Her Gentle Giant: No Regrets (29 page)

* * * *

Rachel enjoyed snuggling next to Eli as everyone sat around on the back deck, laughing and sharing stories as the sun went down. The common denominators for the gathering were Rachel and Eli, so they were the subject of most of the stories. He drew her close, and she reveled in his
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gentle touch as he caressed her knuckles and stroked his fingertips over her hand.

The air that evening had a light chill to it, so her dad had lit the fire pit in the center of the back deck earlier, and they were all grouped around it to enjoy the night air and conversation.

Grace reached over and refilled Rachel’s glass of sangria. At the moment, it was Rachel’s turn in the hot seat as her dad told a story about her. Rachel gestured to her father to have at it, and he grinned and told the story in all its Technicolor glory.

“I found out from Rachel’s mother that a certain young man had asked my daughter out on her first date. The point was up for debate and still is,”

he said, smiling and winking at Rachel, “but at the time I felt very strongly that if a boy wanted to date my daughter, he needed to come and ask
me
first before asking her out. Call me crazy,
I know
,” he spoke aside to the men as they shook their heads in commiseration.

Rachel remembered being horrified that her father planned to give the third degree to the boy who had asked her out. She could look back on it with humor now but recalled being terrified that once it got around school she’d never be asked out ever again.

“So I asked her about him and discovered that he worked at the Exxon station in town. The last station in town with full-service pumps. An honorable job,” he stated in concession. “I liked that he was working already, and Rachel said he was mannerly.”

Rachel laughed. “That
should
have satisfied you, too. You didn’t need to go interrogate him.”

“I wanted him to know she had a daddy who cared. So I paid him a visit at the station and had a chat with him. He seemed like a nice enough guy for my daughter. I told him I’d see him when he picked her up. He seemed
fine
.” Her father shrugged innocently, and Rachel rolled her eyes. She could recall the rather wide-eyed look on the poor boy’s face when he told her about it the next day at school.

Eli slipped his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her consolingly, obviously enjoying the tale of how her father terrorized her first date.

“So the big evening came. Rachel and her mother were upstairs for two hours doing hair, twittering, and primping. When he pulled up, I went out
,

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front to greet him.” Her dad lifted his hands as though he’d done nothing wrong.

“Nuh-uh, Dad,” Rachel interjected, fighting hard to not laugh. “Tell them
how
you greet him.”

“Did you prefer that I leave him out there?” He laughed, obviously enjoying the verbal sparring with his daughter.

“Tell them
how
you greeted him.”

“It couldn’t be helped. I heard him pull up from the backyard. You were upstairs. You might not have heard the doorbell. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“Tell them, Peter, before I do!” her mom said, laughing behind her hand. “Tell them how you were
dressed
.”

“It was deer season! How was I supposed to be dressed? I’d just gotten home from the deer lease, princess.”

Her father had arrived home only a couple of hours before from the tract of land he leased every year during deer hunting season from a good friend, two hours south of the Lopez’s ranch.

“Yes. After two days with no bath,” her mom added, giggling.

Rachel was about ready to fall out of her chair they were all laughing so hard.

Her dad continued, “I’d bagged my limit, and I needed to deal with them before it got dark. You weren’t complaining over all the deer sausage that winter, I recall.”

“You were
gutting a deer
, Daddy!” She turned to Eli and said through her laughter, “He came around the side of the house with his rifle in one hand and the bloody hunting knife in the other!”

They all erupted in hysterical laughter at the vivid mental image of her father greeting her nervous date in full hunting camouflage, a gun in one hand, and hunting knife in the other, stinking to high heaven. Elijah and her dad bumped fists as Kelly and Rachel looked on in disgust before bursting out in laughter again.

“I was about to put the gun back in the gun safe. Safety with firearms is a
priority
for me,” her dad said with all innocence, raising his hands like he was surrendering.

Rachel took up the thread of the story then. “He looked like a mass murderer. There was blood on his camos, and you know what it
smells
like when you gut a deer,” she said with a grimace. “The boy at the door had
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never been anywhere
near
a deer blind. He was new in town. He took one look at Daddy and got a whiff of him, to boot. Want to know what happened? He passed out on the porch.” The laughter erupted again over the poor city boy’s reaction. “It would have helped if you had offered an explanation for your appearance.”

“I did!” Her dad said with a snicker. “After you revived him with
smelling salts
.” He laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes.

Rachel wiped her own eyes as she said, “He was so embarrassed, he asked if he could leave and go home. He never did go out with me, and it took six weeks to get him to even look me in the eye, much less talk to me again.”

“Yeah, but word got out, didn’t it?” her father said, sagely nodding and raising a finger like he had a point to make.

Rachel grinned. “I guess it did.”

“What do you mean, Rachel?” Eli asked.

“That boy told everyone how Daddy answered the door, and all the boys from around here knew what
that
meant. They always came and asked permission to date me before they asked me out. During the fall for several years, Daddy had a new hunting buddy, and we always had deer sausage in the freezer because they knew he liked it. And they all knew how to use a gun and a knife. I felt like a two-for-one deal for years. Date me and get a chance to go to my dad’s deer lease in the fall. And
none
of them ever laid a hand on me.”

“Good Texas boys, all of them. Mitchell brings sausage every once in a while.”

Rachel smirked. “Ah, he just wants to know if you still have the same deer lease.”

“The two us are talking about going on a hog hunt next month,” her father said in passing. Rachel rolled her eyes, but her father’s statement had Eli’s attention.

“You’re planning a hog hunt?” Adam asked, interest clear in his eyes.

“Yeah, over at a friend’s ranch in the hill country. You ought to all come. Heaven knows there are enough of the damned things to go around.”

Feral hogs multiplied prolifically and could lower land values and damage crops with their destructive habits.

,

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“Think we might take you up on that offer,” Ethan replied, tipping his beer to his lips.

“Goody! You know what that means!” Kelly squealed. “Girl time!”

“That’s right!” Grace said. “You could all come out to the ranch and we could have a girls’ weekend. Goodness knows we have enough space!”

Rachel looked at Eli for confirmation, and when he nodded, she said, “It sounds like we have a plan.”

“They would be safe out there.” Jack said, grinning at Grace’s enthusiastic response.

“Then I’ll let you know when I get all the details,” her father said.

“Isn’t the sunset pretty tonight?” her mom commented.

Rachel had to agree as she admired the fiery hues. The setting sun cast the last of its rays for that day, shades of pink, orange, and purple over the puffy little clouds that filled the sky.

* * * *

Eli’s heart galloped as he made eye contact with Rachel’s father. Peter grinned at him and nodded his head. Renata sat next to Peter, and Eli noticed her lips tremble when she looked away from the beautiful sunset and wiped a tear that trickled down her soft cheek. She smiled at him and looked lovingly at her daughter.

Eli stroked Rachel’s upper arm as she snuggled to him. “Yes, Renata.

The sunset is beautiful tonight, but not nearly as beautiful as your daughter.”

Rachel looked out at the sunset, watching the colors fill the sky, but Eli could plainly see the rosy blush that swept across her cheeks.

The velvet covered box had rested in his pocket all evening as he waited for the perfect moment. That moment had arrived.

End of
Her Gentle Giant

To be continued in

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THE END

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