Speechless, Virginia stared at her ex-husband, realizing with sudden clarity that he was a different person from the one she’d taken her vows with years before. That Bailey had been a scared boy, pure of heart, but immature and selfish. This Bailey was a strong, capable man, unafraid to show his love, and willing to fight to keep his family together.
“I love you, Ginny, and I want you back in my life.” He bit his bottom lip and inhaled sharply. “I’ve been kicking myself for eight long years, and I’m not about to let you go this easily.”
She studied his eyes, overwhelmed at the love she saw there. Smiling tremulously, she murmured, “I���I don’t know what to say.”
“Just give me some hope we can work things out. Just tell me it there’s a chance you might be able to love me again.”
“Again?” she asked. This was her moment of truth. Could she risk laying her heart out for him to see? “I can’t remember not loving you, Bailey.”
He straightened and swallowed, then narrowed his eyes. “Say that again.”
“I love you, Bailey… I never stopped.”
A faint smile lifted the corners of his mouth as he took a step toward her. “Say it louder.”
She smiled. “I love you, Bailey.”
Another step, a bigger grin. “Louder!”
“I love you, Bailey Kallihan!”
He stopped in front of her. “I love you, too,” he whispered. “So much.”
Seconds passed and her gaze remained locked with his.
“Are you just going to look at me?” she asked.
His blue eyes narrowed. “No,” he said softly, grabbing her arms more gently this time and pulling her to him. Virginia’s heart thudded against his. He lowered his mouth until his breath brushed her lips. “I’m going to kiss you until you lose consciousness.”
He descended on her mouth with force, kissing her fiercely. His lips were bruising and ruthless as he foraged her mouth, tongue on tongue, teeth on teeth. Virginia felt his need for her transferred through his kiss, his moans savage and his mouth unrelenting. Desire flooded her body, setting fire to her breasts, stomach, thighs. She surrendered to his demands and angled her mouth against his, matching him moan for moan, bite for bite.
He lifted his head long enough to bend, put an arm under her knees, and sweep her up into his arms.
“Where are we going?” she murmured, her eyes half shut.
“To your bedroom,” he growled, charging up the stairs. At the top he veered into her room, then laid her on the bed. Immediately he began tugging at her clothes, and she felt herself being swept away in the tide of his passion.
“Bailey,” she said after her shirt was removed and her bra discarded, “I’m still conscious.” She raised her mouth for a kiss, and as soon as he rolled off her panties, he obliged, this one more tender.
“Ginny,” he whispered, nipping at her chin, then moving downward, “when I said I’d kiss you unconscious, I wasn’t talking about your mouth.”
*
Around five-thirty Virginia thawed three pork chops and peeled potatoes to mash for dinner, all the while humming under her breath. She couldn’t keep a smile from her face because she still felt Bailey’s mouth and hands on her body. He’d left about an hour before, his hair and clothing a little worse for wear, but sporting a huge grin. Their goodbye kiss on the stoop would have the neighbors talking, she was sure.
She was waiting for the water to boil for the macaroni and cheese, when she started to worry about Chad. Virginia sighed and looked at her watch. He should have been home by now.
Ten minutes later she’d grown impatient enough to go to the front stoop and look down the street. Nowhere. When he hadn’t returned in another fifteen minutes, she turned off the stove, grabbed her keys, and drove the few blocks to the park, her heart thudding in her chest.
She parked and walked toward the skateboard ramp, feeling relieved when she saw a small crowd of kids taking turns. She scanned their faces when she walked up. “Does anyone here know Chad Green?”
The kids looked at one another, then one rangy boy asked, “Black hair, red and blue skateboard?”
She nodded hopefully.
He shook his head. “Haven’t seen him���but Buddy found his skateboard a couple of hours ago.”
Virginia’s heart dropped to her stomach. “His skateboard?”
The boy nodded, then a second boy stepped forward, holding out the skateboard. “Found it over there, near the trees.” He pointed.
“Sh-show me,” she whispered, reaching for his skateboard with trembling hands. She frantically searched the area the boy showed her, but she didn’t find anything else of Chad’s. A horrible sense of deja vu washed over her. She had visions of a stranger dragging Chad into his vehicle, and her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.
Clutching the skateboard, she stumbled toward her car. Tears blurred her vision, and she gasped for every breath. She didn’t have her phone, and how she drove the few blocks home without causing an accident, she didn’t know. She ran for the phone, then stabbed in Bailey’s number.
He answered, his voice low. “Ginny, I’m in a meeting���is everything okay?”
“No,” she whispered, tears dripping into her mouth as she talked. “I can’t find him.”
“Chad?”
“He’s not at the park, and the other boys said he hasn’t been there all afternoon. One of them found his skateboard.” She broke down, sobbing.
“Call 911. I’ll be right there.”
Chapter 15
With his heart in his throat, Bailey doubled every posted speed limit on his way to Ginny’s house. Dusk was beginning to fall���it would be dark soon, the streets too dangerous for a lost eight-year-old. He pulled to a tire-squealing halt, ran past the police car at the curb, and through a knot of milling neighbors. Then he bounded up the steps and through the front door. “Ginny?”
