No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(58)

“Except it might push him further.”

“Or it might be the only thing that keeps him in check.”

She sighed. “I hope it goes that way, but I don’t think it will. I’m pretty sure I just started World War III.”

And she had a child to protect. The odds were stacked against her. But Dawson wasn’t going to let Sly get the best of her, not if he could help it. “Like I said, you can stay here until you get on your feet.”

“Thanks,” she murmured, but he could tell her thoughts were a million miles away. Was she psyching herself up for the battle ahead? Or was she remembering past times when taking a stand had only made her situation worse?

Putting his arm around her, he gave her shoulder a quick squeeze. He didn’t want her to think he was hitting on her; he just didn’t want her to feel so alone. But he wasn’t even sure she noticed. She didn’t react to his touch. She just stood there staring out at the darkness.





15


When Sadie woke up, Jayden wasn’t in bed with her. Her chest tightened in panic as she sat up and looked around. How was it that she hadn’t felt him get up? Where had he gone? They were no longer in their little house with the small, fenced yard and Maude puttering about outside. They were on a large piece of land—especially from his perspective—and that piece of land had lots of places to get hurt or lost. It even had a pond.

The instant terror tempted her to call his name, but she held off in case Dawson was still sleeping. As late as they’d both gone to bed, he should be sleeping. The clock on the nightstand indicated it was only nine-thirty. That wasn’t too late, considering it had been almost five when Sly and Chief Thomas left. No wonder she hadn’t felt her son slip away. She’d been passed out from exhaustion.

Without so much as a thought for her tangled hair, she scrambled out of bed and hurried past Dawson’s room, pausing only long enough, once she saw his door standing open, to see that he wasn’t in there. She was halfway down the stairs when she heard Dawson talking in a low whisper. “You want more cereal?”

“More chocolate milk!” Jayden’s eager enthusiasm made his voice much louder.

“Shh!” Dawson said. “We’re trying to let Mom sleep, remember?”

Sadie reached the ground floor as Dawson poured her son more chocolate milk. “It’s okay. I’m up.”

“Look, Mommy! We have cold cereal!” Jayden cried.

“Where did we get that?” She was the one who’d bought the groceries so far, and she hadn’t purchased any processed cereal. Dawson had never mentioned that he wanted some, and she rarely let Jayden eat that kind of thing. The carton of chocolate milk Dawson put back on the table was new, too.

“We went to the store!” Jayden held up a sucker. “And I got this!”

“For later,” Dawson quickly inserted. “After lunch or dinner. We talked about that, remember?”

Jayden didn’t seem pleased about waiting, but he set the sucker reverently by his plate. “Yeah.”

A grin tugged at Dawson’s lips. “I wish everyone was so easy to please that a sucker would make all the difference,” he said in an aside to her. “My sister’s like that.”

“Children are so innocent. She sounds the same. I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

“She’s definitely innocent.” He gestured at the chair next to Jayden. “Want to sit down and have some cereal?”

Sadie almost said no. She doubted she could eat even if she tried. Her stomach hurt every time she thought about last night—the fire, whether or not she’d have anything left once the police allowed her to go back in, Sly’s behavior when he came out to the farm with Chief Thomas. Everything she’d tried to avoid with him seemed to be happening, despite her efforts. But Dawson had turned what could’ve been a confusing and sad morning into a happy one for Jayden, and she didn’t want to spoil her son’s fun. “Sure. I’ll have a bowl.”

Dawson slid the box and the milk over to her. “You okay?” he murmured while Jayden was busy pretending his spoon was a rocket ship blasting off from his bowl.

“Yeah. I think so.”

“You didn’t get much sleep.”

She covered a yawn. “Neither did you. And then you got up with my kid. I’m sorry. I didn’t even realize he’d climbed out of bed.”

“I had those guys coming to clear away all the junk and take it to the dump this morning, so I had to get up early. I couldn’t miss them.”

“So that pile of stuff that was in the yard is gone?”

“It is.”

She crossed to the window to check. Sure enough, all the broken furniture and other things Dawson had thrown out were no longer cluttering up the place. Somehow that helped, was yet another thing from the past that’d been squared away. “Looks great. It’ll be nice to have it gone, but I’m sorry you didn’t get to sleep in, like I did.”

“They were so loud I’m surprised they didn’t wake you. Jayden certainly enjoyed watching the process.”

“I feel bad you got stuck babysitting for me.”

“I didn’t mind, so don’t worry about it. I hope it’s okay that I took him to the store. I would’ve asked, but I hated to wake you, and I didn’t dare leave him here alone while you were sleeping. I haven’t been around him much—haven’t been around kids in general—so I have no idea how far he might wander.”