Page 33 of Gideon’s Gratitude (Love in Mission City #5)

Chapter Sixteen

Archer

R ainbow Dixon was positively charming.

First, she offered to give me a tour of the property. She’d given my hiking boots the thumbs-up of approval, and we’d made our way out to the stables.

Fallon, Briar, Sugar, and Sienna were the four retired show horses who worked as therapy animals.

I understood the concept of a therapy dog—Tiffany was keeping us company since Lucky was with Kennedy and Gideon—and apparently the horses were much the same.

Patients spent time tending the horses and learning to trust them. The hope was that, eventually, they would come to trust their therapist. At the moment, there were five counselors.

I was petting Briar when a handsome guy poked his head in .

He waved at Rainbow. “Heading out. Stanley and I are taking the kids to White Spot tonight. Angus received a perfect score on his French test.”

“Oh, that’s great. Tell him that I’m proud of him.” Rainbow beamed.

The man noticed me and advanced. “Justin Bridges-Powers.”

I shook his hand. “Archer Chamberlain.”

He grinned. “So, you’re the guy.”

I cocked my head, trying to make the connection.

“You met Maddox and Adam while you were walking a dog. A pretty black Labrador.”

“Yeah.” I squinted. “Oh, you said your husband’s name is Stanley?”

He nodded.

“ That Stanley?”

“Maddox’s infamous ex-boyfriend? Yep, that’s the one. And we’re all living on the same street as cozy neighbors.”

Rainbow laughed. “Everyone in Mission City knows that story.”

Justin, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Maddox, grinned.

And his cheeks pinkened a little under his ginger beard.

“Yes, well, small towns and all.” He turned his attention back to me.

“I’m certain Maddox and Adam said they’d always be willing to help.

Same goes with our household. Stainless-steel mailbox down the road between Maddox’s and Adam’s properties.

No former hermits at our place.” His grin didn’t diminish.

“Hey.” Rainbow gave him a glare.

He didn’t relent. “Both men admit it. Both men are proud of having come here and gotten help. Not giving away any secrets.”

I blinked. “Yeah. I didn’t make the solid connection, but Adam did make a comment about this place and Maddox nodded. I wasn’t going to say anything because…” My voice trailed off .

“No worries. I know Kennedy’s in with a client and you’re here as a friend. All that stays within these walls.” Still with the affable smile. “I’ll share that I have two amazing kids and a dog we all spoil.”

“I kind of like spoiling Lucky as well.” I couldn’t help myself—the dog truly was special. He kept Gideon going.

“Well, hopefully Liba can meet Lucky. She’s as friendly as Chip and Princess Sofia.”

Rainbow chuckled.

Justin mock scowled. Then clearly relented. “Okay, Princess Sofia is in a league of her own. But she’s good with the kids and the other dogs. It’s Ravi and Maddox that she totally manipulates.”

“Oh, like Liba doesn’t control you.” Rainbow pointed. “I know the truth.”

“Well…” He winked. “What are we if not at the beck and call of our children and dogs?”

My heart seized.

“Hey.” He stepped toward me. “My bad. I was joking, but that can be a sore spot.”

I swallowed. “For those of us who told everyone we didn’t want kids because we couldn’t have them and we didn’t want the sympathy? Yeah.” I scratched my stubbled jaw. I hadn’t had time to shave again before racing out here.

“Wow, that’s rough.” Rainbow’s pale-blue eyes held empathy.

“It is what it is.” An expression I loathed—but used often.

Justin nodded. “I didn’t know if I was going to have kids. Hadn’t met the right man. Hell, I hadn’t really met any man. Then Stanley and his nephew Angus landed in my lap.”

“Not literally.” Rainbow laughed. “But close.”

“Right? And in the blink of an eye, I had a ready-made family. We are fostering a four-year-old as well. Opal’s…

a spitfire. Angus is a very ma ture twelve and adores his baby sister.

We keep explaining she might not be staying—” His voice caught.

“The lies we tell ourselves. We want her to be able to go back with her family, but not if the situation isn’t safe.

More, though, we want to keep her. We know we can provide her with a safe home. A forever home.”

“It might happen.” Rainbow nodded encouragingly.

I had no knowledge about Justin and Stanley’s situation. Why they had a foster child. Whether she’d ever be able to return to her biological family. If I could cite one thing I’d learned from being a divorce attorney, it was that biology did not make a parent.

Love did.

Gideon’s kids might not be his flesh and blood, but he would do anything for them.

Anything.

Including walking away because everyone told him that was best.

I need to find the time to look into this . I had a crushing caseload, though. And although I’d offered to help my friend, he hadn’t agreed to it. Perhaps he didn’t want me interfering.

“Well, we’ll give her all the love we can while she’s with us.” Justin smiled—if a little wistfully.

“Yeah.”

“I want to say that maybe things could be different, but—”

I shook my head. “Even a divorce won’t magically procure a child. Although…”

Both of my companions tilted their heads in exactly the same way.

I smiled to myself, but didn’t point it out. I took a deep breath. “I was always willing to foster or adopt. My wife…” I winced. “I don’t want to speak ill of her. Just that she had some firm beliefs, and one was that she couldn’t love a child that wasn’t her flesh and blood.”

Rainbow’s jaw dropped and Justin scowled .

“Yeah. So I suppose now I could look at those options. Just that I work all the time and that’s not fair to a child either.

If circumstances were different…” They could be.

You have enough money to walk away from your life and never look back.

You could become a full-time dad—if that was what you really wanted.

Did I? Single father? Would be almost impossible to become a foster parent or to adopt. Not entirely impossible—but damn close.

