Page 27 of Stolen for Keeps
“No. She didn’t even visit me once.”
Sheryn didn’t rush in withI’m sorryor empty words. She just reached out, resting a hand on my knee.
I let out a brittle sigh. “It was my fault. I was a damn fool. All I could think about was how happy she’d be on her birthday. It never crossed my mind that Uncle David might call the cops. I thought it was just gonna be some private drama.” I shook my head. “That’s how stupid I was.”
But the words didn’t undo the truth. It didn’t bring him back. My dad was gone. Because of me. Because he couldn’t handle the shock of seeing me in cuffs, dragged away like the worst criminal.
Because the cops didn’t care what it did to him. One moment, he was there. The next—gone. And I had to live with that.
Sheryn sat with me in the silence, letting me breathe through it.
Finally, she said, “Okay. I won’t invite her then.”
I closed my eyes, weighted with regret. “I love her, Rynnie. I do.” When I opened them, I searched her face for comfort. “She’s my mom. But for now…yeah. Please. I just can’t see her.”
She squeezed my knee. “Hey. When it’s time, you’ll feel it. That kind of bond doesn’t just disappear.”
I gave a nod, still processing.
She added, “As you said, she’s your mom.”
I choked it down, whatever it was. Guilt. Grief. Both.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “She is.”
7
NOAH
I yanked the twine tight, securing the last hay bale onto the stack. The late afternoon sun sat on my shoulders, sweat gathering at the back of my neck. Good, honest work. The kind that kept a man too busy to think.
“Need a hand?” Elia asked.
I glanced over as he stepped into the barn, still moving slower than usual.
“What are you doing? You’re supposed to put your feet up and get better.”
“Iambetter,” he insisted, grinning. “It’s sitting still that’d drive me nuts. And you don’t want that.”
I snorted. “Fine. But at least pretend you’re taking it easy.”
He dropped onto a hay bale, stretched his leg out, then started tying knots anyway.
“Hey, thanks for covering for me,” I said after a moment. “With the broken plates.”
“Easy fix. Found matching ones in town. Problem solved.”
“Still, I owe you, man,” I said to him.
He waved me off.
The fact was, I owed him for a lot of things.
“So, this wedding thing,” I muttered, tying off the next bale. “Gonna be a long-term gig?”
Elia flicked a glance at me. “Depends. If it brings in money and doesn’t wreck the farm, I don’t see the harm. Claire loves it. But once she’s in her last year of study, we might have to stop. She’ll have to finish her degree in Pullman.”
“Washington?”
