Mistletoe Bay Read online

  Mistletoe Bay was gorgeous with its natural wonders. Development along the shore had been kept to a minimum, and most of what had been built was well concealed. The bay was the perfect spot to raise a family. It was also deadly.

  Corey knew not to go near the water. When Dorothy had come running into the shop to give her the news that she couldn’t find Corey, the first place Jenni had run was to the bay. It was the most dangerous.

  Was it instinct that made her run to the edge of the water, or a premonition?

  Jenni refused to think such a thing. Corey was probably still in the woods hiding from Tucker and thinking this was all a game. She studied the shoreline to her left and then to her right. Not another person was in sight, only a few hardy birds picking over what the storm might have washed up yesterday.

  The storm had brought plenty of rain and howling winds, but thankfully not snow. Tucker and Corey had been closed up in the house for the past two days, and she didn’t blame Dorothy for allowing them to go outside and play this afternoon. She had even given them permission during lunch to play in the woods, provided they kept dry.

  They both had been playing outside since they moved here in June. All three boys knew the rules, and although Tucker occasionally bent them, they all pretty much obeyed them while unsupervised.

  Dorothy had been near hysterical when she flung open the shop door. Thankfully Sam and Felicity had been right behind her and immediately got to searching the area of the woods where he was last seen. Dorothy now was sitting on the front porch with Chase, who had just gotten home from school, and a very subdued Tucker. Right now Jenni didn’t have time to comfort her older sons. She needed to find Corey.

  She needed to hold her baby.

  She glanced at the muddy ground but couldn’t detect any footprints, besides a couple of bird tracks. In the distance she could barely make out Sam and Felicity calling Corey’s name. The wind was blowing off the ocean, carrying the sound away and making her eyes water. Then again, maybe she was just imagining she could hear them while praying Corey could.

  “Jenni, where haven’t you looked?” Coop Armstrong grabbed her elbow and dodged her blowing hair.

  It took every ounce of strength she possessed not to throw herself into Coop’s strong arms. She wanted so desperately to lean on someone, and Coop was the logical choice. Coop was her sons’ rescuer. Today she was the one who needed to be rescued from this nightmare. She needed Coop’s seeming magic that unraveled all the trouble her sons created. The only words she could get past the lump in her throat were “Please find him.”

  Coop pulled her into his arms and gave her a tight hug. “I promise we’ll find him. Please don’t cry, Jenni.”

  She wiped at the tears rolling down her face. She hadn’t even known she was crying. She felt warm and secure in Coop’s arms, but she wasn’t worried about herself. She was terrified for Corey. She stepped away from Coop. “Sorry.” For the first time she noticed how pale and upset Coop looked. For his being the local UPS driver, she had come to rely on him for more than just delivering her packages.

  Coop gently wiped away another tear. “Don’t be sorry.” With shaking fingers he brushed a lock of her windswept hair away from her face and behind her ear. “Do you think he would have gone into the water?”

  Her heart clutched at the fear in his voice. “Not on purpose. Corey knows not to go near the water, and it’s awfully cold out today. I just came here because it posed the most danger.”

  “Do you see anything out of the ordinary?” Coop studied the relatively calm bay. “Do you notice anything out of place?”

  “Not here, but up by the house I noticed some of the plastic yellow tape I had strung between the trees was down. The storm yesterday must have been worse than I thought. I forgot to check it before the boys went outside to play. It’s all my fault.”

  “You mean the police tape?”

  “I use it as a boundary. All three boys know not to ever cross or go beyond the tape. The woods are pretty thick, and Dorothy and I can’t always see the boys from the house.” She glanced back toward the house; only a small sliver of the structure could be seen through the trees. She could no longer hear Corey’s name being yelled in the distance, but she knew Sam and Felicity wouldn’t give up until Corey was safely home.

  “Does Corey like the water?”

  “To swim in, no, but he loves walking along the shore finding things the water tossed up, especially after a storm.” She brushed her hair away from her eyes and studied the shoreline. It twisted and turned so often, she could see only a small patch of it, here and there. From what little she could see of it, it was empty.

