Chasing Second Chances by Shelly Logan Read Free Book Online

were somewhere else, lost and lonely, possibly hurt…
    No, she would not think of that.
    Still, she did not know what she would do if her hopes were in vain.
    Please…please…
    * * * *
    “Please call me Carol,” the woman with grey curls said as she ushered Kate and Lloyd into her home. Just as Kate had suspected, she was a woman in her mid-sixties and to her relief, the woman looked completely sane.
    “I appreciate your hospitality, Carol,” Kate said. “But I would really like to see the kids. I’m sure you understand.”
    “I do,” Carol said. “I’m a mother, too, after all. At least, I was once. Now, I’m just an old woman.”
    “I’m sure motherhood isn’t something that can be undone,” Kate found herself saying, surprising even herself. Just yesterday, she had been in despair, thinking she would be nothing without her kids, so where had that come from?
    “You are a kind person,” Carol said. “You must be a very good mother.”
    “I’m not so sure about that.”
    “Are you sure you don’t want a cup of coffee or tea?”
    “No, thank you,” Kate said. “I would really like to see the kids.”
    “I’m sure Luke and Jenny would like to see you, too.”
    “Lena and Jack,” Lloyd corrected, wrinkling his nose.
    “Right.” Carol turned to him. “Are you the father?”
    Lloyd nodded. “Where are the kids, Ms. Singer? We’ve come a long way and we really would like to bring them back home as soon as possible.”
    “Well, they’re not here,” Carol said.
    Kate immediately frowned. Before she could say anything, however, Carol continued.
    “They’re in the house at the end of the street. I saw them yesterday while I was walking my dog, Ida. That’s short for Idaho where I was raised.”
    “Are you sure they’re the kids you saw on television?” Lloyd asked.
    “Well, they certainly looked like them,” Carol replied.
    “And you’ve never seen them before?”
    “Never. I only saw them yesterday. They were playing in the front yard when all of a sudden, this man came out of the house and he started shouting at them. He sounded very upset that they had played outside when he told them not to.”
    Kate turned to Lloyd. “Let’s go see for ourselves if the kids are ours.”
    Lloyd nodded. “The house at the end of the street, Ms. Singer?”
    “Yes, the one with the blue roof and the potted spider plants in front. I would take you there myself but that man is quite scary.”
    “We understand,” Lloyd said. He took Kate’s hand. “Let’s go.”
    They walked down the street, stopping in front of the house with the blue roof that Carol had described. Kate’s hand tightened around Lloyd’s and she swallowed the lump in her throat as she felt her heart begin to race.
    Please let it be the kids.
    Lloyd remained calm as he rang the doorbell.
    After the second ring, there was still no answer and Kate was about to begin pushing the button frantically when two kids came running out of the house – a little girl with brown hair in pigtails and a younger boy with black, curly hair.
    They stared at her just as she stared at them, her eyes filling with tears.
    They were complete strangers to her.
    * * * *
    “Kate, wait!”
    Lloyd ran down the street, trying to catch both his breath and Kate. He did not know where she was going and he doubted that she knew either, but he knew he had to catch up to her, even though that was easier said than done. He had forgotten that Kate had run marathons before she got pregnant.
    “Kate!”
    She did not seem to hear her, simply running down the street as fast as she could. She probably wanted to get away from everything right now and he couldn’t blame her.
    Finally, after two blocks, she stopped at the children’s playground just as it started to rain. She sat on one of the swings, ignoring the droplets of water soaking through her shirt, her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. He, too, breathed heavily as he sat on the empty swing