Mae shook her head.
“Well, we should ask your daddy if we can all go on an adventure on the train one day,” Hailey said. “Then maybe you can talk to the conductor.”
“She won’t let me drive the train,” Mae guessed.
“Probably not,” Hailey agreed, trying to hide her smile. “But maybe she can tell you how she learned to operate trains and whether she likes her job.”
“Let’s go tell my dad,” Mae said, taking off in the direction Ransom had gone in.
“Wait, Mae,” Hailey called out.
But it was too late. The little girl had moved through the crowd so quickly that Hailey couldn’t see where she was.
“Excuse me,” she said, going as quickly as she dared through the clumps of people lined up around various booths. “Sorry, I just need to get past.”
Her heart began to pound. Realistically, she knew that no harm would come to the little girl in the midst of a community event in broad daylight.
But living in New York had made her less trusting, and the further she got without finding Mae, the more panicked she felt.
“Hey,” Travis said somewhere ahead of her. “Where’s Hailey?”
“I don’t know,” Mae’s little voice said. “Is she lost?”
“I’m here,” Hailey called out, not wanting to worry the kids.
A moment later, she caught up to the two of them beside a booth with rag dolls in Christmas dresses.
“You didn’t come with me,” Mae said sadly.
“Mae, I know you were excited, but you can’t run offin a place like this,” Hailey told her carefully. “I was worried. Next time let’s hold hands, okay?”
Mae was tearing up, so Hailey crouched down and put her arms out and the little girl slammed into her right away, her little arms hugging Hailey really hard.
“It’s okay,” Hailey reassured her. “We found each other right away, didn’t we?”
Mae nodded into the crook of her neck and Hailey felt a wave of love for the fierce little girl who was so independent but wore her heart on her sleeve.
“There’s Dad,” Travis said a moment later.
Mae let go of Hailey immediately.
“Can I go see my dad now?” she asked before running off.
“Yes,” Hailey told her. “Thank you so much for asking.”
Mae took off before Hailey was even finished speaking and she smiled after her.
“You didn’t get mad,” Travis said quietly.
She turned to him, surprised.
“Of course not,” she told him. “Mae didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
“Mom gets mad if we do something wrong,” he said, shrugging and looking away.
Sadness squeezed her heart for a moment and she had to suck in a deep breath before bending down to talk with the little boy.
“Travis,” she said. “If you do something wrong on purpose, it’s natural for your parents to feel a little frustrated. But making mistakes by accident happens all thetime when you’re a kid. Grownups are here to help you learn from your mistakes.”
