Fear, sharp as glass, dug into my chest making it hard to breathe as I faced off with Troy and Max. “We’ve got to find them. Where should we start?”

“Well, think like a kid. Why would they run?” Max began, considering for a moment.

“Maybe they wanted to go hang out somewhere?” Troy offered up, crossing his arms. “I know the park better than any of you, how about you drop me there?”

“I’ll drive,” I suggested, though the statement was redundant since my car was the only one available at the moment. The other two didn’t comment, simply hopping in before I pulled away.

“It’s unusual that they’d just go and play somewhere without permission, isn’t it? They could have just asked,” Max mused.

I nodded, considering what the police had told us. I knew most of the police force in town from working with so many families who had struggled with the law. Leo, one of the youngest cops on the force, had filled me in quickly before leaving us to our search. Apparently, the boys had been playing video games that their aunt had just bought for them while Emily talked to her ex and then Brooke. If they had wanted to go and play somewhere, they could have waited their chance to ask. I pulled to a stop in front of the parking lot for the playground area of the nearest park, letting Troy hop out. “Check the trails too. I used to get lost on local trails at home when I’d play pretend. Maybe they did the same thing.” Troy nodded sharply, jogging away and calling for the boys.

“Bus, plane, or walking?” Max vocalized the same question I was thinking.

“They just took the plane to their dad’s, so it may be fresh in their minds. The police will be all over the depots though; it would be the first place they’d look for a runaway.” I shook my head, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel. “Ok, think like a ten-year-old. You’ve got your little brother in tow. He probably won’t want to walk very far, especially carrying his backpack. They’re going to get tired and hot. What about the baseball diamonds?”

“There are four other parks and about a half dozen baseball diamonds,” Max murmured, cataloging the town. “The park Troy’s taking is the closest and the largest, but there are still several others to check.”

“I doubt they’d have crossed the highway. Someone would have noticed and reported them.” I considered for a moment. “They could be hiding for the moment, waiting for things to cool down so they can walk again. They know the parks have bathrooms and shelters.”

“That still leaves several. We’re coming up to Pearson now. Drop me here and I’ll check this one. It’s small. Wharton is down the road a bit, they use it for varsity games. Check that one and meet me back here. We can figure out where to go from there.”

I murmured my agreement, trying to slow my racing heart. I had lost Ryan, I wasn’t going to lose Jake and Cal too. I squealed to a halt, letting Max jump from the car and jog off down the narrow pathway. I followed the road further down, the trees so thick it was hard to see through the leaves. I pulled into the parking lot, leaving the car door open as I scrambled over towards the sporting fields.

The soccer fields were empty, the goals missing their nets. The wooden seats for the baseball field were empty, the concession stand boarded up. “Jake! Cal!” I called out, searching the area and straining my ears for any sound. I nearly turned back to the car when I heard a slight scuffle and a small shushing noise. I froze, listening hard. “Jake! Cal!” I called out again, looking around. One dugout faced me, the structure empty of anything but dust. The other small, wooden structure was closed off from my view.

I jogged forward, my breath coming hard now with stress and nerves, before rounding the corner of the shed. Curled in the corner, covered in dirt and sweat, sat both boys. Cal was pressed into his brother’s side, his face in his brother’s neck hiding most of the tears streaming down his cheeks. Jake was in little better shape, but he held a protective arm around his brother’s shoulder. “Hey, guys.” I offered a smile, kneeling down to their level. “You’ve got the whole town out looking for you. What’re you up to down here? You’re quite a way from home.” I slid my phone from my pocket and into my hand, glancing quickly for our group message before texting without looking at the screen, a skill I had discovered in the courtroom. I couldn’t wait any longer to let her know the boys were here.

Found. Wharton. Safe.

“We’re going to go back home to Georgia.” Jake’s voice was clogged with tears, but he thrust his chin out in a stubborn gesture, still not removing his arm from around his brother.

“Really, Georgia? That’s quite a ways away.” I kept my voice light, ignoring the constant buzzing of my cell as I tried to calm the two of them. I knew I could pick them both up and carry them out, but I worried they would simply run again. “Why Georgia?”

