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TESSA WORKED WITH ABBY for the rest of the week, and she felt like they’d made real progress. The girl was now mouthing words, though she didn’t put any sounds with them, but progress was progress.
On Saturday afternoon, Tessa and Bob were planting flowers in huge planters Tessa had purchased for the front porch, when her phone rang. “Hello?” she said, seeing that it was Molly calling. She was surprised the other woman didn’t wait until Monday to communicate whatever she had to say, because Molly knew Tessa had planned to spend the entire weekend with Bob.
“Tessa, Abby’s gone.” The other woman was obviously crying.
“Gone? Where did she go?” Had the foster care agency come and gotten her?
“I don’t know! We were baking cookies, because she shows me the cookie picture every time I ask her what she wants to do, and when I went to the bathroom, she disappeared.”
“So, she’s probably still there on the ranch somewhere?” Tessa dropped her trowel and ran inside to wash her hands, grabbing Bob’s keys on the way out.
Bob had caught enough of the conversation to wash his hands at the spigot, and the two of them got into the truck with Bob driving. “We’ll be there in a minute.”
“Pierce’s ranch?” he asked.
She nodded. “Hurry. Abby’s gone missing in the middle of making cookies, and that’s her favorite thing to do.”
He took the two miles to the Pierce’s house in under a minute, but she said nothing, just holding on for dear life. When they reached the ranch, she didn’t wait for him to put the truck in park before she jumped down.
Molly came out to meet them, shaking her head.
Tessa started calling for the little girl. “Abby? Are you okay? It’s me. Tessa!”
She walked toward the barn calling the girl, and Bob walked in the opposite direction, yelling her name. She could hear Molly calling her through the open windows of the house.
When Tessa walked into the barn, she heard a noise, and she looked in the direction of the sound. Abby was standing in the hayloft, crying. “Abby, it’s all right.” Tessa took the stairs two at a time to get to the little girl, immediately kneeling in the prickly hay to hold her. “Shh...it’s okay.”
Abby was hiccupping hard, sobbing hysterically.
Tessa just held the girl, and when she finally finished crying, she pulled away. “What happened, Abby?”
Words came spilling out of the little girl’s mouth in a torrent. “Mama and Daddy were watching TV, and I was sposta to be in bed, but I wasn’t, and then a man came in the house, and he had a gun, and he shot them.”
Tessa’s eyes widened. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
“And it’s all my fault, because I wasn’t in bed like they told me.”
“You had nothing to do with it. It was the fault of the man who had the gun, not yours.”
Abby sniffled, swiping a tear away. “It’s not my fault?”
“No, it’s not your fault. Not at all.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m positive.” Tessa hugged Abby once more, and she led her down the steps by the hand. “Let’s go tell Molly you’re okay. She’s really worried.”
“She told you to come?”
“Yes, she told me to come. She was worried, so she called me to help find you.”
Tessa led Abby to Molly, watching as Molly took the little girl in her arms. “I was so worried about you!”
Abby nodded. “I’m sorry, Molly.”
Molly’s eyes met Tessa’s and the woman cried. She mouthed the words, “Thank you,” to Tessa who smiled and nodded.
Bob put his hand on Tessa’s shoulder, and she leaned back against him. “I’m so glad you’re safe, Abby.”
Abby turned to Tessa and hugged her. “I was so scared.”
“I know you were. Let me talk to Molly for a minute. This is Bob, and he wants to play outside with you for a little while.”
Bob looked down at the little girl and took her hand. “I’ll stay within view of the window,” he said, smiling at Molly, who licked her fingers and stuck them in the air.
It was all Tessa could do not to roll her eyes. They’d just had a major breakthrough with Abby, and she was worried about the unluckiness of the triplets? There was seriously something wrong with this entire community, but she loved it there so far.
“I just wanted you to know what Abby said to me in the barn,” Tessa said softly, explaining what the girl had said.
“That’s why she’s so obedient!” Molly said. “It was starting to worry me that she never threw a fit and always did exactly what I told her.”
“Apparently she thinks she killed her parents by being out of bed at night.” Tessa shook her head. “Maybe try to get her to talk to you about it. Now that she’s speaking, I think she’s going to be fine. You need to talk to her social workers about it as well.”