“Circumstances can change.” Rainbow held my gaze.

“Rainbow.” No missing the warning tone in Justin’s voice. I didn’t know Rainbow’s counseling qualifications. I had a vague recollection of Adam telling me that Stanley’s husband was a PhD student. With two kids, a husband, and a dog.

“She’s right.” I shrugged. “If I really wanted to be a dad, I could’ve done things before now.

I coasted because I had a comfortable life.

What I thought was a good marriage and a successful, thriving law practice.

I lived to work, and not the other way around.

” Which left me with high blood pressure, bad cholesterol, and a huge pile of regrets.

“I’m thirty-nine years old, and the thought of starting again is daunting.

” Involuntarily, I glanced in the direction of the ranch house.

Gideon could be my second chance. But that was too much pressure to put on him. And he had two kids he loved more than life—no reason to think he would want more. Finally, I turned my attention back to Justin and Rainbow.

“I’m here if you need to talk.” Justin shrugged sheepishly. “Peril of the trade. I don’t know how to not offer help.”

Rainbow grinned. “Or you can just hang in the kitchen with me. Either works.”

“Maybe…not tonight. But I know where to find you.” I nodded to Justin. “I would make it official.” No way would I ask a stranger to listen to my problems without shelling out serious cash .

“Yeah, fair enough. Rainbow knows my schedule.” Justin held my gaze. “Divorce can be brutal.”

“Or it can be liberating.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “Divorce attorney.”

Justin chuckled. “You mentioned that to Adam who was quite happy to share. Which is a little unusual for him.”

“He said something about not…” I tried to remember the exact words.

“He probably said that he and Maddox had both been hermits before they met their forever loves. They own it.” He grinned. “And I have dinner to get to. Nice to meet you, Archer.”

“And you.” I waved as he departed. I turned to Rainbow. “That was unexpected.”

“Well, everything around here is. I thought I was going to get you to help me shovel, uh, excrement. Instead, it’s time to go in and do some baking. I made the dough earlier. Now I just have to put the cookies in to bake.”

My salivary glands kicked into high gear, and I offered the woman a wide smile as we made our way back to the ranch house.

Justin’s words—and Rainbow’s—circled in my mind.

What if I chose a different path? What if I walked away from Vancouver entirely and built a life in Mission City? Would Gideon want to be part of it?

Tiffany veered off into the woods as we approached the house.

“Lucky is off leash a lot as well.”

“She knows to stay away from the driveway and the parking lot. Our property is fenced in—which was a huge undertaking—but we still get bears who don’t see fences as impediments.”

“You’re not worried?”

She opened the sliding glass door .

Tiffany ran from the forest and ducked inside the house.

I followed after her, then bent to untie my shoes.

“You can leave those on. I wash the floors every night.”

“Sounds like a lot of work.” I hesitated.

“This is a working ranch, and I’m not asking clients to take their shoes off. You never know when they might want to make a quick escape.” She winked.

Yet I spotted the underlying seriousness. Sometimes people wanted to get out of my office as quickly as possible.

She removed her boots and, after a moment, I followed suit. If Gideon wanted to leave in a hurry then I’d just move quickly.

I followed her into the kitchen and sniffed. “That smells amazing.”

“My grandmother’s chili recipe. In the slow cooker.” She washed her hands, then removed a bowl from the fridge. She nabbed a baking tray and placed parchment paper on it. Within a moment, she was scooping out dough.

“Chocolate chip or raisin?”

“Oatmeal chocolate chip. Very healthy.”

“Good to know.” As I had last week, I hopped onto a stool at the island.

Tiffany plopped into her bed, sighed, and closed her eyes.

“She works hard, eh?”

“She does.” Rainbow checked the oven. “Perfect. I love that I can set it to turn on and it does. Our old one didn’t have that feature.

” She put two trays in the oven. “I wanted fresh for you to take home. They’ll still be warm.

” She rested her hip against the counter.

“Tiff is the hardest-working creature on the ranch—and given my sister’s schedule, that’s saying something. ”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Tiff’s always up for the challenge, though. And she’s great with everyone, but she’s especially good with kids.”

“That’s tough.”

“Dr. Denise Lang is the psychologist we have up here entirely dedicated just to children and teenagers. We see a lot of kids up here. I’m sure you have some idea. On top of mental illness, of course, there’s all kinds of trauma. Some kids can cope, and some just can’t. We’re here for them.”

“Must be expensive for parents.” I winced. “Sorry, that was rude.”

She shrugged. “We have sliding scales. We have money coming from community services. We have benefactors. We just never have enough time to fit in everyone we could.”

“So, Gideon…?”

Her gaze narrowed.

“Right. None of my business.”

“Kennedy runs her own schedule, and I don’t tell her what to do.

Even if she does work too much.” She pointed to herself.

“And I’m exactly the same. I don’t turn off a switch after the last patient goes home.

We decided, when we opened Healing Horses, that we’d try to create some personal space.

Living here, though, makes that tough. Still, Sunday is always blocked off, and we take limited appointments on Mondays. ”

“That’s still a lot.”

“Getting Kennedy to actually leave the property’s a challenge. My sisters and I buy her a spa certificate every year, and she takes our youngest sister, Autumn, with her. Well, Autumn’s a twin, but Summer’s not really interested in hanging with Kennedy.”

“Is that the sister you were mad at?”

She laughed. “No, that’s Spring. Talk about a spitfire. She’s hell on wheels.”

I blinked. “Five of you?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Eight. All girls.”

I blinked again.