in order not to scare the horse—and please God, a little boy!
She followed Luke's lead to round the tree from where the horse's head would be. Patches stood almost protectively over the little boy curled into the roots of the tree.
"Josh," she breathed.
He might've been asleep. She couldn't tell with his head tucked into his arms, but he stirred.
She knew he must be scared, and she longed to drag him into her arms for a hug. But she also knew she couldn't overwhelm him.
Luke moved to Patches's shoulder, reaching for the animal's halter. She was a little worried about the horse stepping on Josh, that's how close the horse and boy were.
"She was watching over him," Jess said softly.
Luke's gaze met hers across the few feet between them, and she saw the emotion burning in the depths of his eyes. "He okay?"
She knelt next to Josh. "Hey, buddy."
Josh pushed up to a sitting position. He was shivering, and she pulled off the chambray button-up shirt that Amy had dug out of her luggage and loaned her when the night chill had gotten to her. She tucked it around the boy, tears pricking her eyes.
She turned her face into her shoulder, so the boy wouldn't see her emotion. Luke was there, one big hand on the horse's neck.
He was dialing his phone with the other hand, then lifted it to his ear. "We found him."
Their eyes caught and held, the emotion of the moment shared. Her insides grew warm and twisty. They'd done it.
The question was, what would he do now?
#
Hours later, after they'd reunited Josh with his parents and the last of the volunteers were dispersing, Jess looked around and realized Luke was nowhere to be found.
She ducked inside to find Daniel and Amy holding hands at the kitchen table. Gramma Shirley was dozing in her recliner, and neither Dusty nor Lindsey were anywhere to be found.
And she had a guess where Luke might've gone. So she took a walk.
She found him beneath the same tree where they'd discovered Josh and Patches earlier. He leaned his back and shoulders against the tree and examined something in the palm of one hand.
He heard her coming and looked up. He seemed…she couldn't read the expression on his face.
This was it. With his brothers home early from their honeymoons, he no longer had a reason to stay on with Gramma Shirley. He could leave at any time. Just like he'd planned.
She stopped several feet from him. "You doing okay?"
"Tired," he said. "But happy we found Josh. What about you?"
"Same." She was bone-weary, but she couldn't leave until she knew what his plans were.
"You still got your job?"
"Yeah." It seemed like she'd apologized a thousand times—every time she saw her principal and Josh's parents in the night—and thankfully, she'd been forgiven. Her boss would have to write up a report that would go in her file, but Josh had once wandered off on his mom, so the woman had been forgiving and understanding and insisted that Jess keep her job—especially after she'd seen Josh's attachment to Patches.
Luke looked down at his hand again. Rolled something—she couldn't see what—between his fingers. "I couldn't help noticing this morning…this grove is producing."
She looked up at the tree above them and the others surrounding. Luke held out his hand, and she stepped closer to see the three pecans with green shells.
"Every other tree on the property was ruined by the tree rot," he said. "Except these." He cleared his throat. "This is where…where it happened."
Oh, Luke.
She saw the pensive set of his brows as he stared down at the nuts in his hand. He was trying to tell her something. She just didn't know what.
"My brothers came home," he said.
She nodded, throat tightening. Here it came. He was going to tell her he was leaving.
"Gramma won't quit bugging me," he went on. Was that one of the reasons he wouldn't stay? "And Linnie—Linette—said something to me last night."
Now he looked up at her, his gaze penetrating. "They all want me to stay in Pecan."
The Butterfly Bride Page 6