She was grinning from ear to ear when they got off the phone. The sun was shining, the kids were in great hands, her good friend promised to have caffeine ready and waiting, and Brenna would get to spend hours alone with Adam, culminating in brilliant fireworks.

It was going to be a great day.

BY MIDMORNING Brenna and Adam had fallen into an easy, natural rhythm. While they were driving, they chatted and laughed a lot. She learned that the Rolling Stones were his favorite band and that he did a truly terrible Mick Jagger impression. She’d written a list of their assignments, analyzing location and meds schedules to put them in the order that made the most sense. After each visit was concluded and she’d double-checked that the house was secure, they’d return to the car where he’d immediately read off the next stop.

In the car, she’d outline what she needed him to do. Usually he handled stuff like bringing in people’s mail and watering plants while she took care of the pets. At one house, he tossed a tennis ball in the backyard for an indefatigable Jack Russell terrier while Brenna filled food bowls and undertook the always fun mission of giving a cat a pill. While Adam’s presence only shaved off a few minutes at most visits, those minutes added up over the course of the day. As soon as they reached their destination, chitchat stopped as they focused on their respective tasks.

She pulled into a driveway in the Heritage Pond subdivision, and he had his seat belt off before she got her keys out of the ignition.

“Synchronize watches,” he deadpanned. “And we’re ready to move out. Go, go, go, this is not a drill!”

Once they met back up at the front door to leave the house, she asked, “Do your patients know the truth about you, that you’re a total nut?”

“No, the hospital’s worked very hard to keep that under wraps. Otherwise people tend not to trust me with cutting their chests open.”

She shuddered. “The less time I spend thinking about what you actually do, the better. I couldn’t take it, the pressure of essentially holding someone else’s heart in my hands.”

He paused in the act of opening the passenger door, giving her a long, measured look over the roof of the hatchback.

Brenna swallowed. She’d never really wanted to be entrusted with someone else’s heart, but the thought of Adam putting such faith in her was both humbling and intoxicating.

Why now? She blinked rapidly, hoping he didn’t notice as they climbed into the car. Why did it have to be you? Yet she couldn’t find it in herself to regret anything that had transpired between them.

They hadn’t made it out of the subdivision before her cell phone rang. Quinn, she figured. Her friend should be about done with her short list of assignments; she had others that had to wait until this evening. She was probably calling to check in.

“More than Pup-” Brenna broke off, realizing that a phone was still ringing.

Adam had simultaneously realized the same thing. “Hello? Geoff, I don’t…Slow down. Maggie’s giving what to who?”

Gripped by a sense of foreboding, Brenna diverted her attention from the road to Adam’s profile. He’d gone ashen.

“We’ll be right there.” He snapped the phone closed. “We need to get to the festival. Now. Morgan’s missing.”

THOUGH BRENNA had turned around immediately, she’d been heading in the opposite direction of the festival. It would take them at least fifteen minutes to get there, and she’d been hoping with every fiber of her body that Maggie would have called by the time they arrived to let them know the little girl had been discovered safe and sound.

But that was not the case.

The festival was sprawled over the entire area of Mistletoe’s quaint downtown. There was not one main entry point. You simply parked in a field or lot as close as you could get, then walked from there. Maggie had been with the kids on the parade route while Fred had gone to buy them cold beverages-the temperature had already been well into the nineties by the time the parade started.

According to Geoff, one minute Morgan had been standing with them among the throng on the sidewalk, the next she’d been gone. In the dense crowd it had been difficult to spot someone so small. As soon as they’d realized what had happened, Maggie had given the little girl’s description to nearby police officers while Geoff called his dad.

Adam hadn’t said anything the entire ride, and Brenna couldn’t think of what to say to him other than a firm “We’ll find her.” He’d nodded tersely, his jaw clenched.

When River had been a kitten, she’d slid out the door without Brenna noticing and hadn’t come home for nearly two days. Brenna had been beside herself with worry. And that was a cat. She couldn’t imagine the hell Adam was going through imagining his five-year-old daughter scared and alone in the packed streets of an unfamiliar town.

