Chapter 28

28

D riving home without Logan was one of the hardest things that Tabby had ever done.

The prize money in her purse was small compensation for not having Logan to celebrate with on the drive back, and Tabby was not sure she had ever felt so lonely.

It's just for a couple of days, tops, she reminded herself.

They had a plan, and it was a good plan, and she already had a dozen contacts for boarding and training, and a dozen more business cards with private numbers scrawled on the back. She'd even found a sweet-natured mare she was interested in buying to train for shows, and a contractor who was willing to do some work in exchange for lessons for his horse-crazy daughter. The championship check would cover her outstanding bills with a little buffer, even before she saw her share of the horse sale.

It was a good job , Tabby told herself. We earned the prize. They'd even outstripped other shifters trying the same con. The memory of Veronica Chase's face alone was worth every effort.

But she couldn't shake the sense of loss that she felt driving into her ranch without Logan, knowing that he wasn't there to be happy with her.

She'd feel better when he got out and came home, and the best thing she could do was stay busy until he did. It was only for a few days.

So Tabby fell to working. She tended the horses, who showed her how much they'd missed her by slobbering down her shirt and developing bizarre new fears of blowing leaves and crinkly plastic bags. Tabby soaked up their companionship and took them for long, indulgent rides, taking comfort in their familiar quirks and animal normalcy. There was nothing magical about mucking stalls and cleaning tack.

The next day, she followed up on every one of the new connections she'd made and wept in relief at the new boarding and training entries in her ledger. It might not be enough to declare complete solvency or pay off the entire mortgage, but after the prize money, she was back on solid ground.

She wished that Logan was there to squeal with and dance around the kitchen, but he didn't come back the next day.

Or the next.

Tabby told herself that it wasn't that Logan had taken his share of the sale and disappeared with them. He was probably…just held up. Maybe he'd taken Franzi to Disneyland. She only let herself call him twice, and was sent straight to voicemail. He wasn't even running any later than he said he would be yet, just later than he hoped he would be. Don't panic until day three, he'd said. Well, here was day three. Did she get to panic in the middle of it, or did she have to wait until the end?

She was in the garden, sweating through her shirt as she pulled weeds and tied up sprawling vines of peas and beans and cursed the rabbits, when her phone rang. "Swiftwater Ranch!" she said breathlessly, without looking at the number.

"Ah, hi. This is Vivian Wang, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm looking for Logan Kennedy. I understand he lives there?"

Tabby caught her breath. "Yes," she squeaked.

"His daughter, er, niece, Franzi is staying over with my daughter Tara. Franzi says…well...we were expecting him to pick her up today, and he's not that late, but Franzi is very sure that something's…um…wrong and he's not answering his phone and I wondered if he was on his way yet?"

Tabby could hear the layers of code in Vivian's words. Instinct. Franzi's instinct was suggesting that Logan was in trouble. Tabby didn't have magical instinct to explain away her unease, but it was there anyway, and twice as strong with Vivian's careful words. She wasn't sure what she and Logan had, but if Logan was going to skip out, he wouldn't do it without Franzi. He adored that girl to the moon and back.

Something was wrong.

"I've been expecting him back, too," she said, the pit of her stomach feeling cold and heavy. "I'm not sure where he is. I can come get Franzi, though. He said he might be a day late. We probably shouldn't worry too much yet." She wasn't reassuring herself any.

Vivian hesitated, then said, "Tara says you're safe and Franzi should go home," she finally said. "Let me give you our address and I'll have Franzi pack up her suitcase."

Tabby forgot the car seat and had to turn around in her driveway to go back and get it out of Logan's truck. She forced herself to slow down several times on the way to Nickel City. She hated leaving the ranch if there was any chance that Logan would come back there. But she couldn't leave Franzi to impose on Tara's family any longer.

She worried that Vivian might have reservations about handing Franzi over to a stranger, but needn't have.

A tall, blue-eyed man answered the door, dressed in scrubs covered in dinosaurs and gave her a narrow-eyed assessment without speaking. Tabby worried how she measured up. She smelled like horse and hay and fresh paint, probably, and her hair was coming loose from her braid because she hadn't thought to fix it for company.

"Miss Tabby!" Franzi cried from inside the house, just as Tabby apparently passed muster and the man stepped aside to invite her in. "I'm Becket," he said kindly. "Franzi is about ready to go."

Vivian proved to be a soft but capable-looking woman juggling a baby, and Tara was a petite girl with Chinese features who looked like she was Franzi's age. She gave Tabby a look that was twice as judgmental as Becket's, then nodded her approval. "You have to go home," she said to Franzi.

"Uncle Logan will be home soon!" Franzi said firmly, dragging her suitcase behind her. Tabby stepped to take it from her. It was mostly full of blankets and stuffies and weighed almost nothing; Franzi just wasn't tall enough to carry it.

"Well, we'd better be there when he gets there," Tabby said. "Thanks for taking Franzi for a few days."

"How was the horse show?" Vivian asked, bouncing the baby, who didn't want to be held and was arching and stretching for freedom.

"It went really well," Tabby said honestly. She couldn't help adding, "We took home the prize." She and Logan.

"That's great!" Vivian cheered .

"We have to go now," Franzi insisted. "Tara says Uncle Logan will be home soon."

Tabby let herself be herded out of the door as she thanked them again for their hospitality and bemusedly loaded Franzi into the truck and slung the suitcase behind the seat.

"How do you know your uncle Logan will be home soon?"

"Tara knows," Franzi said confidently.

Did Tara have some larger kind of instinct to draw on?

Tara's certainly was apparently good enough for Franzi, and Tabby took some comfort in it.

To her disappointment, Logan wasn't there when they arrived back at the ranch. Tabby had Franzi bring her suitcase into the house in case she had to sleep there, and made them a quick meal of instant rice with hamburger and fresh vegetables cut up in it. She went to the window every time she heard a noise, but there was never anyone there.

"I've got a spare room you can sleep in," Tabby said, when it was clear that Franzi was running out of steam. It was fully dark now, and when she let herself try calling Logan again, it went straight to voicemail…and told her the box was full.

She made up the room for Franzi, who wanted to touch the model horses on the shelves.

"They aren't toys," Tabby cautioned. "They're…here, you can play with this one." It was her first model, missing an ear and part of its mane, and had been through some rough play in its life.

Franzi, who clearly knew she was being bought off with a substandard item, gave it a test gallop across the guest bed that Tabby uncovered. Then she carefully unpacked her suitcase and laid out her stuffies and blankets .

She took so long in the bathroom going potty that Tabby began to wonder if there was a problem, then took twice as long to brush her teeth. Finally, she was dressed in pajamas and Tabby could tuck her into bed.

"Uncle Logan will be back," Franzi said trustingly, as if Tabby was the one who was worried.

She was, she realized, and she hadn't realized what an excellent distraction Franzi was until the last of her little noises went silent.

Tabby risked a peek into the bedroom and Franzi was lying as if she'd fallen asleep in the act of rearranging her stuffies, one arm stretched out from under the blankets. Tabby tiptoed in and pulled the blanket up over her. She gave a happy little sigh.

Tabby left and closed the door. She went through her evening barn chores in an unhappy daze of worry.

Where was Logan? Why wasn't he back yet?