Page 141 of The Bitterroot Inn (Jamison Valley 5)
Now that my job here was done, it was time to go home.
Home. A place I hadn’t really had since Mom had died. A place I had now, thanks to Maisy and Coby.
Smiling at the thought of my family, I pulled my phone from my jeans.
Me: All done. Coming home.
Her response was instantaneous.
Blondie: We’ll be waiting.
I slid the phone back in my pocket in exchange for my truck keys. Then, for the hundredth time today, I reached into my other pocket. Tucked away at the bottom was the best surprise I’d found all week. Assured that it was safe and secure, I slipped my hand from my jeans and went to my truck.
Then I went home.
Maisy
“I missed you,” I told Hunter for about the thousandth time since he’d stepped foot in his house. Like every time before, he pulled me into his arms and said it back.
“I missed you too. I’m glad to be home.”
I kissed his chest over his T-shirt and then let him go to finish cooking our meal.
Coby and I had come up to Hunter’s house earlier today to get started on cooking a nice dinner. I knew that Hunter would be tired, driving all the way from Grand Rapids by way of Chicago over the last two days, so we’d come here to make sure he had a proper welcome home.
In the nearly three weeks that had passed since Coby’s kidnapping, I hadn’t let my son out of my sight. At first, he’d clung to me too, but after weeks of watching me clean rooms and fold sheets, he was getting bored. He’d been begging me to take him back to Quail Hollow, but I hadn’t been ready.
Now that Hunter was back, I could get answers to all of my questions and, hopefully, put that horrible afternoon weeks ago behind us. Maybe if I could make sense of Nell’s actions, I wouldn’t have such a hard time letting Coby go back to his normal routine.
“So? How did everything go?” I asked.
Hunter and I hadn’t had a chance to talk much while he’d been gone and I wanted to get more than the details he’d delivered through fast text updates and brief phone calls.
But before Hunter could tell me about his trip, Coby came flying into the room. “Hunter, look!” Under his arm was the remote-control car that Hunter had brought back as a gift.
Coby set down the car and stepped back, positioning the remote in his hands. Then he started pressing levers and buttons until the car jolted to life. He hadn’t gotten the hang of driving it yet so it bounced off the fridge and spun in the other direction, and since Coby’s hand was still on the trigger, the car came crashing right into my bare feet.
“Owie, bud.” I bent down to massage my wounded little toe. “Let’s not run that into people, okay?”
“Sorry, Mommy.” He came after his car and set it up to go the other way.
Hunter smiled as Coby raced it through the living room. “That car is perfect for this house.”
Even with the house fully furnished and décor complete, there was still a ton of wooden floor space for my men’s car races.
“Anyway.” I nodded for Hunter to tell me about his trip.
He pulled up a stool and sat at the island, rubbing his tired eyes. “It was a long trip but I’m glad I went. It was the right thing to do.”
“How did Nell settle into the new place?”
“Good. Better than I expected. We decided to commit her for three years, and after that, we’ll reevaluate.”
I sighed. “Good.”
Nell couldn’t bother us again for three years. She’d be spending that time as the newest resident of Shimmering Waters, a private mental health facility outside Chicago.
The day she had kidnapped Coby had been the worst day of my life. I’d never felt paralyzing fear like that before. I hoped I’d never feel it again. Only when Hunter had brought Coby back from the airstrip had I snapped out of my trance. Falling to my knees, I’d held my son in my arms as my entire family had converged, surrounding me, Coby and Hunter in an enormous group hug where everyone shed tears of relief.
