Greg opened the door with a keycard, and he stood back as a couple of officers entered first, followed by Ted. His lawyer did stand there, and he took Ted’s bag and handed it to a couple of officers who wore gloves and unzipped his duffle. Ted tried not to care, and really, he didn’t.
Prison really had removed the anger from him. Then Jarrell Rose shook his hand, and Ted didn’t hate seeing his lawyer, maybe for the first time. When he’d first been indicted, he’d thought his lawyer could help him. After all, Ted himself had been a lawyer in his first life. He thought he’d worked to help people.
But as Ted had learned painful lesson after painful lesson during his trial and subsequent incarceration, his faith in lawyers was nearly gone.
The Warden came into the room, and all the paperwork got reviewed. Ted had learned to be patient over the years, and how to hold very still, a mask on his face, hiding his emotions. Inside, his muscles itched, and he wanted someone to say something, do something.
Finally, Warden Dickerson looked up and said, “All right, boys. He’s ready.” The Warden ran a tight ship here, and he didn’t make personal connections with the inmates. Ted had never seen him wear anything but a suit and tie, just as he was now, despite the early hour on a Monday morning.
Ted stood still while all the restraints got removed, and one of the officers handed him his duffle bag. “Your clothes,” the man said, and Ted watched them all leave.
He quickly changed out of the prison blues and oranges, things he never wanted to see again. The clothes in the bag were what he’d worn in, and they didn’t seem to fit right. The shoulder in his shirt was too small, and he felt like an oversized man trying to wear children’s clothes.
No one came to get him, and Ted wasn’t sure if he should just walk out.
Thankfully, Jarrell knocked in that moment. He reentered the room and took Ted by the elbow, and they did walk out of the office, down the hall, and right on out of the building. A huge, black truck waited in the circle drive, the early morning sunlight glinting off all the chrome. Jarrell strode toward it, extending the thick folder of paperwork toward whoever was inside.
Nate got out of the passenger side and took the folder with the words, “Thanks, Jarrell.” His gaze switched to Ted, a smile blooming on his face. “You ready?”
He was going to have to be, Ted supposed, and he swallowed and nodded. He relaxed as Nate embraced him again, as Jarrell promised to follow up with him in a couple of weeks, and as he got in the truck after Nate had slid into the middle.
“Ted,” Nate said. “My fiancée, Ginger Talbot.” He looked from Ted to Ginger. “Ginger, this is Ted Burrows, my best friend.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ginger said, and she gave him a real nice smile too, as if she actually meant it.
“And you,” Ted said, because he’d been taught manners once upon a time in his life. He was Texan, after all. He settled into the comfortable seats as Nate told him they had about a three and a half hour drive ahead of them.
“And we’ve got better clothes at the ranch,” he said. “That shirt looks a little small.”
Ted didn’t care about the ill-fitting clothes or the long drive; he wasn’t behind the walls of River Bay, and when Ginger turned down road after road and then onto a highway with the water on the left, all Ted could do was stare.
Nate didn’t try to engage Ted in conversation, thankfully, as Ted felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. The sky was so blue. The water so beautiful. The sunshine so bright.
Eventually, they reached the town of Sweet Water Falls, and Ted thought even the name was too good to be true.
Then Ginger turned onto the dirt lane that led to the ranch. The instructions started then, and he learned where he’d live, and where the women on the ranch lived, and when he’d meet with Ginger.
She pulled into a garage that had doors on both sides, so she could essentially drive straight through the house in one of the three stalls separating the West Wing—where the women lived—from the Annex—where the cowboys lived.
“Your room is right by mine,” Nate said. “And Connor’s. We’ll share a bathroom.”
Ted made a sound of affirmation, because he wasn’t sure what to vocalize. He’d met Connor before, because Nate’s brother used to bring him to the prison to visit.
“Emma will have lunch ready,” Ginger said, opening her door. “You hungry, Ted?”
He looked over at her and nodded. “I didn’t get breakfast.”
“We should’ve stopped,” Nate said. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I’m fine,” Ted said, though he did get grumpy if he didn’t eat enough. His stomach growled at the same time it told him not to eat, because it was nervous and wouldn’t know what to do with the food he gave it.
“Let’s go eat.” Nate got out on the driver’s side, and Ted finally got himself to move. Ginger had gone into the house ahead of them, and Nate met Ted’s eye. “It’ll be overwhelming for a little bit. But this is a great place, I swear, and you just do the same thing here that you did at River Bay.”
“What’s that?”
“Take it one day at a time.” Nate gave him another smile and said, “Okay, so you’re going to meet a bunch of people at once. Don’t try to remember all of their names. You just need to know Ginger’s.”
“Ginger,” Ted repeated. “Got it.” He never forgot a
