AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Rosie said as much. I just figured it would all work out in time, but it didn’t. It was winter and then Sean started to go downhill. That increased the workload on me, but I did it at the expense of my son. Now I’m not sure how to undo any of it.”
“Delegate?”
He brought his chin up quickly.
“You trust the people working with you to handle vital things, but when it comes to Zeke, fear gets in the way. Trust more and worry less,” she told him.
“Easier said than done.”
She laughed. He scowled, and that only made her laugh more. “You know those birds of the air? The fish in the sea? Those sparrows that God cares for every single day? Be more like them,” she suggested. “Trust. Reach out. There is life beyond Pine Ridge Ranch, just like there was life beyond Fitzgerald News. It’s a question of exploring it. Then embracing it.”
She glanced up at the monitor, saw nothing of note, and eased a hip onto the office desk. “Zeke loves being on the ranch. He’s a born cowboy. But he could use some time with his daddy to figure out how to be the best cowboy he can be. And if you can’t take him with you off the ranch because time is short right now, make him your sidekick. When it’s safe. It will do you both good. And while I appreciate the apology…” She moved a step closer, determined to make her point. “Nobody gets to go off on me like that, Heath. Ever. Don’t do it again.”
If her reprimand surprised him, he didn’t show it. “I won’t. Most of the time.” He sent her a rueful grin, a look she remembered like it was yesterday, the kind of grin that stole a young girl’s heart. “I get stupid about Zeke sometimes.”
“Loving your child isn’t stupid. It’s how it’s supposed to be. Every kid in the world should have at least one parent who loves them.”
Sympathy softened his jaw. His gaze. “Your father’s a moron, Lizzie. And selfish. I’m sorry he messed you girls up.”
“We’re educated. We’re smart. We’ll be okay. But he cost over a thousand people their jobs and their pensions while he lives the life of a rich man in Dubai on stolen capital. That’s indefensible. And he got away with it.” She frowned. “I honestly don’t know how he lives with himself.”
“And that’s why Sean named you three women in the will. He couldn’t believe what his brother did to you. How he left the three of you holding the bag and some pretty stiff college loans for Charlotte and Mel.”
She was tired of rehashing her father’s misdeeds. “Just be glad you ended up working for this Fitzgerald brother. That he gave you a chance. Because I can see you love this place, Heath.”
“It saved me.” He turned his gaze outward. “I owe Sean and I owe this ranch, and no one expected him to get sick. To die. So the fact that he left me part of all this humbles me. And challenges me. So yeah.” He stood, tall and strong, shoulders back. “I love it. And I have to do whatever it takes to continue its success.”
“That’s when I call on my faith,” she told him quietly. “To give me the strength I need.”
He looked at her. Right at her. And he didn’t blink an eye. “The work of human hands has gotten me a whole lot farther than some intangible belief system. Diving in, getting things done, staying the course.”
“Except that you were just in church with me a couple of hours ago. Somehow this doesn’t compute.”
“I always take Zeke to church. His mother isn’t here to do it, so I do it in her place. She’d have wanted me to. It was important to her.”
But not to him.
The ring he still wore on his left hand gleamed brighter when a stray sunbeam hit the corner of the office window. It made a perfect reminder for Lizzie.
Heath didn’t do change well. He depended on himself and few others, and most assuredly not God.
She depended on God for everything. He’d been with her throughout the dark days after her father discovered her pregnancy. The shunning she’d received from her illustrious grandfather. And He’d been with her when she’d called on Heath for help, and Heath had ignored her pleas.
She folded her hands lightly in her lap. “I don’t know where I’d be today without my faith, Heath. It’s been my mainstay when people let me down. When man failed me, God stood watch. I’m sorry it hasn’t been that way for you because I remember when you used to go to church every Sunday and pray for your father.”
“A fat lot of good that did me.”
She heard the pain in his voice. She understood how hard it was to grow up happy when parents fail in their job of simply loving their children. She’d had money and stature to fall back on.