Molly nodded. “I will. Thank you, Tessa.” She threw her arms around Tessa and the two women hugged, both of them coming away with tears in her eyes.
“I’ll still come to play with her for a week or two to transition her away from her needing me. She’s going to need counseling though, and that’s not something I’m qualified for. Although my best friend is, and she’ll be here in another week with my car and all of my belongings.”
“The elementary school is hiring a counselor,” Molly said. “The woman whose been doing the job forever is retiring.”
“Oh, really? I’ll tell Joy!” Tessa loved the idea of working with Joy again. “I’ll see you at one on Monday.”
“Sounds good. I really do appreciate everything you’ve done.”
“I only worked with her three times. She was on the verge of speaking already. I think even without me, she’d have had a breakthrough soon.”
Molly shrugged. “We’ll never know.”
Tessa went outside and hugged Abby goodbye one more time before joining Bob to go back to the truck. “Does Molly not have kids of her own?”
Bob shook his head. “No. She’s always wanted them, but she couldn’t have them, so she wants to adopt through foster care. I really hope they get to keep Abby.”
Tessa nodded, rubbing her hands over her face. “I hope so too.”
“What happened when you found her?” he asked.
She told him briefly what Abby had told her. “She’s been blaming herself ever since.”
He closed his eyes as he put the truck into park, shaking his head. “I cannot imagine how she must feel. I was near her age when my parents died, but I never blamed myself. Not even once.”
“I wish I knew what more to do for her.”
“More?” Bob turned to her and took her hand. “You were absolutely amazing. I’ve never seen you work with children before, but the way you were with her...there’s nothing more you could have done.”
She smiled. “Now do you understand why I have a need to work? Sometimes I’ll get a child like her. Sometimes I’ll get an autistic child who is trapped in his own mind, unable to speak, but unable to communicate in any other way. I truly love what I do, even though it gets hard at times.”
Bob nodded. “I do get it. I wish I’d understood from the very beginning.” He took a deep breath. “I feel terribly for the way I talked to you when you first told me you wanted to work, and even worse for calling Mr. Downey and telling him you were no longer interested in the job.”
“I forgive you,” she said softly, so proud that he was able to admit he was wrong. She had doubted that would ever be possible with his personality.
“Thank you.” He leaned toward her and kissed her softly. “I love you, Tessa.”
She jerked back and stared at him for a moment, completely taken aback by his words. “I love you too. I didn’t expect to love you so quickly, especially when you were being a male chauvinist pig and everything, but now that you’re sweet Bob, I love you with everything inside me.”
He chuckled. “Thanks for seeing through the male chauvinist pig in me.”
“I’ve always tried my best to see past the flaws of others...”
“Is that so?”
She nodded. “It is so! And I’m excited to get to know everyone around here, but especially on the ranch. Will all of your brothers and cousins be at the big house for Sunday dinner tomorrow?” she asked.
“Yes, every week, rain or shine. Apparently, we can escape by going on a honeymoon, but that seems to be the only time we get out of it.”
“I can see that,” she said seriously. All at once, she was ecstatic and sure her marriage would work. There had been a few times she’d doubted Dr. Lachele’s sanity, but everything made sense now. “What made you change your mind about me working?”
Bob shrugged. “I had a Christmas Carole experience.”
“You saw a ghost?” Tessa was sure he’d lost his mind now.
“I did. My grandmother came to me in a dream, and she told me she was ashamed of me. She also told me that my mother would have worked. She was a teacher, and I never even knew that.”
Tessa frowned. “Did you ask your grandfather if she was really a teacher?” Strange things happened on the ranch, but she needed to know if he had really been given information he’d never had by his Grams after her death.
He shook his head. “Ask him at lunch tomorrow.”
“Can I ask how they all died?”
“Absolutely not. That’s not something anyone needs to know, is it?”
“I guess not...” Tessa got out of the truck and went into the house, aware he was following her. “Do you want to clean up our dirt mess or cook supper?”
Bob smiled, knowing what answer she wanted. “I’ll cook. You clean up the dirt mess.”
She turned and threw her arms around him, kissing him. “You’re the very best husband for this girl.”
“And you’re the woman I’ve waited my whole life for.”