Fielder's Choice (25 page)

“Have you been going over to the hut near the creek?” Alana tried to banish the worry of the previous hour from her voice.

“Do you like the scarf?” Sophie said in a blatant attempt not to answer. “I was going to bring it home and wash it.”

“
Sophie
.” Matt’s tone was firm. He moved Sophie away from him and stood. “Alana asked you a question.”

Sophie froze. Then she motioned her dad down to where she could whisper to him. He backed up a step. “No. Whatever you have to say, say it to both of us.”

Sophie looked truly distressed, and Alana felt bad for instigating the whole drama. But Matt persisted.

“
Have
you been going over to this hut Alana asked you about?”

Sophie nodded slowly.

“Where’s your backpack?”

She didn’t answer.

“I asked where your backpack is.”

Sophie looked miserable. She darted her gaze from Matt to Alana and back to Matt.

“I left it in the hut,” she finally answered.

“Matt, take Sophie back with you; let everyone know she’s safe. I’ll get her backpack.”

Alana started along the path that led toward the border of her and Zav’s properties.

“No!”

At the sound of Sophie’s outcry, she turned back.

“You
can’t
go there. If they find her, they’ll take her home away.”

Though Sophie fisted her hands on her hips, Alana saw the tears welling. She walked back to Sophie and knelt, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Whose home, honey?”

“The butterfly woman, the one who knows about the fairies. She gave me the stone. It’s for the fairy village.” Tears were rolling now. “It’s way better than the one I found.”

She wiped a sleeve across her face and blinked at Alana. “And you can’t go there because she... well, she stinks, and I know how you feel about stinky. But she’s nice, really, really nice. I’ll just go myself and get my backpack and—”

“We’re going with you,” Matt said.

Even Alana knew better than to argue with that tone of voice, but she said, “I think it would be better if you two go back and call off the search.” She waved a hand toward the trees. “I’ll take care of this.”

“I think we should let the sheriff handle the lady in the hut,” Matt said.

“No!” Sophie wailed. Her voice bordered between defiant and desperate. “It’s
all
my fault... She’s a nice person, Dad. If I hadn’t broken the rules, no one would bother her.” She looked up at Matt and grabbed his hand. “They will, they’ll bother her. They’ll
take
her.”

“How far is it to this hut?” Matt asked.

Alana did some figuring. “Maybe three hundred yards.”

“Then let’s get the backpack. A few minutes won’t make a difference.”

Matt heard the humming before they caught sight of the hut. A woman’s clear voice rose above the sound of the breeze, like a ballad coming from the clouds in the sky, her voice was that perfect, that vibrant. He knew the song, one of the old Irish tunes he liked to play on his guitar when no one was around. It was a song of loss and hope.

“I should go up first,” Sophie said. “I won’t scare her.”

Matt took Sophie’s hand and though she tugged, he didn’t let go. “We’ll all go together.”

Mended pieces of cloth hung from the hut’s windows and pots of flowers flanked the doorless opening that served as an entrance.

The woman must’ve heard them approach, because the singing stopped.

A woman about Alana’s height poked her head out of the opening and froze when she saw the three of them. Even under the layers of clothes and sunburned skin, Matt could tell she had once been a beautiful woman, maybe still was. But Sophie was right, she reeked. Acrid and stale, hers was the smell of someone who hadn’t washed for days, maybe weeks.

“Iris,” Sophie said, still trying to tug loose of Matt’s grip, “this is my dad and my friend Alana. I didn’t tell them about you, honest. I didn’t tell
anyone
. They sort of guessed.”

Matt’s eyes narrowed as he looked between the woman and Sophie. This was the woman Sophie had drawn. The woman he’d intended to ask her about.

She now leaned back against the door frame and then slumped to the ground. Matt backed Sophie away. He’d heard of what poor nutrition and isolation could do to a person.

Alana walked up to the woman and knelt next to her. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “We mean you no harm.”

