Honeysuckle Summer. Sherryl Woods

his head at her logic. “A little boy went missing this afternoon.”

      Carrie immediately looked chagrined. “But you found him, right? And he was okay?”

      “He was fine. He’d gone looking for the ice-cream truck.”

      Carrie looked relieved. “So it all turned out okay,” she concluded. “You should be happy.”

      “I’m just irritated that he got away from the woman who was supposed to be watching him in the first place,” he admitted.

      Mandy gave him an incredulous look. “Oh, come on! You used to run away from home all the time. Mom and Dad told us. Mom said it’s why her hair turned gray.”

      Carter winced. They were enough younger that he hadn’t realized they would know about his own adventures on the wild side when he was only a few years older than Tommy Price. “That was different,” he claimed.

      “How?” Carrie asked. “You scared Mom and Dad to death, and you did it deliberately. It sounds as if this little boy just went on an innocent search for ice cream.”

      “You’re missing the point. Anything could have happened to him.”

      “Anything could have happened to you, too,” Carrie said. “Do you blame Mom and Dad for letting you sneak away?”

      He saw he wasn’t going to win this argument. Truthfully, he very rarely came out on top with these two. They could twist him in knots faster than anyone else in his life. Worse, now that they were both in their teens, the dangers were even greater and his influence on them was still shaky. They were all still getting used to the idea that he was in charge, and not just a bossy big brother anymore.

      “It was different,” he repeated. “I was older than this little boy. I could take care of myself.”

      “You were six the first time you ran away,” Mandy corrected. “Dad said he followed you until it got dark. You finally got scared at some noise or a shadow or something and ran home.”

      Carter scowled. “Did they tell you every stupid thing I ever did?”

      Carrie grinned impudently. “No, they pretty much glossed over all the stuff you did with girls. We just know there were a lot of them.”

      “Ancient history,” Carter said. And given how much trouble these two were likely to be, he couldn’t imagine having time for any kind of relationship of his own in the near future.

      “Too bad,” Mandy commented, her expression thoughtful. “You might mellow out if you had a girlfriend. I hear not having sex is tough on guys.”

      “We are so not discussing my sex life,” he declared emphatically, feeling heat climb into his cheeks. He supposed he should be grateful that the girls still thought they could say anything to him, but not if one of those topics was going to be his personal relationships…or lack thereof.

      Carrie’s eyes brightened. “Hey, we could work on finding someone for you,” she suggested eagerly.

      “I do not need you to pick out a woman for me,” he said, horrified by the thought. “I have enough on my plate right now, anyway, so just forget it, okay?”

      Both girls shrugged.

      “Whatever you say,” Mandy said. “But if you’re cranky all the time, don’t blame us.”

      Carter shook his head. “Give it a rest. I am not cranky all the time.”

      Carrie gave him a disbelieving look, then turned to her sister. “He’s in denial, right?”

      “Lives there,” Mandy confirmed.

      And then they were gone, leaving him to clean up their take-out meal and to wrestle with the possibility that his overall mood these days was less than cheery. Thinking about this afternoon’s events certainly wasn’t doing a thing to improve that, and something told him he was going to be lying awake all night wondering why that was. Was it really about what might have happened to Tommy Price? Or was it about the woman to whom he’d taken an instant dislike?

      When morning rolled around and the girls had left for school, Carter reported for duty at the sheriff’s department, then told the dispatcher he was going to patrol in Serenity unless a call came in and he was needed elsewhere.

      “You’re not doing a drive-by in Tommy Price’s neighborhood, are you?” Gayle Kincaid asked.

      Carter frowned at her astute guesswork. “What makes you think that’s where I’m headed?”

      “Because I’ve been in this job for thirty years, and I saw the way you looked when you got back here yesterday afternoon,” she told him. “Your eyes were as dark as any storm cloud I ever saw. Spotted a few flashes of lightning in there, too.”

      “What did you expect? I found that boy blocks from home,” he said in his own defense. “Why wouldn’t I check to make sure someone’s keeping a closer eye on him today?”

      “I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but if you take every case to heart like this, you’ll burn out before you turn thirty, which as I recall is only a few months from now.”

      “I’m just riding around a neighborhood,” he told her. “I don’t think we need to worry about my mental health just yet. Call me if you need me.”

      “Will do,” she said. “By the way, Sarah Price has been singing your praises on the air this morning. I imagine you’re a real hero around town by now.”

      Carter wondered how she’d feel about him if he decided he had to take some kind of action against her babysitter, but he left that unsaid.

      A few minutes later, he was cruising past the little bungalow looking for any sign that something might be amiss this morning. He heard kids squealing with glee in the backyard and caught a glimpse of Tommy and his younger sister—Libby, as he recalled—swinging on a swing set, being pushed by someone unfamiliar. Not much more than a teenager, from the looks of it, but still it had to be an improvement over the alternative. For an instant, relief washed over him. Maybe Sarah Price had fired the irresponsible woman and hired someone new already. If so, his worries were over.

      Just as that thought crossed his mind, though, the back door swung open and the other woman called out, “Breakfast’s ready.” She turned her head, spotted him, and Carter swore he saw the blood drain out of her face. The screen door immediately slammed shut.

      He waited until the kids and the other woman went inside before driving off. He was more confused than ever now. The woman from the day before was still there, but what was her role beyond dressing up the scenery?

      Once again, she’d been wearing a pair of slacks and a blouse that he’d bet his entire month’s salary had cost a fortune. Thanks to Carrie and Mandy, who were obsessed with designer fashion, he recognized pricey clothes when he saw them. He’d spent too many hours listening to tearful pleas from his sisters for the latest jeans or fancy shoes. They didn’t seem to understand just how tight money was since their parents had died with little savings and only a minimum amount of life insurance. Added together, it had been barely enough to cover funeral expenses. He refused to touch the money they’d put aside for the girls’ college education. Instead, he tried to add a little to it each month, which further eroded the amount he had for basic expenses.

      Nor did Carrie or Mandy seem to care that he was woefully inept at the whole parenting role that had been thrust upon him at the age of twenty-seven. They rarely cut him a break of any kind, but that was another issue.

      Thinking about the boatload of responsibility that he’d struggled with for the past couple of years made him even more annoyed at how the babysitter had just let Tommy take off yesterday afternoon. If someone was going to take on the job of looking after someone else’s kids, then by gosh, they ought to be focused on it and not sitting around in the kitchen reading fashion magazines, or whatever, while the kids ran wild and put themselves in danger. He’d turned his life upside down to take care of Carrie