  “Okay, here’s what we’ll do.” Coop nodded at the cell phone clutched in her hand. “Give me your number, I’ll give you mine.” He unclipped his cell phone from his belt. “You head that way, and if you find him, call.” Coop nodded to the right; “I’ll head this way, and I’ll call you if I find him, okay?”

  “What if Sam and the rest of the guys find him?”

  “Dorothy knows your number, right?”

  “Right.” She finished entering his number. “Thanks, Coop.”

  “Thank me when he’s home safe.” Coop headed off at a brisk walk. A moment later she heard him shout Corey’s name.

  She quickly headed in the other direction.

  Coop walked as quickly as he could. The more ground he covered, the faster he might be about to spot Corey. The bay was at high tide, leaving very little room to walk. He was left climbing over rocks, downed trees, and through brush and bushes as high as his thighs. He didn’t think Corey would be able to wade through such a thick tangle of branches.

  His foot sank into mud as he shouted Corey’s name again. Coop had on brown work boots. They managed to stay on his feet but now weighed a ton due to the clingy mud.

  Since when had the little tyke wormed his way into his heart? For surely that was what the child had done. Coop had never experienced such panic as what he was feeling now, not even when he had flown from California to Maine after his father had the heart attack in February. Then all he kept picturing was his mother crying and sitting alone in a sterile waiting room at the hospital.

  Sometimes being an only child sucked.

  Corey wasn’t an only child. He glanced behind him, but Jenni was now out of sight. If she was calling Corey’s name, he couldn’t hear her. The wind had picked up again and the sun had disappeared behind a bank of dark clouds. He shivered against the sudden chill and hoped Corey had been dressed warmly. He cupped his hands and shouted the boy’s name again toward the woods.

  A trio of seagulls answered his call.

  How far could one little boy travel in twenty minutes, especially through this mess? If it had been Tucker, he would guess the adventurous Wright boy would be hitting the edge of town by now. Corey, on the other hand, was day to Tucker’s night. Corey would do whatever his older brothers told him to do, but he wasn’t the kind to go wander off and disobey his mother and grandmother. The plastic tape barrier must have been down for Corey to wander out of the area.

  He refused to think about Jenni and what she must be going through at this very moment. The strong, resilient Jenni had a breaking point after all—her children. In the past weeks that he had gotten to know the Wright family, it had been Jenni who had impressed him the most.

  The Wright family was a walking disaster. It didn’t take a genius to realize Jenni was the overworked and underappreciated boss of the family and that she was barely holding everything together. With three small boys, a mother-in-law who kept losing sight of the boys, and a teenage girl all living in a zoo-filled house that was sagging around their ears, Jenni had her hands full. If it wasn’t for duct tape, glue, and good karma, the house would have crumbled months ago.

  Any sane man would be running in the opposite direction as far and as fast as his feet would go.

  So why was the chaotic Wright family, especially Jenni, tugging at his heart? And when did his heart g
et healed enough to be tugged on?

  Ever since he had returned to California, after making sure his father had recovered and was home following his heart attack, he didn’t have a heart. Only a hole in his chest where it had once beat.

  Candace, the woman he’d loved and was about to marry, had shattered it when he walked in unannounced to find her and his best friend in bed. His ex–best friend.

  Now all of a sudden his heart had not only mended, it was beating out of his chest in fear. First Jenni had nearly broken it again with her tears, and now the missing Corey was about to cause it to explode. Did weak hearts run in his family? He was too young to go on that horrible bland diet his mother had put his poor father on.

  He cupped his hands and shouted, “Corey!” The wind started to howl, and if he wasn’t mistaken another storm was about to make its way onto shore. He had already walked a good distance. He’d give it a little more, and then he was calling the sheriff for reinforcements. They had to find Corey before the storm hit.

  He rounded another bend and had to maneuver his way around and over a couple of boulders, but he still didn’t have a clear view of the shoreline ahead. “Corey!”

