Today's Reading
I loved how the sunlight left dappled patterns on the road. Every now and again I'd pass a ranch, where weathered wooden fences bordered the roadside. Horses and Angus bulls grazed in the late afternoon sunshine under the wide Texas sky.
I found myself overcome with such feelings of gratitude for where the Lord had planted me. There was no place else I'd rather be than here, in the Cedar Creek Lake area.
A couple of minutes after I passed over the bridge onto dry land, my phone rang. I put it on speaker the minute I saw Mason's name on the screen and responded with a playful, "Hey, you."
"Hey to you too." His thick Texas twang grabbed hold of my heart, just as it always did. "Still at Tasha's place?"
"Nope." I tapped the brakes as I approached the corner of 198 and 334. "Headed home to shower and grab some food to take back."
"For the slumber party?" He chuckled.
"Yeah. It'll be fun. Like a campout."
"Only, indoors. With AC."
"AC is questionable," I explained as I turned onto another country road with slightly narrower lanes. "It keeps cutting out. Dallas just stopped by to look at it."
"Your brother works on air conditioners now?" Mason asked.
"My brother works on whatever will win him brownie points with my best friend," I explained. "He was probably up all night looking at YouTube videos to impress her with his AC prowess."
"I see how it is. He'll do anything to impress the gal he's crazy about."
"Pretty much. But I think he's also there because he's nervous that homeless guy might show up again."
"Conner?" Mason paused. "There's no need to worry about him. I ran into him at the church, and we had a good talk."
"Seriously? What was he doing at the church?" I'd known Conner Griffin since we were kids. He'd always been trouble but no more so than lately. I couldn't quite picture him showing up at the local Baptist church, to be honest.
"I'll tell you all about it later. But I'm pretty sure he won't turn back up at her place. He was just staying there when it was empty because he had no other place to go. I guess there was a time when he used to work for the family, so it was a familiar spot."
"But now he has a place... at the parsonage?" That still struck me as odd.
"Yeah." Mason's words interrupted my thoughts. "But that's too long a story to tell right now."
"Tasha also seems really nervous about the daughter of the man who owned the house before she bought it. Apparently, there's been some trouble there. Threats, even."
"I thought the house belonged to the grandmother of one of Dallas' friends?"
"Yes, the widow Keller. Do you remember her?" "Barely," he said.
"Her stepdaughter Belinda is saying she has rights to the property."
"I think in the state of Texas the house automatically goes to the kids unless there's a will stating otherwise," he interjected. "I learned all about this after my dad passed last year. That's how I ended up with his place."
"Ah, right," I said. "Well, in this case there was a will, and she wasn't in it."
"Ouch."
"I think she was estranged from the family. I don't think she's a happy camper about losing out on the house, though. From what I understand, it went to her stepbrother, Anthony."
"That had to hurt."
"I know."
"Well, there's not much she can do about that. Tasha closed on the house. It's hers."
"It is. And tonight—for this one night—it's mine too," I interjected, right as I pulled onto my street. Off in the distance I saw the family ranch, fields the prettiest shades of forest and kelly green underneath the afternoon sun.
As I pulled into the driveway, my cattle dog, Riley, came bounding toward my truck, as she always did when I arrived home. Her striking mix of brown and black fur shimmered in the late-afternoon sunlight as she chased my truck up the drive.
This excerpt is from the ebook edition.
Monday we begin the book Hope's Enduring Echo by Kim Vogel Sawyer.
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