Montana Cowboy Daddy

Mattie was missing! Isabelle couldn’t help but recall the child playing in the street the day of her arrival. Was this how she was cared for? And yet he saw Isabelle as a danger to his child?

“Sit down and let’s think about where she might have gone.”

He sank to the chair. His hands dangled between his knees.

Dawson looked so dejected, she longed to offer him comfort, assure him she shared his concern about his daughter, but she guessed he wouldn’t welcome it, so she sat across the table.

“Where would she go in town? Perhaps to some friends?”

“I suppose she might have gone to visit a friend.” His head came up and his eyes found hers, his full of despair. She hoped hers offered comfort and encouragement.

“I need to go see.”

She felt his worry clear through her body. It tensed every muscle, stung every nerve. “Do you want me to come and help you look?” Not that she could offer much in the way of assistance, but a missing six-year-old was frightening. She couldn’t allow herself to even think of what might have happened to her.

Hope filled his eyes, replaced quickly with doubt and uncertainty and then hardness.

She knew before he answered what he’d say.

“I’ll manage on my own. But thanks for the offer.” He pushed to his feet.

Even though she’d expected his reply, the words still hurt. She schooled her face to reveal nothing of what she felt. “If she happens to show up here, I’ll keep her until you return.”

He hesitated before he murmured, “Thanks.”

She stood in the doorway as he left, his long legs eating up the distance. She watched until he was out of sight. Still she stared down the street, praying Mattie was safe and sound, had simply been distracted in her play and forgotten she had been told to stay with this Kitty girl.

* * *

Until you return. Why did her words ring in his ears like a welcome when he’d been anything but welcoming? And he wasn’t about to change his mind. He was only doing what he thought best, even if it was hard and Mattie felt it unfair.

Where was Mattie? Her name echoed endlessly in his head. She’d never before disappeared like this. People didn’t disappear. Hadn’t he told her that often enough?

He went from home to home asking after her. No one had seen her since school.

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