Brenna stopped the car, and Adam was out the door before she’d even put it in Park. She saw him dial his phone, heard him ask Geoff, “Anything?” and watched his shoulders sag in defeat.

There was no central PA system for the festival, but several venues used microphones, such as the local bands performing in the oversize gazebo and the sports announcers covering the turtle races. According to Geoff, Fred was systematically going to each of those places to seek people’s help and to ask that anyone seeing Morgan call his cell phone number. Meanwhile, Maggie and Eliza were thoroughly checking all the women’s restrooms in case Morgan had wandered off simply because she needed to go to the bathroom. They were all keeping contact via phone and had left Geoff standing on the sidewalk along the parade route-the last thing they wanted was for Morgan to return only to find everyone else gone.

Geoff described his location to his dad, and Adam turned away from the phone for a moment to ask Brenna, “You know where Christy’s Crafts Corner is?” At her nod, he told his son, “Stay put, we’re coming to you.”

Mistletoe hosted many seasonal events, from the community haunted house every fall to the Winter Wonderland dance that benefited the seniors center. Brenna had always loved these activities, enjoyed the buzzing energy of the crowd, running into dozens of familiar acquaintances. Today, however, the sheer number of people became oppressive and sinister; what would this crush seem like to a little girl who didn’t know anyone?

As they shouldered their way through the mob, Brenna offered the only support she could think of-reaching down and taking Adam’s hand. He stiffened for a second, and she wondered if he would pull away. But then he squeezed her fingers.

She pointed to the left. “The craft store that Geoff’s in front of is just-”

“Daddy!”

Given the high volume of ambient noise, it was amazing they even heard her, but Adam whipped around so quickly he almost took out a passing pedestrian. He scanned the crowd, relief instantly flooding his expression when he spotted his daughter a few yards away. He took off in her direction, Brenna hurrying to catch up, and dropped to his knees in front of her. Morgan looked scared, but not nearly to the degree her father had been. His entire body was shaking as he squashed her into his embrace.

“Morgan! Oh, thank God,” he chanted. “Thank God, thank God. You scared the he-Where were you, baby?”

Her lower lip quivered, tears welling in her sky-blue eyes. “I…I don’t know. I just wanted to pet the little doggie, but then…” She began to wail.

Adam scooped her up in his arms, shushing her.

“Can you give me Geoff’s number? I’ll call him,” Brenna offered. She did so, moved by the naked relief in the teenager’s voice that his sister had been found. Next, Brenna called Maggie, knowing her stepmother must be frantic with concern and guilt.

“We found her,” Brenna said. “She wasn’t that far from where you guys were standing. I think she followed a puppy and got too turned around to find her way back.”

Adam had moved on from consoling to gently lecturing. His voice was kind but firm as he admonished Morgan to never, never, never, never do that again.

“Praise the lord,” Maggie said with feeling. “Eliza and I will meet you back there. I’ll call Fred now.”

Brenna could hear Eliza’s whoop of joy in the background as Maggie relayed the good news.

But joy was not the emotion plastered across the girl’s tearstained features when she stormed up to them a few minutes later. “Morgan Renee Varner, don’t you ever do that again!”

Morgan huddled shyly into her father’s side. “Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Eliza,” Adam said, “I know how upset you-”

“This is all your fault!” the girl blasted him, narrowing red-rimmed eyes. “You swore this trip was about us, spending time with your children! Then you went and dumped us on a total stranger-”

Maggie flinched but didn’t interrupt.

“-so that you could make some kind of booty call or something-”

“That is enough,” Adam said, his voice soft but echoing with cold finality.

Eliza’s shoulders slumped as if from the weight of all the emotions she’d gone through today. She stopped raging, but wounded anger still shadowed her gaze. “She’s not even your girlfriend, Dad. But you broke your promise for her. What if something had happened to Morgan?”

Adam briefly squeezed his eyes closed, actually staggering back a step as his daughter’s words struck him like a boxer’s KO punch. Brenna was certain Eliza hadn’t said anything he wasn’t already thinking himself. More than she had ever before, Brenna wanted to reach out to another person. She wanted to hug him, soothe him with reminders that his daughter was all right now. But under the circumstances, her touching Adam right now might not be welcome.