She was sitting on the edge of the sofa in the living room, her face gray and pasty. Two police officers stood in front of her, taking notes and asking questions.
She jerked her head up when she heard him, then her face crumpled. “Bailey, we can’t find him!” The officers stepped aside for him. He pulled her to her feet and into his arms, rocking her back and forth as she sobbed against his shoulder.
“I shouldn’t have let him go by himself,” she cried hysterically. “Someone’s taken him again, I just know it.”
“Shh,” he said, blinking back his own tears. “You don’t know that. Maybe he went home with some kid he met and lost track of time.”
One of the officers coughed. “We were just wrapping up, sir. We’ve already talked to the kids at the park and put out an Amber alert. We’re also notifying all patrol cars on southbound I-23 and I-35. I understand he’s from Florida.”
Bailey rubbed Ginny’s back. “That’s right. Fort Lauderdale. Do you think he’s run away?”
“Could be hitchhiking back to Florida. Kids run away more often than they’re kidnapped, sir.”
“You have to understand how we’re feeling right now, officer. Our son was kidnapped when he was an infant. We just got him back into our lives a few days ago.”
The man nodded sadly. “I saw it in the papers. I’ve been on the phone with Detective Lance���he filled us in and said he would contact the Florida State Police and the shelter where the boy stayed.”
Stroking Ginny’s hair, Bailey asked, “What can we do?”
“Someone needs to stay by the phone, of course. Call everyone he knows.” He turned to Ginny. “Ma’am, check his room again and let us know if you can figure out what he was wearing when he left.”
She pulled away and dabbed a shredded tissue at her puffy eyes as she explained to Bailey. “The clothes he was wearing when he asked to go to the park are on his bed, and”���she started crying again���“I didn’t see him before he left.” Looking into Bailey’s eyes, she said, “I didn’t even tell him goodbye.” She bit her bottom lip,
tears streaking her face.
“That’s all we can do now, sir,” the man said. “I’m Officer Handler. Be sure to call the station and ask for me if he turns up or if you think of something else. I’ll keep you informed.”
Bailey shook hands with the policemen, but let them find their own way out.
He made Virginia sit down again, then asked her to repeat everything that had happened since Chad had returned home from camping. She told him about the shadow box and the talk they’d had. “He seemed a little quiet,” she said, sniffling, “but I figured it was everything happening so suddenly.”
“Did you check to see if his duffel bag is missing?”
“It’s still in the laundry room with his camping stuff in it.”
“Did he have any money?”
“I gave him twenty dollars before he went camping���I don’t know if he had any left over. And Mom or Dad might have given him some.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense that he would run away. Besides, his skateboard… oh, Bailey”���her voice rose in panic���“it’s happening again���”
“Hey.” He snuggled her against his chest. “We don’t know that. He’s a big boy now, not a helpless infant.” And still prey for all kinds of sickos, he thought, his gut twisting.
“What are we going to do?” she whispered desperately.
“Wait,” he said firmly, squeezing her. “We’ll wait together.”
“But what if someone has him���”
He cut her off. “We can’t think about that.”
“What if we never see him again?”
“We will,” he assured her. “And we still have each other.”
She smiled through her tears and touched her finger to his mouth lovingly.
He kissed the tip of her finger, then wrapped his arms around her and squeezed hard. “I know this isn’t the best time to propose, and I don’t want you to give me an answer now”���he pulled back and brushed a strand of hair out of her wide eyes���“but if the worst has happened and we never see our son again”���he choked, his voice resuming a rusty tone���“I couldn’t bear to go on if you’re not with me.”
She pressed her lips together tightly, her eyes spilling over again, then lay her head against his chest. She clung to him like a lifeline, and they stood pressed together for several minutes, filling up on each other’s love.
Suddenly a thought occurred to him, and he could have kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. Pulling back, he said, “Ginny, where’s the one place you would go if you were Chad?”
She started to shake her head, then her eyes widened. “Shenoway! But it’s so far���how would he get there?”
“He’s a smart kid���too smart for his own good.”
Bailey pulled out his phone and called Rita, talked for a few seconds, then disconnected the call. “She hasn’t seen him, but I don’t think he’d knock on the front door. I’m going over there.”
“I’m going with you,” she said. “I can’t stand just sitting here.”
As they sped toward the farm, he prayed his intuition was right. In fact, he wouldn’t allow himself to think otherwise.
The moon was in its early cycle, so the meadow lay darkly shadowed when they topped the crest, each carrying a flashlight. Immediately, however, Bailey breathed a sigh of relief. A faint beam of light shone from the back of the meadow, from his tree, the mammoth oak his father had planted. They trotted to it as fast as Ginny could move through the tall, wet grass, then stopped underneath, panting.
The small flashlight beam had been extinguished. Bailey cleared his throat and said, “Chad, we’ve been worried sick about you.”
There was a scrape on one of the lower branches, but no response.
“Why did you run away, son?” he asked gently.
Silence.
Virginia felt strength returning to her weak limbs, and laid a hand on Bailey’s arm when he started to speak again. “Chad,” she said, “if you won’t come down here, then we’re coming up there.”
