Always Dakota. Debbie Macomber

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СКАЧАТЬ “Who knows? It’s contagious. Every kid gets chicken pox at some time or other.”

      “But he’s miserable!”

      Bob didn’t know much about childhood diseases, but he knew chicken pox was a common enough ailment. “I’ll go and see Hassie in the morning. I’m sure there’s something she can suggest.”

      “Daddy, Daddy.” Axel stretched his arms toward Bob.

      “I’ll stay with him,” Bob volunteered, knowing Merrily had been up most of the night.

      “Thanks,” she whispered, and kissed Axel’s head before she handed him to Bob.

      With regret Bob watched her return to their bedroom, wishing he could join her. Instead, he slipped beneath the covers in the narrow single bed and cradled Axel against his chest. The boy rested his head there and whimpered softly. “Hurt, Daddy, hurt.”

      Bob pressed his hand against Axel’s forehead and noted that he didn’t have a fever. Merrily had probably already given him Tylenol. “Try to sleep,” Bob urged.

      Axel nodded. “Sing the song about nannytucket.”

      Grinning, he shook his head. Merrily didn’t approve of his singing off-color ditties to the boy. Especially the one that started “There once was a man from Nantucket.”

      Instead he hummed a nursery rhyme the two had learned from a Barney video. Six months ago, if anyone had told him he’d willingly sit with a two-year-old to watch a purple dinosaur, Bob would have called that person a bold-faced liar.

      Trusting and small, Axel nestled in his muscular arms. In the faint light, Bob ran his hand over the youngster’s head, still humming softly. He loved the boy as dearly and completely as if they shared the same blood. However, his feelings for Axel hadn’t started out that way.

      Nearly four years ago Bob had been riding through Buffalo Valley on his Harley when he met Dave Ertz. Dave owned the bar and grill, which was also the town’s only hotel. He’d been trying to sell it, but when no buyers materialized, Dave—an inventive sort—had thrown a poker game with a thousand-dollar entry fee. The winner got the entire business, lock, stock and barrel. Bob won with three of a kind, hence the bar’s new name.

      Bob had been a loner and a drifter all his adult life. Because he rode a Hog, most people assumed he was part of the biker crowd. Bob enjoyed the reputation—he dressed the part, talked the talk—but he’d never been a gang member or participated in gang activities.

      He’d been in business a few months, struggling to make ends meet the same way Dave had, when Merrily appeared. He’d recognized immediately that they were two of a kind. Now, with Axel, they were three of a kind. He grinned—three of a kind. Just like the bar.

      Merrily had walked in one day looking for a job, and despite his lack of spare cash and customers, he’d hired her on the spot. Bob had sensed then that she was more than simply passing through his town—and his life.

      They hit it off, and within weeks, Bob was entertaining thoughts of asking Merrily to move in with him, when suddenly she disappeared. That first time, the second time, too, had unsettled him. After that, he’d realized this was a pattern with her. Sometime around the third year, her visits came fast and furious and then one day, out of the blue, she showed up with Axel.

      Bob knew the kid didn’t belong to her. For one thing, the timing was all wrong. And whenever Bob asked her about Axel, she clammed up. Once, when he’d pressured her, she’d flippantly announced she’d won him in a poker game. Funny, real funny.

      Not knowing the kid’s background was worry enough, but during those first few weeks, the boy was also a real pain in the butt. He constantly needed attention and no matter what Bob did, Axel refused to look him in the face. The toddler clung to Merrily, which proved to be downright frustrating to a man in need of his woman.

      Little by little, the details came out, and Bob learned that the burn scars on Axel’s thighs had come from his father. His parents had physically and mentally abused him; heaven only knew what would’ve happened had Merrily not been there to protect him. When it looked as though they were going to sell Axel to the highest bidder, Merrily had taken him herself. It went without saying that if the authorities were ever to find Axel, she’d be hip-deep in trouble. Him, too, seeing that he was part of all this now.

      When he’d heard some of what the little boy had suffered at the hands of his parents, Bob’s heart softened. He hadn’t been keen on sharing Merrily, but she’d made it plain that she and Axel came as a package deal. Within a month he felt as protective toward the boy as Merrily did.

      Soon Bob found himself looking forward to spending time with the child. At night, after Axel’s bath, he often read to him. Merrily claimed that Bob’s stories were the only thing Axel would sit still for. Bob had never felt completely responsible for another human being before; now he did. Now he had someone who needed him and loved him unconditionally. In the same way that Merrily was the only mother Axel had, Bob became his father.

      After a trip to the doctor’s office, when Axel developed his first ear infection, it became apparent that they were going to need a forged birth certificate. Bob had obtained one; that same day, he bought an engagement ring and asked Merrily to marry him.

      She agreed, and their wedding was the best day of his life. The entire town of Buffalo Valley had celebrated with them. Bob had never known such happiness. Merrily was his wife and for all intents and purposes, Axel was his son. Life was good—and he should have known it wouldn’t last. Should have realized that anything this perfect was bound to fall apart, probably sooner rather than later.

      He and Merrily had been married only a few weeks when Bob learned that Axel’s picture had appeared on a flyer sponsored by the Foundation for Missing Children. It had circulated throughout the country.

      How many had turned up in Buffalo Valley, Bob didn’t know. Most folks tossed them aside without looking carefully, and anyone who might have recognized Axel wasn’t saying. But the fact remained: the authorities were searching for Axel. Not knowing what to do, Bob had discussed the situation with Maddy, who until recently had been employed as a social worker. Circumstances being what they were, Bob wasn’t exactly able to disguise his predicament.

      Maddy gave him the name of an attorney in Georgia she said he could trust. A man who specialized in difficult cases like this one.

      Yes, Merrily had stolen Axel and transported him over state lines, but in doing so she’d saved his life. Bob’s greatest fear was that if he approached the lawyer, he’d be in danger of losing both Merrily and Axel. His life wouldn’t be worth living without them. But the crazy part, the incredible part, was that no one seemed to have connected Axel with the boy in the flyer. Within a few weeks, Bob began to believe they’d had a lucky escape, so he’d done nothing more. He hadn’t called the lawyer. Why look for trouble? In the months since, the only people they’d allowed near Axel were townsfolk. No one had questioned either Merrily or him about the boy, and he trusted that the people in this town, whether they were aware of the truth or not, would protect the family as much as possible.

      Axel stirred, and Bob could see that the boy had fallen asleep. Lovingly, he leaned down and kissed his forehead. No one was taking this child away. As God was his witness, he wouldn’t let that happen.

      “Sleep well, little man,” he whispered, awake and alert.

      Three weeks following the burial of Bernard Clemens, Matt Eilers СКАЧАТЬ