Rekindled Hearts Read online

  “No, thanks. We wanted to let you see the ring and then we need to head back to town. Lexi probably has strays to rescue and I need to get some paperwork done.”

  Jesse nodded and then he handed the ring back to Colt. “It isn’t the ring.”

  “I didn’t think it was.” Colt moved to the side as Lexi’s elbow shot out. “We didn’t think it was.”

  “I’m starting to think we won’t find it.” Jesse brushed a hand through his hair. “It’s just hard to imagine it being gone, and that I won’t be able to pass it on to my daughter. All of these years, that one ring has been in our family. And in one day, it was all taken away.”

  His wife, the ring, his dreams for his family. Colt didn’t know what to say.

  “We’re going to find it,” Lexi piped in, all faith and sunshine. Colt wanted to bring her down to earth, but he couldn’t.

  He wouldn’t do that. Instead his attention caught and held on the family portraits that covered the walls of the foyer. One portrait in particular, Jesse’s brother Clay, caught his eye.

  “Have you heard from Clay?” It made sense that this family tragedy would bring the lost Logan home. Wouldn’t Clay want to be here for his brother?

  “Not a word. Maya left the message and he answered that, I guess. But, well, you know he isn’t spending too many dimes to call me.”

  “I’m sorry, Jesse. Let me know if there’s anything I can do.” Colt patted the other man on the shoulder and turned to the door, Lexi behind him.

  Or he thought she was. He turned as she gave Jesse Logan a quick hug. “I’m praying for you and for the babies.”

  Jesse nodded and Lexi moved away. Colt opened the door and she followed him out. She was praying, always praying. He knew she prayed for him, that he was safe.

  “Let’s go home, Lex.” The words slipped out. He glanced away.

  Let’s go home. Lexi let the words play through her mind as they drove back to town. How many years had she spent at his side, hearing those words? Now, the words meant that he would drop her off at her home.

  And it wasn’t even a home now; it was a dozed-over hole in the ground. She didn’t want to think of that, of what that empty space on her lot symbolized. She would rebuild.

  But what was lost, was lost. Family photos, keepsakes from her marriage and her childhood, all gone.

  Her eyes grew heavy and she leaned back, willing to take a short nap if it kept her from thinking too much. Sunshine warmed her face and she closed her eyes against its brilliance. Country music played on the radio. As the Jeep bounced along the country road, Colt sang along to a country ballad.

  She opened her eyes as they pulled in the driveway of her clinic. It was her home now. She shared it with a pigmy goat, a dozen or so cats and dogs, someone’s pet rabbit that had wandered into her yard and an owl that had a wounded wing.

  It didn’t always smell pleasant, but it was hers. Home sweet home. Colt lived on the outskirts of town in an old cottage that had once belonged to his grandmother.

  Funny how things had changed. She was happy. Even without the dream life she had thought she wanted. Real faith had changed so much in her life. This new ingredient, she realized, was contentment.

  “Lex, your front door is open a little. Do you think you didn’t pull it closed?” Colt’s question froze her heart.

  “Of course I closed it.” She was wide-awake now.

  “Stay in the car.” He was out, hand on his side, reaching for the weapon that wasn’t there.

  “Wait, I’m going with you.” She grabbed her purse and hurried after him. He turned, shooting her that look that did nothing but make her want to go even more.

  “Stay in the car. You don’t know who is in there. Lexi, you have drugs in there that someone in need of a fix might try to steal. And if they need a fix, they’re not going to be in a good mood.”

  “It’s my house.”

  “I’m not your ex-husband right now—I’m a police officer. Stay put.”

  She obeyed, because he had that steely quality to his voice that said he meant it. He wanted to keep her safe. She wished he could love her as much as he wanted to protect her.

  “Okay, I’m staying.”

  He walked to the edge of the building and then down to the window. He peeked in and then went back, slipping through the door that wasn’t latched. She knew she had locked that door. She never left without making sure all of the doors and windows were latched.

