conceived and born here.
He parked and even before his booted feet hit the gravel, Maggie, the family’s Australian shepherd, was there to greet him, tail wagging with the kind of enthusiasm that would make more sense if he’d been gone for weeks rather than a couple of hours.
“Hey, girl,” he said as he scratched her between the ears. “You miss me?”
“Stop spoiling that dog,” Sloane said from the low limestone porch. “We all already know she loves you most.”
He smiled at his sister. “What can I say? The dog has taste.”
Sloane made a rude sound then strode toward the back of his truck. “You get everything?”
“No, I just went to town and shot the bull with the morning crowd at the Primrose.”
“Well, I hope you all at least finally solved some of the world’s problems.”
His thoughts shifted to Arden as he saw his mom rounding the house, obviously returning from working in her garden. The world certainly did have plenty of problems, and Arden had been caught up in them.
“No, but I did see Arden Wilkes.”
The expression on Sloane’s face changed from sibling irritation to concern. “How did she seem?”
“A nervous wreck.” He relayed what had happened in the store.
“That poor girl,” his mom said, having joined them when she’d heard Arden’s name mentioned. “I hope they got the monsters who took her and they pay.”
His mother wasn’t a vindictive woman, but she believed in justice.
“The news report I saw said at least some of them were killed during the rescue,” Sloane said.
Good riddance. Anyone who bought and sold other humans, including children, didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as decent people.
“I heard some of the city leaders want to honor her at the rodeo this weekend, give her a hero’s welcome home,” his mom said.
“That doesn’t seem like a very good idea.” When his mom and Sloane gave him eerily similar questioning looks, he said, “From what I saw, she’s not ready for that.”
“Well, her mother will no doubt run interference for her,” his mom said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Molly isn’t up for it either. She and Ken have been through so much the past several weeks.” She placed her hand on Sloane’s upper arm and gave Neil a look full of motherly love. “If something like that ever happened to one of my children, I’d lose my mind.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” he said, absolutely certain of his words. “You’re the strongest woman I know. You’d probably be on the first plane to wherever we were and you’d kick butt and take names.”
His mom laughed a little. “Now there’s a mental image. Well, go on, you two, scoot. I’m sure there’s something needs doing around here.”
He helped Sloane unload the new pup tents she was going to use for one of her camps for underprivileged kids. Sloane could seem no-nonsense sometimes, was definitely opinionated, but she had a soft spot for kids, especially ones who didn’t have much positivity in their lives. If she ever met someone, got married and had kids of her own, she’d be a great mom. She took after Diane Hartley in so many ways, even though they didn’t share one speck of DNA.
“What do you think happened to Arden?” she asked when they’d finished unloading and stood cooling off in the shade of a massive live oak tree.
A vision of the terrified look in Arden’s eyes before she’d attempted to hide it formed in his mind.
“Nothing good.”
* * *
ARDEN FELT LIKE a complete and utter fool as her mom drove them toward the house. She wanted to beat her fist against the passenger side door to release some of the anger over what her captors had done to her state of mind. She was not this person, one who damn near screamed bloody murder because someone dropped a coffeepot.
“It’ll be okay, sweetie,” her mom said.
“I know.” In fact, she didn’t know, but she didn’t want to worry her mother any more than she already had. At the moment she couldn’t even look at her mom. Though she heard the sympathy and concern in her mom’s voice, Arden knew if she saw it right now she wouldn’t be able to hold back tears.
When they popped over the hill that gave Arden her first view of her parents’ home, a lump rose in her throat. How many pitch-black nights had she slept in her cage imagining she was in the safe comfort of her childhood bedroom instead? It had seemed impossibly far away, but now it sat in front of her. The modest home, the elm tree that still held her tire swing, the little pond filled with ducks and flanked by a bench where she and her dad would sit and watch the ducks together.
And then she saw him, and she had to bite her lip to keep from making a twisted sound of relief and distress. When she’d found out a couple of days ago that her father had suffered a heart attack shortly after she’d been taken, she’d been swamped with the fear that she’d never see him again. Now there he sat in one of the rockers on the porch next to his sister, Emily.
He must have seen them at the same time because he and Emily stood, and he didn’t act like a man who’d had a heart attack as he left the porch and was halfway to her mom’s parking spot before her mom even got the car put into Park.
Arden’s legs shook as she stepped from the car, and she felt her tears demanding to be set free. Despite the shaky legs, she closed the distance between herself and her father with quick strides.
“My baby girl,” he said as he pulled her into his arms.
She finally lost the battle with her tears. “I’m so sorry, Dad.” The rush of emotions came out in great, gasping sobs.
Her dad continued to hold her close the same as he’d done when she was a child and someone had hurt her feelings or she’d had a bike wreck and scraped all the skin off her knees. Even though it felt so good to be held like that, she could tell he was weaker than she remembered. She should be supporting him, not the other way around, even though she was still weak herself from the weeks of captivity.
Arden stepped back and gripped his arms. “I’m so sorry I worried you.”
“It wasn’t your fault, honey.”
It was, and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure she never did anything to cause him harm again.
“You need to sit down, rest.”
Her father waved off her concern. “If I rest any more, I’m going to go crazy. I’m fine, don’t worry.”
Not likely. In addition to being noticeably weaker, he was thinner and paler, as well. She started to insist he sit, but he smiled and gripped her hands with more of the strength with which she’d always associated him.
“I just want to look at my beautiful girl.”
“How about we go inside?” her aunt Emily said. “I bet you all are hungry.”
That was Emily from the time Arden could remember. If anyone was going through hard times of any sort, Emily was there to feed them.
Arden didn’t let go of her dad’s hand, but she allowed her aunt to give her a hug.
“We’re all so glad you’re safe,” Emily said next to her ear.
Arden offered her aunt a small smile as Emily stepped back. As her mom and Emily headed for the house, Arden turned to her dad. He reached up and wiped away the remnants of her tears then placed his hands on either side of her face and kissed her forehead.
“No more tears. You’re safe and you’re home. All is right with the world.”
That was only partially