Heartsong Cottage (27 page)

The meadow proved to be as pretty a spot as Hope had promised. A little mountain stream burbled at the base of an evergreen hill that rose gently upward. He parked where she indicated and spied the game path at a break in the trees. Hope said, “If it's all right with you, Daniel, I'm going to let Shannon take my place on the hike.”

Surprised, he glanced at her. She said, “It's time.”

Following a moment's pause, he nodded once. “I guess you're right.”

“Look for the little bench Cam built up there. It's a great place to sit. And take your time, Daniel. I brought a paperback to read. Actually, I brought two paperbacks to read.”

“You are the best of friends, Hope Romano.”

Smiling up at him, her eyes misty, she touched his cheek. “I love you, Daniel.”

“I love you, too. Good thing Lucca isn't here or he'd whip my ass.”

“Nah. He's a very secure husband. Now, don't forget to take water.”

“Yes, Mother.” As he grabbed his pack from the Jeep, he saw Hope touch Shannon's arm and heard her say, “Get him to talk to you. Don't let him lose himself entirely. There have been times I worried he was going to walk himself right off the mountain.”

Shannon nodded to Hope, then arched a brow toward him. “Lead on, Magellan.”

Daniel took Shannon's hand and led her into the forest. They didn't speak as they hiked, but Daniel didn't lose himself quite as thoroughly in the past as he had in previous years. He remained quietly conscious of the fact that Shannon climbed this trail with him even as his thoughts returned to that fateful day a decade ago.

The moment he'd heard Gail's panicked voice was etched into his soul.
“I can't find Justin! Oh, God, Daniel. Somebody stole our baby!”
He'd never been so afraid—before or since. He—
whoa!
Shannon slammed into him from behind, and he pitched forward, his hands flying up out of his pockets to save his balance.

The item he'd been fingering in his pocket went sailing.

“I'm so sorry,” Shannon said. “I was looking up into the trees and totally missed seeing that root across the trail. I fail as an outdoorswoman.”

“No harm done.” He thought he'd managed to keep the panic out of his tone. Her sharp look told him he was wrong.

“What's wrong, Daniel?”

“I dropped something.”

“Something important?”

His gaze scoured the ground. “Just a little piece of plastic.”

An arm. With the black paint all but worn off from being carried in Daniel's pocket for a decade.
I'll never find it among the dead autumn leaves and moss littering the forest floor.
His throat tight, he added, “Batman's arm.”

Shannon's tender assurance encircled him like an angel's hug. “We'll find it.”

They tried. After ten fruitless minutes of search, he got scientific about it and began searching in a grid. Following another twenty minutes he said, “Enough. This is ridiculous. It's gone.”

“It was Justin's?”

“Yeah.”

Worry creased her brow. “Oh, Daniel, I feel terrible.”

“No, don't. It's silly of me to have toted it around with me all of these years. Maybe this was meant to be. It's time I stopped that silly practice. Past time.”

“It should have been your choice to make, not something I forced on you with my clumsiness.”

“Stop it. I'm okay with this. Seriously. Let's finish our climb, shall we? I'm anxious to see this view Cam has bragged about, not to mention discover the contents of that picnic basket Hope brought.”

Her gaze lifted to study his, then she nodded. “All right.”

He leaned down and kissed her briefly, then led the way up the trail, leaving a little part of his heart behind lost in the detritus of the autumn forest floor.

*   *   *

Shannon sat beside a silent Daniel on the log bench Cam Murphy had placed at the scenic viewpoint and tried to recall a time she'd felt so helpless. The only event that came close was when she'd left the police department after reporting Russell as a stalker. Not only had they all but called her a liar, they'd ushered her out the door and told her not to return.

Still, that had been a different kind of helpless. This kind was probably reserved for the physical or emotional pain of her own children or the man she loved.

Daniel broke her heart.

She rested her hand on his denim-clad thigh, offering her quiet support. He took hold of her hand and squeezed it.

“I don't let myself think about that day, ordinarily. Sometimes, a thought or two will sneak in, and I'll have spells where the nightmares come in waves. Thinking about it today seems like a duty to me. Like I owe it to him. To them.”

