Page 109 of The Strawberry Patch Pancake House

Oh God.

She was going to puke.

‘Iris, what’s going on? Where’s Olive?’ Archer’s stern voice broke through her panic.

‘She … I … she was right here and now…’

‘And now?’ Archer’s voice rose, his panic matching her own.

‘And now … I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know?’

‘I—’

‘Jesus Christ,’ Archer swore, leaving all the snacks behind and striding off across the field, his head swinging back and forth as he searched.

‘Olive!’ he yelled. ‘Olive, where are you?’

Iris hurried along behind, panic and horror and great big sweeping bouts of nausea rolling through her. She’d lost Olive. She’d fucked everything up. And to think, she’d actually believed she could handle this. She’d thought she could have a kid?! She’d thought she could play at what? Being an actual mother to an actual human child?

She had been unqualified from the start and now she’d ruined everything. What if Olive was in danger? What if she’d been kidnapped? What if she’d gotten hurt or fallen down or broken a bone or wandered into the road?

What if…

What if…

What if…

Iris stopped at the nearest trash can to empty the contents of her stomach as one awful scenario after another raced through her head. She had never known terror as acute as this. She had never known worry as debilitating.

This wasn’t a game. This wasn’t a fling.

This was Archer and his real-life daughter, and she’d let them both down so terribly, so completely…

Her whole body was shaking when Kira appeared beside her and wrapped an arm around her to steady her.

‘It’s okay,’ she soothed. ‘Everyone is looking for her, Iris. They’ll find her in no time.’ Kira pressed a kiss to Iris’s temple and Iris clung to her friend.

‘What if they don’t… What if…’

‘Hush,’ Kira commanded, taking charge. ‘They will find her. She’s only been gone a minute, Iris, and the whole damn town is here. They will find her, and she’ll be fine. Everything will be fine.’ She said it with such certainty that Iris was forced to believe her, but she held tight to Kira’s hand as they walked the festival calling Olive’s name.

When Logan’s tractor pulled into view with Olive on the seat beside him, grinning from ear to ear, Iris didn’t know if she wanted to hug her or strangle her.

She ran to the tractor, leaving Kira behind. Archer beat her to it though, already lifting Olive from her seat, already scolding and crying and hugging her all at once.

‘Never do that again,’ he said, pulling back from his hug to look her in the eye. ‘Never again, do you hear me?’

Olive nodded, her smile long gone. She took Archer’s face between her small hands. ‘Sorry, Dad. I just wanted to pick somefreshstrawberries in the field.’

Archer glanced up at Logan.

‘I found her wandering around the back of the farmhouse, happy as a clam, picking strawberries from my grandfather’s personal garden.’ Logan had a bemused smile on his face but Archer was clearly not ready to join him in that.

‘Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. I’m sorry she got away from us.’

Notus. Away fromher. It had been her fault, and Iris couldn’t do anything but hover in the background as relief and regret swirled through her. All she could do was watch as Archer scooped up his daughter and smothered her in kisses and told her over and over again to never wander off like that again and that she’d scared him and that he loved her. And the longing to be a part of that hug was so sharp and so strong it nearly brought her to her knees.