Lyric looked around the table at her friends and family. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Lauren’s breath caught in her throat. Jesus’s words from the book of Matthew. She knew them well, but for the first time, they were coming from the mouth of her sweet friend. The command was living andbreathing right in front of her, changing lives two thousand years after they were recorded.
“I’m okay with it,” Bella said.
Lauren released Bella’s hand and looked at Lyric. With her head held high and her heart made known, Lyric was a force that couldn’t be stopped—a woman who knew exactly where she stood and why.
Lyric picked up her fork and turned her attention to the plate in front of her—one carefully prepared by her loving husband—and the tension at the table faded away.
It was too soon to tell if Lauren could make a difference, but she had to keep trying.
11
Zach
One thing nobody mentions about getting out of prison is how seemingly normal things feel like traps. Zach stretched his feet as far as they could go in the cab of the truck. The moving cage jostled as they ate up the road toward his new job, and Zach lowered the window to let the brisk air in.
He rapped his knuckles against the door of Travis’s truck. It wasn’t one of those high-end pickups with chrome and screens, and Zach’s new chauffeur wasn’t in a black suit and hat. He was being transported to his next sentencing—work.
Cowboys might be a dime a dozen in Blackwater, Wyoming, but Zach wasn’t one of them. How exactly had he landed a job as a ranch hand when he had less than zero knowledge of horses, cattle, or whatever they did at a ranch?
Lauren. That was how. She was too persistent forher own good, and her well-meaning gestures crept into his territory pretty often these days.
The ride to Silver Falls was uncomfortably quiet until Travis cleared his throat. “We need to talk about some things before we get started.”
“I’d rather not.”
“I don’t want this anymore than you do, but I care about Lauren, and she’s determined to convince everyone to give you the benefit of the doubt.”
There she was again. Always following him around. Always sticking her nose in his life. “I don’t need Lauren to do the talking for me.”
“Oh, yeah? There’s no way you’d have this job without her. It wouldn’t hurt you to thank her.”
“Thanks for the manners lesson, but I’ve got it covered.”
Okay, that was a stretch, but he could figure it out on his own without Mr. Goodie-Two-Shoes butting in.
“Fine. Let’s talk about work. Matt and Tammy Benson are good people. Do not screw them over. They don’t deserve that.”
“Aw, man. That was going to be my icebreaker.”
Travis went on as if he hadn’t heard the remark. “Don’t bring your friends here. The Bensons have been working on getting the ranch up and running for years, and it’s finally rolling. We don’t want any trouble.”
“Shoot, I think that means you need to take me back to Lauren’s.”
“Can you be serious for one second?” Travissnapped. “A handful of people have gone out of their way to help you, and you aren’t taking any of it seriously.”
Zach waved a hand in the air. “Excuse me. Continue with your list of rules.”
Travis stretched his neck from side to side. “You don’t know me, but let me tell you a little something. I don’t trust you, I don’t like you, and I don’t want to work with you.”
“Could’a fooled me,” Zach scoffed. “I’m not the pick of the litter, but I don’t wake up plotting how to steal and kill. Why don’t we call it a day and say we tried? Then you can sleep soundly tonight.”
Travis turned onto a gravel road that had seen better days. Potholes riddled both sides, bouncing the truck one way, then the other. Trees towered high on each side of the path, preventing most of the light from shining through the evergreen branches.
“This is the back side of the ranch,” Travis said. “I live out here with my wife and kid. I expect you to act as if my house doesn’t exist.”
“Invisible house doesn’t write the check. Noted.”
