Page 85 of Winter Vows

“You sound so confident. I wish I felt that way.”

“Patience and faith,” he reminded her. “And a few of those prayers you like to recommend wouldn’t be out of order, either.”

Paul couldn’t seem to sit still. He’d paced the motel room from one end to the other most of the night. That was the pills at work. They kept him on edge. If he’d been back in Miami, he’d have given up on sleep and gone back to the office, but he had Bobby with him now. He couldn’t go running off and leave the boy all alone in a strange place.

He glanced over at the big double bed. Bobby looked lost in the middle of it. He was sprawled out, arms and legs going every which way, just the way he’d slept as a baby. To Paul’s regret, there were still signs of tears staining his cheeks. The kid was confused and Paul couldn’t blame him. He’d been all but snatched from his own backyard, hadn’t been allowed to say goodbye to his mother.

There hadn’t been any way around that, of course. Paul couldn’t exactly walk into the house and announce that he’d come for his son. Kelsey would have driven him off with that high-and-mighty attitude she’d developed. He wasn’t sure when she’d become such a stickler for the rules. If she’d been a little more flexible, things would never have turned out like this. She could have written a few prescriptions for him and he wouldn’t have had to steal her prescription pads, then forge her signature to get what he needed. It wasn’t as if he were some sort of streetwise drug addict. He was in real pain. His broken wrist had hurt like anything. Just because it had healed didn’t mean the pain had gone away. Rainy days made it ache and in Miami, especially during spring and summer’s tropical cloudbursts, there were plenty of those.

Besides, he had missed his son. He hadn’t expected to, but he had. Bobby had looked up at him as if he were the greatest guy in the universe. He was probably the only person who’d ever looked at Paul that way. Not even Kelsey had thought he was infallible.

He’d gone to Texas on impulse. He’d planned on begging Kelsey for more pills. He’d figured she would balk at first, but eventually she would give them to him just to get rid of him.

Then he had seen his son and everything had changed. He’d wanted Bobby, too. He’d wanted to feel ten feet tall again.

It had been easy enough to get Bobby to come with him. The kid had been so excited by the prospect of going for ice cream with his daddy, he hadn’t even hesitated. Only later, when he’d started missing his mom, had things gotten dicey. Bobby had cried so hard, Paul had finally relented and called the house, even though he figured Kelsey had probably brought in the police and accused him of kidnapping. It had been a risk, but he’d watched the second hand on his watch to be sure he didn’t stay on the line long enough for the call to be traced.

Even that hadn’t been enough for the kid. He’d wanted to go home. When Paul said no, Bobby had curled into a ball and eventually cried himself to sleep. Paul had felt about three inches tall, then, but it was too late to turn back. He needed those pills and he needed Bobby to get them.

Another day or two and Kelsey would be frantic enough that she’d give him anything he wanted.

Four

When Dylan left Kelsey in Lizzy’s capable hands again at midmorning, he made a quick trip out to Trish’s for a shower and a change of clothes. Laura’s sunshine smile and eager greeting did as much to restore his spirits as the cool water and clean clothes.

“Unca Dyl, I swing?” she asked, trying to tug him toward the play area in the backyard. “Pweeze.”

“Not now, angel. Uncle Dylan’s got work to do.” He scooped her up and planted a couple of noisy kisses on her cheeks until she giggled. Then he handed her to Trish, who was studying him with sisterly concern.

“Are you really okay?” she asked as she walked with him toward his car.

“Hanging in there.”

“Dylan, everyone would understand if you wanted to back off. I’m sure we could get someone else in here.”

“Sorry, kiddo. I always finish what I start.” He skimmed a knuckle along Laura’s cheek, even as he thought of a little boy over in Houston he prayed was safe at home. “You keep a close eye on this precious little girl of yours. I don’t think I could bear it if anything happened to either of you. It’s times like this that remind us what’s really important in life.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to us, Dylan. And nothing is going to happen to Bobby. He’s with his father.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time a kid was mistreated by a father,” he pointed out. “Maybe that’s why Kelsey left him, because he was abusing Bobby.”

“Not Paul,” Trish said with conviction. “Everyone says he was an okay guy, just not right for Kelsey.”

He paused for a minute, intrigued by such a consensus of opinion from people who’d apparently never even met the guy. “Is that what everyone says? Who’s everyone?”

Trish seemed surprised by the question. Her expression turned thoughtful. “Lizzy, I suppose,” she said slowly. “Several others out at White Pines. When Kelsey came here, that was what we were all told, that her marriage hadn’t worked out and she needed a change. No hint of anything other than a friendly divorce over irreconcilable differences.”

Instinct kicked in and had Dylan wondering.

“Does that sound right to you? Lots of people get divorced and don’t move halfway across the country, especially if they’re established in a profession.”

“And lots of people want to put plenty of distance between themselves and the past. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a fresh start.”

“Okay, yes,” he agreed. Although he was instinctively sympathetic with Paul James and wanted badly to buy Trish’s conclusion, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. “Think about this—Kelsey got full custody of her boy, not shared custody. Something had to be wrong for a court to do that, especially in this day and age, when a father’s rights are taken into consideration more than they used to be.”

Trish didn’t look as if she’d been persuaded by his theory. “I suppose,” she conceded halfheartedly. “Maybe it wasn’t the court’s decision, though.”

“Meaning?”

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