Page 61 of Fairy Tale Husband

“A bolder touch,” she recited in a shaky voice.

“That’s right. You’re doing fine. Now drop down to a gentle touch as we take this curve. Well done.”

He continued to talk the entire way. First helping her through the gears, then encouraging the boys. His voice was all that saved her from insanity. Pulling up to the emergency doors, it took three tries to peel her white-knuckled hands off the steering wheel. By the time she climbed from the truck, the boys had been taken inside.

“The doctors are looking at your sons now, Mrs. Hondo,” a nurse advised. “In the meantime, Ihave some forms for you to fill out.” While Wynne wrote and worried and waited for word on the boys’ condition, Jake called off the search party.

“They were all out there looking,” he said when he rejoined her. “Every last man. Even Randolph.”

“They’re not bad people,” she replied. “You just need to give them half a chance.”

“You think they’d let me?”

A smile slid across her mouth. “Yes. Ithink they would.”

Thirty minutes later, the doctor entered the waiting room. “Good news, folks. Your boys check out fine. It might have been a different story if the oldest hadn’t been smart enough to build a fire. They got lucky.”

“May we see them?” Wynne requested.

“Of course. We’re going to keep them overnight just for observation. But you can visit for a while, if you’d like.”

She found the boys in the pediatric ward, their beds side by side. Wynne climbed in with Chick, holding him so tightly he squirmed in protest. Jake sat with Buster.

“You mad?” the boy questioned nervously.

Jake didn’t bother to pull his punches. “Sure am. Care to explain why you took off like that?”

“We heard Aunt Marsh say she was going to take us away. So I thought we oughta hide till she went home.”

“I guess that means you don’t trust your Uncle Jake,” Wynne spokeup.

Buster stared at her in confusion. “What?”

She returned his look, her gaze cool and serious. “You should have trusted him to keep his promise. He said he’d protect us from Aunt Marsh and he will.”

“Wynne,” Jake began. “I don’t think—”

“It’s important that they know.” She cut him off. “When you say you’re going to do something, they need to trust you.” She scrutinized first one boy, then the other. “Understood?”

Chick snuggled deeper into her arms. “Okay,” he answered without hesitation.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Uncle Jake,” Buster said contritely. “It won’t never happen again.”

His hands firmly tied, Jake leaned against the headboard and closed his eyes. Now what the hell did hedo?

Mrs. Marsh appeared on their doorstep first thing the next morning.

She breezed into the house as though she owned it, commanding immediate attention. “I heard what happened to my nephews,” she began without preamble.

“And ran right over to see how they were,” Jake finished forher.

Her mouth twisted. “Cute, but wrong. I’m here to issue an ultimatum.”

“Another one?” Wynne couldn’t help asking.

“A final one. You see, thanks to this latest episode, there’s no question that I’ll win custody of the boys. You’ve put the children at risk too many times. So I’m giving you one more—”

“Get to the point.” Jake cut heroff.

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