Stay Tuned

Chapter 29

My heart plummeted into my stomach. It wasn’t Jaden. A dark-haired little girl with coal-black eyes and curly pigtails peeked out at me from behind the house. She held half of a chocolate chip cookie in one hand and wore a telltale smear near her top lip. I guessed she was about Jaden’s age and size.

“That’s my doggie!” she shrieked. “Please don’t take him.”

“Doggie,” Addie repeated, clutched to my neck.

“Oh, sweetie, I’m not trying to take your dog,” I started to explain. “I’m looking for a little girl. With blond hair. This is her sister.”
 
The girl with the pigtails frowned and took a cautious step toward us. “Here, Jake,” she called, bending toward the dog and motioning with her hand. Jake ignored her, running circles around Addie and me with yips of joy, wagging his tail. His leash wrapped around my ankles.

Addie clapped her hands with glee at the dog’s antics. A screen door slammed.

The leash tightened around my ankles. I teetered to catch my balance and gripped Addie with both arms.
 
“Ella Marie,” a woman exclaimed from around the corner. “Whatever is going on?”

When she came into view, her face melted from frustration to surprise.

I could hardly contain mine. It was Cher. “Hey, Melissa,” she exclaimed. “Remember me? From Posh Couture?”

Any other time I would have been thrilled to stop and chat about WSGA or shopping.
    
“Oh my gosh, Cher,” I interrupted. “We’re looking for my friend’s little girl. She disappeared from the park about ten minutes ago. She has a blonde ponytail, pink ribbon—”

“She’s in the house.”

“—and this is her twin sister.” I held out Addie for verification. I continued my nervous blabbing until Cher repeated herself, this time much louder.

“Melissa, she’s in my house,” Cher said, this time, slowly. She made a motion for us to follow her. “The little girl you’re looking for?”

“Ohhh. Really?” I exclaimed once I realized what she was saying, and squeezed Addie so hard she gasped for breath and squealed.

“Just follow me. Come inside, Ella. You, too, Jake. Naughty dog.” Cher reached down and scooped up Jake, who barked at her again for disrupting his fun.

I cried out in relief when I stepped inside the door of the house. Perched on a stool at the kitchen table, Jaden glanced up ever so casually, milk in one hand, cookie in the other.
    
“Hi Aunt Melissa,” she said calmly, and took a bite.
    
I rushed over and hugged Jaden. She was unharmed, untouched, and completely oblivious to the havoc she had caused.
    
With my free hand, I yanked out my cell phone to call Candace. My hand shook, making my fingers fumble as I punched the buttons.

Addie reached out an arm. “Cookie, please!”

“Jake must have wiggled through the fence again and wandered across the street. She probably followed Jake back to the house.” Cher tousled Jaden’s ponytail. “When she said she didn’t know where her mom was, I brought her inside and called 9-1-1.”
 
A sharp rap on the door interrupted. Candace burst in the door, face tear-streaked, but happy.
    
It was blissful chaos. Candace hugged everyone, a chorus of, ‘thank you,’ spilling out of her mouth. Ella Marie walked around the kitchen in circles while Jake barked and licked cookie crumbs off the floor under Addie’s feet.
    
“She’s darling,” I commented to Cher about her daughter.
    
“Isn’t she though?” Cher beamed and took a step back from the children, then lowered her voice and whispered. “I think I mentioned it at the shop, but I adopted Ella Marie. Her mother was a migrant worker. There was a terrible accident.”
    
Candace, who was listening, got wide-eyed.
    
My reporter brain kicked on. “So, how in the world did you find her?”
    
Cher smiled. “My sister. She worked as a family law attorney and started a local chapter of the National Adoption Center. Ella was one of her first cases.”
    
“What a real-life happily ever-after,” Candace murmured out loud, marveling at Cher’s good fortune.
    
“My sister knew we’d be perfect for each other.”
    
It was a great story. The more I thought about it, the better it sounded. And I was certain people in Macon would love it, too.
    
“Cher,” I said, “Would you talk to WSGA about adopting Ella Marie?”