“Do you want to talk about the day, Daniel? I'm happy to listen.”

“I don't talk about it. I've never talked about it. Maybe because talking about it makes it all the more real. Silly, I know. It was real. I lived it.”

“I can understand not wanting to relive it, though. Why don't you tell me about Justin?”

“I wouldn't know where to start.”

“You said once that he loved to fly kites?”

“Yeah. I bought him his first kite the spring before he died. A Batman kite because the kid loved superheroes—Batman, especially.”

“Was Justin Robin to your Batman?”

Daniel's lips twitched with a hint of a smile. “No. We were commissioners. Commissioner Dad and Commissioner Justin. We'd send notes flying up the kite string to Commissioner Gordon. Justin loved to do that. I think it's the main reason he loved to fly kites so much. Kite flying totally rocked his world. I had to help him hold it, but he didn't care. Flying a kite was just about the only thing he didn't insist on doing himself, in fact. He was glad to have me hold it because that gave him more time to write notes to Commissioner Gordon, so that good could triumph over evil. Stupid me, I fostered that. I let him believe that the good guy always”—Daniel choked up a little as he finished—“won. It's a lie that haunts me still today.”

“Oh, Daniel.”

“I let him down. I know it sounds stupid, but I knew something was going to happen. I had this god-awful feeling for weeks. When Gail called me that day that … when I figured out what she was saying … I knew … I knew.” He closed his eyes and dropped his head back, his face lifted toward the sky. “Four days. They called me four days later. I went out there. They told me not to do it, but I couldn't not go. He was my boy. A jogger found him lying in a pumpkin patch. Wearing one little red tennis shoe and a Spiderman sock. That was…” His voice broke. “All.”

His hand was a vise grip on hers. Shannon lifted it to her mouth and pressed kisses across his hard knuckles. She wanted to scream at the cruelty committed on an innocent little soul and to his loving parents. However, she sensed that she shouldn't interrupt Daniel. He'd opened the wound and now the poison needed to flow.

“Way too often, evil wins. It's the nightmare that won't go away. Ten years later, and it still haunts me. The vision of it all. The pumpkins. The yellow tape. The cold flash of the coroner's camera. What that monster did to him and knowing he undoubtedly called for me … begged and screamed for me … waited for me to come and save him. How frightened he must have been. And the pain … I can't remember the sound of his voice anymore, except in my nightmares. Then, I hear him screaming, ‘Daddy, Daddy, help me! Daddy, save me!' He died waiting.”

Shannon's own tears flowed freely now, but she kept them silent. Daniel had lanced the wound. The poison needed to flow without interruption.

“At the crime scene, I couldn't touch him. They held me back. I knew it had to be that way. Evidence. Everything was evidence. They needed to do their thing. But, oh, how I wanted to grab him up in my arms. His broken little body. All I wanted to do was fix it, and I couldn't. I couldn't be Batman. I remember it being so quiet, just the click of the camera, and all I could do was stand there and watch until they finally put him in a black body bag and zipped it up.”

A lone tear seeped from beneath his eyelid and trailed slowly down his chiseled cheek. “I didn't save him, Shannon. I didn't save him.”

Shannon had known it was bad, but hearing the story through his eyes … oh. She didn't know what to say to him. The platitudes that rolled through her mind were simply that—platitudes—and so totally inadequate. So she didn't say anything, but gave him the only comfort she knew to offer—a hug.

A bit desperately, he pulled her onto his lap and held her tight, his head buried against her. A minute passed, then two. A long shudder quaked through him, then he spoke again. “I made a mistake with Gail. She wanted to see him.”

Oh, Daniel. No.

“I refused to take her to the field, thank God, but I couldn't keep her away from the morgue. Terrible, terrible mistake. Maybe she would have fallen apart anyway, but I know it broke her to see him … afterward. She shut down. I took her to a grief counselor. Thought it was helping, but in hindsight, she was faking it. Everyone told me time would heal, but it turned out we didn't have time. She gave up.

