Just then he heard a thump from behind and he turned around to see the dog leap to the ground.
“Prince!” Angelina rolled down her window and called out, but it was too late.
The mutt was off and running, with so much joy evident in his whole body that Tyler had to smile. “He looks like he’s home.”
“But he can’t live here,” Angelina protested. “I rescued him.”
“He won’t be happy going back to Boston,” Tyler said. “Not if he’s used to running around in the country here.”
“I’m still here for another month.”
“Well, you’re going to break his heart when you leave. That’s all I have to say.”
Tyler didn’t dare think about his own heart.
* * *
Angelina sat in the pickup. “Do you think I’m being selfish? Wanting to keep Prince with me?”
“You’ll need to ask Prince. Maybe he’d like to see the ocean.”
“Everybody should have a dog.”
By then, Prince had run all the way up to the house and another dog came out from behind the barn, barking. Prince didn’t seem to mind the other dog and he started chasing what looked like a Rhode Island Red hen that was now running toward the barn. Angelina smiled as the chicken slipped inside the slightly open door at the side of the building.
Prince nosed at the door, but couldn’t get it to move so he turned his attention to the three pickups parked next to the house.
“I don’t want to startle everyone,” Tyler said then, looking over at her. “Maybe you should go inside first and tell them to all sit down, at least.”
“That’s what I told them to do when I told them you were dead.” Angelina wished she could take that conversation back. “I don’t want to make them think something else is wrong.”
Tyler stopped his pickup next to the other vehicles. “I’m surprised no one’s come outside yet. Maybe they’re not here.”
Angelina shook her head. “They are probably just upstairs in your room getting your boyhood treasures for display. We were going to show them tonight at your service.”
“My marbles.” Tyler looked at her. “That’s all I ever had. Who would want to see my marbles?”
“Well, people do that at funerals. We wanted to give everyone the sense of who you were growing up here. At first I thought of a slide show, but your brothers didn’t have pictures of your childhood.”
“Of course not. Didn’t you hear about the Stone boys? We were fortunate to survive childhood. We didn’t have any picture-worthy moments.”
“Well, yes, I know, but we wanted to celebrate your life tonight. We had to have some good times to talk about. There must be something.”
“Mrs. Hargrove gave me a plate of chocolate chip cookies once when I snuck into her Sunday school class. I think she meant them for the whole class, but she just scooped them all into a bag and gave them to me. I was supposed to be hunting rattlers down in the coulee, but I rode our horse into town and went into the church basement just before she started talking. I’ll never forget the look on her face. She was really surprised.”
“Well, see, that’s a good memory.”
“Later, she offered Jake a whole pie if he would go. I almost figured I’d come in second best on that one.”
“Life isn’t about measuring how much you have against how much someone else might be given.” She might sound a little pompous, but she had to say it. She was turning her life around and that was an important part of it.
Tyler grunted. “Easy for you to say when you can have all the pie in the world just waiting for you.”
“As a matter of fact, it’s not easy for me to say,” Angelina protested. “And maybe I don’t always have all the pie.”
She’d known for a long time that money didn’t buy happiness. But she was just coming to understand that the loneliness she felt when she looked at loving families was the same kind of ache that other girls had in high school when they looked in her closet and thought she had every pair of designer jeans in the universe. It wasn’t just the missing of the other thing—whether it was clothes or money or loving parents—it was when the lack of that one thing tricked a person into feeling like they were not important to God. That’s when people were in trouble.
Just then Prince found another chicken and started to bark again.
“Maybe you should be going,” Tyler said to her as he looked toward the dog. “I don’t think my brothers will put up with much more barking before one of them comes to see what’s going on. The cattle could have gotten out.”
Angelina nodded. “Follow close behind me. It’ll only take me a minute to tell them.”
She opened the door and stepped down to the ground. Without the shade of the cab, the sun beat strong on her. She started walking to the house and, just before she arrived at the side porch, she turned to look back at Tyler. She remembered how difficult it had been to come to the Stone ranch when she first arrived in Dry Creek. If only she had waited to tell everyone that Tyler had been declared dead, she wouldn’t have put his family through the grief of it all.
She squared her shoulders as she knocked at the door.
Lord, help me do this right this time, she prayed as she stood there waiting for someone to answer.
Mrs. Hargrove had assured her she could pray to God about any of the struggles in her day. Prayer was new to Angelina, but she had started asking God to guide her even when she didn’t know how to pray.
Angelina heard footsteps and took a second to motion for Tyler to come. She was sure his family would want to see him the very minute that she announced he was alive.
It would be like Lazarus bursting forth from his tomb, she assured herself, recalling the story she’d just read with Mrs. Hargrove in the Gospel of John. Then she heard someone start to turn the knob on the door. They were all happy to see Lazarus, weren’t they, Lord? Help me to do this the right way.
She was certainly happy Tyler was alive.
Chapter Three
Tyler wondered what people would have remembered about him if he had died in that bomb blast. He had no land to claim him. No wife to mourn him. He didn’t even have a dog like Prince to howl at the moon in his absence.
He frowned, realizing he could have done more to keep in touch with his brothers and his mother. Some people thought hard times brought people together, but his father’s rages had destroyed his family. Birthday cards and Christmas greetings had seemed too impersonal after all they had gone through together. Tyler had been in a group foster home for juveniles with his brother, Jake, for several years so he’d seen him for that time. Then, once he was out of there, Tyler had sent money to his mother from time to time, but his messages had been short and full of forced cheer. He’d gotten his job with Brighton Security with a referral from the foster home, but he didn’t want to talk to his mother about that. He never knew what to say to someone who was in prison.
When Tyler saw someone open the door for Angelina, he decided it was time to get moving. It wouldn’t take her long to explain that the news of his death had been premature. He took a moment to adjust his shirt collar so it would hide more of his burn scar. He didn’t want his mother to worry.
Prince came over to run around him as Tyler started walking up to the house. He liked to listen to the crunch of his boots on the hard dirt. He’d gotten used to