“Nope. But we have a lot of rattlers around here, and I don’t want Corey to encounter one. Oh, and by the way, snakes don’t hibernate. I’ve seen some in the winter.” He winked and then started to the side. “You stay here. I’m gonna circle this brush and see if there’s an easy way in.”
Oh, good. He’d said that bit about the snakes on purpose and then left. She scowled at his back. As Nick moved farther away, Darcy hugged her chest and tried to see through the green-and-brown barrier in front of her where she was shining her flashlight. What if a rattlesnake was keeping warm under the thicket—and Corey had been bitten by it? What if...
Darcy quickly shut down those thoughts. She liked frills and lace. She liked girly things, and a snake wasn’t one of those. She and Nick were definitely opposites and that was fine by her. And yet, she remembered his quick reflexes when he caught her before she could hit the ground. Okay, they might be opposites, but there was an appeal to the cowboy who dropped everything to look for a child.
Whoa. Where were these thoughts coming from? Exhaustion after driving all day? She wasn’t in Haven for anything but gathering information about her birth father. She was going to be here only a short time. The more she heard about Fletcher the less she wanted to talk to him, but it wouldn’t be right to pass up discovering what she could about her biological family since she wanted children of her own.
To her left Nick shouted, “Stop, Corey!”
The next thing Darcy saw was the boy rounding the end of the undergrowth, coming to a halt when he spied her and then darting to the side to avoid her. Nick closed in on him from behind. Darcy shot forward, trying to block his escape. When she was within a few feet of him, she took a flying leap and tackled Corey to the ground.
“Get off me! Get off me!” the child yelled.
Still clutching her flashlight, Darcy threw her body across his stomach while Corey wiggled and twisted. Was this what riding a wild bronco felt like?
Through her strands of blond hair she saw two cowboy boots planted near Corey’s shoulder, a pool of light coming no doubt from Nick’s flashlight. She thought it was safe for her to sit up, but the second she did, the boy jumped to his feet and tried to race away.
With lightning speed Nick grasped the child’s upper arms and held him still. “What’s going on with you, Corey?”
“I don’t want to go back. I’ll run away again if you make me go.”
The anger in the boy’s voice made Darcy forget about the dead leaves clinging to her coat and the bruises she was sure to develop from stopping him. Beneath his fury was desperation. She’d heard it enough in her job at Legal Aid. Not long after desperation came hopelessness. She tried to stop that from being someone’s reality. Who was going to give Corey hope? His father? Not unless something changed.
Corey tried to yank his arms away from Nick, tears running down his face now.
All Darcy wanted to do was hold the boy until he calmed down, but she couldn’t, even though he was her cousin—family. Besides Fletcher, she was probably his closest relative in the area. But no one knew that but her.
“Let me go. Dad doesn’t care.” A sob caught in Corey’s throat.
Nick still held Corey, but when he knelt in front of the boy, his expression softened. “But I care about you. It’s gonna snow and get really cold tonight. Did you think about that?”
Corey looked to the side. His blue gaze—so much like Darcy’s—landed on her. “Who are you?”
The words I’m your cousin almost slipped out. Instead she smiled and said, “I want to help you.”
“You can’t. No one can.”
The hopelessness leaked into his words and broke her heart. Coming to Haven was so much harder than Darcy had ever thought it would be.
“That’s not going to stop me from trying. I don’t know about you, Corey, but Miss Hill and I are cold. Let’s settle this somewhere warm.”
Her cousin stuck out his lower lip. “Fine. Nothing’s gonna change.”
“There are a lot of people searching for you and worried about you. Mrs. Scott was beside herself. She called the sheriff.” Nick kept his hand clamped on Corey’s shoulder and started back toward the elementary school parking lot.
“Dad will be mad about that.”
“What did you think was going to happen if you ran away?” Darcy boxed the boy in on the other side and prepared to go after him if he broke loose from Nick’s hold.
“Somethin’ better. Anywhere would be better than here,” Corey mumbled and dropped his head as he shuffled his feet toward the edge of the woods.
When Darcy returned to Mobile, the first thing she would do was hug her parents. She knew raising kids was difficult, but seeing someone like Corey only made her want to have her own children more than before. She had so much love to give a child.
She’d been blessed to have a wonderful mother and father. But others, like Corey, hadn’t been. Maybe while she stayed in Haven, she would check out the boys ranch. Her biological father might not want to have anything to do with the place, but she did.
The minute they returned to Nick’s truck, he settled Corey inside. While the boy sat sandwiched between them, Nick called Mrs. Scott to let her know they had found Corey.
The child folded his arms over his chest and hunched his shoulders farther down as Nick drove closer to Corey’s house. In that moment Darcy felt like a fish in the Gulf taking the bait and being caught. It would be hard to drive home to Mobile without making sure something long term was done for Corey. The question was what. Nick, one of the few people who cared for the child and the person who had stopped to help her tonight, might be able to assist her with that.
Darcy didn’t even know Corey, and still she wanted to do everything she could to take care of him. Make sure he was warm and fed a proper meal. There was something about the child that drew her—more than family ties. There was a lot of anger in Corey, but beneath it she sensed a need to be loved, or maybe she was just putting herself in Corey’s situation and projecting her emotions onto him.
As they drove away from Dry Gulch, where they’d left Corey with the neighbor, Darcy turned to Nick. “Where I live, I volunteer at a shelter and work with children to find solutions for their situations. I’ve seen families deal with a member who is an alcoholic and the toll it puts on them, especially the children. Some of the kids have to grow up so fast because they are left to fend for themselves. It breaks my heart.”
Nick waited at a stoplight to turn onto the highway that would return them to Haven. He slid a look at her, his expression still full of worry. “Me too.” Unspoken emotions dripped from those brief words.
“What do you think will happen to Ned?” Darcy asked the question she was sure was on both their minds. They had left Dry Gulch after the sheriff arrested Ned and hauled him to jail.
“He’ll probably only get a slap on the wrist. I’m more concerned about Corey. At least he’s with Mrs. Scott for the night.”
“Are you upset that Ned wouldn’t let you take Corey home?”
Nick gave her a tired smile. “Am I that transparent?”
“Well...yes.”
“Ned doesn’t want to be the father he should, but he feels threatened by my relationship with Corey. I’m glad Ned let Mrs. Scott take Corey without much of a fight. She’ll take good care of the child, and I’ll go to her house tomorrow morning.”
“But you wanted to take him home.”
“Yes, I feel responsible