Letting Go (Triple Eight Ranch) - By Mary Beth Lee Page 0,26
he was talking about.
“I don’t think...”
He held up a hand. “Hear me out. I saw you with her yesterday, and I know three things. She can’t hurt my family, she’s wasted away to nothing, and she’s hurt you horribly in the past. You need to let her stay for you.”
“For me?” That was funny.
“I saw that hurt in your eyes yesterday. It’s going to keep on haunting you until you find a way to let it go. That can’t happen if you send your mother on her way.”
He didn’t understand.
“My mother’s only here because she saw your son standing next to me on a news clip and thought she’d be able to waltz in here and make a score.”
“Like I said, this isn’t about her. It’s about you. Her intentions have nothing to do with it. You’re the one carrying the weight of the past around letting it eat away at you. You’ve got a chance to make things different. But it’s got to be your choice.”
Her choice. That was a first where Tammy Jo was concerned.
“So you want to let her stay in your bunkhouse?” she asked.
“For a while,” Paul said.
“Rent free.” Tammy Jo would love that.
“We’ll trade in work. Been doing that for years, don’t see a reason to change now.”
That made her laugh. “My mother won’t know anything about working on a ranch.” She didn’t say her mother knew everything about staying places free.
“Doesn’t take anything more than muscle and will to do the jobs I’m talking about. José will have plenty of cleanups to do out in the arbors. And if not, I know we can use help in the stalls.”
It would almost be worth it to see her mother doing manual labor.
“I don’t want her around Mackenzie. And I’ll go back to town as soon as I can, so she’ll be your problem then. If she even agrees to this, which is a very big if.”
Colossal if. Tammy Jo never took the way that ended in hard work.
“Lesson one. You control yourself and no one else. All I want is for you to give her a chance. And the only reason I want that is because your soul needs that peace.”
“She’s not...” Clarissa stopped. How could she warn this man of her mother’s past when she had so many sins of her own?
“You don’t have to apologize for your mother, and I’m not here for a confession, Clarissa. But Susie and I worried about you all night, and we prayed about it, and this is what we feel is right.”
His words shocked her. “You worried about me?”
“Mack thinks the world of you, and Jed invited you to stay here as long as you need. That means something to us.”
Warmth and wariness suffused her at his words. Warmth at the fact that they cared for her. Wariness because once upon a time taking advantage of people like the Dillons was her stock in trade, passed down from a mother who was supreme queen of the art of a con. But Paul Dillon was right. Her mother didn’t look like she was faking down on her luck this time. And if something happened to Tammy after she sent her away, Clarissa knew she would carry the guilt.
“I’ll talk to her as soon as she gets up, and I’ll let you know her answer.”
He set the basket and carafe on the table. “Good.”
Clarissa thought he was leaving then, but he stopped at the door and turned back to her. “People can change, Clarissa. It takes a miracle, but I’m proof God’s in the miracle business.”
She’d believed in miracles once. After years of watching others get theirs while hers passed on by, she wasn’t sure anymore.
“Thank you, Mr. Dillon,” she said, and he closed the door letting his words settle behind him.
Later that day Clarissa couldn’t help but think the Dillons were in the miracle business, too, when her mother said yes to working on the ranch in exchange for room and board. Even when Clarissa explained that she would be spending her days in town working with kids at the shelter until the diner opened.
The only thing her mother requested was that Clarissa room in the bunkhouse with her. The answer should have been easy. Getting out of the main house would make leaving all that much easier when the time came. It would keep her from getting too close to Mackenzie. It would keep her out of the Dillon family’s hair. But staying in the bunkhouse meant