  Coop stood still and listened intently. In the wind he thought he heard the most wonderful two words in the English language: “Mr. Brown?”

  He sprinted around some trees and over a log, shouting Corey’s name as he went.

  He hadn’t imagined it. This time he heard “Mr. Brown?” more clearly as he hurried around the next crop of rocks and trees.

  There on a huge boulder, far from the reach of the water, sat Corey. The little tyke was crying his heart out and had his arms wrapped around his knees. He hurried over to the shaking boy and swept him up into his arms. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  “No.” Corey swiped at his running nose with his coat sleeve. “I want my mommy.” Corey’s words came out in big gulps as he buried his head against Coop’s chest.

  “I can imagine.” Coop gave him another big hug and then sat the boy back down on the rock. “Hold on there, Tiger. Let’s call her.” He hit the send button before he finished the sentence.

  “Coop, did you find him?” Jenni’s voice was filled with hope and tears.

  “He’s right in front of me, safe and unharmed.” He gave Corey a big smile. “He wants to talk to you, okay?”

  “Put him on!” Jenni’s shout hurt his eardrum.

  He handed Corey the phone.

  “Mommy?” Corey sounded so uncertain and scared.

  A moment later a small smile appeared on his trembling mouth. “Okay, I’ll listen to Mr. Brown. But I did what you said. I got lost, so I sat down, right where I was. Ask Mr. Brown, he saw me sitting.” Corey sniffled. “Okay, love you too.” Corey handed him back the phone.

  “Jenni?”

  “He sounds so scared.” Jenni was crying again. “He never calls me Mommy anymore, only Mom.”

  “I told you, no more tears. He’s fine.” He gave Corey a thumbs-up, which caused the boy’s smile to grow. “He’s right, I did indeed find him sitting, right on top of a big boulder, far away from the water.” He thought her advice to the kids had been great—if lost stay still, and let the adults do the finding. Corey could have been walking in circles for hours, and they might have missed him.

  “He’s dry, right?”

  “His shoes are caked with mud, but he looks dry for now. It looks like a storm is heading in.” He frowned up at the sky and could see lightning off in the distance. When it finally hit, it would hit hard. They needed to get home, where it was safe and dry.

  “Jenni, call Dorothy and let her and everyone else know that he’s safe. I’ll meet you along the shoreline. Just keep walking until we meet.” He could tell by her breathing that she was already heading back.

  “Coop?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Thank you.” Jenni’s voice was barely above a whisper.

  Those two small words wrapped their way around his heart and healed the latest cracks it had suffered. “You’re welcome. Now call poor Dorothy. She wasn’t holding up very well when I saw her up on the porch.” Dorothy had been crying, even though she was putting up a great front for Tucker’s and Chase’s benefit.

  He closed the phone and clipped it back onto his belt. “Are you ready to go see your mom, Tiger?”

  Corey jumped off the rock and reached for his hand. “Yes, Mr. Brown.”

  Coop stared at that small, sweetly trusting, dirty hand and knew his world was never going to be the same again. He reached out and wrapped his own calloused, scarred, and big hand around Corey’s soft little one. “I think we’re friends now. How about you call me Coop from now on?”

  “Okay.” Corey’s little hand was still trembling but there was a look of such trust on his small face, it nearly broke his heart.

  “Want me to carry you?” Corey had managed to walk a pretty good distance from home before realizing he was lost. He had to be tired.

  “Nope, I’m a big boy.”

  “That you are, Tiger, that you are.” Coop matched his steps with Corey’s smaller ones as they headed for home.

  Jenni had passed the midway point awhile before she spotted Coop with Corey on his shoulders, heading her way. She waved wildly and called, “Corey!”

  “Mom!” Corey was waving back with both hands, while Coop kept him steady on his shoulders. Her son was so close, yet still so far away. She hurried along the twisting shoreline trying to reach him faster. Her arms actually ached with the need to hold him close, to see for herself he was unharmed and safe.

