The Love Series Complete Box Set (112 page)

“Was this when you started calling us?” I hand her another tissue, and squeeze her tiny hand offering her some kind of reassurance that she did the right thing.

“Yeah. He told me what happened and that he was afraid for his own safety. He started talking about running away and I didn’t know what to do. When I saw you and Mr. Hopkins at the school last month, I followed you out to the parking lot. I saw you get into this Jeep. Then today, I saw the Jeep drive past my house. I only live down that block.” She points over her shoulder indicating the road leading down to the college campus. “After this happened,” she runs her finger over her nearly swollen-shut eye, “I was just sitting on my front steps, wondering what the hell to do when I saw your car drive past. I didn’t mean to scare your wife. I didn’t realize it wasn’t you driving. I’m real sorry.”

Of all the coincidences, I’ve never been more thrilled to be stuck with Maddy’s shit car in all my life. Without it, Lizzy and I never would have crossed paths.

“So can you tell me about how that happened?” Considering the damage to her face, I should have called the cops the second I saw her.

“Those football guys that I told you about . . .”

“They didn’t touch you?” Anger bubbles deep in my chest and I clench my fists until my knuckles are white with tension.

“No, it was a group of their girlfriends. They said that I needed to keep my fag in line and stop him from hitting on their boys.” I hear her cringe on the word “fag” and I can recall the venomous words that fell from my father’s mouth the last time I saw him.

“They beat the crap out of me and told me the guys did the same to Cane. I’ve been trying to call him since after school, but he’s not picking up his phone. I’m so scared.” Lizzy wraps her arms around her waist, a vain effort to comfort herself through her returning cries.

“It’s okay, Lizzy. We’ll figure it out.” Even though I want to believe the words I’ve just spoken, I’m not so sure about how to fix this. I’m not sure that it can even be fixed.

“You stay in here and I’m going to make a few calls. Try calling Cane again and call your parents to let them know where you are. And try his parents too. Maybe they’ve heard from him.” She nods and focuses on the tasks I’ve just given her. Having something to do seems to help her calm down a little more.

I call the cops and let them know where we are and what happened. They’re sending the closest dispatch car and it should be here in less than five minutes. Next, I call Dylan who is more than a little relieved at finally having figured out who the caller has been. He’s also on his way and should be with us in just a few minutes. I call Momma last and let her know that we might not be there to get Braden in time to put him to bed. Of course, she’s never put out to spend more time with him, so she gladly offers to help out and take him overnight.

Sirens blare and lights blaze as a few cop cars pull into the lot. Lizzy and Cane’s parents are next to arrive. Concern weighs heavily on all of their faces. In a panicked frenzy, Dylan pulls into the lot last. He offers whatever insight he can into the calls he received and the information that we have from the school, including the principal’s number.

By the time Maddy’s final ends, we’re still in the lot and she’s completely shocked by the scene before her. “Is everything alright?” She drops her bag to the ground and stands next to me. We both look on as Lizzy talks to Cane’s parents. Everyone’s eyes are red and puffy from the cold and the tears.

“It’s not okay just yet, but they’re working on it.” I explain that the police have already filed a missing person report and have also called the parents of the football players and their girlfriends to bring them in for questioning. They’re not too confident that the other kids, or their parents for that matter, will be all too cooperative, but they have to start somewhere.

By the time everyone leaves, I’m more than exhausted. “You did a good thing tonight, Reid. Lizzy was really scared and you helped her. I’m proud of you, babe.”

Burying my face into her neck, I squeeze her as tight as I can and let her strength seep into my bones. “I just hope they can find him before he does something stupid. It’s just not fair.”

Maddy cups my jaw and her teary eyes stare sadly into mine. “No, it’s not, baby. But you just made it a little bit fairer. Come on, let’s get you home. I’ll even make you dinner.”

I waggle an eyebrow at her and she swats at my chest. “You mean you’ll make me cereal, right?”

“Nah, tonight I’ll splurge. You get grilled cheese and tomato soup. Nothing but the best for my guy.” Her playfulness and sarcasm help to lighten my mood, just a little, and I have to admit that her bright, smiling face plants a seed of hope that maybe things will turn out okay.

Chapter 7

Watching my two men play trains together on Christmas morning has to be the highlight of my year. Reid was up so late last night putting everything together, so of course, Braden knocked it down in all of two seconds. Reid hooks together two trains and shows Braden how to drive them up and over the hills and mountains. Braden’s face lights up and he makes “choo-choo” noises as he shuffles around the waist-high train table. When a train falls off the tracks and crashes into the floor, driving itself under the TV stand, Braden says “uh-oh” and throws his hands in the air.

“I got it buddy.” Daddy to the rescue as always.

When he hands the train back to Braden, he sets him back up at the table and looks at me over his shoulder. Of course, he’s just caught me staring at him.

His ass was just in my face. Kinda difficult to ignore that.

He slides next to me on the floor and I kiss him on the cheek as I hand him his coffee.

“You look really happy this morning. And Braden loves his train. You did real good, Daddy.” He drapes an arm around my shoulders and we share a moment just watching our son drive his trains.

“I am happy.” He gives me a tight squeeze.

I know that part of his happiness has also come from the fact that we got a huge break on the Cane case the other night. The girls who beat up Lizzy confessed, under direction of their parents’ lawyers, of course. They were kicked off the cheerleading squad since the school has zero tolerance for bullying. Having to do fifty hours of community service barely seems like a sufficient sentence, but at least they aren’t going to get away with it entirely.

The football guys, on the other hand, well it looks like they will. I mean without Cane coming forward to say what happened, there isn’t much that anyone can do.

“Where’d you go?” Reid looks at me as I’m lost thinking about where Cane is. I don’t want to bring it up, being Christmas and all, but I can still see the worry on Reid’s face, the lines of tension creasing the corners of his usually bright blue eyes.

