Page 265 of Back in the Saddle

Henny, by the way, did not get thousands of cat toys for Christmas, but he was allowed to scatter the spent wrapping, bat the bows and squeeze into the boxes to his heart’s content.

“It’s not Christmas anymore,” he told me something I knew.

“Okay,” I replied, not sure how I felt about how his expression had changed.

“You’ll want to know,” he murmured. “But I hope you’ll get why I delayed it until after the big day.”

“Know what?” I asked.

He blew out a breath.

Then without a word, he righted the recliner, put us on our feet, took my hand, led me to the door and out went the lights.

He then guided me to the bedroom, turning off more lights along the way.

Once he got us there, he gently pressed me to sitting on the side of his bed. Only then did he open the drawer on his nightstand.

I knew this was no Boxing Day present when he pulled out a plastic bag.

“Getting on their radar, especially how they did, the cops cleared out Homer’s camp,” he said.

My throat closed.

I’d been to the camp twice since the first visit after his abduction, and Homer had not come out of his tent either time.

Due to that, I’d been giving Homer space.

But I had to admit, things had gotten hectic, what with Christmas and all, and the last couple of weeks, I hadn’t checked in.

“They were all moved, to shelters or other accommodations, or they scattered,” Eric told me.

“Oh my God,” I whispered.

“Homer has disappeared.”

My heart stuttered to a stop.

“Oh my God,” I whimpered.

“We’ve looked for him, and we can’t find him. We’ll keep looking, honey. But in the meantime, a woman named Connie gave this to a shelter worker saying it had to get to me, so I could give to you,” Eric concluded.

He then handed me the bag.

Uncertain, I took it.

There was no weight to it. It just seemed to be an empty bag.

“There’s something in it,” Eric said.

I looked up to him, before I opened the bag and peered in.

A photo was in there.

Even more uncertainly, I reached in and took it out.

This time, my throat convulsed when I saw it was a picture of a much younger Homer standing behind a beautiful woman, his arms around her, his hands on her very pregnant belly.

They were both smiling huge.

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