“Mama, horsies.” Lulu tugs at Cathy’s hand.
Cathy lifts the picnic basket in her hand. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t want to leave the ranch, so I brought lunch to you. We can go eat by the horses if you like.”
“Yay!”
I kiss Lulu goodbye and tell her I’ll see her tomorrow at the wedding.
And then, I go home and take a nap.
* * *
Bang, bang!
I lift my head off the pillow. I’m so disoriented that, for a second, I forget where I even am.
The pine trees outside my window remind me.
Bang, bang
Now my phone is ringing.
I grab it as I pull on a pair of jeans and go to the door.
When I open it, Cathy’s standing there with tears on her cheeks.
“What’s wrong?” I pull her inside. “Where’s Lulu?”
“I lost her,” she says.
“What?” I take her by the shoulders in an effort to calm her. “What do you mean? Tell me what happened.”
“We were having our picnic lunch in the field behind the barn. I was talking to Lulu, trying to get her to try a bite of sweet potato. I looked down for maybe ten seconds to put the potato onto my fork, and when I turned to offer her a bite, she was gone.”
I know how fast Lulu can move when she’s motivated.
“Was she playing hide and seek?”
“I think so because we had been playing earlier. But of course, I always kept her in sight. I’ve been calling to her, and I’m panicking, Liam.”
“Let’s go. We’ll find her.”
I step into my boots and lock the cabin before jumping into my truck. Cathy follows in her car.
I park erratically in front of the barn before getting out and jogging to the field where Cathy said she last saw Lulu. Cathy and I comb the field to no avail, and then I text my brothers on our group chain on my way to the barn.
I don’t see Lulu in the stalls or Luke’s back office, and Cathy swears she already looked there twice.
Jared texts that he’s on his way back to the ranch and will meet me at the barn.
Hunt and Max go to my cabin in case Lulu wanders back there, and Winter stays on the porch of the main house in the event my little girl decides to head up the road.
Luke, Chase, and Cooper arrive at the barn in record time, and they take off on horseback to scour the area beyond the field.
Every option is a terrifying one when I picture a three-year-old trying to navigate the massive ranch on her own, and I fight the feeling of panic threatening me at every turn with no Lulu.
Sunset is a ways from now, but we need to find her. She could be dehydrated, scared, or worse things I don’t want to think about.
I need a lifeline.
