Letting Go (Triple Eight Ranch) - By Mary Beth Lee Page 0,16
caught his attention fist. When he pulled into the drive, his parents’ Ramblin’ Road RV made him smile.
“How about that,” he said, and Clarissa opened her eyes, blinked a few times and bit her lip. He wondered what she was thinking seeing the ranch house for the first time.
“My parents drove in from Branson,” he explained. “They must’ve started this way about the time the storm hit.”
The door opened and three cow dogs barreled toward the truck and then Momma was standing on the front porch, a towel in her hands, her hair pulled back in a silver pony tail that made her look younger than she was. But he saw the worry and relief in her eyes.
A few seconds after Jed stopped the truck his daddy limped his way out the door to join her. His arthritis must be giving him fits after the drive.
“Hey, hold up there,” he said when Clarissa started to open her door. His daddy’d let him have it for sure if he saw anything resembling poor manners.
A quick skip and Jed had Clarissa’s door open, then Mack’s. Unbuckling the seatbelt, he pulled her from the booster and cradled her in his arms. She settled her head against his neck, her arms draped around his shoulders, and he breathed a quick prayer of thanksgiving. It wasn’t often he got to hold Mack like this. She was always running ninety to nothing, pushing him away after a few seconds. The storm today had been way too close, and yet, they’d survived unscathed.
“A welcoming committee, huh?” Clarissa said worriedly, and Jed laughed.
“You might say that,” he said, noting the question in his momma’s eyes as she took in Clarissa and the stiffness to Clarissa’s shoulders as she seemed to drag forward.
“You going to be okay?”
“Always am,” she said, and he could swear he heard something unspoken in her words.
Carrying Mack up the steps to the porch, he noticed Clarissa’s head had snapped straight. Her blue eyes were smudged with tired dark circles. Her hands were rough and red from hours of work at the church. Her hair was falling out of its clip and the clothes she wore, a white shirt, jeans and yellow plastic looking sandals, were the only clothes she owned other than the apron she’d left in the walk-in at Pete’s.
She was the same kind of mess he was, and Jed was as proud to introduce her to his parents as anyone he’d ever brought home for them to meet.
“Momma, Daddy, I’d like you to meet Clarissa Dye. She’s new in town, works at Pete’s and has been helping me out with Mack. She lost everything in the tornado, so she’ll be staying with us a while.”
He noticed her slight frown at his last words and then she was shaking his daddy’s hand. When she tried to shake his momma’s hand, Momma wasn’t having any part of it.
“You poor dear,” she said, wrapping Clarissa in a Susie Dillon hug. And then he didn’t have to worry about Clarissa and her frowns because his momma was pulling her in the house in that way she had that brooked no resistance.
“Let’s get you set up in one of the guest rooms. My daughter, Jed’s little sister Callie’s about your size, and she left clothes here when she visited last.”
With that Clarissa was walking up the stairs with his momma, and once again Jed said a quick prayer of thanksgiving, this time for his mother’s ability to make anyone feel at ease. Because Clarissa definitely needed that comfort tonight.
After Jed tucked Mack in bed, he made his way to the living room where his daddy sat in front of empty fireplace, a concerned look on his face.
“She’s not one of your lost pets, Jed.”
Jed was exhausted and hurting and he wanted to visit Clarissa, tell her everything would somehow be okay. But he was going to have to have this talk with his daddy.
“I know that,” Jed said.
“She’s a grown woman who has the look of a world of hurts that have nothing to do with the storm tonight in her eyes.”
“She’s a friend, Daddy. That’s all. And I think I know a bit about a world of hurts.” Jed couldn’t help adding the last part even though he knew no one in his family needed reminding.
“There are some hurts you know nothing about, Son, and I’m thinking that young woman you brought home might have a few experiences there.”
When Jed started to answer, his daddy waved