The woman started to sob. To Matt’s surprise, Alana wrapped her arms around her.

“Really,” she said in a soft songlike voice. “It’s okay.” Her voice went even softer as she began to gently rock the woman.

“Let me go!” Sophie protested against Matt’s firm grip.

Matt was transfixed by the two women in front of him. He wasn’t accustomed to being surprised by people, but Alana sure knew how to shock the hell out of him. How he could feel touched, shocked and undone all in one moment, he couldn’t say.

“She makes things,” Sophie said. “She has some very nice-smelling things that she makes in there. Really nice.”

The woman pulled away from Alana.

“I’ll leave. Please don’t tell anyone. I’ll leave right away. I just need to pack up a few things and—”

“Iris.”

The woman looked into Alana’s eyes.

“You can come home with me. I’ll send someone back for your things.” She looked over to where Sophie stood, held back by Matt. “I understand I need help with my butterfly garden.”

Sophie let out a whoop of triumph, as if she were personally responsible for all good things.

“You, young lady”—Matt crouched down and took hold of Sophie’s other wrist—“you are not to run off.
Ever
. Understand?”

Sophie nodded.

“Ever is an awfully long time,” Alana said.

He stood and looked over to where Alana was crouched, still reassuring the woman. He admired her. Even if he’d wanted to, he couldn’t deny the power of his feelings. She shocked him senseless, she exasperated him, and she rocked his body. But he couldn’t deny that she moved him. That his life was brighter since he’d met her. She’d opened a part of him that had been walled off, some armored, defended part that had been pulled back from life, that had been prowling, watching, circling outside the boundaries of love. For the first time he allowed himself to consider what it might be like to spend more than a night with her. Maybe spend forever with her.

When she smiled at him, his heart ignored all his rational cautions and leapt.

Chapter 21

Iris, we have to head back,” Alana said as she stood. “Let’s gather Sophie’s backpack and whatever you need for the night. I can’t leave you here. If Zav—Mr. Hartman—were to find you here, I can guarantee he wouldn’t be pleased.”

Iris froze.

“Look, I have a vacant cabin,” Alana said in her most reassuring tone. “You can stay there until you sort yourself out.”

“It’ll take more than a cabin to sort me out,” Iris said, motioning Alana into the hut.

Alana met Matt’s gaze. He held Sophie back, his hand circling her wrist in a grip that Alana knew was more from caution than from fear.

Inside the hut, hundreds of amber-colored bottles lined makeshift shelves. Herbs and flowers of all sorts hung from the rafters and spread along every available surface. The place was a riot of scent. Why Iris didn’t use any of them to improve her personal hygiene was a mystery that would have to be addressed.

But not right then.

“There’s something you should know,” Iris said as she handed Alana Sophie’s backpack and gathered a few small vials into a cloth bag.

From the way she spoke and held herself, Alana could tell that Iris hadn’t always lived as she was seeing her today. There was a dignity to the woman, poise laced with an air of sadness, that could only come from some great loss.

“I’m sure it can wait until we get back to the ranch. There’s a rescue team searching for Sophie. We need to tell them that she’s safe.”

“I should have suspected that she shouldn’t have been out here for so long,” Iris said.

“She shouldn’t have been here at all. But that’s my concern, not yours,” Alana added.

Matt tried twice to call the ranch office but there was no cell signal. They trooped back to the ranch with Sophie in the lead. She chattered all the way, unaware of the level of chaos she’d set in motion.

When Sophie saw the dogs, the fire trucks and the uniformed deputies, she went saucer-eyed.

Iris stopped in the path, eyeing the semicircle of vehicles, their lights flashing and radios squawking.

“You can wait over there,” Alana said to Iris, indicating the chairs at the entry to the frantoio. A squadron of deputies was probably something a person living on the edge of society never wanted to face. “I’ll come and settle you into the guest cabin after I’ve dealt with the authorities.”

