Micah had seen it more than once, so many times it had become normal to him. “Happens all the time.”
“Exactly,” Jim replied. “Ellie, and Micah too, both of you are growing in your faith from rocky soil. Sure, Micah, you’ve grown up in church with your mother and your brothers, but it takes courage to fight through the childhood you had. To view God as a loving father, you have to come to peace with your upbringing.Ellie, you’re much the same, but you didn’t have the benefit of a church family the way Micah did.”
He was right. Hal, Pastor Jim, Florence, and a whole host of other adults had joined Mama in bolstering their young faiths. It didn’t mean Micah hadn’t had his doubts, pretty big ones even recently, but the Lord had always met him where he was and guided him back. He was about to speak when Ellie beat him to the punch, tears in her eyes as she spoke. “Those plants that grow in rocky soil, what kind of roots do they put down?”
“Well,” Jim chuckled. “Depends on the plant. You know, if they do manage to put down deep roots, roots like the trees planted by the water in the book of Isaiah, they’re nearly impossible to take out.”
Pastor Jim took her hand, a far more fatherly action than it would’ve been if Micah had done it. “I’m so sorry about your mother. There has been more than one death over the years in which I’ve had to remind myself not a single person knows the heart of a man on their deathbed. It’s given me great comfort over the years.”
Could it be possible? Micah had always wondered if his upbringing meant he’d be relegated to a shallow faith, unable to understand the depth of the Father’s love, as well as the finer points of Christian doctrine. He was a simple cowboy, after all. Jim made it sound like it didn’t matter where one started, and it may actually be a benefit to him.
They continued to talk for a bit longer, and Pastor Jim more or less shared his whole sermon from the morning with Ellie. She seemed to love every moment of it, latching on to his words like a starving man encountering a table laden with food. By mid-afternoon, Callie had returned, and Micah knew it was time to head home.
“I’ll come back as soon as I can get away this week,” he promised Ellie as Pastor Jim excused himself to help Callie fold some laundry. At least, that’s what he said.
“You don’t have to come so often Micah,” Ellie replied quickly. “I hate to think I’m keeping you from your work.”
Micah raised his hand, slowly so he didn’t scare her, and ran the backs of his fingers down her still too thin cheek. “I want to come. I need to make sure you’re safe - need to see it for myself.”
Ellie bit her lower lip, studying him but clearly thinking. “This isn’t your fault, Micah. None of it’s your fault.”
He could disagree, but he didn’t bother arguing. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. “All I can do from here is make sure you’re safe, and you will be as soon as you get out to the ranch. I can promise you that.” He’d more or less avoided her reassurance, but it was the best he could do.
Chapter Four
“All right,” Callie said as she breezed through the door to the patient room a week later. “I don’t have any appointments this afternoon. Jacob’s set on washing the linens out back, and Louisa brought enough snacks to feed an army. Unless there’s an emergency, I think we’ll be fine for tea.”
Louisa squealed, her excitement contagious to Ellie’s heart. She’d been discharged the week before with the Suttons offering for her to room with Louisa in the cottage for as long as she needed. “Cecily is thrilled there’s another woman around on the ranch. I think she was keeping the house running for so long before I came, she missed out on some of the finer points of young womanhood.” Louisa placed a hand on Ellie’s arm and squeezed. “We’re so glad you’re home, even if we are back at the clinic for tea a week later.”
Home. It was a slip of the tongue for Louisa, but a concept Ellie wasn’t sure she’d ever really felt, save for the presence of Mama. “I can’t wait to try the cookie recipe Cecily and Liza have been working on.” Ellie had so enjoyed spending time withLouisa and the children since she’d been discharged, and they’d had a ball discussing the Christmas menu and decorating the ranch house for the season.
Even the boys had gotten involved, although there had been more than a few popcorn fights and string lassos along the way. “Well, you’re in luck. She sent some with me today, along with more Christmas goodies than we’ll ever be able to eat.”
