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“Believe it or not, I wasn’t trying to offend you,” he insisted. “I was all about work until the girls came along.”
Reese released a slow breath and then locked gazes with him. He wasn’t ready for the gut punch that came with meeting her eye-to-eye.
“You look different,” she said. “Good.”
“I’m the same person, Reese.”
“No,” she argued. “You seem a lot more settled now.”
“Kids have a way to doing that to a person,” he snapped, figuring he could be insulted out there, but didn’t have to put up with it in his own home.
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way,” she replied. “It’s good, actually. I mean, when we were young, you had a restless quality. Like you were always searching for something to fill... I don’t know—a void. Now, you have a confident air.”
“Funny, bringing up the girls makes me feel like I have no idea what I’m doing in life or otherwise,” he said.
“I guess you just seem comfortable with not knowing everything,” she said. “Like, you know you’ll figure it out along the way.”
“What choice do I have?” His girls were the reason. And Reese was right, he would move heaven and earth to make sure he found answers to every question that pertained to them.
“Not everyone is as good a father as you are, Darren.”
“You haven’t even seen me with my daughters yet,” he said. “How can you make a statement like that?” Why should he care so much that Reese Hayes seemed awestruck with any aspect of his life?
She shook her head. “I don’t have to. It’s in your eyes. It’s in your determination when you talk about them. It’s easy to see how much you love them and how devoted you are to them.”
He hoped it was enough because there was no rule book when it came to parenting. One would think twins would have the same needs, but Ivy had an independent streak a mile long, whereas Iris was content to be with her sister all the time. He was going have his work cut out for him later in trying to make sure Iris understood Ivy’s independence wasn’t a rejection. When Ivy was tired at the end of a long day, her sister’s presence comforted her the most.
“I appreciate your kindness,” he said to Reese. But it was a little too early to pat himself on the back in the parenting department. “It means a lot. But this whole game is a crapshoot and it feels like any misstep could damage these things that I love more than life itself.”
The jury was out on whether or not he would be a good dad after going the distance with his girls. He couldn’t imagine the horror Camree Lynn’s parents must have endured at losing their daughter at such a young age. It was against the natural order for a child to die before the parents.
Speaking of disappearances, he had an idea.
Chapter Eight
“Since it’s likely you were coming home at the time of the abduction, for lack of a better word, maybe you were making a pit stop first. Something about Camree Lynn’s disappearance.”
Darren had a point.
“What do you suggest we do?” she asked.
“Look for another disappearance. Something recent and something nearby,” he continued. He held up a finger, then disappeared into what she assumed was the master bedroom.
Reese refilled her coffee mug and moved to the kitchen table as Darren returned with a laptop tucked underneath his arm.
“I do most of my paperwork while in bed after the girls go to sleep,” he explained, but it was unnecessary. How he handled his business was up to him. She remembered from growing up on a cattle ranch how much paperwork was involved. Folks had several misconceptions about cattle ranching and the first one was that ranchers spent all their time herding cattle. There was far more tagging, tracking and recording than anyone realized. Another was that ranchers were all wealthy. Ranching was hard work and most barely kept their heads above water.
Duncan Hayes might have been a son of a bitch, but he’d been a keen businessman. His cold heart was good for something.
“I like the idea of looking for a connection,” she said.
“We’d be searching for a serial abductor,” he explained.
“Would so much time elapse in between, though?” she asked. “How could that be the same person if they just now struck again?”
“We might be looking for someone who moves around a lot for their job or travels. They might have fixated on Camree Lynn for one reason or another, but taking someone so close to home would draw a lot of unwanted attention,” he said. “The person would wait a long time before striking here again.”
“If at all.” Reese took in a deep breath. “Sounds logical.” All those old feelings of helplessness surfaced as she thought about her former best friend’s disappearance. It was funny how kids always blamed themselves for things they have no control over. “I thought if I’d asked her to sleep over that weekend, she might still be alive because she would have been with me instead.”