  As she waited, she prayed, because she wanted him to be safe, and she wanted her animals safe. She tried to push aside the last conversation with her mother that had included the questions about her life, and why she wouldn’t just come home.

  Sometimes the idea of moving tempted her.

  She moved closer to the door, because she couldn’t stand there and wait. And then Colt was there, smiling a little. He motioned her inside.

  “It isn’t a thief.” Colt pulled someone from the side of the door. “It’s Tommy. I guess, in reality, he did break in, but he didn’t steal anything.”

  “Tommy?” Lexi knelt in front of the boy. “What are you doing here?”

  “Looking for Charlie. I followed Chico, because he used to play with me and Charlie. I thought maybe he’d know where my dog went to.”

  “Oh, honey, I wish I had your dog, but I don’t. And doesn’t Mr. Garrison have a puppy for you at his house?”

  He nodded his little tear-stained face, and Lexi cried with him, holding him close. His little body shook and sobs rolled out, harsh and uncontrolled. Her own tears were hot against her cheeks and she wished she could make it all better for him.

  “That puppy isn’t the same.” The boy sobbed against her, his words coming out broken and full of grief. “I just want my dog Charlie back, because he was my best friend and no one has put him in the lost and found at the church.”

  “Honey, I don’t think he would stay there. He’d come looking for you.” She wiped his tears with her fingers. “But I do know that if he’s out there somewhere, he’s trying to get back to you. And if someone finds him, they’ll bring him back.”

  “Do you think he will come home?”

  Lexi pulled away, but still held on to slim little shoulders. He was a mess, this kid, always in trouble, always up to something. But Lexi knew that he just wanted love. He wanted to belong to someone and something. She swallowed and nodded to answer his question.

  “Dogs are smart, Tommy. Sometimes they go miles and miles to get home. I had one dog that I gave to a family that lived ten miles from High Plains. That silly dog liked it here so much, he walked all the way back.”

  “I sure hope that Charlie is that smart.” Tommy sniffled. “But I don’t know. He never did act too smart.”

  “Of course he was smart, Tommy.” Colt patted the boy’s back. “That day of the tornado, he was barking at you, trying to warn you. He’s a smart dog.”

  Tommy looked up, nodding and wiping his nose and then his eyes with his hand. Lexi bit down on her lip and hid her smile. “Let’s get you a tissue and then we can call for someone to pick you up. I think Mr. Garrison is going to be very worried about you.”

  Because the child finally had someone who wanted to always be in his life. And she was thinking about lyrics of a song that said she would find better love, stronger than it ever was.

  Lexi looked at Colt. He had his cell phone out and was dialing. He had been her someone, the person who she thought would always be in her life. She prayed little Tommy wouldn’t be let down.

  Chapter Four

  The room was still bathed in gray early-morning light when Lexi woke up the next morning. It was too early to get up, and she hadn’t gotten much sleep, not with the Tommy incident replaying in her mind all night, along with the memory of Colt singing along with the car radio. She had dreamed about it, and her heart ached with a fresh pain, when only a week earlier she had thought maybe, just maybe, she was moving on.

  She didn’t know how a couple went from forever to
goodbye, without looking back.

  Groggy and grouchy, she started a pot of coffee and grabbed a bag of cat food out of the closet. The kittens gathered around the cage door and she had to push past them to put food in their dish. She rubbed the head of a gray tabby and he bit at her fingers.

  “Oh, that’s real nice. Biting the hand that feeds you.” She picked him up and held him close. “I need to find homes for you guys. Maybe this idea of Michael’s will work and we’ll be able to match pets with people.”

  The phone rang. She reached for it as she poured herself a cup of coffee, spilling a little on the counter and wiping it up with a paper towel.

  “Doc, this is Hammer. I’ve got a cow out here that is just about down. Do you think you could run by and check on her?”

  “Sure I can. It’ll be an hour or so. I left my truck at the church yesterday.”

