'Let's get the hell out of here.' raveling with a toddler wasn't
difficult, it was a nightmare. The baby didn't know how to be quiet.
Most of what he said didn't make any sense, but he still expected and
demanded an answer anyway, and Cole was pretty certain he chattered
nonstop just to hear the sound of his voice echoing through the
forest.
His favorite word was still no. He whispered it, shouted it, whined
it, and sang it, and by the time they stopped for the night, Cole was
sure he'd said the word at least two hundred times.
It was almost sunset when they finally made camp in a secluded area by
a small horseshoe-shaped lake. Jagged rock ledges, some as high as
fifty feet, jutted out over the water in spots and offered protection
from the rain and wind. More important, no one could sneak up on them
during the night. There was only one way into camp, and that was on
the path that bordered one side of the lake.
While Cole saw to the horses, Jessica fed Caleb his dinner. The baby
was far more interested in exploring his surroundings than eating, and
it took considerable coaxing by his mother to get him to cooperate.
Cole wasn't worried about all the noise Caleb was making, because he
knew they weren't being followed. He'd backtracked twice just to make
certain. The baby needed to run and play. He had been forced to sit
still on his mother's lap for most of the day, but he seemed to be
making up for lost time now. Full of vitality, he raced in circles
from one end of the clearing to the other, chattering away a mile a
minute.
Every once in a while he would burst into laughter over what Cole
decided must have been a private joke only a toddler could
appreciate.
His shoulders would shake with merriment.
The kid was a charmer, even when he was having a fullblown tantrum
because Jessica wouldn't let him go into the water. All her energies
were spent trying to turn his attention, but for some reason, when Cole
told Caleb to do something, he did it. He told him to sit, and the
baby promptly did just that. Caleb had already taken off his shoes and
socks and sat perched on top of one of the saddles under the overhang,
watching Cole brush the horses. His undershirt had ridden up to the
top of his belly, his nappy had slid to the tilt of his hips, and he
looked about as happy as a baby could be.
His mother, on the other hand, looked like hell. She was clearly
exhausted. She reminded him of his little sister's rag doll after it
had been left out in the rain and the slm too long. Her hair hung in
