Little White Lies

“Yeah, buddy?”

“Charley wants to talk to you.”

Wyatt walked back to him and traded him a Snickers for the phone. Chase tore into the sugar-laden treat as soon as he let go.

“Um… hi,” Wyatt said. “Doesn’t seem worse for wear. I’m a mile away or less. Can be there in two minutes.” Wyatt closed his phone and turned to Chase, who’d added a chocolate mustache to the dirt and grime.

“You ready, buddy?”

Chase nodded at him, but his eyes twitched from the car back to Wyatt.

“You can sit up front if you promise not to tell, but first-” Wyatt grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt and pulled it over his head. He balled it up and tossed it to Chase, whose eyes grew wide.

Chase scrambled off the hood, shirt in hand, and threw it over himself; it hung to his knees. He climbed into the front seat and pulled the seat belt across his scrawny frame as Wyatt did the same.

“Ready to go home, buddy?”

***

Charley stood on the porch in an anxiety-ridden fervor-the minutes stretching too long. She’d answered her cell with the thought that Wyatt would make his apologies for a late arrival. Instead, Chase’s voice nearly shut her mind down like when she’d seen Wyatt for the first time, again.

Was he okay? Had they taken his captors into custody? Why was he with Wyatt?

James and Cael came with her, but Lily stayed inside; she worried she’d make such a scene that it might scare Chase.

Charley spotted the car as it made the turn into their drive. She darted toward it, reached the passenger door, and flung it open as soon as Wyatt pulled to a stop. Chase scrambled out and into her arms, wrapping his scrawniness around her neck and squeezing. Charley returned the embrace with the same ferocity. Her tears mixed with his red hair, which reeked of animal.

Bastards! They will pay for leaving him like this!

She pulled his face away from her shoulder, and while he hung on like a little monkey, she rained kisses over his filthy cheeks, nose and forehead.

“Yuck!” Chase induced a laugh in all of them.

Charley pulled him back in for another hug as Wyatt came around the car. She mouthed ‘thank you’ to him as he smiled at her.

“Hey, Chase.” At James’s call, Chase scrambled into his arms for another round of hugs.

Cael’s arms reached for him, and Chase jumped from James. Still at, but behind her shoulder, Charley heard them snuggle in. She reached a hand out to Wyatt, who stepped forward, but rather than shake, Charley buried her cheek against his bare chest. She wanted to cry, scream, or have her own temper tantrum, though ‘happily ever after’ sounded far better in more than one case.

“We’ll catch them, Charley,” Wyatt whispered into her ear.

She nodded into his shoulder.

“Cael?” Chase whispered. “I did it.”

“Did what, little guy?”

“I got away.”

Chase’s quiet murmur into Cael’s ear brought a swell of pride to Charley. She pushed away from Wyatt, careful not to overextend their connection. She realized, too, that he’d given Chase his shirt. She wanted to run her hands along the planes of his chest, through the hair, down and around anywhere she’d let him. With Chase safe, her hormones kicked in tenfold.

“I am so proud of you. I think we need to call you ‘little man’ now,” Cael said with a hitch in his voice.

Tears pricked the back of Charley’s lids.

“Or little mouse,” Chase said. “I really did it. Will Charley and James be mad at me?”

Charley cocked her ear in their direction; Chase and ‘whisper’ didn’t actually work as a team.

“No way little… ah… mouse?” Cael said as a question, adding, “Let’s go inside, get some lunch-and you can tell us all about it.”

“Okay,” Chase said.

They walked back into the house. Charley, James and Wyatt remained outside.

“Did he say what I thought he said?” James asked.

“You heard it, too?” Charley turned to Wyatt. “Where did you find him?”

“Making his way up the mountain. Saw a little bright red bob in the forest as I came around a curve. Backed up out of pure curiosity and voila. I was as surprised as you guys seem to be.”

“Do you think the kidnappers know?” Charley asked.

“No idea,” Wyatt said. “I would imagine so, but…” He shrugged. “I got an interesting phone call on my way up-had just hung up when I saw the boy there.” Wyatt pointed toward the house. “So what exactly did he mean by ‘will you guys be mad at him?’”

Charley looked to James, who shrugged and nodded at Wyatt. “I think he transformed. But into a mouse? Really?” She shook her head at the thought. “Maybe he just thinks he did. Do we know anyone who can be an animal?” She turned to look at James.

He looked back at her. “Yes,” he said. “Just one.”

Charley drew in a quick breath and pulled her hands up to her mouth. “Oh my god!”

“Dammit.” James beat a hand against Wyatt’s car before he leaned with both hands onto the hood.

“What?” Wyatt asked, with his handsome and confused expression Charley wanted to kiss and snuggle herself into.

“Maggie can be an animal, and she left us eight and a half years ago.” James firmed his lips and turned his head skyward with his eyes closed.

Charley went to him and wrapped her arms around him. “This is good news, James.” She patted his chest, eying Wyatt from the end of the car’s hood. “I owe you for this.”

“For what? Picking him up off the side of the road? I really didn’t do anything. He’d have made it here by this afternoon at the pace he had going.” His furrowed brow and tight grimace confused Charley.

“Yes, for that. And for helping. And for not being freaked by all the weirdness.” She waved back toward the house but took a step toward him.

He backed up. “So, who’s Maggie?”

Charley shrugged. “Just a woman from long ago.” She wanted to run into his arms and thank him with her heart as well as her mind and body, but his hesitation threw her. “Um, would you like to come in? Maybe we can get more details from Chase? I’ll get you a shirt, too.”

As Wyatt stepped around her, Charley followed.

***

From the limited conversation, Wyatt gathered Chase’s gift had a more extraordinary level to it than anyone thought. He’d like to have asked Charley more about it, but the smiles she held and the excitement that abounded through the room at Chase’s arrival left Wyatt as an outsider looking in.

Charley’d found a T-shirt for him, which he slid over his form as a dusty, but happy, child began his tale, surrounded by family and friends.

“Um…” Chase looked around the room.

“It’s okay, Chasey.” Sophie, who’d been roused with the announcement, snuggled in to him, and Stuart wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I’m okay and you’re okay, so we can tell everyone what happened.” She turned first to James, then Cael.

Wyatt caught the small shrug. Her memory had not returned-that he knew.

“Well, the doorbell rang, and Sophie answered it. I thought it might be you guys, but instead it was these three big people dressed in black,” Chase said, his voice one of worry but interest as any seven or eight year old boy