Coming home

chapter 11

As Claire came out of the fog of sleep, she laid there staring at the ceiling until the world made sense again. It had always taken her time and coffee in the mornings to be able to function. She always hated this time of day. Most people told her mornings was the best time of the day. They always seemed happy and said “I’m thankful that I woke up this morning.” These people weren’t to be trusted. For Claire, it was a time to remember everything she had lost that she had to relive over and over again. This morning was no different. She laid there thinking about her dad and how she was never going to see him again. How she would never hear his voice again. How she would never feel his arms around her hugging her until all was right in her world again. He had been her rock and shelter from the storms. She had always felt safe around him. Now, she was alone in life.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and flicking the tears away, she sat up to start her day. There was no use dwelling on something that she couldn’t change. She had grieved already, and now all she was doing was torturing herself. She glanced at the clock to see how long she had actually slept and found a note:

Coffee has already been made. I’ll be back shortly. If I find you any other place besides inside, I just may cut a switch.

Luke

Claire stared at the chair Luke had occupied for the last two nights. A blanket was neatly folded up like it was waiting for his return. She was definitely going to have a little talk with him. He needed to be put in his place. She wadded up the note and threw it into the chair on her way to get coffee.

Claire wasn’t going to let this day go to waste. She grabbed her coffee and headed to the den to start going over the books again. Her plan today was to figure out how the ranch could afford a bull. It wasn’t going to make it without one, and a good one was going to cost dearly. She already knew she could claim insurance on its loss and the herd that was lost, but it wouldn’t be nearly what they were worth, but it was a start.

Claire started digging through the ranch’s papers to find the insurance policy to start the ball rolling. Claire ran a finger over a folder that had years of correspondents that had formally made offers on the ranch. This folder was on top of all the other paperwork. Was her dad planning on selling out? She couldn’t help but think this was the last thing he looked at before… No, she couldn’t go there. She couldn’t fall into them dark thoughts. She set aside the folder to look at later. She would need a starting point if she decided to go that way. What she needed now was the insurance policy. Ah, ha. With her treasure in hand, she started researching just to see how much the ranch could get so she could start searching for another bull.

Luke hadn’t looked forward to retrieving Elizabeth from the Tomlin’s. Not because of Elizabeth herself, but because of Mrs. Tomlin. No one should ever be that chipper and energetic. She definitely should be on some downers for sure. Hopefully, whatever she had wasn’t contagious because if Elizabeth caught it, then he would surely put her up for adoption. This preteen attitude, if that was truly what it was, was almost pushing his limits already.

Elizabeth had run to her room as soon as he got the door open, causing Luke to have to yell after her “Just throw your bag on your bed and come to the living room. I need to talk to you,” as he headed to his favorite chair.

“What’s up, Pops?” Elizabeth said, coming in with curls bouncing, causing Luke to shoot her a puzzled look.

“Oh, it was just something I was trying out. I don’t think I like it either,” she said nonchalantly.

Luke rolled his eyes, trying to find patience before saying, “There is something I need to talk over with you, but before I tell you I need you to be okay with this, because this is how it’s going to go and there is no debating it. So keep that in mind,” He had never forced her to do anything before, so he wasn’t sure what her reaction would be to this.

Elizabeth just sat there, eyes wide staring at him. Okay, so a complete shock it was, Luke thought. “ I have this,” he paused, because he wasn’t exactly sure what to call Claire but decided on “friend. She fell off a horse and hurt her shoulder.”

“Who doesn’t know how to ride a horse?”

“She knows how to ride a horse,” he said, getting frustrated already. “Just let me finish,” Luke said, waiting to see if she was going to cooperate. When she said nothing else, he continued, “ My friend hurt her shoulder. I’ve been helping her the last couple of days. So now we are both going to help her,” he stopped waiting for a response.

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes,” Luke paused again. It was Elizabeth’s turn to look puzzled, making Luke realize he wasn’t explaining things.

“Okay, so this is what’s going to happen. She will need help for maybe a week or two. We are going to go and stay with her until she can do it for herself. The only help you will be doing is carrying stuff for her that she can’t carry for herself, maybe making sandwiches for lunch, and just watching her in case something happens that you may have to get help for her. You will mainly just be keeping her company. That’s it.”

“So like a babysitter?” Elizabeth’s whole expression changed, as if she had just thought of something.

“I guess you can say that,” Luke was unsure if that was the answer Elizabeth was looking for.

“Alright, how much am I going to get paid?”

Luke took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to find patience again. “What makes you think you are going to get paid for helping?”

“Because you said I was going to babysit, and Susan gets paid to babysit her little brother. As a matter of fact, we all got paid to babysit him while Mrs. Tomlin took her morning run, and he was asleep the whole time. Is your friend going to sleep the whole time I have to babysit? If not, I should get more.”

“Her name is Claire and no,” he said, frustration starting to form in his words, then thought better about trying to reason with her anymore. “Fine, you will get paid. Now go and pack up what you think you may need for the next couple of days or so. I will come back to get whatever else is needed.”

That could have gone way better, Luke thought, but it also could have gone much worse. How he was going to get this child to adulthood was beyond him. Elizabeth would probably find a way to put him in a nursing home and own everything he had before he was even 40. Hopefully, Claire could help both of them.

Luke headed off to gather some things for himself. The last couple of days, he had been coming back home to clean up and change. But with Elizabeth added to the mix, he wanted to make sure things went smoothly for at least a few days before he would have to leave them alone. He was no longer sure this was a good idea after all.

When he came downstairs, he saw Elizabeth standing by the door with a pile of her things with a concerned look on her face. Maybe he wasn’t as clear about things as he thought he was with her. “All you need is clothes. There is plenty of stuff for you to do there and not get bored. If you think you need something else after a while, we can come back and get it. We ain’t moving there.”

“Oh I know. I just didn’t know what Claire was like, so I didn’t know what she would like to see. I’ve never met one of your friends before,” she said, a little nervous.

This was the first time Luke realized that she even noticed anything about him. He didn’t have friend friends. It’s not like he hadn’t had any female companionship, but he kept that part of his life away from Elizabeth. There was no one that was going to be long term. As a matter of fact, he had never seen a future with another woman since Claire left.

“Oh honey. Claire is going to like you. The you that you are and not what you may have,” Luke tried to reassure her while trying to convince himself. He gave her a hug, straightened up, and then stared at the pile. “Please tell me that at least there is a bag in all of this that contains your clothes?”

“That one, Pa,” Elizabeth pointed it out. Luke gave her another puzzled look. “Yeah, I don’t think I like that one either,” Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders, walked out, and headed for the truck, leaving Luke to carry her things again.

Hours later, with a whole pot of coffee and many phone calls, Claire was almost certain she had some kind of game plan. She just wanted to pass it by James to make sure she was on the right track. This wasn’t because she didn’t have faith in her own judgment, but because she valued James’ opinion and knew if there was a flaw in it, then James would find it. She expected James to come and check in on the process of things or just to check in on her. She sat aside all the paperwork and went to make more coffee.