LITMIR.BIZ

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grandparents from North Carolina, too?”

      “Yep. The beach. Said if I stay with them, they’d take me swimming all the time. But I want to stay with Mom. She acts tough but she’d get lonely without me.” Reece’s grin gave Ben a glimpse of empty gum space where two teeth were MIA.

      A blue sedan pulled up. Miss Harker, the local Department of Children and Family Services caseworker whom he knew from church, exited her vehicle and approached with a smile. Relief lifted weight from Ben’s shoulders. Officer Stallings must have notified her. Ben eyed his watch. He needed to get to the airport stat but felt torn. Reece close stuck to him.

      Standing, he gestured toward the caseworker. “Reece, this is Miss Harker. She’s from the Department of Child and Family Services. She’ll watch you while the doctors help your mom.”

      Reece’s grip squeezed blood from his hand, turning fingers white. Not the reaction he expected. Miss Harker moved closer.

      Panic pounced in Reece’s eyes. She darted behind him, peeking around his leg. “Bearby wants you to watch over us, Mr. Ben. Not her.” She jabbed a finger at Harker before curving it back into her mouth. Then Reece shot perturbed expressions at Harker. Visual declarations that stated she was up for a showdown of wills if necessary.

      Miss Harker knelt and held out a gentle but firm hand to Reece. “Come on, honey. I’ll take you and Bearby to get some food. I’ll bet you’re hungry. You like curly fries?”

      She first ignored Harker’s hand, then glared as if it held an immunization syringe. “No, thanks. Bearby don’t want to eat.”

      Hands to shoulders, Ben guided Reece around. Pandemonium erupted. He needed to leave now to meet Hutton’s plane. Silent pleading skipping across Reece’s tortured eyes clawed at him. Arms twined tight around his, she strained with whale strength that belied her shrimp size.

      Harker reached. Reece dived. Buried herself like a soldier under fire in a foxhole, deep in the crook of Ben’s arm, as though trying to cement her place in his embrace. “I—I…Bearby wants Mr. Ben.”

      He took a step away.

      Tears rushed from her fear-widened eyes, flooding his resolve, fumbling his feet, fencing his intent to leave this instant. But, he’d promised Hutton…

      Miss Harker tried to woo and calmly tug the child from Ben. Would’ve been easier to pry himself from entanglement by a colossal octopus with twenty hyperactive tentacles.

      Reece shrieked and clawed for his shirt, clearly heading into hysteria. “B-Bearby’ll get scared without Mr. Ben! Please! Please!” Her wails drowned out those of the emergency vehicles.

      He peeled her fingers loose. Betrayal in her eyes landed a mortar shell in his chest. Ben looked to Harker for what to do.

      Miss Harker smiled at Reece, then eyed him. “Tell you what, Ben. I know and trust you. Seems the little one has taken quite a liking to you. Mind riding with us? Maybe Bearby would feel safer that way.” Miss Harker brushed a gentle hand along Bearby’s misshapen head, careful not to touch Reece.

      Visibly relaxed, Reece turned imploring eyes on Ben. “Please, Mr. Ben? Bearby really needs you.”

      Something in the girl’s eyes and words sunk emotional hooks into him. By now, Ben figured out she projected onto the beloved toy. He recalled Reece mentioning Bearby doesn’t like to be ignored. Her forlorn tone of voice and the lonely haunt in her eyes had suggested she was all too familiar with what that felt like. Sympathy ambushed him.

      But, Hutton…

      “Let me see what I can do.” Phone out, Ben dialed his PJ team leader, Joel Montgomery, and asked him to meet Hutton at the airport. Refuge Drop Zone’s skydiving facility, which Joel owned, sat minutes from the airport. Ben would have to trust God to be with Hutton if Joel was late. Hutton didn’t cope well with change. Even altered minor plans became major stressors for him. Hopefully Hutton remembered and recognized Joel. If not, the situation could get sticky.

      Satisfied Joel knew what Hutton looked like and would head to the airport ASAP, Ben ended the call and pocketed his phone.

      Reece took his hand. “Thank you, Mr. Ben.”

      “No problem, princess.” He retrieved her booster seat and art supplies, then walked with her around the dove-gray building to his red Chevy Malibu. He deposited his shopping bags in the trunk and locked it as Miss Harker pulled up. Reece scuttled closer to him and eyed Harker with deadly intent. Ben buckled in the booster, Reece, then Bearby, even though he felt silly. He picked up Reece’s coloring pages as Miss Harker drove them around to follow the ambulance. Chatter would smooth things over.

      “You draw these?” He spread pages across the seat.

      “All except one.” Reece pulled it from the bottom. A caricature drawing of Bearby holding Reece, both clad in the outfits they wore today.

      Wow. “Where’d you have this done?” Outstanding artist.

      “Mommy drew it. She draws all the time when she has paper. Isn’t she good?” Reece’s face lit.

      “Real good. The best I’ve seen.” He pulled up another paper. This one’s tone seemed different than the rest, drawn in bright pastels. This drawing had a black face with a red frown and huge gray tears. “What’s this one about?”

      “For when I felt sad about being a mistake and I didn’t have Bearby to love me.” She grew quiet and solemn.

      “You’re not a mistake, princess. You’re a child of God and a treasure to Him.” Wanting to push back whatever dark cloud loomed, Ben slid the page under the seat and held up the caricature. “This really looks like cartoons of you and Bearby.”

      “Speaking of cartoons, what’s your favorite?” Miss Harker asked from the driver’s seat, probably to distract her and build rapport. The channel of conversation switched to cartoons, and Ben settled back to listen. And pray. While they talked, questions popped through his mind like automatic weapon fire.

      What kind of person would ignore this beautiful gift from God and make her think she was a mistake? Didn’t they know how many couples want children and can’t have them?

      Ben thought of his team leader, Joel Montgomery, in the process of adopting another child because of his wife Amber’s infertility. And Ben’s parents, who’d tried for years to have another child after him before conceiving his brother. Though Hutton had MDS, Ben’s parents cherished him. Something Ben hadn’t done until recently.

      He’d always been embarrassed about his brother being different before. Now, he was ultraprotective of him, and he wanted to bring Hutton to Refuge so his parents could realize their dream of a year of world travel.

      How could he have treated his brother like a sore thumb growing up?

      Who in Reece’s life would do something like that?

      Ben stared through the ambulance windows, where IV fluids dripped through tubes he knew were attached to both of her emaciated arms. What kind of mom was Amelia North?

      From the signs he’d noticed, a good one. Something had caused them to leave in a hurry. But what had led to her poor state of health today? Ben didn’t know. For the struggling single mother’s and little girl’s sakes, he aimed to find out.

      He didn’t want any child to go through the hurt he’d put his brother through. Hurt he didn’t know if Hutton had ever fully recovered from. He still didn’t trust Ben fully, which was why Ben’s insides twisted that he couldn’t be at the airport for Hutton as he’d promised.

      He prayed Joel would find Hutton before he wandered off somewhere in a state of confusion and panic. A personal code of duties wouldn’t let him leave Reece until he made sure she was okay. Her mother’s problems were life-threatening, sure, but hopefully only temporarily so.

      Upon arriving at the hospital, Ben helped Reece out and handed her Bearby.

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