  “Yep, some of the fellers said they saw you leaving town with the chief yesterday.”

  A question in his voice and she wasn’t about to answer those questions. But then again, she wasn’t going to let gossip start a relationship that had ended a couple of years ago.

  “We ran out to visit Jesse Logan.”

  “Gotcha. Well, anyway, if you don’t mind checking the cow. Oh, Doc, there was a dog running the far side of my field yesterday. We couldn’t catch up with it, but one of my guys thought it might be Tommy’s dog Charlie. I hope he ain’t running cows.”

  “I don’t think he’d be running cows. I think he’d be trying to make his way home to Tommy. I’ll keep an eye out as I drive.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  “Hammer, don’t mention to the little boy that you thought it was his dog. We don’t want to get his hopes up.”

  “Sure thing, Doc. See ya later.”

  Lexi poured her coffee from her ceramic mug, with the picture of a Labrador, to a thermal mug and grabbed a breakfast bar. So much for taking it easy this morning. On her way out the door, she grabbed antibiotics from the fridge and shoved them into her black bag.

  It was a cool fall morning and the sun was burning off the gray haze. Lexi loved Kansas in autumn. She loved the smell of drying grass, autumn flowers and the crispness of the air.

  As she walked down the sidewalk, past buildings that were still standing, and some that would never stand again, she thought about how this fall was different than last. Last year she’d still been grieving her lost marriage. Today she was grieving the loss of her town, her home and friends who had moved away.

  But she had hope. She had a strong feeling that God was doing something. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it in her heart, where it felt a little like a lighter step and an easier smile.

  “Hey, Doc Ridgeway.” A woman’s voice called from the door of the city hall. “Come back here.”

  Lexi turned and smiled at Gloria Dawson, the spitfire of a mayor that kept High Plains running smoothly. And sometimes caused an uproar over some new city policy. Those policies were usually needed, but hard for a small town to adjust to.

  “How can I help you, Mayor?”

  “You can help me by clearing farm animals out of your lot.”

  “Farm animals?” Lexi pulled the strap of her bag onto her shoulder as it slid down her arm. “What do you mean?”

  “You have goats and chickens in the pens outside of your office.”

  “They’re refugees, Mayor. They don’t have anywhere to go.”

  “I know that, but you know the ordinances. I don’t want to make this hard on you, because you’re helping out.” Gloria sighed. “I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, Lexi. But you have to do something before Hank files a complaint against you.”

  Hank Farris, the local cranky guy. Lexi made a face and Gloria smiled. “You know I can’t help this, Lexi.”

  “I know you can’t. But there has to be something we can do. This is temporary. It isn’t like I’m raising cattle in my front yard.”

  “I know that. But find homes for them as soon as you can.”

  “We’re hoping to adopt some of them out at the church fellowship. Tell Hank I’ll bring him eggs from the chickens if he’ll give me a break.”

  “I think he’s allergic.”

  Gloria saluted and headed back into the city hall.

  Main Street. Lexi sighed as she turned that corner and her heart ached for the business owners who had lost so much. More than insurance would cover. The General Store was still a mess of bricks and glass. They were waiting for insurance to pay so they could hire someone to clean it up.

  That was happening all over town. People were ready to get their lives back in order, their homes put back together, but they couldn’t. Some insurance companies had paid quickly, others had loopholes.

  Lexi crossed the street that still wasn’t as busy as it had been two months earlier. She pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked her truck. She set her bag in the passenger seat and then went to check supplies in the back of her truck.

  A car pulled in behind her. She turned and her heart caught a little. The Jeep engine purred smoothly, and Colt waved and then hopped out. Chico was in the backseat, his Labrador tail wagging so hard she could hear it pounding the door panel.

  “Where are you off to?” Colt walked around to where she stood. And she couldn’t look away because he smiled that way he did, and she remembered how it felt to be held by him.

