Wanda had sent brownies home with them, so Rory watched as Vanessa made coffee and got a plate.
“I shouldn’t eat another one,” she said, bringing the plate to the living room coffee table. “But they’re so good.”
“She makes them from scratch,” Rory said. He helped pour the coffee and followed her into the living room. “We can walk this off or go kayaking again. But I think working the sales on Friday will take care of burning off a lot of calories.”
Vanessa seemed pensive, her emotions close to the surface. “It’s really going to happen, isn’t it?”
“Are you ready for this?” he asked. “I did push you into holding your sale in conjunction with ours. Maybe I should have let you handle things on your own.”
“No. I’m glad you forced the issue.” She lifted her hand in the air. “I’d still be sitting in the middle of the floor trying to sort through all of this. I needed a firm deadline.” Then she shrugged. “I need to get this part of my life over and done with.”
Rory wondered what she would do with her life once this place was out of her system.
After they’d settled onto the old couch, he glanced around. “I like this house.”
“It’ll be for sale soon. Make me an offer.”
He’d buy it in a heartbeat. But only if she’d come with it. “That’s tempting. You’re tempting.”
She smiled at that. “Is this brownie tempting?”
“Yes.” He grabbed the last one and held it away from her. Then he fed it to her, piece by piece, thinking he could get used to nights such as this. Nights with her.
“So where will that leave us?” he asked, hoping he wouldn’t break the tender understanding they had between them now. “What happens after you sell this house?”
“I don’t know.” She put down her coffee and stared out onto the big sunporch. “I never planned to stay here.”
“And I never planned to ask you to stay here.”
Her eyes glistened with hope and confusion. “Are you? Asking me to stay?”
“I can’t make you stay but...I want you to stay.”
She gave him a sweet smile, but her eyes still held that trace of hesitancy and doubt. “I have my boutique and my website to consider.”
“And I have no right to tell you what to do about either of those. You’re a businesswoman. You have obligations.”
Which didn’t include him. So where did that leave them?
“I can visit—a lot.”
“Not if you sell the house. You wouldn’t have any reason to come back here.”
“You’d be my reason, Rory. I mean, if you want to be my reason. If you want me to come back. And you can come and see me in New Orleans.”
“So we’d have this back-and-forth, long-distance type relationship?”
“Yes. I could stay with Marla and Alec. Or in a hotel out on the bay.”
He wanted more, but he couldn’t ask for more. This was all so new and different. “We probably need to think about things and consider what we’re saying here.”
Vanessa nodded, but he saw a trace of disappointment in her eyes. “You know how hard I fought this. I’m not the typical starry-eyed woman looking for love.”
He’d certainly seen that from the first. “You have a lot of love to give.” He had to ask. “Don’t take this the wrong way. We’re still...getting to know each other, but these are things I have to ask. Is the having-a-family thing holding you back? You really don’t want to have children? Or is it me? Maybe you like me but you don’t want to have a relationship with a minister.”
She stared over at him with those big eyes. “You have a right to know the answers to those questions. I just don’t know the answers. I’m still afraid I’ll mess it all up—marriage and a family. You. I’d rather keep you as a friend than lose you because I make the wrong move.”
Rory pulled her close. “You will never lose me. Ever. No matter what.”
And he prayed he wouldn’t lose her.
Vanessa leaned over and kissed him. “I can’t believe how I feel, Rory. It’s so...rich. I feel full and rich, and my heart is doing a funny dance. I—”
Her cell rang. And then Rory’s cell rang.
“It’s Wanda,” she said, glancing at Rory.
“And Carl,” he said. “This can’t be good.”
He answered Carl’s call while she did the same with Wanda.
“Kandi is missing,” Carl said. “We went up for bed check, and she’d stuffed her mattress with pillows and clothes. But she’s gone.”
“I’ll be right there,” Rory said. Then he stood and watched Vanessa’s face.
“We’re on our way,” she said. She ended the call and rushed into his arms. “They think she’s with the Goth guy.”
“Let’s go,” Rory said. He needed to call in reinforcements. Blain would help. “I’ll call Blain on the way.”
“We have to find her,” Vanessa said. “She was so happy tonight. She seemed like a different person. We talked and laughed, and she was so pleasant.”
“That’s because she knew she would be leaving after dinner to meet up with him,” Rory said. “They’ve probably been planning this for weeks.”
“I should have paid more attention,” Vanessa told him. “I worried that she’d been through a lot of what I went through.”
“Not that I know of,” Rory replied. “But she might have been pushed around by other boyfriends. She spent a lot of time out there on her own growing up.”
They made it to the Peppermons’ house in record time.
