herself to call the problem by its name. “He ran off—”
“What time was that?”
“Noon. I haven’t seen him since. I thought he would come back to the shop when he calmed down.” She pressed her lips together as worry ate at her.
Nick shrugged, his expression calm. “He’s probably too ashamed to face you.”
She blurted out the rest of it. “I slapped him. I never have before. I…it just happened. Oh, Nick, if you’d seen his face. He was so upset.”
“Easy, Steph,” he said in a quiet tone.
Once she’d loved his voice with its deep cadence that could be soothing or exciting, according to the circumstances. Once just the sound of it over the phone had made her heart pound.
His gaze caught and held hers. Instead of their opaque darkness, she sensed emotions in him that she hadn’t been aware of in a long time. She also saw the wariness.
“Did you call the ranch and see if he maybe hitched a ride home? That would be my bet on where he is,” he said with a businesslike brevity.
“I’ve called every half hour. This isn’t like him. He’s always been—” A sob caught in her throat.
“Easy,” he said again in his patient-cop mode. “Stay put. I’ll cruise around and see if I can find him.”
“I can help. I’ll look….” She tried to think where a twelve-year-old would go. “He wouldn’t go to Clyde’s, would he?” She looked at Nick for his opinion.
“He might. Have you tried there?”
She shook her head, already reaching for the phone. The call revealed that Clyde was spending the night with a friend and his mother hadn’t seen Doogie in a week.
“Not there,” she said in a croak, hanging up. The sky seemed darker when she gazed out the window, hoping to see the lanky figure of her son coming back. “The sun is setting.”
A hand closed on her shoulder. She resisted the urge to lay her cheek against it and soak up the warmth. He’d been like this after her father’s death—kind, considerate, concerned about her well-being.
“It won’t be dark for hours yet. Walk over to the school. He might be hanging around there. I’ll check with you in, say, half an hour?”
“All right.” After he left, she grabbed her purse and locked up. She walked as fast as she could to the school. There wasn’t a soul around. Even the janitor had gone for the day.
Tears balled in her throat. If he was hurt…if something happened…It would be her fault. She should have remained calm. That was a mother’s job, to be calm and guide her child on the right path.
She rushed along the nearly deserted Main Street, her thoughts going in every direction. One of them shocked her. If she and Nick had married, if Doogie was their son, she wondered how things might have been different.
Dear heavens…
Nick’s cruiser was in the parking lot when she arrived. She pressed a hand to her heart. Doogie was with him.
Too overcome to speak, she nodded, unlocked the office door and went inside. Doogie followed. He looked scared and defiant, but his eyes were worried and his mouth was pinched in at the corners.
Unexpected tears rolled down her face. She folded her arms on the cluttered desk surface and wept in silent misery.
After a minute, arms glided around her middle. She raised up and clasped Doogie to her breast. His tears fell with hers.
“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m sorry. Please, please don’t…”
She cupped his face in her hands. “You must promise me never, never to do anything like that again. Promise.”
“I won’t. Never. Honest.”
She hugged him to her, fear eating holes in her stomach. She must be raising him wrong for this to happen, but she didn’t know how she could do better. She needed advice, someone who understood boys and could talk to Doogie.
A picture of Nick, his keen gaze peering all the way to her soul, came to her. Her breath caught in her throat. Not him.
At Christmas, he’d been cynical and hard when he’d taunted her about being the grieving widow. This after he’d kissed her nearly mindless. She’d been furious…and excited and totally confused.
Her son stirred in her arms. She released him and grabbed a tissue for each of them. He wiped his eyes and blew his nose, then moved away from her.
She didn’t try to hold him. There was something older and infinitely sadder in the depths of her son’s eyes, as if a part of his childhood had been ripped away from him in the hours he’d been gone. It hurt her.
“Where did you go?”
“Nowhere, just walked around.” His voice cracked. “Then I tried to thumb a ride home.”
Just as Nick had thought he would.
“I have to thank Deputy Dorelli,” she said, recalling they’d left him in the parking lot.
When she went out, the cruiser was gone. He’d brought her son back, then thoughtfully left them alone. She stood in the last warm rays of sunlight, not sure what she felt.
Since Christmas, something had changed between her and Nick. He made her uneasy with his unrelenting gaze, as if he’d weighed her worth and she came up a full pound short.
She drew a shaky breath and turned to her son. “Let’s go home, shall we?”
“Yeah, we’ve got to check the stock.”
“Right. ’On a ranch, the chores are never done—’”
“’Just caught up for the moment,’” Doogie finished the often-quoted lecture from his father.
Later, thinking over the long day, Stephanie decided she’d overreacted. She inhaled the sage-scented air. Her son was in bed, she had a successful business, all was right with her world.
So why did she feel so miserable?
Stephanie dropped the day’s receipts into the after-hours depository at the bank with a weary sigh. The Summer Madness sale was over, thank heavens. For six days, from Monday until one o’clock today, they’d been swamped by customers. She and Pat and Amy had put in long hours this week.
Not that she was complaining. They’d moved a lot of merchandise. The new line of jewelry they’d decided to try had done very well. She’d already ordered more of it.
Stopping by her car, she viewed the Saturday traffic, which was light. She had to go to the grocery, but first she’d have lunch before going home to her recalcitrant son.
The week had been a terrible one. They’d hardly spoken to each other. He’d resented going to
