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“What boys ranch?”
“We have a Lone Star Cowboy League Boys Ranch here in Haven, founded in 1947 by Luella Snowden Phillips. She used her own ranch as a place for troubled boys around the state to receive support and care and to learn a better way to deal with their problems.”
“Any relative to Fletcher Phillips?”
“Yes, his grandmother. But he wants to close the place down.”
“Why would he want to shut down something his grandmother started and supported?”
“Good question. Now you see why he isn’t one of my favorite people. He says it devalues the property around the boys ranch and hurts Haven’s economy. All he sees is a bunch of troublemakers, not young children and teens who have problems. His father, Tucker, was actively involved in the ranch. He isn’t alive, but if he were he would be so disappointed in his son.”
“I can see why you feel that way about Fletcher, but has anyone invited him to the ranch to see firsthand what’s going on? Maybe even volunteer and get to know the children?”
Had they? Nick didn’t know. “The townspeople are always welcomed at the boys ranch.”
“Sometimes the obvious has to be pointed out to some people.”
Nick chuckled. “That would be Fletcher, but I can’t see even a grand tour of the boys ranch changing that man’s mind. And I certainly can’t see him volunteering there.” He pulled into a parking space at the elementary school. “I met my share of people in the army who had to have it their way or no way. They were rigid and never wanted to compromise.”
“There are people like that in every facet of life. I try to look at things from their perspective.”
Nick climbed from the truck, paused and asked over the hood, “How’s that working for you?”
“Actually pretty well, but I’ll admit there are some who can make it hard for a person.”
Nick studied her profile as she stared at the woods across the field. Was he one of those people? The thought didn’t sit well with him. “So why do you think Ned drinks himself into a stupor and ignores his son?”
“I imagine the second part comes because of the first—Ned’s drinking problem. Most people drink to excess because they aren’t happy and don’t know how to make it better. What happened to Corey’s mother?”
Nick walked to the back of the truck and let the tailgate down. “I don’t know. Corey was a toddler when she died. He said his dad wouldn’t talk about her.” And that topic never came up with his army buddy, Corey’s older brother. Her question brought thoughts up about Nick’s own mother, who died when he was seven. Was that what led to his father’s drinking problem? Even so, that didn’t give him the right to hit Nick whenever he felt like it. He was thankful that by the time he was fifteen his dad had backed off. Probably because Nick was stronger and bigger than his father.
He gestured to her multiple bags. “Which one do you need?”
Darcy pointed to two of them, and Nick slid them to her. “Maybe Corey running away will shake up his dad,” she said as she changed her shoes and found her hat and gloves.
Nick shut the tailgate, handed her a flashlight and then started across the school playground toward the woods. “Probably not. This isn’t the first time he’s gone missing, but usually the sheriff isn’t involved. No doubt he is this time because Mrs. Scott knew something was wrong and called them. Ned never would have. I don’t know what would have happened if Mrs. Scott didn’t help me out by keeping an eye on the boy. If she hadn’t come back with cookies, Ned would have resumed drinking and still might have been oblivious to the fact that Corey could be freezing to death.”
“Did you know Doug before y’all were in the army?”
He switched on his flashlight, the crunch of fallen leaves sounding in the quiet. “Yes, the family lived in Haven for a while when I was a freshman in high school. That’s when Doug and I became friends. Then his family left and went to Dry Gulch. When I enlisted, I met up with Doug again at boot camp. He was escaping his father like I was.” The last sentence came out before he could censor himself. Darcy was too easy to talk to.
“You were?”
He didn’t share his past with anyone. Even he and Uncle Howard didn’t talk much about what had happened as Nick grew up. It just brought up hard feelings toward his dad, and Nick had enough to deal with keeping the ranch afloat due to his father’s mismanagement. Nick had used all his savings to bail the Flying Eagle out of debt, but he didn’t have enough left to do much else. “I was a teenage boy who thought he knew what was best for him.”
“Where is Doug now?”
“He was killed on a mission.”
Darcy slowed her step. “I’m sorry to hear that. I see why you’re trying to help Corey.”
Frustration at his inability to help Corey as much as the kid needed plagued Nick. It brought back all the helplessness he’d felt as a child.
* * *
As they moved deeper into the stand of trees, Darcy followed a step or two behind, sweeping her flashlight over the left area while Nick searched the right side.
She’d never imagined she would be spending her first night in Haven looking for a lost child. But there was no way she would have stayed away. Corey and she were kin.
Family had always been important to her—something she didn’t take for granted. What if her mom and dad hadn’t adopted her? Then where would she be? Until she’d begun the search for her biological parents, she hadn’t really thought much about where she’d come from. When her birth mother rejected the offer to meet with her, it had devastated her more than she thought possible. And after hearing about Fletcher, she didn’t think meeting her birth father would be any different. The thought saddened her.
She shouldn’t unpack. Instead, she should just leave when her car was fixed. She should forget the father who had never cared for her—and, from what she was discovering about the man, would never care in the future. He’d turned his back on a ten-year-old cousin. She always tried to look for the good in others, but with each bit of information she found out about her father, it was becoming more difficult. Lord, how could Fletcher Phillips do that to a child—in fact, to a whole ranch full of boys in need?
