Page 73 of Chasing Dreams
“Knowing.”
“What happened?”
“Jack was older. Four or five maybe. And a baby boy was with him.”
“A playmate?”
“Smaller. Like a brother. He felt like a brother.” Which they both knew was impossible since Maggie was dead and no one knew who Jack’s father was. An adoptive brother? One wherever he would be living in the future?
“He was happy. Content. And loved.”
“That’s good.”
“I just...”
“What?”
“I couldn’t see who he was with. I want it to be me, but—I’m still afraid I might not find him.”
His hand located hers resting on top of the sheet.
“I’d be able to live with that now that I’ve seen he’s happy,” she said into the darkness. “You gave me that peace.”
“Not me.”
“Yes. You taught me how to use my vision, and because of that I worked past those first awful dreams into the future, and I would be all right with this much.”
“Where’s your hope?”
A long minute passed. A siren screamed in the distance. “I don’t know.”
“We’re going to find him, Shaine.”
“You believe that?”
“I want to believe that.”
She pulled his fingertips to her lips. “Even if we didn’t find him, I’d always be grateful I took off for the mountains looking for an old recluse.”
She knew he smiled.
“Glad I found him, too.”
Austin detected the soft flowery fragrance of her freshly washed hair and squeezed her hand gently. Her fingers felt so delicate in his. The next few days would be the pivotal point in this search. And in this relationship.
He fell asleep with her alluring scent pervading his senses, and he awoke to the shrill ring of the phone.
“Allen,” he said gruffly.
“Austin.”
Ken’s voice brought him alert instantly. “What did you get?”
“Amy Cutter. Reported missing from Thomas County, Kansas, the day before Maggie’s death and Jack’s disappearance. The mother was eighteen, living with a girlfriend. The baby came up missing when she checked on her after an afternoon nap. She had to be sedated for several days and is still in counseling.”
Austin didn’t need to be told of the mother’s distress. He’d experienced it firsthand. Ken was, however, confirming his sighting.
“We have a case,” Ken stated.
