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Noah thumped his head on the nearest doorjamb, then headed for his back door.
Chapter Four
IN A QUARTER MILE,turn right onto Running Elk Road. Your destination is on the left.”
Willow let out a relieved sigh. What should have been a thirty-five-minute trip had taken almost an hour due to an accident on the road near Raindrop Lodge and a stubborn herd of mountain goats who created another roadblock a mile back.
Seated beside Willow in the front passenger seat, Aunt Helen observed, “Something I’ve wondered about—is there a way to make your GPS speak in a masculine voice instead of a feminine one?”
From the backseat, where she sat next to Emma, Genevieve replied, “Surely there is.”
“Remind me to google that later,” Aunt Helen said, glancing down at her phone. “I don’t have any bars here.”
They were out in the middle of nowhere, Willow thought. Her grip tightened around the steering wheel. How could she have brought her children to a place where cell phone service didn’t exist? What kind of mother was she?
Not as good a mother as her own—that’s for sure. Willow could always count on Genevieve Prentice. She always did what was best for her children. Even when she’d had her own little personal crisis, flipped out, and moved to Colorado, that had been the best thing for the family because it led to the truce in World War Prentice.
No matter how hard she tried, Willow would never be as good a mom as Genevieve.
She didn’t have her mother’s strength.
Genevieve hadn’t retreated from the world when her husband died leaving her with not two, but four—FOUR—children to raise. Nope, she squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and charged ahead. Fearlessly. Unlike Willow, who was afraid. All. The. Damned. Time.
Willow had been so relieved and grateful when her mother had arrived at the Raindrop Lodge cabin with Aunt Helen just as Willow started her car to retrieve Drew from the address on Running Elk Road. Genevieve had a knack of being there when Willow needed her. At least, she was there when Willow wasn’t pushing her away.
While Emma played with Willow’s tablet—screen rules be damned under these circumstances—her mother and Aunt Helen chatted almost nonstop. The conversation centered on the women’s ongoing feud with the county employee in charge of permitting and provided Willow a welcome distraction. Despite the primarily positive intel from Zach about Noah Tannehill and the fact that Drew had sounded just fine when she spoke to him, Willow’s worry and concern ratcheted up with every minute that passed. By the time she reached the entrance gate at 4743 Running Elk Road where a sign read the hideaway, she was strung tight as a guitar string.
Her son had been alone with a stranger for more than an hour. What if…
Stop it.
She followed tire tracks through the snow toward a large, attractive log mountain home. A second building on the property appeared to be what was popularly called a barndominium these days. Her gaze darted between the two structures. She was desperate to see her son.
Willow recognized that her anxiety level was overblown. Her mouth shouldn’t be this dry. Her heart shouldn’t pound this way. However, this is what she’d been dealing with for the past few years.Mrs. Eldridge, there’s been an accident. Mrs. Eldridge, I’m so sorry to have to tell you this. He wasn’t buckled into the car seat, Mrs. Eldridge. Your son is lucky to be alive.
“There he is,” Genevieve said from the passenger seat. “Near the barn. What is that thing he’s holding?”
Willow heard the click of a seatbelt release, then Aunt Helen scooted the center of the backseat and leaned forward. “It looks like a fire extinguisher to me.”
A fire extinguisher! “What is he doing with a fire extinguisher?”
“Better than a fire starter, I’d imagine,” her aunt observed.
The tire tracks continued toward the house, but Willow veered off in the direction of the second building. She was thankful she drove an SUV equipped with snow tires, especially when she stomped on the brakes and the tires slid a bit before the vehicle came to a complete stop.
She cut the engine and bailed out of the SUV. “Drew, baby. Are you okay?”
“Don’t call me a baby, Mom,” he protested as she threw her arms around him and clutched him tight. “I’m fine.”
Thank you, God.Relief made her knees weak, but ratherthan collapse like she wanted to do, she rode the motherhood roller coaster and did her job. “Actually, you’re not fine. Andrew John Eldridge, you are in so much trouble! You had permission to walk up to the gift shop. What made you think it was all right to take off into the wilderness all by yourself ?”
“I didn’t mean to go into the wilderness, Mom. I thought I was taking a shortcut, but I got lost. I didn’t know which way to go. Then I found the creek, and I thought it would lead me to Mirror Lake, only instead, I saw this house. I was going to knock on the door and ask for help, but I got distracted by the North Pole.”
Santa Claus. The North Pole. “What are you talking about, Drew?”
“Look! I’ll show you!” He dropped the fire extinguisher and dashed around the corner of the building. Willow trailed after him, a follow-up question about the fire extinguisher on the tip of her tongue.
“See?” Drew pointed toward a wooden sign that readSANTA’S WORKSHOP. “I knew it wasn’t real, but I couldn’t help myself, Mom. I went inside.”
