Christmas At Cade Ranch. Karen Rock

Mama. Do you think she likes me?”

      “Yes,” he said, his voice gruff. Encouraging Javi to feel a part of the family was wrong until he had proof he was truly a Cade. Yet his convictions dwindled in the face of this child’s wish to belong.

      “No one ever likes me except Mama.”

      “I’m sure that’s not true.” James turned down a left loop that would carry them back to the house. A row of wind turbines rotated slowly on a distant hill.

      “A lady behind a desk once called me a waste of space.”

      James’s fingers tightened around the cracked leather steering wheel. “That was a bad thing to say.”

      “Mama said her panty hose were too tight.”

      That pulled a laugh right out of him.

      “What’s panty hose?”

      Before James could think of how to explain, Javi asked, “Was Daddy bad?”

      James’s throat swelled. “Jesse tried his best. He was a good man, but he sometimes did wrong things.”

      “Mama says he went up.”

      James pressed on the brake when a ginger cat broke from some brush and scuttled across the road. “That’s true.”

      “You only get to go up if you’re good,” Javi said to his clasped hands.

      James flipped off his lights as they neared the glowing ranch house. “That’s why it’s important to be on our best behavior.”

      “But it’s hard,” moaned Javi.

      He grinned and ruffled the boy’s hair. “Yes, it is.”

      They pulled up to the front porch and there stood Sofia, just where they’d left her, as if she’d been frozen in place.

      She yanked open the door the moment they rolled to a stop.

      “Javi!” She swung him up into her arms. “I missed you.”

      James joined them as she set Javi on his feet.

      “Look what just got delivered!” Joy strode down the steps with a wallet held out toward Sofia.

      “Who?” Sofia grasped the small clutch bag that served as her wallet then opened it and peered inside.

      “A neighbor. He was having coffee at the diner when they found it wedged between the booth and the wall. He dropped it off on his way home.”

      If Sofia had her wallet, did she have drugs inside—her reason for not going to the police?