Page 68 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Joy ricocheted through the trees, and a flurry of birds flitted through the barren branches.
My heart lodged itself at the base of my throat as I watched Theo begin to haul my son through the field.
Zigzagging back and forth and winding through the playground with the gorgeous lake in the background.
“You like that?” Theo chuckled the question since Finn hadn’t stopped cackling the whole time.
“Iwuvit, Feo! I go zoom!”
Theo glanced up at me from where they were in the middle of the field. Something soft and adoring washed through his features.
My stomach tumbled.
He couldn’t look at my son that way. Couldn’t look at me that way.
He hardly even knew us.
But it didn’t seem to matter.
There was this understanding scored in his being. Like he knew how desperately my son needed this. Like he knew how desperately I needed it.
A reprieve.
Rest.
A moment to tip my face to the crisp blue sky and…hope.
I could feel a spindly tendril of it try to break through the barren planes of my insides as I watched Theo and Finn frolic in the snow.
This menacing man who’d been stepping out for us since the second he found us.
He took a bit of a sharper turn, and the sled wobbled, tipping up a bit on its side before it righted itself.
Finn howled with laughter, shouting, “Wee!” as he went. “Faster,Feo, faster!”
“You’re an adrenaline junkie, aren’t you?” Theo teased.
Finn furiously shook his head and flapped his arms out to the sides. “No, I a owl.”
Theo busted up as he lifted that unrelenting gaze in my direction.
That warm sound curled through the crisp, vibrant cold.
Like maybe he was wrapping me in those arms that seemed so sure.
So confident and easy as he played with my son.
I was the fool who sank into it.
The one who allowed the deepest peace to settle over me.
But Nelly was right. We needed this. Even if it could only be for a little while.
I didn’t know how long they’d been out there playing when I felt movement from behind.
A wash of heaviness and uncertainty.
I glanced over my shoulder.
