“You know that you’ve just made me the happiest dad in the world, right?”
“I know. I already told Mommy that I think you are the best dad in the world and she cried, too.”
He glanced over at Tara who gave him a loving smile.
“You did, eh? When did you say that?”
“The first night in my princess bed.”
He swallowed the lump in his throat. “That’s awesome, Fluff.”
“Do you wanna come with us?”
He furrowed his brow, racking his brain for a moment. “Ah, that milkshake! No, you girls go ahead. I’ll wait here for you. Have fun!”
He kissed Tara on the lips, before he said. “I can’t believe she just told me she loves me.”
Tara beamed at him and said, “And she called you her dad. It’s only going to be a matter of time before she calls you ‘Dad’.”
“I hope so…” he said.
“Oh, I know it. We’ll see you later,” she said before she walked out of the gate surrounding the backyard. He watched them walk hand in hand down hill on their way to the town center.
He opened his phone to make a picture of his girls walking hand in hand. He opened his app for his messages and saw that he hadn’t answered Tara’s message from two days ago about some bird she saw flying around.
He opened the pictures and swiped to see them all one by one. The first picture only had blue sky; the second only had a few trees. He zoomed in on the third picture and his heart stopped beating.
From behind one of the trees he saw a hand wrapped around the dark brown bark. Owen swiped for another picture and zoomed in on that same spot, finding no hand.
He swiped and swiped until in the last picture he saw curly brown hair peeking from one of the trees in the back. It were the same curls as Frankie, except for the color. The minute he zoomed in on the face of the man, he knew it was him.
Eric Houston.
Owen opened his contact list and called Tara.
She didn’t pick up her phone and he instantly got a bad feeling. He couldn’t see them from the bench, but when he stood and walked over to the garden fence, they were already out of sight and probably on their way to Jenny’s.
He called Caitlin first. She would know what to do now that he found Eric Houston creeping around his family. He walked out of his backyard and turned into the street leading to town. He hurried his steps as he wanted to see his girls, making sure they were okay.
“Hi, O. What’s up? Do you have any new ideas for our nursery?” Caitlin said as she picked up the phone.
“He’s here.”
“Who is?”
Owen looked around the grass fields surrounding the winding road to town and couldn’t see Tara or Frankie further below. He held his breath, trying to hear his daughter’s laugh but the air was silent. Too silent.
If they were walking down to go see Jenny, he must have seen them further down hill from the spot he was on. Something wasn’t right. He felt it in his gut.
“Eric Houston is here. Tara has him on a picture she made two days ago. Oh, God. I think he already got to them. They’re not here and—”
He released the breath he was holding when he suddenly saw Frankie’s golden brown hair enter Jenny’s with Tara following her closely behind.
“Ah, I see them! They’re at Jenny’s. Thank God.”
“We need to contact the police, O.”
He nodded. “You’re right, Cait. But first I need to go see my girls…”