“I’m going to find my throne and sit my big fat—” Beth broke off as another pain shot through her, and she grabbed her stomach, moaning at the sensation. Uh oh. “Not now,” she whispered. “It’s too soon.”
“Beth? Beth!” Tessa raced to her side, helping ease her down onto the front pew. “Honey, are you okay?”
“I don’t know. Either Junior’s kicking harder than he ever has, or…” She trailed off, knowing her sister would put two and two together and figure out she was in labor.
“That’s it. We’re going to call your doctor and find out what he wants us to do. Lean on me,” Tessa added, sliding an arm around Beth’s waist, and Beth looped her arm around her sister’s shoulder. She couldn’t be going into labor. It was too soon. There was too much going on right now. The party, Ms. Patti being missing. Nope, she could not be going into labor. She breathed out slowly, hoping it was simply Braxton-Hicks and not the real thing. But she had a feeling time wasn’t on her side, and she was about to become a mommy for the second time, whether she was ready or not.
Rafe drove toward the Haskin’s place, his foot pushing hard against the accelerator. Everybody was out actively looking for Momma. The women were making calls to everybody in town they could think of that might have seen or heard from her. Dad and his brothers were doing their own searches. Somebody, somewhere, had to find her. Anything less was unacceptable. He’d decided to head back home, which was the last place anybody had seen her. He figured he’d check out the lead about the Haskin’s place, then head to the Big House and do a check of her computer history, see what she’d been working on. Maybe he’d be able to figure out where she’d been headed if it wasn’t the Haskin’s place, before she was supposed to head to Jill’s bakery.
While he drove, every possible scenario played through his mind. The Boudreaus had faced more than their fair share of dangerous situations and devious people in the past few years. Though it was a longshot, it was possible somebody with a grudge might have targeted his momma, wanting a little payback. His gut clenched at the thought of his momma at the mercy of some maniac. Though they didn’t have a lot of crime like he’d seen in the bigger cities like Dallas and Houston, there were bad people even in small towns. He did his best to keep Shiloh Springs a safe place, but sometimes bad things happened no matter what precautions you took.
When his phone rang, he grabbed it, not bothering to look at the caller ID. “Hello?”
“Is this Sheriff Boudreau? A lady named Sally Anne gave me this number when I called the station.”
“I’m Sheriff Boudreau. How can I help you?”
“My name’s Stan Ferguson. I wanted to let you know that I have your mother—”
“What do you mean you have my mother? What have you done with her?” Rafe practically spat out the words, his fingers itching to wrap themselves around this unknown man’s neck. Probably would have if he’d been there in the flesh.
“No, no, nothing like that! I didn’t make myself clear. I found your mother earlier today. She’d hurt her ankle and couldn’t walk, and I helped her. I was driving her to the emergency clinic there in Shiloh Springs when she passed out. I thought it best to take her to the hospital.”
Rafe let out the first truly deep breath he’d taken in hours. Momma was okay, that’s what mattered.
“She’s hurt?”
“They don’t think it’s anything serious. When I found her, she’d twisted or sprained her ankle pretty bad, couldn’t walk or bear weight on it. I’ve got some EMT experience, so I wrapped it as best I could. Told her she needed to go to a hospital to be checked out, but she insisted I take her to the emergency clinic, but when she blacked out, I figured it was better she got seen at a hospital. Right now, she’s at Mercy General.”
“She been admitted?”
“For observation only. They’re waiting for the x-rays to come back, to see if she broke the ankle. She wanted me to make sure and get hold of you or her husband. She smashed her phone and couldn’t make any calls.” The other man chuckled before adding, “When we got here at the hospital, she wanted to call but couldn’t remember anybody’s numbers because they were all programmed into her phone. Something I totally understand because I wouldn’t remember anybody’s numbers either. It’s too easy to program them and then just hit speed dial.”
Rafe scrubbed a hand across his face, eased the car to the side of the road, and put it into park. The sense of relief flooding him made him almost giddy. The fear that ate at him most of the afternoon dissipated with the knowledge his momma was okay. Now he needed to call off the manhunt—or was it woman hunt?—and let the family know where she was and that she was safe and sound.
“You have my thanks, Mr. Ferguson. You have no idea how important my mother is, not only to our family but to the community. We’ve been looking for her for the last several hours, and honestly? My thoughts were starting to head into the worst-case scenario territory.”
“I’ve heard stories about your mother for years, Mr. Boudreau. My parents talk about Ms. Patti all the time. I’m happy I could help. I’m going to stick around here until somebody from the family gets here, if you don’t mind?”
“I appreciate that, Ferguson.” Rafe paused for a second when the name clicked. “Any relation to William and Beverly Ferguson?”
“Yeah, I’m their black sheep son, the one who gave them so much heartache and grief. Fortunately, my parents are the loving and forgiving sort, and we’re on the road to patching up our relationship. I’ve got a lot of fences to mend, but I’m working on it.”
“Your parents are good people.”
“They are, and I’ve caused them a lot of heartache. I’m trying to make amends, which is part of the reason I’m in Shiloh Springs now. Watching their place while Dad’s in the hospital in Austin.”
“Let me know if there’s anything you need, Ferguson. Me or one of my brothers will do our best to help you out.”
“Thanks for the offer, Mr. Boudreau.”
“Might as well call me Rafe. I have the feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of you in the future, Ferguson. Momma will make sure of that. And we appreciate you rescuing her and getting her to a doctor right away. Let her know we’re on our way, and we’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“Will do. She’s in room 423A. See you when you get here.”
Rafe disconnected the call and stared at the dashboard of his cruiser, tempted to run with lights and siren to get to the hospital as soon as possible, because this was his mother, not some stranger he was thinking about. Instead, he hit the speed dial to call his dad.
“Rafe, tell me you’ve heard something?”
