“A little. But I’m not alone.”
“Right.” Ethan smiled. “Have you ever kicked a soccer ball before?”
“Once in gym class. I wasn’t very good.”
“Then we’ll work on making you the best kicker in your class.”
Sophie nodded. “Yeah. The best.”
“That’s what we’ll shoot for.”
Connie stepped back, giving them room and pretending to absently look around, although there was nothing absentminded in her surveillance of the area.
She listened while Ethan showed Sophie how to kick with the side of her foot, not her toe. Pretty soon she got the hang of it and was kicking the ball where she wanted it to go. Both Connie and Ethan applauded her efforts.
A few minutes later, Sophie and Ethan were kicking the ball back and forth, even running with it a bit, every move accompanied by Sophie’s cries of delight.
Connie would have bet Ethan hadn’t a thought to spare for anything except the little game he and Sophie were playing. But then, in one dreadful moment, she learned otherwise.
“Let’s go,” Ethan said. His tone was level. Connie’s gaze snapped to his face. He was looking at something behind her. Instinctively she whirled around, but she saw nothing.
“I don’t wanna go,” Sophie argued. “This is fun.”
“We’ll play more later,” Ethan said. “Connie, take Sophie home. She needs a drink of water.”
“But—”
Connie took her daughter’s hand. “Let’s go, sweetie.” She hoped her voice didn’t betray the sudden terror and tension she was feeling. “We’ve got cell phones to learn how to use, remember?”
Apparently that didn’t seem important, because Sophie continued to pout as she left with her mother.
Ethan dashed away, soccer ball abandoned on the field.
Connie paced, trying to ease the tension in every muscle of her body. Julia kept telling her daughter to calm down and have some coffee, but Connie hardly heard her. All she could think of was the way Ethan had looked—and the way he had suddenly run off.
He’d seen something. Someone had been watching them, she was sure of it. For the hundredth time, she went upstairs and checked on Sophie, who was already in command of her cell phone and calling friends on it.
“Jody’s mom didn’t have the car today,” she told Connie on one of her trips through the house.
“I know. I called.”
“Okay.”
“How’d you figure out how to use the phone so fast?”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “It’s easy, Mom.”
“I guess you’ll have to show me.”
“Sure.”
“Later.”
“Okay.” Sophie went back to her giggling conversation with Jody. At least Connie presumed it was Jody.
Connie walked around the house yet again, looking out all the windows, then went back downstairs, checking the perimeter from inside.
“You’re going to drive me crazy, girl,” Julia said. “Sit.”
This time Connie obeyed, even though her entire body felt electrified with the urge to move.
“You don’t know that he saw a threat,” Julia reminded her. “Remember, he doesn’t know folks around here. He could be mistaken.”
“Yeah. Of course.”
Julia pushed a cup of coffee over to her. “Now listen to me, Connie. You’ll be of no earthly use to anyone if you wear yourself out over nothing. Which is exactly what you’re doing.”
Connie snapped. “Don’t you get it, Mom? Some stranger knows Sophie’s name.”
“I get it, all right. I also get that everyone in this county is on high alert right now, and if some stranger approaches any child, he’s apt to be shot before he’s questioned.”
It was true, Connie knew. Maybe not the shooting part, but nobody around here was going to turn a blind eye to anything now. Not anything.
“Your neighbors are watching out for Sophie. For all the kids,” Julia said. “You know that.”
Connie drew a deep breath and tried to release some of the tension. “You’re right,” she said.
“Of course I’m right. I’m always right.”
Connie managed a wan smile. “Very true.”
Julia patted her hand. “Just hang in there. If the guy isn’t gone, he’ll get caught. In the meantime, everything possible is being done.”
Also true.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Just then, just as Connie was struggling with a desire to crawl out of her own skin as she tried to sit calmly at the table, Ethan entered through the kitchen door.
“Wild-goose chase,” he said succinctly.
“What did you see?”
“I thought I saw someone lurking in the bushes. If he was there, I sure as hell couldn’t find any evidence of it. Sorry I scared you.”
“Sit down,” Julia said, “and have some coffee with us. Thank you for trying to protect Sophie.”
Thank you? Connie thought. Thank you for scaring me out of my wits, she wanted to scream. But she knew that wasn’t fair even as she thought it, so she bit the words back. Instead, she filled her mouth with bitter coffee.
“How’s Sophie?” Ethan asked. He poured his own coffee and joined them.
“Oh, Sophie,” Connie said, trying not to let the tension seep into her words. “She’s so excited about having a cell phone, I doubt she noticed anything.”
“Good.” He sat across from her, studying her from dark eyes that seemed to see through her. The feeling was discomfiting, and she wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. “At least there’s one person I didn’t scare.”
Connie bit her lip, guilt edging into anger’s place. “Sorry,” she said. “I’ve been worried to death.”
“Of course,” he answered. “You can yell at me if you want.”
His
