Letting Go (Triple Eight Ranch) - By Mary Beth Lee Page 0,40
fur to her. “I liked your momma. She smelled like gum. I bet that’ll make the angels happy.”
Clarissa cradled the cat in her arm. The tiny thing mewled and opened its eyes grumpily. She scratched its head and it settled against her chest mumbling and went back to sleep.
“Daddy said I couldn’t bother you today, but Gramps said if I saw you I could. I told him you’re my best friend. There’s flowers for you up at the house. You going to come get them or do you want me to tell daddy to bring them down?”
Embarrassment at the way she’d treated Jed last night coursed through her. She’d have to face him sooner or later. Plus she needed to return his phone. “I’ll come up there after a little while.”
Mackenzie smiled like she’d won the best friend lottery and hugged her again, her tiny arms circling Clarissa’s waist and serving as a balm for her hurting heart.
“The kitty food’s up at the house, too. And Gran says kitty likes Malt-o-Meal too, but she didn’t figure you’d have any of that. And Gramps said that was okay ‘cause you’d leave soon maybe. I don’t want you to leave, Clarissa.”
Clarissa looked out over the fields again. Paul probably hadn’t meant for Mackenzie to hear those words. He was right, though. She needed to move on before it hurt even more to do so.
She wasn’t going to lie to Mackenzie, though. So she just hugged the little girl back and prayed she could figure out a way to leave without hurting the girl who’d been abandoned and still believed in love.
Again, answers to prayer proved elusive. So she pushed open her door and changed the subject.
“Let’s go see what we’ve got to make a toy for the cat.”
“Whatcha going to name her?” Mackenzie asked, and Clarissa breathed a sigh of relief. The subject change worked.
“I don’t know. Maybe you should name her?”
Mackenzie shook her head solemnly. “She’s yours for now. You do it.”
Clarissa could tell this was a huge gift. She could also tell Mackenzie was being very careful not to make the animal a forever kind of gift. Five and still smart as a whip.
The kitten opened its eyes and yawned then swatted at Mackenzie’s pig tail, and Mackenzie laughed. The sound a combination of joy and innocence and love.
“How about we just call her cat and give her a name later?”
Mackenzie frowned. “We already got Cat up at the barn.”
Hmmmm. Tough one. “Okay then,” Clarissa said, “we’ll call her Kitty for now. Sound good?”
Mackenzie nodded. “Yeah. But you gotta name her soon, ‘kay?”
“Sure thing, sport,” Clarissa said, and then they set out to find some string for the toy.
Jed sat at the table and frowned at his father. “You sent Mackenzie down there this morning?”
His daddy pushed Momma’s homemade strawberry jelly onto a biscuit and nodded. “Sent her with one of the new kittens. Clarissa’s hurting bad and Mackenzie will help some, the cat more.”
Jed didn’t like it. “She asked to be alone,” he said.
“She asked you to leave her alone last night. Not the same thing.”
His Momma handed him a plate of biscuits covered in the sticky wrap he hated even though she called it a miracle because it stuck to everything. “Speaking of which, you should take these down to her now.”
Incredulous, Jed shook his head. “I think I’ll leave her be for now.” He didn’t want to intrude on her grief. Didn’t want to push her away.
Momma pushed a new jar of jelly toward him. “You aren’t going to catch the girl sitting up here stratigizing how to keep her in Stearns. Go down there and be her friend. If she doesn’t want you there, she’ll tell you.”
Relationship advice from his mother. Terrific. “I don’t know, Momma.”
“Then pray about it, son,” she said.
“But pray about it while you’re delivering biscuits,” Daddy said.
Susie and Paul Dillon watched their son walk down the gravel road to the bunkhouse.
“Without a miracle, she’ll be gone within a month, and we’ll be nursing heartbreak again,” Paul Dillon said.
“Our God works miracles every day,” Susie Dillon said.
“Amen,” Paul said, but he couldn’t help being worried.
Jed stood on the bunkhouse porch and listened as Mackenzie laughed and Clarissa called out “kitty, kitty, kitty.”
The sound of them playing together gave him hope. But hope was dangerous. It led to heartache. And God knew, his heart was definitely involved. Somehow he’d let himself fall in love with Clarissa. He’d put down all his guards and he’d