“Nowhere. I was just thinking of how happy I am too.”

We sit and watch Braden for a few more minutes before the phone rings and Reid gets up to answer it.

“Hey, Dyl. Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too.”

Braden chooses this moment to start throwing a mini-tantrum, his cries making it somewhat impossible for Reid to talk on the phone. After I hear him ask Dylan to hang on a minute, he turns to me. “It’s about Cane. I’ll be right back in.” My stomach twists in knots as I watch him walk down the hall to our room.

In the few minutes that he’s in our bedroom, I create all kinds of crazy scenarios about where Cane is and what happened to him. Most of them are just too scary to focus on for more than the briefest of seconds. Even though I try to distract myself with Braden, driving trains and making silly faces, I can’t shake the feeling that something horrible happened.

I shoot up from the floor when I hear Reid walking back out to us. “What did he say? What’s going on?”

“He’s okay.” On those two simple words, I see the weight fall from his shoulders, the lines around his eyes smooth, instantly.

I band my arms around his waist burying my face in his chest. “Oh, Reid. That’s amazing. Where is he? Did he come back home?”

Reid pulls me over to the couch holding me in place on his lap. “Cane ran away to his aunt and uncle’s house. Took the train there in the middle of the night. It turns out that he came out to them over the summer and they said if he ever needed anything, he could go to them, so he did.”

I lace our fingers together and run my thumb over his wrist. “Was he hurt?” I ask tentatively, not sure if I really want to know the answer.

“No, thank God,” he sighs a deep breath of relief. I know this is what was keeping Reid up at night, wondering if Cane was safe. “The guys never got a hold of him, but he’s too scared to come back. Dylan just heard from Lizzy this morning that Cane moved in with his aunt and uncle and he’s going to finish out the school year in the new district.”

“Reid . . . that’s . . . really good news.” A tear streaks down my cheek, shed in happiness that things turned out the way they did.

“Yeah, it’s pretty great actually.”

We sit together for a few more minutes, not saying anything, enjoying the sight of our innocent little boy.

“There’s still a few more presents under there.” Reid tips his chin towards the tree and pulls me down to the floor. Since I’m never one to argue about getting gifts, I go all too willingly.

“This is for you, babe,” he smirks as he hands me a not-so-perfectly wrapped box. I give him the stink-eye playfully mocking his sub-par wrapping skills. “Don’t look at me like that. He helped,” he adds, pointing at Braden who is still blissfully unaware of anything other than his trains.

I can tell by the wrinkles and crumpled corners exactly how Braden “helped.”

I shred through the paper and actually gasp as I uncover the book hidden under the wrinkled paper.

“Oh, Reid. It’s beautiful.” I trace my fingers over the hardcover image of Braden as newborn, swaddled in a pale blue blanket. I remember taking the picture the morning after that first night. Reid laughed at me then, saying that if I woke him up, he was my responsibility. I just shrugged and snapped away. I knew that he wouldn’t be this tiny and this peaceful forever and I wanted to capture that moment. And now, my sweet man has captured it forever.

“Do you like it?” he asks cautiously, which is ridiculous.

“I love it, Reid.” I can’t manage more than that as I start flipping through the pages. Reid has captured the entire journey of us becoming a family right here in these pages. Early sonogram pictures, to my growing belly, the baby shower and then the three of us in the delivery room, just moments after Braden was born.

It’s the history of our little family.

“Thank you, baby. It’s the best gift ever,” I mumble against his lips as I wrap my arms around his neck. I catch a glimmer of something in his eyes as he smirks at me. I ignore him and hand him the last of his gifts from under the tree.

“Here, open this one.” I slide a small box to Reid and smirk at him. Like the dork that he is, he actually shakes the box when it’s fairly clear that nothing more than an envelope is stuffed inside of it. Braden is crawling around the living room vrooming a new car he opened earlier. Like his daddy, the boy loves his cars.

Reid rips at the shiny, red wrapping paper and laughs aloud at the gift inside of it. “
You
got
me
cooking lessons? This is some kind of joke, right?”

“I didn’t get them for you, you ass! I got them for me, but seeing as you’re the one who has to deal with my cooking, it really is a gift for you, smart ass.” I stick my tongue out at him and laugh when Braden starts mimicking me.

“Get over here.” Reid grabs me and hauls me onto his lap. “You know that I would eat cereal and soup for the rest of my life. As long as it means that I get to eat with you, I don’t care about the food.”

“That’s sweet and all, but you deserve better. And now, thanks to Kitchen Divas, you’ll get it.” I wiggle my ass in his lap. “Then there’s always dessert, too.” Another wiggle makes his jaw tighten and his fingers dig into my hip.

“You’re evil, woman,” he chides me mockingly as he starts tickling my side.

“Stop! Reid!” The second the word “stop” is out of my mouth, he’s got me pinned beneath him. “What? You want me to stop?” He just tickles me more, clearly not intending to stop.

I can barely speak through my laughter. “Reid! No . . . not my feet . . . Reid, I’m serious.”

“Ohhhh, look at you, big talker. Now, you’re serious, huh? Well, so am I!” He changes tactics once again, straddling my hips and locking my arms at my side. It’s pointless to try and buck him off me; besides, he’ll just enjoy that too much.

Just when I think he’s about to stop, he pulls my shirt up, exposing my belly. “Oh no you don’t!” I shoot him a serious look to which he just arches an eyebrow. God, why does he look so freaking sexy when he does that.

With a slowness that belies his intent, he lowers his mouth to my belly button and blows the loudest, wettest raspberry. “Come on, B! Help Daddy get Mommy!” And wouldn’t you know it, the little bugger listens and crawls over to where Reid has me trapped.