A Forever Kind of Family by Brenda Harlen

Author:Brenda Harlen [Harlen, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Despite his promise to return in thirty minutes, it was nearly twice that amount of time before Ryan came back. And he came back empty-handed.

“I traced our route twice,” he told Harper. “I even went back to the house and double-checked, just in case we were wrong about him having it earlier.”

“What are we going to do?”

Ryan shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“You might want to stop by the Toy Depot on the way home to see if they have anything similar,” Ellen suggested. “Even if they don’t, he could pick out a new toy that might help him forget about Woof, at least for a few days.”

“Do you think that will work?” Harper asked.

“Ryan had a favorite blanket when he was a baby—until he was six years old. He took it everywhere with him, which meant it had to go through the washing machine more times than I could count, until one day it finally fell apart. I bought at least half a dozen blankets trying to replace it, and each new one seemed to make him happy the first time he went to sleep with it—and the next day, he’d scream for blankie again.”

Harper looked at Ryan, her lips twitching. “Blankie?”

“I think she’s making it up.”

“I am not making it up,” his mother said primly.

“Then maybe you’re mistaken—maybe it was Braden who had the blankie.”

“It was you,” she insisted. “I’m not making it up and I’m not mistaken, because I ended up sewing a ragged scrap from the original blanket to the ear of your teddy bear so that you could hold on to that while you fell asleep.”

“Did that work?” Harper asked.

“He slept with that bear until he was twelve.”

“And on that note,” Ryan said, picking up Oliver’s diaper bag, “I think it’s time for us to go.”

“I’m not in a hurry,” Harper said with a devilish smile. “And I’ll bet your mom has a lot more stories to tell.”

Ellen chuckled. “Days’—maybe weeks’—worth of stories.”

“Unfortunately, the Toy Depot is only open until five,” Ryan said.

“Then you better get going,” his mother agreed.

* * *

When they got home from the toy store with a stuffed Dalmatian that didn’t really look anything like Woof except that it was a dog, Harper discovered an enormous bouquet of flowers on the coffee table in the living room.

“Pi-ty,” Oliver said, pointing to the flowers.

Harper nodded as she picked up the card, her eyes blurring with tears as she read the childlike printing.

For my new mommy on her first Mother’s Day. Love, Oliver. xoxo.

She looked from the message to Ryan. “Crayon?”

“He doesn’t yet have the dexterity to hold a pen,” he explained.

“If you really wanted me to believe that Oliver wrote the card, you should have spelled one or two words incorrectly.”

“Okay—I helped with the front. But he wrote on the back.”

She turned the card over to discover there was a blue scribble on the reverse side. “That does look slightly more age appropriate,” she agreed.

“Since you’ve been reading that book, you think you’re an expert on everything, don’t you?” Ryan teased.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.