  Before she reached them, Coop swung her son off his shoulders and placed him on the rocky shore. Corey sprinted right into her open arms.

  She buried her face in the crook of his shoulder and cried harder. Her baby was in her arms. It was the only thing that matter at this moment in time. “You scared me, kiddo.” She felt his legs wrap around her waist and knew his muddy sneakers were ruining her coat. She didn’t care.

  Corey hiccupped and swiped again at his running nose with the sleeve of his coat. “Sorry, I looked for the tape, but I couldn’t find it.”

  “I know, sweetie. The storm yesterday blew it down.” She hugged him tighter and planted a string of noisy kisses up his cheek while reaching into her coat pocket for the ever-present tissues. She made Corey blow his nose. “I should have made sure the tape was still up and secure before allowing you and Tucker to go outside and play today. It’s my fault you got lost.”

  “Jenni,” Coop said, “we have to be going. The storm’s going to hit at any moment.” Thunder sounded in the distance over the ocean.

  She stood up with Corey still in her arms. She wasn’t about to let go of him till tonight, or next week, or maybe when he turned ten. A raindrop plopped on her head, causing her to hurry along the shoreline for home, where Dorothy, the boys, and the entire football team were waiting for them to celebrate.

  “Now you’re the weather man?” Was there anything Coop couldn’t do? If there was, she hadn’t seen it yet.

  “Doesn’t take a meteorologist to read those clouds.”

  She shivered as rain started to fall in earnest. Corey nestled closer and ducked his head under her chin. She stopped and pulled the hood of his coat up over his head. She didn’t want him getting sick.

  Coop reached for Corey and plucked him out of her arms. Corey giggled at the game of being tossed around. “I’ll carry him. We’ll make it there faster, and drier.”

  She wanted to argue with him but knew he was right. They would make much better time if he carried Corey. “Okay, but I get to hold him the rest of the day.”

  Coop chuckled. “I think you might have to fight his grandmother, aunt, and brothers for that one.” With a curt nod to her coat, he added, “Pull your own hood up before you get sick.” Coop turned and hurried away.

  She yanked up the hood, not because he’d told her to, but because she was getting wet.

  Chapter Seven

  Jenni wa
tched as Corey took a bite of another cookie and grinned. Her youngest son was the center of attention and loving it. For once, Tucker was allowing one of his brothers to hog the limelight. That simple courtesy showed how scared Tucker had been for his little brother.

  It was good to see that after all the trouble Tucker had been known to instigate or cause, he had a good heart underneath that Dennis the Menace attitude.

  The storm outside finally hit full force about the time Coop, Corey, and she were a couple yards from the porch. During that last mad dash to the house, they had gone from wet to soaked. Corey had been immediately stripped and changed into dry clothes, and she had left her muddy sneakers on the front porch and was now wearing her fuzzy slippers and had damp hair.

  Coop, on the other hand, had to make do with a towel and scraping the mud off his boots. The man had a route to finish and he seemed in a hurry to go. She couldn’t blame him. There was an entire football team in her house, drinking hot chocolate, eating whatever Dorothy set before them, and playing video games. The entire defensive line was in the family room playing with Fred the iguana and Buster the turtle. They were trying to engineer a race between the two, but Buster wouldn’t come out of his shell, and Fred was ignoring them and trying to eat the carpet.

  The battle at Waterloo would have been quieter.

  “Coop, don’t you dare leave yet without a hug,” Dorothy shouted from across the kitchen, where she was pulling mini pizza bites from the oven. A couple of tacklers rushed her and nearly emptied the baking sheet before it made it to the counter.

  Jenni watched as her laughing mother-in-law dodged and wove her way out of the crowded kitchen. By the looks of things, there was now an evening grocery shopping trip on her schedule and a major dent about to happen to her bank account. She didn’t mind. The football team had come running to find her son. As far as she was concerned, they could empty every cabinet in the kitchen. She didn’t even mind that it was pouring outside. What was a little water?