“We’re going back to our old house there. Dad’s got Joseph and he’s too far away. Brooke’s going to go live with him and she doesn’t want us to come too, she said so when we were at Aunt Jenna’s.” Jake’s voice broke and he turned his head into his brother, trying to gather his composure.

“What about your mom?”

“She loves you.” Cal’s little voice piped up. “Jake says that everyone says we’re getting in the way. Brooke says that we’re going to end up peberted.” I wished I could have smiled at his pronunciation, but my heart was breaking too hard for that. “Mom makes us happy, and it’s our turn to make her happy.”

“You think leaving would make your mom happy? She loves you. She’s at home crying right now because she’s so worried about you.”

“We would have called her when we got to Georgia,” Jake mumbled.

“We heard her,” Cal gasped out, tears still coming thick and fast. “We heard Brooke yell at her. We heard her talk to you. She cried and cried. She said she had to pick us.”

“She always picks us. She’s been sad for a long, long time,” Jake murmured. “She doesn’t like us to know about it. She cries at night when we’re supposed to be asleep. Or she just gets really sad. Daddy stopped loving her, but he said he could never stop loving us. He has Joseph now though, and he’s happy again. When we went to California he was so happy now, and he wasn’t happy before.”

Jake was doing his best to explain all the convoluted feelings running through him, and all I wanted to do was pick them up and cuddle them both. They must have been feeling lost and confused for the past few days, and they hadn’t let on at all. “Mom said it was her job to protect me, and it was my job to protect Cal. We didn’t want to be in the way anymore.”

“You’ve never been in the way, guys,” I offered gently. “Your mom loves you, dearly. There’s absolutely no possibility of her considering you in the way.”

“She couldn’t be with you though,” Cal pointed out, finally turning to face me. “She could be happy with you like Dad is happy with Joseph. You’re really nice and fun. You like baseball, just like she does. We were going to take the bus. I brought Jake’s money from Christmas. I told Jake we couldn’t cross the highway. We could have got hurt. So Jake said we’d walk. Then I got all tired.” I wasn’t surprised. They’d walked several miles from the house, looking for a familiar place to rest. “Jake said we’d rest here.”

“Didn’t you think your mom would be sad?” I asked, trying to turn it around on them. “She was already sad before you left, you said, so didn’t you think it would make her sadder if you disappeared?”

“I was going to tell her,” Jake mused. “She was on the phone with Dad. She was telling him how upset she was. I knew Brooke had hurt her feelings. Brooke hurts our feelings sometimes too. I thought that she wouldn’t see we were gone. It didn’t take that long to get to the airport, so I figured we could call later today and she’d think we were just out playing. She works all the time and helps Brooke. I didn’t think she’d miss us so fast.”

I sighed, crossing my legs so I could sit. “That was really dangerous, guys. All the police are out looking. Brooke, your aunt, your mom were all crying. It was going to be night soon.”

“I would have protected him,” Jake muttered, squeezing his sobbing brother tighter.

“If you want to protect your mom, you have to stay with her,” I pointed out. “Otherwise she’ll cry and be very sad. I know you were trying to help, but maybe next time, ask your mom what will help. Sometimes adults will say things, and you think it means one thing, but it really doesn’t.”

“Like what?” Cal asked, curious now, especially when I pulled a granola bar from my pocket and tossed it to him.

“Like saying she was choosing you, and it made her cry. You didn't make her sad, but other people possibly being mean to you was making her sad.”

“I get sad when people are mean to Jake,” Cal told me, greedily consuming the granola bar. I was sure Jake was hungry too with the way he was eyeing the bar, but he didn’t ask for a bite. Cal must have caught my glance though, because he paused, handing the last third of the bar over to his brother.

“Yes, just like that,” I said with a smile.

“You and your friends were sad, too,” Jake pointed out, finishing the bar and wiping dirt from his face.

“Sometimes, adults can be sad and there’s not really an answer.” I phrased it carefully. “We may say there’s reasons or things that can make us feel better, but sometimes we just have to be sad for a while before we’re happy again.”

“Did you and Troy and Max not like us? Is that why you wouldn’t stay with Mom?” Cal’s voice was soft, his eyes on his brother now rather than me, as if scared of my answer. It startled me for a moment that he remembered their names, having only met them the one time.