She didn’t realize she had slowed her step until suddenly Nick was several yards in front of her. She hurried her pace and the toe of her boot caught on a root, throwing her off balance. She floundered and nearly fell.
But Nick grabbed her, halting her ungraceful descent. “You okay?” He steadied her, close enough that she got a good whiff of his citrus-scented aftershave.
Her heartbeat picked up speed. “I tripped. That’s all.” She needed to keep her thoughts centered on finding Corey, not why she came to Haven—or the man she was with. There was something about Nick—the way he talked about Corey—that attracted her.
Her breathing shortened. He was too close for her peace of mind. “Thanks.” She stepped back and inhaled deeply. “Are we near the place Corey was talking about?” she asked, wanting to focus on the child, not the racing of her heartbeat. “I noticed a few snowflakes falling.”
“I know. His fort should be up ahead. I just hope he’s there. If not, I’ll call Mrs. Scott and see if Corey has been found.”
“What if he hasn’t been?”
“Then I think we really need to comb these woods. He uses it as a shortcut from school as well as to his friend’s house. It’ll be harder in the dark. We’ll need a lot more people. I’m glad they’re using some tracking dogs. In the meantime, we can at least rule out his fort and this part of the forest.”
Darcy scanned the towering trees, some leafless, others evergreens or ones that retain their dead leaves until spring. A black veil dominated the area beyond the glow of their flashlights. She quaked. “I guess for a boy this would be a great place to play in during the daytime.” But not at night.
“But not for a girl?” Nick continued forward, glancing back to make sure she was behind him. Even from a distance she sensed the concern that gripped him.
“No, for some it would be. Not for me though. I wasn’t much of a tomboy, except when it came to fishing. I love to go fishing. My dad owned a boat, and we often went out in the Gulf of Mexico. So much fun. What did you do for fun growing up?” Maybe concentrating on something other than Corey’s predicament would reduce Nick’s stress. She’d learned in her work that tension only made a situation worse, sometimes leading to bad decisions.
“I played football and baseball. I was also part of the junior rodeo.”
“I took ballet and played the violin. I did learn to ride a horse English-style.” As a teen she gave up the other two interests to focus on her mare and going to horse shows.
“We come from different worlds.”
The more she was around him, the more she realized that, and yet there was something about Nick that intrigued her. He’d made a promise to a comrade to take care of his little brother, and he was determined to keep it. Like her, he fought for the underdog. She admired him for that. For that matter, he’d stopped to help her when her car died even though he was going the other way.
Finally Nick halted and pointed to a large thicket of bushes up ahead. “That’s the fort,” he said and then he called out loudly, “Corey, it’s Nick.”
Darcy held her breath. Please, Lord, let him be here and okay.
Nothing but the sound of the wind blowing through the woods.
Nick closed the distance between them and the dense undergrowth. “Corey, I want to help.”
“I’m glad it’s cold enough that things like snakes are hibernating,” Darcy said as they approached.
“So am I.”
“Are you scared of snakes?”
“Nope. But we have a lot of rattlers around here, and I don’t want Corey to encounter one. Oh, and by the way, snakes don’t hibernate. I’ve seen some in the winter.” He winked and then started to the side. “You stay here. I’m gonna circle this brush and see if there’s an easy way in.”
Oh, good. He’d said that bit about the snakes on purpose and then left. She scowled at his back. As Nick moved farther away, Darcy hugged her chest and tried to see through the green-and-brown barrier in front of her where she was shining her flashlight. What if a rattlesnake was keeping warm under the thicket—and Corey had been bitten by it? What if...
Darcy quickly shut down those thoughts. She liked frills and lace. She liked girly things, and a snake wasn’t one of those. She and Nick were definitely opposites and that was fine by her. And yet, she remembered his quick reflexes when he caught her before she could hit the ground. Okay, they might be opposites, but there was an appeal to the cowboy who dropped everything to look for a child.
Whoa. Where were these thoughts coming from? Exhaustion after driving all day? She wasn’t in Haven for anything but gathering information about her birth father. She was going to be here only a short time. The more she heard about Fletcher the less she wanted to talk to him, but it wouldn’t be right to pass up discovering what she could about her biological family since she wanted children of her own.
To her left Nick shouted, “Stop, Corey!”
The next thing Darcy saw was the boy rounding the end of the undergrowth, coming to a halt when he spied her and then darting to the side to avoid her. Nick closed in on him from behind. Darcy shot forward, trying to block his escape. When she was within a few feet of him, she took a flying leap and tackled Corey to the ground.
“Get off me! Get off me!” the child yelled.
Still clutching her flashlight, Darcy threw her body across his stomach while Corey wiggled and twisted. Was this what riding a wild bronco felt like?
Through her strands of blond hair she saw two cowboy boots planted near Corey’s shoulder, a pool of light coming no doubt from Nick’s flashlight. She thought it was safe for her to sit up, but the second she did, the boy jumped to his feet and tried to race away.