“Thank you two for coming to the clinic,” Callie said as she settled into a chair. “I really can’t get away during the day, at least not until Jacob can stand on his own in the clinic.”
“Speaking of which,” Louisa said with a raised brow. “How are things going there?” Callie had initially been a little hesitant, and Ellie couldn’t blame her. She didn’t know the ins and outs of Jacob and Callie’s story, but it was a hard one. Louisa cared about them both, and she was protective of those she loved. “Is he behaving himself?”
Callie sighed, taking a cookie from the tray. “He’s an excellent trainee, but I’ve always known he would be. We’re finding our footing personally again, and some days I think it’s two steps forward, one and a half steps back.” Her brown eyes told Ellie exactly how she felt about the matter, as did the slight droop of her normally confident posture. It turned out Callie Thorn did have a weakness after all in the form of a cowboy named Jacob Sutton.
It was interesting, Ellie realized. Having friends wasn’t something she’d ever been allowed. She’d always taken people at face value, but learning the depths of Louisa and Callie, the pieces they didn’t let everyone see, it felt like an honor. Callie let her guard down when speaking about Jacob, even if her words didn’t reflect it yet.
“It’s still forward progress,” Louisa said gently. “I’m praying the Lord leads you two where He wants you to be, and He heals your hearts in the process.”
Smiling sadly, Callie nodded. “Thank you. It’s really all we can do, I suppose. Now, enough about me. Do you think Isaac will propose this Christmas?”
Louisa giggled, her genuine joy like a windchime on a summer day. “Oh, I hope so. I have a suspicion he’ll propose while my family’s here, but I’m trying not to think too much about it.” She sighed happily. “I would’ve never imagined I’d end up on a ranch in Texas in love with a cowboy and his eight children, but I don’t think I could write a better story for myself if I tried.”
Those children, Cecily being the oldest at thirteen, followed by Liza at ten and William at seven, were Isaac’s adopted children. Micah told her their mother Martha had shown up on the Sutton Ranch doorstep years before when William was only months old, begging Isaac to marry her and adopt her children. Micah hadn’t known it at the time, but she was suffering the effects of an illness contracted in the work she felt she had to turn to to feed her children after Brent had abandoned his family to try his hand in Grandfather’s mine. The judge had granted them a divorce on grounds of abandonment, and Martha lived as a Sutton for the last months of her life.
Then, as word spread about the Sutton Ranch being a haven for those who needed a home, other children began to arrive. Some were brought by well meaning folks in the community, like ten year old Toby and six year old Sophia, both younger at the time. Benjamin and Austin, the twins, had come West on the orphan train and not managed to find a home until Isaac took them in. Ellie couldn’t remember how almost five-year-old Reuben came to live with them, but she knew he’d been silent for most of the first year until recently.
The children were all Isaac’s now, with some of them calling him ‘Papa’ while others called him by his name. Micah had told her he didn’t mind, and it all tended to hinge on what kind of parents their own had been. What might her life have been likeif she’d found her way to somewhere like the Sutton Ranch after Mama died? The seeming palace she’d grown up in had always been a gilded prison, and she’d have relished the idea of siblings and a family who loved her. But at least, as she refocused on the two women before her, she had the hope of such a life now.
In opposition to Callie’s slightly more guarded nature, Louisa seemed to wear her heart on her sleeve. She’d once told Ellie she was an open book, and she had no skeletons in her closet because she put them all on her front porch. It was encouraging to see, but Ellie didn’t think she’d ever manage to be quite so open as her loquacious friend.
“Seems like you’ve got someone looking out for you,” Ellie said with a wink as she took a sip of her tea. Micah had driven them into town this morning, but something had been distracting him. Normally, he talked freely and joked with her, though she’d noticed he was much quieter with everyone else. “Someone who writes a good story.”
“Amen,” Louisa agreed. “Jim said he really enjoyed getting to chat with you about things of faith while you were here at the clinic.”
