Desolate Read Free

said ice cream. It always put a smile on my face.
    “Liam, you want some ice cream, buddy?” I repeated the correct way.
    His little head just bounced up and down letting me know just how much he wanted this treat. The only bad part about this was that we didn’t have any in the house. I wanted to tell him no and that we could get some another time, but his enthusiasm wouldn’t allow me to. He was so cute that I couldn’t cause his smile to falter.
    “You want Daddy to take you to get some ice cream, buddy? We’ve got to get your shoes and coat on first.” Andrew said with a smile on his face.
    “Yay. Ouce ceam,” he screamed as he started running from the kitchen to the door. There was no stopping him when he knew that ice cream was involved.
    I couldn’t help but shake my head. The only thing his little mind heard was ice cream. Typical toddler.
    Andrew put on Liam’s shoes and coat, then walked back into the kitchen with a fidgeting little boy on his hands. He was trying to escape his father’s grasp so he could run out of the house.
    “You want anything babe?” he asked while he continued to try and keep his hold on Liam.
    “Just for you to hurry back.”
    “I’ll be back as quick as I can. I can’t wait to show you just how much you turned me on earlier when this little guy goes to bed. Love you, Mags. With everything that I am,” he replied.
    “Love you, too,” I said back as he walked out the door. He was the sweetest man that I’d ever met.
    Our lazy day had been perfect. We’ve played, cuddled, and spent the day as a family. Who could ask for more than that? Certainly not me.
    The store was only about ten minutes away, which meant they should be back in half an hour. So I took the time to go and clean up the dishes from dinner, opting to wash them by hand instead of loading the dishwasher to pass the time.
    By the time I finished washing, drying, and putting them away, the boys still weren’t back yet which was odd. I’d even wiped the counters and table off before I’d realized they hadn’t returned. I glanced over at the stove and recalculated the time they’d left versus the time that shown on the stove clock. It had been forty minutes. There’s no way they would still be at the store. Even if Liam decided to give Andrew a fit, they should’ve been home by now. I’d given them extra time at the store in case Liam was indecisive about what he wanted. Fear started to creep inside of me, but I pushed it back down. There was no need to panic just yet. Anything could’ve held them up.
    Before the panic fully set in, I decided to call Andrew just to see what the holdup was. Liam would need to be in bed soon, and he’d be a bear if he couldn’t have his ice cream first when we’d promised him we could. Hopefully, Andrew just decided to let Liam eat his ice cream at the outside tables at the store. That had to be it.
    The phone rang and rang with no answer. Andrew’s all too familiar voice came across the phone when his voicemail picked up, but I hung up the phone without leaving one. There was no way to explain my paranoia to him so I just decided to wait for him to call me back.
    Twenty phone calls and five voicemails later, still no Andrew and Liam. They’d been gone for two hours, and I’d officially hit full-blown panic mode. I’m sure there was now wear patterns in my hardwood floors from all of the pacing that I’d began to do.
    The panic set in the more I paced the floor, my heart pounded harder and harder with each second that passed. The fear that I’d hidden in the day to day life had now came out full force, threatening to choke me the more I thought of each and every scenario that could’ve happened to them.
    With one final pass, I stopped in the middle of the hallway and rested my back against the wall. Tears now filled my eyes. I couldn’t get the thoughts out of my head that something had happened to them. That they weren’t coming home. The moment I let the