Page 79 of Tracking Safety

Then Liam moved. “Daddy!”

Luke broke into a jog. When they were close enough, Luke crouched with open arms, and Liam ran straight into them.

Jenna pressed her hand flat against her sternum and tried to breathe.

Liam was okay. He really was okay!

Luke held his son a long moment, one hand at the back of his head and his eyes closed. Her throat constricted when she saw Luke’s shoulder’s drop. He’d been worried—more worried than he’d let on.

This could have turned out so much differently, and she thanked God it hadn’t.

The man stepped out of the trees and onto the path, closer to them. He watched the reunion with an expression Jenna could only describe as satisfied—but not in a genuine way. More like in an amused way.

A toothpick moved slowly from one side of his mouth to the other.

Luke pulled back from Liam and looked at the man. Something shifted in his gaze. Recognition. “Travis . . .”

She tried not to suck in a breath at the name.

She’d heard Travis Henderson’s name enough times in the past two days to know exactly who he was. The neighbor. The one who resented the Kings for buying land his family had lost. The one whose boot prints were probably pressed into the dirt around Refuge Cove’s utility box right now.

Travis worked the toothpick to the corner of his mouth and looked at Luke with a mild, unhurried expression. “Found your boy out here wandering around. Figured I’d bring him back up to the house. Seemed like the neighborly thing.”

Liam’s face confirmed Travis’s words. The boy wasn’t frightened—not of Travis, anyway. He looked like a child who knew he’d done something he wasn’t supposed to do and was bracing for the consequences.

However, the important thing was that he was okay. He was genuinely okay.

Jenna pressed her lips together and held onto that.

Luke put a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Why did you leave?”

Liam looked at the ground. “I just wanted to explore.”

“You know better than to ever leave without telling someone.”

Liam nodded once, still looking down.

That was all Luke said.

Jenna looked at Liam, and everything in her wanted to close the distance between them. To put her arms around her son the way she hadn’t let herself do this morning. To hold on the way Luke just had and not let go for a long time.

Instead, she stayed where she was.

Her son hadn’t reached for her. He hadn’t looked at her since he’d come out of the trees. He was still angry with her. In fact, his anger might have been the reason he left.

Guilt pounded at her.

Whatever this moment was, it belonged to him and his father, and she didn’t have the right to step into the middle of it.

She was so grateful her son was safe. That was all she could ask for right now.

Luke stared at Travis Henderson and prayed for self-control.

Travis stared back with that same cocky expression he always wore. His toothpick moved between his lips. His hands stayed loose at his sides.

Luke’s patience was running thin with the man—to put it mildly. “Walk with me.”

It wasn’t a question.