As soon as Janie’s car pulled out from the back of the house, Ty turned to Rachel and said, “Let’s get you upstairs and resting.”
But Rachel surprised him as she walked over to the porch swing that sat nestled in the corner under the eaves by the private kitchen entrance. “It’s such a nice evening, and I’ve been inside all day. I’d really like to sit out here for a while.”
She collapsed into the chair looking weary, but the peace on her face made it impossible to argue.
“Mind if I join you?”
She’d already closed her eyes as she leaned back against the seat and was gently rocking. “Suit yourself. But if you’re just here to babysit me, you go on and do whatever it was that you were planning on doing. I’ll be fine.”
She wasn’t fine; any fool could see it.
But since she’d asked him to check his motivation, he did. And as he thought about all the possibilities of what he could do with his time, the idea of sitting quietly on the porch swing enjoying the calmness of the evening with Rachel was the most appealing.
He briefly stopped the swing long enough to settle in, and though Rachel didn’t open her eyes, she let out a long, contented sigh.
As they sat there swinging on the porch, he looked out around him at the ranch. From this vantage point, tucked away from the main entrance and the back deck, this area was mostly used only by Ricky and Wanda and their closest friends as a private entrance to the house. He could see past the small kitchen garden Wanda liked to keep up with, to the fence that gave the family a small amount of privacy from the guests, and for a moment it felt like they were in their own insulated world. On the other side of the fence was the bustling parking lot, the lodge where the guests were mingling, and farther still, all the cabins and other buildings necessary for ranch operations. He could hear the activity on the other side of the fence but it was muted, and here, in this isolated spot, he felt a peace he wasn’t often used to.
“I feel better already,” Rachel said, opening her eyes and turning to him. “I know you keep telling me about all the wonderful places on the ranch you want me to experience because you love them so much, but I think this is my very favorite spot. Sometimes, after Katie goes to bed, I come out here and just sit, listening to the stillness of the night, praying and thinking about how grateful I am to see how everything has worked out.”
Rachel had changed since coming here. Yes, she still worried too much about being a burden or imposing, and that she didn’t belong, but she was family. Once again he realized he couldn’t imagine the ranch without her.
It was as if his final excuses for keeping her at a distance melted away.
That Rachel was the old Rachel. She hadn’t known God, and she hadn’t known the welcome she would find here. Maybe she had been deceitful, but he was finding it harder and harder to muster the same resentment he’d initially held against her.
He reached over and took her hand. “I’m glad you found your peace here. You’re part of this place now. I know I’ve already apologized for how I treated you in the past, but I just wanted to say once again how deeply I regret my previous actions toward you.”
She squeezed his hand and smiled. “After seeing the operation, I can understand why you would be so protective. I was in the lodge the other day when a customer was trying to fake an injury. I think, if the man’s little boy hadn’t called him out on it right on the spot, you would have been hearing from them.”
Ty groaned. He had heard from the man. But thankfully, all it took was for him to talk to a few witnesses and go back to the man to let him know that if he sued, they would file a countersuit. It was amazing how quickly the man’s story changed.
There were dozens of men like him, all trying to get their piece of the Double R pie. But he could finally see that Rachel was not one of them.
“It’s all part of my job,” Ty said, looking over at Rachel.
The admission made him feel as weary as Rachel had looked earlier. Protecting Ricky and the Double R took a toll on him that he hadn’t realized until Rachel had come into his life. In the interest of protecting others, he’d put such a barrier around his heart that he hadn’t been willing to let anyone else in.
This time when Rachel smiled at him it was devoid of the fatigue it had previously had. Perhaps this place really was relaxing for her.
“I want you to know,” she said, “I underestimated you. I’ve held a lot against you, because of the pain in my marriage. It made me doubt myself, made me doubt my friends, and with good reason. But not everyone is like Chris and the friends I used to have. Everything I see in you comes from a pure heart. You really care about Ricky and the land. You’re not Chris, who only ever cared about himself.”
It hadn’t occurred to him that she would have made that comparison. Especially since he had so little in common with people like Chris.
“I’m nothing like him,” he said.
“I know,” she said. “But what I did know was that you were an attorney, and my experience with them hasn’t been great. Some of the things you did that were controlling made it easy for me to think you were just like every other attorney I knew. In my experience, all lawyers have been self-serving and didn’t care who they hurt in the process. I’m
