Page 72 of Her Christmas Wish

“Don’t worry,” he told her, picking the child up, settling her on his hip as he’d seen Sage do. “We’re both in trouble on this one, and we’ll take our punishment together, okay?”

Those blue eyes, so close to his own now, implored him. “Do I gotta?”

“Yes. Without any argument. You disobeyed your rules.” He was already out on the porch. “Deal?”

“Okay...”

He heard the grumble in her voice.

Might have smiled at it if he hadn’t already been shouting out, “She’s here! She’s here!” at the top of his lungs.

As he galloped down the beach with Sage’s child in his arms.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sage’s heart went from pure, undiluted panic to relief so quickly she stumbled as she raced toward the man heading for them.

That it was Gray holding her rescued daughter gave her a further measure of warmth. With wide eyes she reached the two before Scott and Iris, but just barely.

Sand flew as she stopped abruptly, reaching for her daughter. “Are you okay?” she asked the little girl, checking every inch of her for stains, signs of blood, bruising, distress. And then, looking up at Gray, “Where did you find her?”

Then back at Leigh, hugging the little girl tight. “Thank God,” she said, and burst into tears.

“Where’d you find her?” Scott’s voice spoke just beyond Sage.

“Is she okay?” Iris asked right after. As Morgan and Angel circled around them barking.

Sage hung on. Squeezing her eyes shut to stem the flow of emotion welling over. She didn’t want to scare Leigh.

The thought materialized, just as she heard Gray say, “I didn’t find her. She knocked on the door.”

The dogs had quieted.

“Mommy, you’re hurting me!” Leigh’s voice, strong and a bit irritated, accompanied the little girl’s proclamation as she pushed against Sage.

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” she quickly responded, putting the child down and looking her over again head to foot as both dogs came forward and did the same. Morgan licked Leigh’s fingers. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

Because if she was...then what...

“I breaked the rules and Mr. Buzzing Bee said I have to take my punishment and him, too, together. I don’t know why him. It’s my rules.” At that, the little girl turned to look at Gray, who’d been talking softly with Iris and Scott, while standing right there, within touching distance of Sage.

“How come you get in trouble? It’s in my rules?” she asked, frowning.

“Because I’m a grown-up and I know your rules, and I didn’t check to make sure you were following them, which makes me in trouble, too.”

As Sage slowly got up to speed, her mind spun in all new directions. Which built different tensions. With a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, she stood and faced Gray. “She broke her rules to visit you?”

Why that was in any way his problem, she had no idea.

“Am I punished now?” Leigh asked, looking up at the two of them.

Scott, who’d stopped talking with Iris and was watching the interchange, stepped forward, looking at Sage, and then Gray, before taking Leigh’s hand. “I think Mommy needs some time to figure that out,” he told the little girl. “Why don’t you come with me and Miss Iris back to your house and wait for her?”

He glanced at Sage at that last bit. She nodded. Fighting through the residual effects of the original trauma, to try to figure out what was going on.

She’d been standing right there, with Leigh playing catch with the dogs, talking to Scott and Iris about an apparent potential buyer for the cottage at the end of the road, and next thing she knew, Leigh was gone.

“Our first water rescue class is tomorrow,” she said, inanely. But not. “They can’t come soon enough as far as I’m concerned. I thought...”