Reunited With The Rancher

“Don’t mention it. And don’t worry, we’ll find him.” With that Isaac took off, heading first to the kennel where Max barked as if he already knew he was needed.

Kylie shifted Maggie to her left side, giving her weaker right side a break. The toddler leaned her head on Kylie’s shoulder and started to sing, “Jesus Loves Me.”

“Yes, he does, sweetie,” Kylie told her. “And he loves Andy. So we’re going to pray real hard and we will find your brother.”

They had to find him. Her heart ached, knowing that because of one moment of her distraction it could result in a child being lost. The thought cut deep because it brought back the accident. A distracted moment and their convoy had been attacked.

She’d lost so much that day.

She’d never expected that five years later she would be here. She’d thought her world would never be right again after that day. But she’d managed to save herself and she’d dragged Eric Baker from a burning vehicle. He had proposed on the spot, telling her it was meant to be.

They’d known each other, had dated a few times, but he’d convinced her that her rescuing him that day had sealed their lives together. They’d lain there waiting for help, laughing at every stupid thing just to keep from crying.

Two months later they’d gotten married.

A year later he was gone and she was alone. Again.

Her heart thudded hard as she became frantic, worrying that she wouldn’t find Andy. What if he’d gone toward the road or the pond? What if he wandered to the woods and darkness fell? She glanced toward the west at the sun that was barely a sliver of orange as it sank over the horizon. It would soon be dark.

“Maybe he went inside?” she said to Maggie, but she had fallen asleep in her arms. “Right, well, let’s go check inside.”

She headed for the patio and the back door of the house. As she hurried through the home she called his name. She checked the kitchen, the utility room, the garage. As she walked back through the dining room, Jack called out to her.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

She didn’t want to worry him. He’d already had one spell.

“Well?” he questioned as he reached for water, his arm and hand shaking uncontrollably.

She picked up the water glass and held it for him. “I lost Andy.”

“You lost him?”

“One minute he was on the tree swing and the next minute he was gone. Isaac is getting Maximus and a few of the guys to help search.”

“They’ll find him.” Jack reached. “Let me hold that sleeping princess. It might be the only chance I ever get to hold her.”

Kylie placed the child in his arms. Maggie shifted a little, then settled back into a sound sleep.

“I knew I didn’t have much of a chance of getting him to stay,” Jack said as he studied his sleeping granddaughter. “I’ll take the time I can get. You go help find Andy and the two of us will be just fine.”

“If she wakes up?”

“Rosa is here. She’s cleaning upstairs and she’s going to make soup. We’ll be just fine.”

The housekeeper. Kylie had forgotten that Rosa planned on coming in for the evening because she would be gone over the weekend to attend one of her sons’ weddings.

“I’ll go help them look. You stay put.” She leaned to hug Jack. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”

He grinned. “I know you will. And in the meantime, I get to spend time with sweet Maggie here.”

Kylie gave him a last look and headed out the front door, just in case Andy had gone that way. The look on Jack’s face had been priceless. She knew what this visit meant to him, even if it didn’t go the way he’d planned.

She knew what this visit meant to her, too. It made her question everything she’d believed about her life here. She had spent four years finding herself, building a stable and happy life. For the first time, she had hope. She had real faith. She was truly happy.

And she didn’t want anything to change, because change was unpredictable.

And what was more unpredictable than a man from the past with his two children showing up out of the blue?

Chapter Three (#ucbfaa4e2-df25-5a88-8977-a4fc030e02ab)

Carson had made a quick search around the stable, the corrals, the dog kennels. When he didn’t find Andy, he headed back to the stable. Andy could very well be hiding in a stall or a storage room in the mammoth-sized facility. There were a dozen stalls, several storage rooms, an office and an attached indoor arena. Plenty of places for a little boy to hide.

Kids loved barns. Dusty barns with haylofts and dark corners to hide in. This wasn’t one of those barns. It wasn’t like the one that Carson and his siblings had played in when they’d been kids living here.

He didn’t have time to think about the changes to the ranch. He had to find Andy before his son found trouble. It wasn’t the first time he had wandered off. Their nanny had lost him twice in the past year. A friend had suggested a phone with a GPS tracking device.

“Andy? Andy? Are you in here?” He paused to listen for any sound that indicated his son might be hiding inside the stable. Nothing. He closed his eyes and felt the closest to praying he’d been in three years.

The night he’d lost Anna.

That night had been a night of prayer. Carson had determined God could and would get his wife through the trauma of the accident. And now, he was about to close his eyes and ask that same God to help him find his son.

He’d believed that his faith died the day Anna died. But if a person’s first thought in crisis was to call on God, maybe he wasn’t so far gone.

After a thorough search of the stable, including stalls where some pretty decent Quarter Horses pawed at the ground or snuffled water from automatic waterers, he exited on the opposite side. Isaac joined him, leading a big chocolate-brown Labrador Retriever.

“This is Maximus.” Isaac patted the animal’s head.

He led the dog in a circle, talking to him in a low tone that got the animal’s attention.

“Does he know what he’s doing?” Carson asked as the dog began to sniff the ground.

“Nah, but he’ll do his best. I hope you don’t mind, I helped myself to this jacket in your SUV. I wanted him to have Andy’s scent.” Isaac held up Andy’s jacket that had been left in his car seat. He adjusted his cowboy hat, exposing a military haircut and a scar on the left side of his head.

“We should keep moving. Is there still a pond past the stand of trees over there?” Carson nodded in the direction of the setting sun.

“Yeah, we’ll head that way. Max seems to like that idea.”

“How do we know he’s on the right track?”

Isaac laughed a little. “We don’t know, but I trust Max. I promise you, we’re going to find your kid.”

The way Carson saw it, he had no other options. He had to trust the dog and Isaac. Carson hoped that God realized he was putting some trust in Him, too.

“Kylie is really beating herself up,” Isaac informed him as they continued in the direction of the pond.

“She shouldn’t. Andy has done this before.” Carson scanned the area and then shifted his focus to the horizon. “It’ll be dark soon.”