With lightning speed Nick grasped the child’s upper arms and held him still. “What’s going on with you, Corey?”
“I don’t want to go back. I’ll run away again if you make me go.”
The anger in the boy’s voice made Darcy forget about the dead leaves clinging to her coat and the bruises she was sure to develop from stopping him. Beneath his fury was desperation. She’d heard it enough in her job at Legal Aid. Not long after desperation came hopelessness. She tried to stop that from being someone’s reality. Who was going to give Corey hope? His father? Not unless something changed.
Corey tried to yank his arms away from Nick, tears running down his face now.
All Darcy wanted to do was hold the boy until he calmed down, but she couldn’t, even though he was her cousin—family. Besides Fletcher, she was probably his closest relative in the area. But no one knew that but her.
“Let me go. Dad doesn’t care.” A sob caught in Corey’s throat.
Nick still held Corey, but when he knelt in front of the boy, his expression softened. “But I care about you. It’s gonna snow and get really cold tonight. Did you think about that?”
Corey looked to the side. His blue gaze—so much like Darcy’s—landed on her. “Who are you?”
The words I’m your cousin almost slipped out. Instead she smiled and said, “I want to help you.”
“You can’t. No one can.”
The hopelessness leaked into his words and broke her heart. Coming to Haven was so much harder than Darcy had ever thought it would be.
“That’s not going to stop me from trying. I don’t know about you, Corey, but Miss Hill and I are cold. Let’s settle this somewhere warm.”
Her cousin stuck out his lower lip. “Fine. Nothing’s gonna change.”
“There are a lot of people searching for you and worried about you. Mrs. Scott was beside herself. She called the sheriff.” Nick kept his hand clamped on Corey’s shoulder and started back toward the elementary school parking lot.
“Dad will be mad about that.”
“What did you think was going to happen if you ran away?” Darcy boxed the boy in on the other side and prepared to go after him if he broke loose from Nick’s hold.
“Somethin’ better. Anywhere would be better than here,” Corey mumbled and dropped his head as he shuffled his feet toward the edge of the woods.
When Darcy returned to Mobile, the first thing she would do was hug her parents. She knew raising kids was difficult, but seeing someone like Corey only made her want to have her own children more than before. She had so much love to give a child.
She’d been blessed to have a wonderful mother and father. But others, like Corey, hadn’t been. Maybe while she stayed in Haven, she would check out the boys ranch. Her biological father might not want to have anything to do with the place, but she did.
The minute they returned to Nick’s truck, he settled Corey inside. While the boy sat sandwiched between them, Nick called Mrs. Scott to let her know they had found Corey.
The child folded his arms over his chest and hunched his shoulders farther down as Nick drove closer to Corey’s house. In that moment Darcy felt like a fish in the Gulf taking the bait and being caught. It would be hard to drive home to Mobile without making sure something long term was done for Corey. The question was what. Nick, one of the few people who cared for the child and the person who had stopped to help her tonight, might be able to assist her with that.
Chapter Three (#u5cdb9f35-cb1b-5ccc-8cf4-220db66be889)
Darcy didn’t even know Corey, and still she wanted to do everything she could to take care of him. Make sure he was warm and fed a proper meal. There was something about the child that drew her—more than family ties. There was a lot of anger in Corey, but beneath it she sensed a need to be loved, or maybe she was just putting herself in Corey’s situation and projecting her emotions onto him.
As they drove away from Dry Gulch, where they’d left Corey with the neighbor, Darcy turned to Nick. “Where I live, I volunteer at a shelter and work with children to find solutions for their situations. I’ve seen families deal with a member who is an alcoholic and the toll it puts on them, especially the children. Some of the kids have to grow up so fast because they are left to fend for themselves. It breaks my heart.”
Nick waited at a stoplight to turn onto the highway that would return them to Haven. He slid a look at her, his expression still full of worry. “Me too.” Unspoken emotions dripped from those brief words.
“What do you think will happen to Ned?” Darcy asked the question she was sure was on both their minds. They had left Dry Gulch after the sheriff arrested Ned and hauled him to jail.
“He’ll probably only get a slap on the wrist. I’m more concerned about Corey. At least he’s with Mrs. Scott for the night.”
“Are you upset that Ned wouldn’t let you take Corey home?”
Nick gave her a tired smile. “Am I that transparent?”
“Well...yes.”
“Ned doesn’t want to be the father he should, but he feels threatened by my relationship with Corey. I’m glad Ned let Mrs. Scott take Corey without much of a fight. She’ll take good care of the child, and I’ll go to her house tomorrow morning.”
“But you wanted to take him home.”
“Yes, I feel responsible for him,” Nick said, although she hadn’t asked a question.
“Because of the promise to Doug?”
“Yep. When I give my word, I mean it. But it’s more than...” Nick’s voice trailed off in silence. “He’ll be all right. I’m glad she called the sheriff earlier. All Corey had with him was a thin blanket. He could have frozen tonight.”
There was something Nick wasn’t saying. What? “Ned could be looking at child endangerment and neglect. The state could step in.”
“I hope they do something this time.”
“What do you mean, this time?”