She shone her light overhead until she saw him, his hand thrown up to shield his eyes. Her heart shivered in relief to see he was okay. She motioned and Bailey hoisted her up first, then pulled himself up into the nearly room-sized opening the tree’s lower branches provided. Using their flashlights, they carefully picked their way over to where Chad sat, crying softly.
“Hey.” Virginia sat down close to him and squeezed his shoulders.
He didn’t look at them, only cried harder.
“If you don’t tell us what’s wrong,” Bailey said, sitting on the other side of him, “we can’t fix it.”
Chad studied the flashlight he clenched in his hands. “I did something real bad, and I didn’t want you to find out, so I ran away.”
“Nothing could be that bad.” Virginia covered one of his hands with her own.
He glanced up, then down again. “It is, it’s terrible, and you’re going to hate me.” He started crying again, but Virginia patted his hand, her heart turning over for her son.
“We could never hate you, Chad,” she said quietly. “You’re our boy���we love you, no matter what. Just tell us.”
“I s-stole your l-locket,” he said, “and th-threw it in the p-pond with my s-slingshot.”
Anguish barbed through her chest at the loss, but she didn’t react.
“What’s this about your locket?” Bailey asked. “I didn’t even know it was missing.”
Chad looked up at her, his eyes miserable. “You didn’t tell him?”
She shook her head.
“But you knew I took it, didn’t you?”
She nodded.
Chad’s face crumpled again. “I was feeling bad about it anyway, and then I got home from the camping trip, and you’d made me that neat picture box, and said nice things even after I broke you and Bailey up���”
“You didn’t break us up, son,” Bailey injected with a smile. “We’re adults, we make our own mistakes.”
“Well, I know I caused your fight. And I know it made Ginny sad.” His lower lip trembled again. “And that letter was there saying you have to take me to court���I’m too much trouble.”
“Hey,” she said softly, planting a kiss on his temple, “you let us be the judge of that. Why did you leave your skateboard in the park?”
“I figured if you thought someone had kidnapped me, you’d be glad I was gone and wouldn’t come looking.”
Horror bolted through her, and she pulled his chin up to look directly in his eyes. “Chad, if I ever lost you again, I would never stop crying, do you understand?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, tears sliding down to wet her fingers. “I wouldn’t blame you if you still wanted me to leave, but I want to stay with you, Ginny.”
Amazed, she exchanged a glance with Bailey, then wiped a few of Chad’s tears with her thumb. “But I thought you wanted to live with Bailey.”
Chad straightened his shoulders and sniffed, then jutted out his chin. “Sons are supposed to take care of their mothers.”
Joy ballooned in her heart and filled every cell of her body. She smiled through her tears. On the other side of Chad, Bailey cleared his throat, then winked a glistening eye at her in the flashlight beam.
She clasped Chad’s hands with hers. “I’m honored you feel that way, but you’ve got it turned around���it’s my job to take care of you.” Smiling wide, she said, “Besides, it’ll be the two of us for only a little while.”
Chad frowned, confused.
“Your father and I are getting married,” Virginia said with a grin.
Chad’s eyes widened, then he looked back and forth between them. “Really?”
Bailey’s gaze flew to hers. “Really?”
“Really,” she said, laughing. Bailey reached over to squeeze her hand, smiling at her from the shadows.
“Hm,” Chad said, suddenly thoughtful. A small frown furrowed his brow.
“
What?” she probed.
“Well, with all the kissing you two do, I guess you’ll be having babies and stuff.”
Exchanging glances with Bailey, she ventured carefully, “And how would you feel about that?”
Chad shrugged and grinned, clearly happy at the prospect. “Whatever.”
Epilogue
Virginia smoothed the slim skirt of her short wedding dress, taking a deep, calming breath. The music had started, her mother and Rita had just left the dressing room, and she had all of five minutes before once again becoming Mrs. Bailey Kallihan. She was as nervous as she’d been all those years before. Unlike her first wedding day, however, she wasn’t plagued with doubts about Bailey’s level of commitment, and the child growing within her then was now the joy of her life.
A small knock sounded at the door. She turned away from the mirror. “Yes?”
“Mom?” Chad asked, poking his head and shoulders in the room. “Can I come in?”
She smiled. “Absolutely. You can help me tame these butterflies.”
“Wow, you look great.” He walked toward her with his hands behind his back.
“Thanks,” she said. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” She straightened his bow tie, her heart swelling with pride at the sight of him in his small black tux. “Are you excited?”
He nodded. “We’re almost a family.”
Tingling with happiness, she stroked his cheek. “We always were, sweetheart, we were just a bit… scattered.”
“I got something for yon,” he said shyly, withdrawing a small package from behind his back.
She took it, swallowing the lump in her throat. The paper, silver with white wedding bells, had been mangled a bit, then repaired with yards of cellophane tape. A big white bow sat crookedly on top.
“I wrapped it myself.”
“It’s so pretty,” she whispered.
“Open it.”
Carefully, she tore away the paper to uncover a jeweler’s box. She glanced at her son suspiciously, but he was wide-eyed with anticipation.
Almost a Family Page 19