When they pulled up, all of the lights were on and a patrol car was parked in the yard. So was Blain’s pickup truck. Blain must have put the pedal to the metal, too.
Rory and Vanessa rushed toward the house, but he pulled her close before they got inside. “We have to stay cool and positive, for their sake, okay?”
Vanessa nodded. “Rory, should we pray?”
Touched that she wanted that, he nodded and pulled her into his arms. Then he whispered an urgent prayer as they held each other there. “Help us to find this confused young girl, Lord.”
Vanessa held tight to him and then stood back. “I’m ready. Let’s go inside.”
* * *
“We’re doing everything we can to find her,” Blain told the Peppermons. “She can’t get far since you discovered her missing a little while ago.”
Vanessa sat holding one of the younger children who’d woken in the middle of all the chaos. Her heart hurt for this loving family and for Kandi. Maybe this boy was okay and truly cared about her, or maybe he only wanted to seduce her and hurt her.
I need You, Lord.
Vanessa kissed the little girl’s reddish-blond hair. Emma. Little Emma. She now knew the names of all the children who lived in this house.
And she wasn’t afraid of them anymore. Instead, she wanted to cuddle each of them and fight for them and protect them from that big, scary world out there. Why had she ever worried that her heart couldn’t love? Right now, her heart ached with love.
Then realization filled her mind. It was the love she was so afraid of. This kind of love that took your breath away and held your soul in a tender capture. This fierce, protective love that made you want to harm anyone who dared hurt a child.
Had her mother felt that way at times?
She’d have to finish reading that journal.
She listened to Blain’s soft, steady voice. He’d gone over every detail. Where did the boy—Jerome “Rocky” Asher—live? How old was he? How had they met? Did they hang out at school?
Jerome lived on the other side of town, and they’d met at an ice-cream stand out on the beach. He had dropped out of school and hung with an older crowd known for drug use and vagrancy.
The worst possible scenario. What if he’d taken her somewhere and enticed her to use drugs?
Wanda came over to Vanessa. “Do you need anything?”
“I should be asking you that,” Vanessa said. “I wish I could do more.”
“You’re here and that counts.” Wanda took Emma. “I’m going to get her back to bed. You can man the drink counters. I have snacks in the pantry.”
Vanessa gladly took over kitchen duty. She made coffee and sliced homemade banana bread. Soon, several people from the church and the foster-parent support group showed up. Vanessa listened and watched and got everyone something to eat or drink. It was going to be a long night.
She watched Rory. He made sure everyone got prayed over or prayed with or prayed for. She loved him. She knew that in her heart right now, and she also knew that she couldn’t leave him.
But she’d have to make some tough decisions about staying here. In this town, married to a preacher.
What do you think about that, Mom?
“How you doing?” Rory asked, his fingers tangling with hers after he’d walked up close.
“I’m okay. It’s hard to breathe, but I’m doing what you said. I have to be strong for them. I love this family.”
“We all do.”
He gave her a quick kiss. “You should rest.”
“I can’t. Do you want something to eat or drink?”
“I’m fine.”
He stood with her in the kitchen, waiting. The agony of not knowing, of imagining the worst, or hoping for the best, made Vanessa want to throw something.
But Rory’s hand in hers held her there, steadying her like an anchor holding a lost ship.
“Is this how it feels?” she asked him. “Is this how God holds us when we’re scared and out of options? The same way you’re holding me now?”
“Yes.”
“I’m beginning to get it, Rory. I need Him in my life. I could never get through this night without Him. Or you.”
“We’re here, both of us,” Rory said. “Hang tight.”
Vanessa heard her phone ringing. Searching on the counter for her purse, she dug inside.
“It’s Kandi,” she told Rory.
Rory immediately called out to Blain and the Peppermons.
“Hello?” Vanessa said, trying to keep her voice calm.
“I need help.”
“Where are you?”
“In the park by the bay, underneath the white gazebo. Vanessa, come alone, please.”
“I’m on my way.”
She ended the call and told Rory and the others what Kandi had said. “I’m going. I have to.”
Blain nodded. “Okay, but you won’t really be alone. I’m going to follow you and park my truck on the other end of the park. I’ll walk it the rest of the way and stay in the trees.”
“I’m going with you, Blain,” Rory said.
Blain didn’t argue. “Let’s go then.”
“We’ll call you,” Blain told Wanda. “Meantime, stay here and if she calls again, just assure her that Vanessa is on the way. Alone.”
Vanessa grabbed her purse and went to her car, glad they’d brought her car to save time earlier.
“Be careful,” Rory said. “It could be a setup.”
“I’ll be fine,” Vanessa said. But she was glad to know Blain and Rory would be nearby.
And that the Lord would watch over Kandi and Vanessa, too.