“I thought I’d lost you too,” Sarah said as she threw her arms around him and waited for him to pull her closer, to comfort her like she was trying to comfort him.
“It’s my fault,” David said, his eyes staring out into the dark woods behind her. “My son is lost out there because of me.”
“You can’t think that. He’s just a little boy who’s fascinated with horses who decided to go an adventure,” she said as she once more tried to get David to look at her. “We’ll find him.”
“He wanted to go with us and I told him he couldn’t. He was tired this afternoon and I should have kept him home, but I was looking forward to spending time with you. I should have kept him home, Sarah. I’m his father, I’m supposed to put him first,” he said before he turned away from her and headed back toward the house.
CHAPTER NINE
AS DAVID TOOK his car and headed back to the stable to look for Davey, Sarah sat Jack down and they went over the night again. She tried to not let the things David had said bother her. He was scared for his son and it was natural that he would blame himself, but it hadn’t been his words that had hurt. It had been the way he’d pulled back from her. He’d shut her out with his actions more than his words.
She made herself concentrate on what was important right then. There would be time for her and David to talk later. Right now they needed to find Davey. She would have to call the police and ask for help, something she didn’t want to do if the boy was just hiding nearby.
“The only thing that makes sense is that Davey took Humphrey to go look for David,” Jack said. “I just don’t understand why that pony hasn’t brought him home by now. Most of the time all he does is meander around in the yard. The only time he’s ever been out of the backyard was...”
“You said that he should have come home,” she said as she jumped up and looked for the keys to the ATV. “Remember where he went a couple months ago when someone left the gate open?”
“Yeah, he’d gone back to that little stable you and Kolton built,” Jack said as he started to stand, realizing what Sarah had as well.
“Exactly. Stay here. I’ll call you as soon as I get to the house. Tell David I know where Davey is.”
Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier? Kolton had built a two-stall stable after they had bought the pony for Cody. It was where they had kept Humphrey until Sarah had moved back in with Jack. It had been Humphrey’s first home with them, it only made sense that he would head there if he was let out.
Sarah turned the key and hit the gas. The four-wheeler jumped to life, hit the corner of the front ditch in her urgency then righted itself as she turned it up the clay road. She remembered to turn the lights on after a close call with a tree-lined curve.
She left the ATV running with the lights on as she grabbed her flashlight and jumped out. She ran toward the house then stopped. She’d had the utilities turned off after a few months of living with Jack. The idea of walking back inside the house after losing her family had been too painful. Her momma and her brother’s wife had packed up her clothes and a few other things that they felt she needed and Sarah had chosen to leave the rest of things where they had been that last day that Kolton and Cody had left the house. She stood staring at what was supposed to have been her forever house. She wanted to turn her back and walk away, but there was a little boy lost and she had to make sure that he wasn’t here.
“Davey,” she called as she walked up the driveway, then followed the sidewalk up to the front door. She checked it even though she knew she’d find it locked. “Davey, can you hear me?” she yelled as she headed to the back of the house where Humphrey’s stall had been.
Davey, please be here.
The door to the tiny stable stood open and she pointed her flashlight inside. A large shadow moved startling a scream out of her that quickly became a laugh. Standing in the dark, was the pony giving her a very put-upon stare. “Davey, where are you? It’s okay, you can come out.”
Pushing past Humphrey, she searched the stall then ran around to the other stall. He wasn’t there? That couldn’t be right. Davey would surely have stayed with the pony. Unless he had fallen off. What if he had fallen off? What if he was lying out in the woods hurt? Would the pony have left him? She didn’t think so, but she never would have thought that Davey would have taken off on the pony either.
She left Humphrey in his stall and retraced her way back to the ATV.
“Davey,” she hollered louder now. “Davey?”
She listened for an answer as she checked behind the overgrown hedges that lined the front of the house. As she passed one of the windows she thought she heard something. She checked both sides of the bushes, then heard a soft cough. It was coming from inside the house. She ran back to the front door but it was locked just like the first time she had checked it. She sprinted to the back door.
“Davey?” she called as she turned the knob. The door opened easily. Using her flashlight she checked each room as she came to it, flashing the light into each corner. Another cough came from the end of the hall. She entered the room for the first time since she’d lost Cody. Her light hit the blue curtains that hung
