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Before he could reach the pair, commanding, loud voices filled the air.
“Freeze. Get down on the ground!”
Relief filled Emma as four police officers streamed into the living room, and she couldn’t stop the tears as they flowed down her face again.
Ted knelt with both hands on the back of his head, saying nothing. Jason said plenty, though, and the cops didn’t haul Ted to his feet, cuff him, and lead him out of the house.
They did do that to Robert, and Jason looked at her, his hair rumpled and blood trickling out the corner of his mouth. “Here’s the key,” he said to one of the cops, and he released Ted first, and then Emma.
She automatically reached to rub her wrist, which bore an angry red mark.
Ted got swept away, out into the front room with two cops. Another sat Jason at the dining room table, where a paramedic knelt in front of him to tend to his lip. Another came toward Emma, who could not stop crying.
“Are you hurt?” the man asked, and Emma didn’t know if she should shake her head yes or no. She let the man check her, and when they finally let her leave the house, she couldn’t find Ted anywhere.
“Emma,” Ginger said, rushing forward from where the police had been holding her, and Emma hurried down the front steps and into the arms of her best friend.
* * *
Emma pulledthe blanket tighter around her legs and looked at Ginger. “We can really have the cabin in the corner?”
“My parents decided not to come back to the ranch,” Ginger said. “It’s all yours.” She looked down and picked up her phone. “I’ll miss you here in the West Wing.”
“The office is here.”
“So you won’t quit?”
“Nate has Connor here,” Emma said. “I can get Missy to school and back, and she’s been saying she wants to learn to ride in the afternoons.” She thought about the violin lessons, but she pushed her insecurities away. “So no. I can do this job, Ginger.”
“I know you can.”
The incident at Robert’s cabin was a day old now, and she’d talked to Fran and Matt and Missy. Saturday, she’d be driving to San Antonio one final time, and Matt and Fran would follow her back to Hope Eternal Ranch.
They wanted to see it too, and they’d tow a trailer with everything Missy needed to start the second half of her childhood with Emma as her mother.
Pure fear flowed through her. She’d never taken care of another human being besides herself for any length of time, and she had no idea what she was doing. Fran had said she could call anytime, but the guilt of taking Missy from Fran and Matt threatened to smother her almost all of the time. She wouldn’t be calling to ask for advice.
No, she’d only call and text them about the awesome things Missy did. Invite them to her riding lessons and school performances and just to visit for the weekend. She’d make sure Missy called them all the time, and that they had the opportunity for video chats. All the things they’d done for her, she’d do for them.
When she didn’t know how to discipline her daughter, or how to comfort her, Emma would not bother Fran and Matt. They’d never burdened her with the hard things of raising a child. So, with everything else, she’d just have to muddle through and figure things out the best she could.
“And what about Ted?” Ginger asked.
Emma shrugged, because she hadn’t spoken to him. He hadn’t texted; she hadn’t been out on the ranch at all since completing her interview with the police officer and coming back to the ranch with Ginger and Nate.
“You like him, though, right?” Ginger asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Emma said. “I didn’t tell him about Missy, and it’s a huge elephant between us.”
“So just go over there and shoo the wildlife out of the room.”
Emma smiled and shook her head. Ginger’s phone went off, and she got distracted by her device. “There’s a problem in the stables.”
“Go,” Emma said, smiling.
Ginger looked at her, her eyebrows up. “You sure?”
“You have a problem with a horse, Ginger, and they’re your babies.” Emma gave a light laugh, though she wasn’t sure what she had to laugh about. “Go.”
