Sadie grabbed the handle, pushed the door open, jumped out, scrambled through the barbed wire fencing, and ran. She sprinted across the field as the shadow stumbled. It seemed to take forever to reach her father, but when she did, she held him by the shoulders and looked him over from head to toe.
“Dad, what are you doing out here?”
“I can’t find her. She’s not in the house. I thought she came out to see the stars. She loved looking at the stars.”
Sadie let out a frustrated breath, the fear ebbing inside her. Rory ran up and immediately reached out to brush his hand down her hair. The relief in his eyes that she was okay touched her.
“Dad, Mom isn’t here. Let’s go back to the house.”
“I have to find her.”
Sadie took her father’s too thin face in her shaking hands. “Dad, do you see me?”
The fog of uncertainty cleared from his eyes and turned to a fear she hated to see in their depths. “Sa-Sadie.”
Tears clogged her throat, but she blinked them away from her eyes. “Yes, Dad. It’s me. You’ve been wandering again.”
Her father turned his head this way and that. “I . . . I got confused.”
“It’s all right. I’m here now.”
“My feet hurt.” Her father stared down at his bare feet.
Sadie knelt and looked more closely, unable to make much out in the dark night. “Rory, can you hold on to him, please. Dad, lift your foot for me.” He’d walked quite a distance over the rough, rocky terrain. “You’ve got a couple small cuts and scrapes.”
“I can carry him to the truck,” Rory volunteered.
Sadie stared across the field. Quite a distance to the truck, but Rory was a big, strong cowboy more than capable of carrying her thinning father, who was a good six inches shorter than Rory’s six-four frame.
Rory didn’t wait for an answer, just dipped, put his arm at her father’s back and knees, and picked him right up.
“Hey, I can walk.”
“I got you, Mr. Higgins. You don’t want to upset your daughter. Let’s get you home.”
“Sadie, honey, I’m sorry.”
Sadie trotted after Rory, trying to keep up with his long strides and still carry the heavy weight of guilt knotted in her gut. “It’s okay, Dad.”
Rory lifted her father over the wire fencing and set him on the grass on the other side without breaking a sweat or grunting with the effort. He ducked through the wire and held it open for her to climb through. He gave her a soft smile and rubbed her back as they stood outside his truck. Her father climbed up into the seat. The overhead light made it easier for her to see his poor feet.
“We’ll clean your feet and put something on those cuts when we get home.”
Her father stared past her at Rory with his hands on her shoulders. “I’m glad she’s got you looking out for her.”
“I won’t let anything happen to her, sir.” Promise filled his deep voice.
It touched Sadie. Her heart swelled, and all those thoughts about how much she liked him coalesced into one wondrous and yet not so surprising thought. This thing they shared was something more, deeper, special.
His hand brushed down her hair and closed around a chunk. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you both home.”
For the first time, she let her mind go to that dark place she’d avoided these last months. Soon, she’d be living in that house alone. Her father would be gone, her brother out of reach, and she’d be alone.
Overwhelmed with sadness, she turned to Rory and hugged him close, her face buried in his chest.
He leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I’m here,” and held her close, his fingers rubbing back and forth on her back.
Yes, Rory was there for her. He saved her. He wanted to be with her. But for how long? Would it last? Was it real or just her need to find something good to hold on to when everything else in her life seemed to be slipping through her fingers, no matter how hard she held on?
His hands rubbed up and down her arms. “It’s okay.”
Lost in her own swirling thoughts about how not okay this situation with her father was, she released Rory and climbed into the truck beside her dad.
Rory closed the door and walked around the front of the truck.
“You two are right together,” her father said, patting her leg as Rory climbed in and drove them to the house.
Were they? Did Rory think so, too? How could she ask him something like that? They’d only started seeing each other. Of course, she saw him every day.
Rory pulled up in her driveway. She got out, and Rory helped her father up the porch steps, his arm braced around her father’s shoulders.