  When she looked at him, she thought of the year they had dated, when for the first time in her life, she had felt as if someone would always be there for her. She had been so lonely until she met him.

  He had brought her here, to High Plains, to his family. She missed him, but she was no longer that searching, lonely kid.

  That thought made her hold her chin a little higher as she answered.

  “Hammer has a cow that’s down. What about you?”

  “I got a call. Some people think they remember seeing a woman with a little girl that matches Kasey’s description. I’m hoping it will lead somewhere.” Rather than the endless, nowhere leads Lexi knew he’d already had. “I’m hoping they have a little more to share.”

  “I’ll be praying….”

  He smiled an easy smile. “I know you will be.”

  “Colt.” She swallowed because words weren’t always as easily said as thought. She could go over this a million times in her mind, but to actually put it into words, it felt like skydiving for the first time. “Colt, I miss you.”

  His smile dissolved. “Lexi, don’t do this.”

  “I’m sorry, but I wanted you to know.” She shrugged and walked away because he didn’t want to hear, and she wouldn’t push.

  She missed him. As Colt drove north, that’s all he could think about. He could only picture the look on her face as the wind lifted brown hair, and her eyes glistened. There were so many reasons why her missing him was a mistake. And more reasons why he couldn’t tell her that she was the last thing he thought about when he went to sleep at night, and the first thing he thought about each morning when he woke up.

  That must qualify as missing her, too.

  But he knew they couldn’t go back. He couldn’t go back to worrying that something would happen to him, and that she’d be the one left alone. He couldn’t think about starting a family when something like that could happen.

  He could think about all the ways he’d let her down, though. And that helped him to remember why missing her was better than hurting her.

  Almost an hour after leaving High Plains he pulled up to a farmhouse that had seen better days. The paint was weathered and the barn was falling in. An old tractor was parked at the back of the house, the tires flat and weeds growing up through the engine. A dog as old as the tractor barked from the front porch.

  Colt felt a little uneasy as he got out of the Jeep. His hand moved to his sidearm, and then he walked up to the front door. The dog sniffed his leg and walked away, uninterested.

  The front door opened and an older woman in a housedress peek
ed out at him. “You that law officer from High Plains.”

  “Yes. ma’am, I am.”

  “Come on in.”

  Colt took off his hat and followed her inside. She pointed to a floral sofa covered in plastic. He sat down. “You said you have information about the little girl we have in High Plains.”

  “I don’t know how much it’ll help you.” She sat in a fabric-covered rocking chair that squeaked when she rocked. “But there’s a reward, right?”

  Colt let out a sigh and nodded. “For information leading to the parents, yes. Or if you can positively identify the child.”

  “I can’t identify her, but I think I saw her with her mom. The day before the tornado a woman came through this area. She had a little girl with her.”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  “Not much. She was at the store in town. She seemed like she didn’t want to stay around long. Said she was passing through.”

  “If I show you five pictures of little girls, do you think you can pick her picture?”

  She shrugged. “I can try.”

  Colt opened the plastic folder and produced the pictures for the woman to look at. She lifted glasses that hung from a chain around her neck. She shook her head as she stared at the pictures.

  “It was so long ago now.” She shook her head again and let the glasses drop back to her chest. “Nope, I don’t recognize her. It could be that one on the far right, but I’m not sure.”

  It was Kasey. Colt nodded. He pulled money out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Thank you. That isn’t reward money, it’s just to help you out a little.”

  “Bless you. I’m real sorry that I wasted your time. But bless you for caring for an old widow. You’re a good Christian boy.” Her eyes watered as she pushed herself out of the chair. “I do hope you find her momma.”

  “Me, too.” But his heart ached a little at the thought. If he found Kasey’s mother, Nicki Appleton’s heart would be broken.

  Following him to the door, she reminded him of his grandmother in her housedress and orthopedic shoes. As he walked down the crumbling steps, he fought back memories of his grandmother singing in church, and how he had always felt like a fraud because everyone sang along but him.