Chapter 20 #2
Ty chuckled and shook his head, though he suspected she was teasing him. “No, they are not. How dare you try to compare cats to horses?” He kicked a full grin at her and flaked off another bite of fish.
Winnie laughed too, and Ty sure loved the sound of it. As they ate dinner and Winnie turned the conversation to lighter topics, he barely recognized his life. It continued to morph around him every few months, and the addition of Winnie as his girlfriend was definitely the best change of all.
A couple of hours later, Ty finally arrived home. He’d showered, and he currently only wore boxer shorts as he lay in bed, a single lamp giving light to the room from the nightstand beside him. He needed to go through his texts, so he’d know where to be in the morning to do the most good.
He had several messages from Angel and Henry at Lone Star, four from Colt—just between him and Colt, not whole orchard texts or whole ranching group texts—but over a hundred from his friends.
He started to read through them, and sure enough, it looked like his help would be needed at Conrad’s, JJ’s, Signs for Success, Shiloh Ridge, and the Rhinehart Ranch.
At one point, Rock had mentioned Golden Hour, which Ty knew as Britt Bellamore’s place. One of Rock’s uncles had married a Bellamore, and he said he would try to get more details about what they needed, and then he’d never come back on the text.
Send me a list of what you need off this thread, Finn said. I’ll make a list and organize us. Anyone who can come help—great. We understand if you can’t. We all have our own family and farm obligations.
Ty smiled at the way Finn took charge. He loved it, because the man loved him, and he genuinely wanted everyone to be taken care of. Mitch had asked about him first, and Ty’s heart expanded with love for the man.
Henry and Angel had both chimed in that he’d been at Lone Star, and safe, and then left right away, and Libby had reported that his mother was trying to get in touch with him too and hadn’t been able to.
The texts went on as others related their experiences with the dust storm and the aftermath of it.
Link: All of my netting is down in the guinea fowl pasture. It’s a tangled mess, and I think we’re gonna have to rip it out and start over.
Wilder: I’m headed to my place right now. I’m actually really afraid of what I’m going to find.
Mitch: We have broken windows on the third story of the house, and over in the Academy dorms. And look at how close this tree came to the house.
Ty recognized as the back corner of the huge plantation-style house where Mitch and Lacy lived, and his heart dropped to the soles of his cowboy boots.
Dawson: I lost the doors on the west side of my barn, and the roof there doesn’t have a single shingle anymore.
Ty’s heart hurt for the loss his friends had suffered. Everything felt more real when he knew the actual people who’d been impacted, and had been to those places which now bore damage.
Gun: We’re still missing several turkeys, a couple of sheep, three pigs, and a whole slew of cattle. Maybe more animals. I’ve got cowboys out trying to round up everything we can.
Rock: Several fences buckled, so our groups got mixed up, and of course, they sheltered wherever they could.
Link: Yeah, we have no way of getting them all to safety on such short notice.
Wilder: I was already behind on my construction due to figuring out the swampiness here, and this blasted dust storm tore off all of the plastic sheeting and has pelted the foundation. Look at it.
Ty stared at the picture of the crumbling cement, his chest tightening on Wilder’s behalf.
Wilder: It’s ruined the foundation. It’s going to have to be re-poured.
Condolences had come in after that, and Link had said that he and Gun would come down and help Wilder assess what else needed to be done, as Wilder had reported “debris everywhere.”
Ty could feel the man’s frustration in his short, clipped texts, and he didn’t blame him. Wilder was set to get married in only a couple of months, and his future wife had two little girls that Wilder desperately wanted to provide for.
Finn: Based on the pictures and things you all have sent me privately, I think we should meet at Conrad’s tomorrow morning.
I know not everyone will be able to. No pressure.
He only has a section of fencing to be fixed, and one wall in his barn, and then his livestock will be back to normal.
In the afternoon, we can head to Signs for Success and help Mitch get his dog enclosure rebuilt and assess his window needs.
I think we should be able to fix Dawson’s roof on Friday and get barn doors back on his building, and then we’ll focus on Shiloh Ridge.
Link: Good plan, Finn. We’ve got tons of men here, though, so I’ll keep you updated, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to send anyone to help. I’m really sorry.
Rock: I bet we can send a few people. We can’t all ride around calling for pigs.
Wilder: Honestly, I’d love to get off Shiloh Ridge. This place is going to be the death of me. I can come to Conrad’s.
Finn: Chime in if you can come to Conrad’s tomorrow morning or Mitch’s in the afternoon. Let’s try to be there around eight-thirty if we can.
Ty quickly navigated over to Mitch’s text to see what he’d said about having a crew come to Signs for Success tomorrow.
Mitch: I hope you’re all right and accounted for. No one’s heard from you on the group text. Text me when you get a minute.
A little while later, he’d said, We’re gonna cancel dog training in the morning and wait and see what Finn sets up for us in terms of getting things put back together.
He hadn’t said anything else, and maybe hadn’t seen that Finn had said they’d have a group coming to help out at Signs for Success tomorrow afternoon.
No problem, Ty said. I’ll see you at Conrad’s. Then he realized he hadn’t told Mitch that he was all right, and he added, I’m fine. Winnie was stuck in Amarillo during the storm and had some car trouble, so I went there to help her and then brought her back here.
I’m glad you two are all right, Mitch said.
Ty navigated back over to the larger group text to add his voice to the conversation. I can be at Conrad’s by eight-thirty. I have to drop Winnie off at work, as she was stranded in Amarillo, and we had to leave her car there after it incurred some damage from the storm.
Not ten seconds later, he got a private text from Finn: What help do you need with Winnie’s car? Anything?
It got pushed into a cement pillar and the front passenger side is pretty dented, Ty said. We left it there but need to get it back here to get it fixed.
Let me talk to Sam, Finn said. He’s been trying to start that roadside assistance thing, and he might have access to tow trucks or a flatbed.
That’d be great, Ty said. Winnie has insurance, and I don’t know what she’ll be able to pay, but I know she needs her car.
Yeah, I’ll text him, Finn said. Glad to hear from you, Ty.
And Ty knew he was too.
He navigated back to the big group text, and others had said they were glad to hear from him as well.
Alex: I’ll get my morning chores done and plan to be at Conrad’s too. They’ve canceled school, so I’ll bring my boys.
Brandon: I’ll come through the forest and ride with you, Alex, if that’s okay.
Alex: Sure thing, brother.
Mitch: I’ll be there as well, and I’d appreciate any help at Signs for Success, but I understand that we’re low on the list, because my dogs can just live in the house with me until we get things fixed.
Trap: What about your windows? My daddy has lots of window contacts.
Mitch: I’ve already texted with him, and we have someone coming tomorrow by six p.m.
Trap: Oh, great. That goes for anyone else who might need windows. My daddy’s able to get them for some reason when other people can’t.
Link: It pays to know people.
That triggered Ty to think about what Winnie had said about only having him to help her. She may have felt like that, but Ty knew it wasn’t true. The community of Three Rivers wouldn’t let anyone go without, and his texts with his friends proved it.
They’d show up for anyone, and Ty would be right there with them, gloves on, pain meds in his truck, ready to work.
Anyone around town would do the same for Winnie.
“But I do want to be that man for her, Lord,” he whispered. He’d caught up with the texts, and he reached over and plugged his phone in and left it on his nightstand, his alarm set to go off at seven-fifteen so that he could get over to Winnie’s and get her to work on time.
Pure exhaustion pulled through him, but he still managed to murmur, “Thank you, God,” believing that God would know that he was grateful for a great many things in his life and just didn’t have the energy to spell them all out right now.