Iris flinched, and for a moment Alana thought she was going to flee.

“It’ll be okay,” Alana said firmly. “You’re on my land now.”

The lines around Iris’s eyes eased, but she didn’t smile. “Thank you,” she said with a shaky voice. “I never meant to be any trouble. Not for anyone.”

Iris had no reason to trust her, but Alana was glad that she did.

“Why don’t you take Sophie over to the craft tent?” Alana suggested to Matt. “It’s shady and there are refreshments.”

She didn’t miss the look in his eyes before they turned toward the tent. There was gratefulness, but under it, something more. Something she hadn’t known she wished for. Something that, if he hadn’t had a kid and she’d had any sort of discipline for reining in her partying ways, she just might have explored.

“We were just sending out the dogs,” the deputy said, interrupting her thoughts. “Glad you found her. Wouldn’t have wanted my dogs to miss their dinner time. They’re downright fussy about that.”

He was trying to make a joke, but Alana wasn’t in a joking mood. That he was trying to make light of the situation didn’t in any way diminish her awareness that her lack of oversight of her own operations had put everyone to so much trouble. Though the deputy was polite in every way, she saw the unspoken judgment in his eyes.

She was grateful when the sheriff and emergency crew readied to leave. Though they’d made it clear they preferred a simple happy ending, she couldn’t swallow down her feeling that her own incompetence had put them all out. She made up her mind right then to review all procedures and policies of the ranch. Every last one of them.

Matt came up beside her, holding Sophie’s hand.

“We’re here to apologize,” Matt said.

“I already apologized to the sheriff and the dogs,” Sophie said, without looking up.

“Hardly necessary. I’m responsible for this mess. I need to get a better handle on the activities of this place,” she admitted. “I never imagined anything like this happening. And I’m so sorry you had to leave your game.”

Sophie screwed up her face in a look of pure misery. “I’m sorry too, Dad. About your game.”

“It’s not your fault, Alana.” Matt put his hand on her arm and squeezed gently. “It’s my kid here who caused a ruckus.” He knelt down to Sophie. “It won’t happen again, will it, Punkin?”

“I already promised.”

“You did. Now tell Alana that you’re sorry.”

“That’s not necessary,” Alana said, kneeling down and cupping Sophie’s shoulders. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Sophie wrapped one arm around Alana’s neck and then circled her other arm around her dad, drawing the three of them into an intimate huddle.

“I
am
sorry,” Sophie said in a tone so proper it made Alana smile.

“All’s well that ends well,” Matt said in a gentle tone.

Alana felt the heat of him as they knelt there and willed her mind to focus. Just being near him rattled her.

Sophie leaned her head against Matt’s shoulder and let out a shuddering sigh.

Forgiveness
. Alana was quick to forgive others but rarely turned such kindness to herself. In that moment, the energy of forgiveness’s freeing power coursed through her, like a calming salve on an open wound. Though the circumstances that had brought the three of them to this sweet moment had been jolting, she wouldn’t have traded the tenderness she felt right then for the sight of the grandest city or the gaudiest gown or the most star-studded party.

Sophie let go of her dad but kept her arm draped around Alana’s shoulders. Matt stood, and Alana felt the warmth of his gaze as he stared down at her and Sophie. He laid his hand on Sophie’s shoulder, a gesture of protection. A gesture of love.

“You could come to my birthday party,” Sophie said, her eyes lighting with the prospect. “I’m going to be seven. Dad promised that we can have a scavenger hunt
and
we get to have an ice cream cake. But only if we don’t move to Philadelphia. If we move, then you’d have to fly to my party. Do
you
like Philadelphia?”

The guileless information dump sent a sting of betrayal spiking through Alana. Had Matt even considered mentioning that he was moving? A moment’s reflection told her she had no right to such news—after all, she was the one who’d insisted on keeping the relationship casual, keeping it no-strings.