Free Rocky Mountain Wedding by Sara Richardson Page B

zipper on her fleece, Ruby kept her head down and fought the wind’s invisible force.
    “You need to take a break,” Paige insisted from behind her. Her friend jogged up next to her and yanked on her arm. Yeah, like that was enough to make her stop and sit down.
    “I’m not taking a break,” she said for the fifth time in an hour. And the way Paige and Avery were hounding her, it wouldn’t be the last either. Yes, she knew her body had weakened considerably since they’d started out two hours ago. But she’d managed to block it all out—how Sawyer had been so cold to her earlier, the hunger, the thirst, the clouds descending on her head. She would keep blocking out everything until she saw Brookie. That’s how she would make it through this. She could picture that moment when she would hold Brookie against her heart. She could smell the sweet scent of that strawberry shampoo they used on her hair…
    Warmth flooded her. That’s the picture she would keep in her mind, the one she would hold on to.
    Leaving Avery and Paige a few steps behind, she chugged up the sidewalk to yet another house. The three of them had stood on so many front stoops—had knocked on so many front doors—that they didn’t even look different anymore. As she raised her hand to knock, she vaguely noticed the red front door, the pot of silk flowers sitting on a wooden bench.
    A small dog yipped from the other side of the stained wood. The dead bolt clanged, and it opened.
    Ruby staggered back a step. This girl. This young girl with bouncing blond curls, glistening blue eyes, and dimples in her cheeks. It took only a second to place her. Charlotte. This was the girl in Brookie’s class. Brookie had pointed her out when Ruby had volunteered a couple weeks ago. Charlotte was one who’d made things so hard on her. The one who’d planted the idea that Ruby and Sawyer wouldn’t want her after they had their own child…
    “My mom doesn’t want to buy anything today,” the girl announced with the practiced apathy of a preteen. She went to close the door, but Ruby braced a hand against it.
    “Wait,” she gasped. An ache gripped her belly and unleashed turmoil inside of her. The shaking anger shuddered through her until she couldn’t hold her hands steady. Instead of befriending a girl who desperately needed someone to reach out to her, this girl had picked on her daughter…
    “Who’s at the door, sweetie?” A woman appeared behind Charlotte. She had the same hair, the same eyes, but a friendly way about her smile. “Can I help you?” she asked politely.
    If Ruby had met her on the street, she would think this woman was kind and approachable. So different from her daughter.
    “I’m Ruby Hawkins.” Or at least she was supposed to be. Tomorrow. “I’m Brooklyn’s foster mom. She goes to school with your daughter Charlotte.”
    “Oh,” the woman chirped. “So nice to meet you, Ruby. I’m Stephanie Taylor.” She stuck out her hand and shook Ruby’s, her warm skin providing a brief reprieve from the cold. “I’ve heard so many wonderful things about Brooklyn. Charlotte just adores her.” She glanced down at her daughter, but Charlotte’s face had paled and her eyes were as wide as Brookie’s got when she was caught in a lie.
    Yes. She was definitely caught, but Ruby hadn’t come here to tell this woman all of the terrible things Charlotte had said. “Brookie is missing,” she choked out, keeping her gaze firmly on the girl’s face. “She ran away this morning.”
    “Oh my God,” Stephanie gasped. “How awful.” She stepped out onto the porch, her expression genuinely horrified. “What can we do? How can we help?”
    Charlotte seemed frozen in place.
    Ruby held out a flyer they’d been distributing at the park. Anger still thundered through her, churning her stomach, tightening her chest. “We’re going door to door to ask if anyone has seen her. Or heard from her.”
    Stephanie took the flyer and glanced at it.