Page 71 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

Now Finn was splayed over the top of him.

I was pretty sure with the way Theo enthused, “You’re so big and fast, you totally knocked me down,” there was a whole lot of acting going on.

“I knock you down!” Finn shouted as he wiggled around in his ridiculous outfit, rolling off to the side and onto his stomach before he could finally climb to his feet, using his mittened hands to push himself to standing.

Then he and Lucy both took one of Theo’s hands, the two children struggling with all their might to help him up.

“I go again,Feo.” Finn bobbed his sweet head emphatically.

“What, you just want to knock me over again?” Theo asked as he hopped onto his feet. He ran a tender hand over the top of Finn’s cap as he gazed down at my son.

My chest tightened, emotion clotting the air.

“No, I gowif Wucy.”

“Ah, now that sounds like a good plan.”

“Finn doesn’t get to play with other children very often,” I mused, more of that joy threatening as I watched him having the most fun he’d had in as long as I remembered.

Maybe in ever.

He always seemed content. Happy, even. The life we lived was the only life he knew.

But it was times like these when it became clear what we were missing.

“Neither does Lucy,” Alicia whispered as she anxiously tugged at the zipper of her coat.

“How long are you staying here?” I asked.

Alicia wavered, her silence stirring that turbulence again. “We’re more of a long-term rental. You?” She hurried the last.

Uncertainty rolled out of me on a huff. “At least three weeks.” I couldn’t bring myself to utter aloud what Nelly had suggested. “We got into a small accident, so we’re stuck here until my car is repaired. Theo found us, which is how we ended up at The Sanctuary.”

I peeked at her when I said it. A total masochist for trying to gauge her reaction when I mentioned his name. What the hell was wrong with me?

A puff of vapor curled from her mouth as she exhaled. “You never expect your savior to look like that, do you?”

Something about her tone made me think she was prodding. Asking me for a detail without coming out and saying it.

Or maybe she was just making it clear that she was claiming it for herself.

Confusion bound, and I turned back to stare at where Theo caught Lucy at the bottom of the slide. “No. I guess you don’t.”

“He’s a good man,” she murmured even lower than she had been speaking before.

My belly tumbled.

“That’s good to know,” I muttered, trying to make sense of whatever was happening.

The sense of something ominous floating in the air.

A grimness that butted up against the peace.

I glanced up when I heard the engine of an automobile coming up the winding drive that led to the two cabins and ended in a small cul-de-sac.

Dread curled through me, and the fine hairs at the back of my neck lifted in sticky awareness. Old fears rose to the surface, and my eyes darted toward Finn, my feet itching to run to him. The urge screaming at me to sweep him up and rush us into hiding.

Paranoia sinking its steely talons into my spirit.