“Cal.” I wanted so badly to reach out, to pull them into my lap and offer all the comfort I could. “Of course I like you and Jake. You’re both amazing kids. Real pro ball players.” I offered the last with a smile, relief still trilling like static over my skin. Both smiled, puffing up their chests with pride.

Squealing behind me alerted me to a car pulling up, and Emily fell from the car as she pushed open the door, scrambling up from the ground and tearing over to where I crouched. “Calvin! Jacob!” She sputtered their names out, pulling them into her arms and wrapping them tightly against her as she rocked, sobbing into their hair and showering them with kisses. Both boys cried now, their arms tight around their mom, their exhausting day behind them as they received all of the comforts she offered.

Jenna and Brooke sped past me, falling down next to them as well, covering the boys in hugs and kisses. I knew the yelling would come shortly, but for now, they were all just soaking up the joy of being back together. I stood, surprised to see Max running up the long entry to the park, his shirt sticking to him now from the sweat.

“Thank God,” he murmured, slowing as he reached us and studied the teary tableau in front of us. “I can’t believe you found them hidden in the dugout.” My heart raced at the idea that I could have missed them, simply walked away from their hiding place.

“Me either.”

“I’m glad you’re safe, guys. You still owe me a baseball game, after all. I didn’t think you’d run out on me.” Max’s teasing voice caused the boys to chuckle, though they didn’t loosen their tight grasp on their mother.

“Let’s go home.” She choked the words out. “Let’s just go home.” She scooped the boys up, surprising me at the strength in her, before stumbling towards their car. I reached out a hand to steady her, figuring she wouldn’t be willing to relinquish one or both of them into my grasp so I could help. She placed them in the car, finally pushing back the tears to prop her hands on her hips as she stared at her sons. Both dropped their heads, plucking at the dirt on their shorts. “We are going to have a very long talk, young men. A very long talk. You can bet the police are going to want to talk to you as well. They’ve been out searching for you.” She shut the door, pressing her hand to her mouth to contain her sob before turning to Max and me.

“Thank you. Thank you so much. I can’t believe you found them. I know Troy must be around somewhere too.”

“He’s at another one of the parks,” Max explained quickly. “I was close enough to run here when Alex said where they were.”

She leaned up to press a kiss to my lips, turning to do the same to Max. “I owe you. All three of you. Did they say what they were doing out here?”

“Heading to Georgia,” I replied, shaking my head. “They’ve heard some of the fighting over the past few days. They misunderstood, thought they were in the way.” She choked on a sob, her eyes meeting Brooke’s and Jenna’s as they came up beside me, having caught my words. Both had tears streaming down their own faces as they listened. “We talked it out. They just wanted you to be happy, Emily. They said they saw how happy Ian was, that they wanted to protect you. Don’t be too hard on them.”

“I’m so sorry, Mom.” Brooke’s words were low. “I had no idea they wanted to run away. I told them I wanted to go to Dad’s. It’s all my fault.”

“No, hun, it’s not.” Emily pulled her daughter into a hug. “Everyone just misunderstood things and needed a chance to calm down.” Brooke extricated herself from her mom’s arms, turning to face us.

“I still don’t understand the way things work between you, and I’m not really sure I want to,” she admitted with a slight grimace. “Thank you for finding my brothers though. I owe you.”

“We all owe you,” Emily and Jenna said at the same time, small grins tugging at their lips as they glanced at each other.

“You don’t owe us anything, we’re just glad we could help,” I offered with a smile. “I’ll tell Troy you said thanks as well.”

Emily hesitated for a moment, glancing over at where her sons waited. “I’ll call him myself and tell him. I just…” She trailed off, already heading back to her car.

“We understand, Em. Take care of yourself, and of them.” The women all piled into the car, heading back towards town. I watched them go before exhaustion hit and I sagged, rubbing at my temple to fight the headache brewing. “We have to figure something out, Max. I’m not ready to give up yet. Today proved that. I don’t want to lose her or those boys.”

Max laid a hand on my shoulder. “None of us plan to quit fighting for her. Just let her focus on the kids for now. We’ll come up with something. We have to.”