Lone Star Christmas. Jolene Navarro

the stall doors. “Tomas! Isaac!”

      No answer came back to him. Glancing under the doors, he found the stalls empty. Sheer panic froze him in place for a moment. They had to be here. Horror stories of kids disappearing swamped his brain. That kind of stuff didn’t happen in Clear Water, not here in Smalltown, USA. “Tomas! Isaac!”

      They had to be here somewhere. Coming out of the bathroom, he walked briskly over to the convenience store side. The boys would love to play with the souvenirs and toys over there. Maybe they’d wandered that way. “Ethan! They aren’t in here. Get Jackie. I’m going to see if they went into the store.”

      Ethan stood, his mouth open. “What do you mean? They have to be there.”

      Max took a deep breath to keep himself from yelling. “They’re gone. Tell Jackie.” Without waiting, he rushed over to find a clerk who might have seen the boys.

      His mind was racing with all the worst possibilities. The kid organizing chip bags looked all of sixteen. “Did you see two boys? Dark hair. Identical looking. Five and six years old? They were in the restroom.”

      “No, but I heard the bell over the door a little bit ago.” He frowned. “Do you need me to call the sheriff?”

      “Maybe.” Was he overreacting? No, they were small kids, and they were missing. “Yeah. I’ll go outside and check.”

      “Max?” Jackie charged into the store from the café. Ethan was close behind. “What do you need me to do?”

      “He’s calling the sheriff. I’m going outside.”

      “Okay. We’ll find them.” Her matter-of-fact tone helped him calm down.

      “Y’all need help?” Some of the people from the café joined them.

      Jackie turned to the small group. “The boys didn’t come back from the restroom.”

      Max didn’t wait around to hear the rest of the conversation. Out the front door, he turned to the right. It looked like a drive-through feed store. Bags of feed were stacked on pallets, and bales of hay lined the opposite side.

      Behind the hay, he heard familiar giggling. His knees went weak at the beautiful sound.

      “There they are.” Ethan’s voice didn’t sound steady.

      They were safe. For a moment, all Max wanted to do was sink to the floor and cover his face. That had to have been the worst experience of his life. More terrifying than any bull he’d ever faced.

      He moved round the bales. The brothers sat in the middle of a pen, smiling, surrounded by a litter of puppies.

      He took what felt like his first breath since going into the restroom. Someone touched his arm. Turning, he found Jackie next to him. She wasn’t wearing a jacket, but her smile was warm. The people who had been in the café crowded into the feed store area.

      Her hand slipped down to his. “They’re okay.”

      He managed a nod. She left him and joined the group of people at the entrance. “He found them with the puppies. Thanks for offering to help.”

      Dub nodded. “Happy that they’re safe. I’ll call dispatch and let them know we don’t need the sheriff.” The small crowd went back to the warm café.

      “Great. Now they think I’m the worst guardian, along with all the other things they condemn the Delgados for.”

      “Kids slip away. It happens to a lot of good parents. It is terrifying, but they’re safe. That’s all that matters.”

      “I’m not their parent.”

      “For now, you’re the only parent they have.”

      That stopped him cold. He hadn’t thought of it that way. They were his responsibility. He wanted to give them more than his father had given him, but he wasn’t sure he knew how. Rubbing the back of his neck, he turned back to the boys. Ethan had a tight grip on the top of the temporary pen.

      He didn’t trust himself to join them yet. Ethan needed to be aware of the consequences of being careless, and Isaac and Tomas had to understand they couldn’t wander off. But if he started talking to them now, he feared he’d start yelling and criticizing. That’s what his father would have done, so he’d start by not doing that. He needed to calm down before they had that conversation.

      He took a deep breath, and a gust of cold air seared his lungs.

      Who was he kidding? All that stuff about being their parent and being better than his father was a joke. There was no way he could do this. He just wanted to get out of Clear Water. Let his uncle deal with the ranch. Jackie and her buildings were not his problems. They couldn’t be.

       Chapter Three

      Once her heart returned to a reasonable beat, Jackie kneeled at the edge of the enclosure that held the litter of rambunctious puppies. Next to her, Ethan gripped the top of the wire panel that made a temporary pen. His shoulders rose and fell with each hard breath. It looked like he was breathing fire when his exhalation hit the cold air. The color had left the teen’s face.

      “You told me you were going to the restroom!” he started yelling at the twins. “You can’t just leave like that.” His voice cracked. “What were you thinking?” His pitch went higher.

      “Ethan.” Max walked up next to him and placed a hand on the center of his back. “We’ll talk about this later.”

      The teen’s nostrils flared as he shook his head. “Someone bad could have kidnapped you. The people in the café had to call the police!”

      Tomas ducked his head. Tears built in his eyes as he hugged the puppy.

      “Stop, Ethan.” Max’s stern voice left no room for argument. “We’ll talk about this later, and we’ll also address your responsibility in this. They’re little kids. You’re older.” He cut a glance at the boys. “We will talk about this.” He looked back at Ethan. “In private.”

      The black fluff ball that Tomas held against his chest stopped wriggling and licked the boy’s face. He kept his eyes down.

      Isaac looked down at the golden puppy in his lap. “There’s lots of cool stuff here, then we heard the puppies bark,” he mumbled. The usually happy brother was also on the verge of tears. “Momma said she was bringing home a puppy for Christmas.”

      Jackie covered her mouth. These babies had lost both parents and had been left with brothers they didn’t even know. Swinging her leg over the panel, she joined the boys in the middle of the litter.

      She sat between them. Maybe she was overstepping, but she pulled them close. Two other puppies joined them, jumping over each other, tails wagging.

      With a soft squeeze, she pressed a kiss to the side of each of the boys’ heads. “We were worried about you. You must let your brothers know where you’re at all the time. They love you, and were scared when they couldn’t find you.”

      Isaac looked up at Ethan and Max. “We’re sorry. Look.” He held his pup up to them. “This one has the same color of hair as Momma, and that one is the same as Daddy. They were waiting for us.”

      Tomas wiped his face across his sleeve and smiled at the puppy that licked him. “They need homes. Can we take them? Maybe they’re the dogs Momma was going to give us.”

      Max blew out a heavy sigh and ran his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry, boys, but it’ll be up to Vanessa. You’re going to be living with her.”

      Silent tears fell to the concrete, leaving prints in the dust. Tomas buried his face in the soft fur. Jackie looked at Max. He had his hands stuffed in his back pockets. The muscles in his jaw popped. There had to be something they could do. Ethan joined them, sitting cross-legged, and a few of the puppies