Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

T he rest of the night passed without incident. Nate never heard either of the boys wake up again, and if Bailey had trouble sleeping, he couldn't tell. He started the day at just before six o'clock feeling rested. Hopefully, they'd make some good headway with clean-up and repairs. With any luck, Jenny or someone else from the police department would contact them with an update.

He got ready for the day. It wasn't long before thumps and shifting upstairs let him know that everyone else was waking up. From the sound of it, the boys jumped into the day with as much enthusiasm as they tackled everything else.

Both boys stomped down the stairs, closely followed by Bailey. She'd dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans and a blue T-shirt that brought out the color of her eyes. She'd also pulled her hair up into a bun again, and Nate had to ignore the pang of disappointment at not having the opportunity to see it loose in the daylight.

He focused on the boys as they ran straight over to lavish Minnie with attention .

He chuckled. "I see where I rate." He ran a hand over his short goatee and mustache. "It's got to be all her fur. Maybe if I grow the facial hair out a little more, I might have a chance of competing…"

Bailey gave an adorable snort and slapped a hand over her mouth.

Suddenly, he wanted to know what she thought about his goatee and mustache. Did she approve? It shouldn't even matter to him, but he couldn't deny that it did. "When I first grew a mustache and goatee in high school, my mom hated it. She said it made me look too old. Unfortunately for her, my dad liked it, and she was outvoted. I've kept it ever since."

"I think the look suits you." She cleared her throat and tried to corral the boys. "Come on, guys. Go sit down at the table."

At that moment, Nate was glad he'd listened to his dad instead of his mom.

He followed the family into the kitchen. Seth and Jordan climbed into chairs around the table while Bailey got out several boxes of cereal, milk, orange juice, and set a stack of bowls and four spoons on the table.

She flashed Nate an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. Mondays are cereal mornings."

"Are you kidding? I like cereal as much as the next person." He took Minnie out to do her business and then got her some food before joining the family at the table. It was nice to be a part of their lives during such a normal part of the day.

From that point on, the day flew by. He helped them check on Poppy's wounds and take care of the rest of the animals. Then he made sure the store was secure before dropping Bailey off there with Jordan. He would've offered to take the younger boy to work on the goat pen, but he was worried Jordan would wander off or get himself into trouble. This way, he and Seth could get the pen repaired as fast as possible and get back to help.

Seth seemed to soak up the attention and instruction. Nate truly enjoyed having the boy there with him. Together, they replaced the gate and repaired any fencing around the pen that had been damaged. By the time they were done, the pen was ready for the goats as soon as Poppy was healed up.

"What do you think?" Nate placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"It looks awesome." Seth turned and looked up, his expression hopeful. "I think we make a good team. Don't you?"

"Absolutely. I'd work with you again anytime." He gave the boy a fist bump.

It saddened Nate to think that Joe was missing out on these moments with his son. As long as he had Bailey's blessing, he planned to keep spending time with Seth and Jordan, make sure to be there for them, and remind them of how much their father loved them.

"Come on, let's get back to the store and help your mom."

Nate and Bailey sorted through merchandise for four hours. She was skilled at giving Seth little jobs to keep him busy while doing her best to keep Jordan from getting into things. The latter was a lot easier said than done. Nate knew he was curious and busy but didn't realize how much he kept Bailey on her toes .

She kept a running list of products that were damaged or destroyed so she could submit a thorough inventory to the insurance company. Meanwhile, Nate and Seth would bag items for the garbage.

Nate had left Minnie at the house. There was a lot of food-related merchandise scattered on the floor. He couldn't trust her not to sample her way through the store.

Nate and Bailey's phones both pinged with an incoming text.

He glanced at his screen. "It's from Jenny. She's at the gate and coming in."

Bailey looked up from a pile of papers that she'd stacked on the main counter. "I wonder why she's stopping by." She blew a wayward strand of hair out of her face.

Nate gave Seth a lighter bag of trash to carry, and they took several out to the dumpster behind the store. By the time they got back, Jenny's police car was pulling up in front. She got out and waved at Seth with a smile. "Hey, kiddo!"

He gave her a happy wave. "We've been working hard all day! Are you here to see?"

"Most definitely."

The three of them went back into the store. Nate frowned because, despite all their hard work, it barely looked like they'd touched the mess. Bailey might have been right when she originally said she wasn't sure she could have things cleaned up in time to open on Friday.

Jenny walked over and gave Bailey a hug. "Hey, looks like you've been busy."

"Very. Although we haven't lost as much as I first thought we had. Which is good." She shrugged. "But it's going to be time-consuming to sort through it all."

"I can imagine. Well, I don't have much news, but I had Detective Paris's blessing to come and give you a quick update on the case."

Bailey glanced at Jordan to make sure he was still busy with the blocks he was playing with and then leaned against the counter. "Any luck at all with identifying who did this?"

After opening a notes app on her phone, Jenny gave a shake of her head. "Not yet. The for sale sign is one that could be purchased from a number of places in town, or it could've been one someone held onto for a while. No usable prints. None. It must've been wiped down before it was placed because there would have at least been prints from the store where it was purchased."

Nate wasn't surprised, but he hated to see the disappointment on Bailey's face.

She frowned. "I was really hoping there'd be something they could use."

"I know. Me, too." Jenny gave her friend a sympathetic look. "Officers walked your property line. All the fencing looks great. There's no damage or obvious point of entry. Right now, we're going through all the evidence collected from here, but as you know, it's going to be hard to find much. I did want to mention that you should look for anything out of place while you're cleaning up just in case our suspect left something behind. This is a lot of damage in a relatively short period of time. It would be easy to drop an item or even lose a button or something like that."

"Makes sense." Bailey hiked an eyebrow. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but you could've told me all of this over the phone. Why did you drive all the way out here?"

"Because I took a long lunch break, thought I'd bring chicken strips and fries to share, and then figured I could pitch in for half an hour or so before I head back." She grinned when her mention of food snagged the boys' attention. "Seth, will you help me bring lunch in please?"

While they went to get lunch from Jenny's car, Nate moved to stand beside Bailey. "I can run into town this afternoon and get some cameras. We can set one up at the main gate and another at the front of the store. At least if anyone else tries to put up another sale sign or break into the store, we'll have it recorded."

"That would be great. Thank you."

He intended to buy a third one to cover the front door of her house, too. If it were up to him, he'd get an alarm system installed. He knew it wasn't something Bailey would be open to. In that case, Nate had every intention of sticking around until they caught whoever was behind this.