Page 123 of Already Callin’ You Mine

Stranger Danger…

“Everything you taught him. Everything you’ve put in the stranger danger videos. We just need to be listening for a small child yelling fuck.”

Presley spins, looking at me, the fear on her face as clear as the sky. I can see her pulse racing under her skin, the waves of panic radiating off her in full force.

“How can you be this calm?” A tear escapes and trickles down her cheek.

Calm? I am anything but calm right now…

“I promise you, I’m not. But both of us losing our shit at the same time won’t solve anything either.”

“Right…okay…you go that way. I’ll go this…” She points in opposite directions, sucking in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “Are the girls in on the armadillo thing or just your brothers?”

“My brothers and Willa.” I should have sent it to the big family group text, but I wasn’t thinking. “Word travels fast though. Especially since all y’all were together helping Dolly.”

“Everyone but Maisey,” Presley says, half absentmindedly.

Maisey. That’s it.

I grab Presley’s hand, a sliver of excitement squeezing its way past the fear.

“I know where he is.”

“What? How?”

I don’t answer. I simply turn, not letting go of her hand, and run. Holding on as tight as I can, I weave the two of us between groups of people, bobbing and dodging strollers and strangers as we go. Presley yells my name a couple more times, but answering her would be wasting time. We’ve done enough of that.

Especially since I’m reasonably confident I know where he went.

I should have figured this out sooner. Otis only rambled on and on about it all morning. While we got ready, on the drive over here, the whole walk to find Presley. How could I have forgotten?

Oh, panic, that’s why.

“Jace!” Presley cries, her voice still laced with worry.

I stop, pulling her into me and kissing her. Soft, sweet, reassuring.

“The ambulance,” I whisper. Nodding to my left, I smile, because I’m right. I don’t even have to look over there to know.

“Wha—”

Presley twists in my arms. Then, she relaxes. Her whole body eases, all the tension and turmoil fading away as she melts into my chest.

“Oh, thank God…” she says under her sigh of relief.

“That’s the defibrillator,” Maisey says, holding up the small electronic device. “We use that if someone hurts their heart. There are these very special stickers that we put on their chest and then we push this button and it sends little bits of electricity into them.”

“Owie,” Otis replies.

“It’s only a little bit,” Maisey assures him. “And we only do it in very special hurt heart moments. If you hurt your heart bad enough that we need to do this, you don’t feel it.”

I smile, chuckling to myself. Maisey’s bedside manner is perfect, explaining things in a way that’s understandable to a little kid, but not talking down to him. Otis is eating up every word too. Anton has been banking on Otis taking up a love of farming after his reaction to all the farm equipment, but after watching this, first response might give him a run for his money.

“How’d you know?”

I tighten my embrace, my heart still racing from the shock and the run, Presley’s warmth helping to soothe me back to normal.

“He was talking about it all morning. He wanted to see the ambulance. I don’t know what inspired it. Maisey must have said something at Friendsgiving. Or maybe Landon mentioned it last weekend. But from the second he woke up, he was talking about it. When we passed it on the way to find you, I promised him we would go back so he could see it. Guess he didn’t want to wait for us to be done.”