“After she died, I was so angry at her. I spent a lot of years being angry, and when I wasn't angry, I was filled with despair. The work helped me. Taking action helped me because I was doing something.”

“You fought back.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did. I felt good about what I was doing until lately. Now, I'm weary of it. I'm so over living in the dark every day. I've reached my limit of horror and filth.”

She lifted her face and stared deeply into his eyes in order to emphasize her point. “What you went through is more than any heart should have to bear, Daniel. You've carried this cross for a decade. It's okay for you to set it down.”

“I think I'm ready to do that. I need light, Shannon. I need you. You're my beacon.”

It was, she thought, the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. She gently cupped his cheek in her hand. He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm.

“The evil in this world scares me. I'm probably never going to wake up and not be afraid, but being with you has brought light into those dark corners of my life. I can see now that I was a good father to Justin. My son was a happy, healthy, and well-loved child. What happened wasn't my fault.”

“No, it wasn't.”

“I'm a man of faith so I believe he's in a far better place, in arms even more loving than my own.”

“That has to be a comfort.”

“Yes, it is.” He looked at her then, his blue eyes glittering and intense. “I never thought this day would come, but I'm ready to be a father again, Shannon. I'm ready to be a husband again. You and our baby are my second chance. You, Shannon, are my heartsong.”

That started her crying all over again. “Oh, Daniel, I love you.”

“I love you, too, Shannon O'Toole.”

But that's not my name!

She couldn't tell him now. Not today. Not like this.

She'd have to tell him. She couldn't bear to lie to him any longer.

The coward in her protested.
But are you really lying?
Maybe she wasn't born Shannon O'Toole, but she'd become her since moving to Eternity Springs. Honestly, if it were safe for her to start going by Chelsea right now, she didn't know if she'd make the change.

However, that was a question for another day. She had a reprieve. Today was all about Daniel—and his lips had taken hers in a kiss as sweet as Sarah's cinnamon rolls.

The mood lightened a bit after that. He talked a little more about Justin, sharing sweet stories and happy memories this time. He even laughed once or twice, and the sound did Shannon's heart good. Following a long moment of quiet reflection, he turned to her with a smile. “This experience has been cathartic for me, but now Hope's picnic basket is calling me. How about we head down and see what is in it?”

“Sounds like a spectacular idea.”

They were perhaps a quarter of the way down the trail when they first heard the voices. Daniel glanced over his shoulder. “Sounds like we have company.”

Shannon smothered a smile. It appeared that the text she'd sent Hope had worked.

As a result, she wasn't surprised to see searchers combing the forest floor in the spot where her clumsiness had caused the loss of Daniel's treasured Batman's arm. However, the number of searchers astounded her. In addition to Hope's husband, Lucca, the Turners, the Murphys, the Davenports, the Callahans, Colt Rafferty, Cicero, and Celeste were there. Zach directed what was obviously a systematic search. They must have all dropped what they were doing immediately this morning when Shannon's plea went out.

At first sight of his friends, Daniel abruptly halted. “What the—”

Hope's gaze zeroed in on him and she studied him intently. Relief flooded her eyes and she offered him a brilliant smile. “Those new cell towers that have gone in on Murphy Mountain are fabulous, and smartphones are the bomb. Don't worry, Daniel. We'll find it.”

He turned to Shannon. “What did you do?”

“I sent up the bat signal, of course. I knew our friends would help. This is Eternity Springs, after all.”

Because it
was
Eternity Springs, nobody was surprised when a few moments later a voice rang out. “I found it!”

Celeste Blessing stood framed by two tall aspen trees, her hand raised, her fingers holding Daniel's treasured keepsake.

Daniel's voice cracked. “God, I love this town.”

 

Chapter Fourteen

Because the women of Eternity Springs knew their men, they'd all brought along picnic baskets of their own. The impromptu picnic led to a pickup football game in the meadow that filled the afternoon with laughter—including Daniel's. It was a first for him in a decade of November thirds and when the party finally broke up, he thanked his friends for their friendship from the bottom of his heart.