Chapter 27
The first day of the rodeo was a huge success. A bigger success than Tillman had dared to dream it could be. There had been far more than the twenty thousand cars they had room for, and he and Tobias had spent some of the day working on getting a place for more people to park.
Phoebe had been scrambling for food, and she had several huge deliveries slated for first thing in the morning, so they were ready to start again tomorrow, since they had run out of almost everything that day.
God had been better to him than he deserved, he knew it. But as he slowly closed the door on his sleeping children, his eyes fell on the letter that sat on his dresser.
It was a bill from the hospital.
A bill he had absolutely no ability to pay.
It was worth it, because without the services of the hospital and the life flight, the doctors had said if Erin had been even an hour later they might not have been able to save her. Then there was the ICU stay and the regular hospital charges.
It all added up to far more than he could ever hope to pay. If he hadn’t already lost the ranch, he would be forced into selling it to pay. But as it was, there was no way he could come up with the money to pay that bill.
He didn’t know what to do. He could hardly ask Phoebe to share her life with his when he would be starting out with a bankruptcy, which was the only thing he could see that he could do in order to solve the problem. And that grated on every nerve he had. He had never had a bill that he hadn’t paid in full.
But he didn’t have health insurance with his job, and Nicole had let the state health insurance that she had gotten for the children lapse. She hadn’t talked to him about it, and he had had no idea.
He had been fighting just to see them, she certainly wasn’t talking to him about anything remotely concerning their health or the school or anything.
He hadn’t known. But he had been the one to call the ambulance, and the bills were written out in his name.
He didn’t know what he was going to do. But he supposed God knew. And while he was trying not to worry about it, he also knew that he needed to just let God work. And God would work with the bill. Even if it meant Tillman would be forced to declare bankruptcy.
The thing that he didn’t want was to drag Phoebe into that mess. She didn’t need to marry him and have her credit completely ruined because of a bill that had nothing to do with her.
He knew she didn’t have the money to pay either, since the ranch was just trying to stay solvent, hence the rodeo.
Lord, I don’t know what I’m going to do about this. But You do. I know You have something in mind. And if that means I have to give up Phoebe, in order to protect her from this, please make it clear to me. Because, if there’s one thing I don’t want, it’s to lose my children or Phoebe. In fact, Lord, I want her to marry me. But it feels selfish to ask her to marry me when I have this hanging over my head. You know, God. Please make it clear to me. Amen.
He had already said good night to Phoebe. She was practically dead on her feet, and she had promised to keep an eye on the kids if they didn’t wake up with the sun in the morning. They had strict instructions to find him or Phoebe as soon as they woke. Everyone else on the ranch would be keeping an eye out for them, too. And while there was the potential for there to be bad actors anywhere, most of the people who were at the rodeo seemed to be good people who were looking for some family entertainment.
Tomorrow was another day, and he would try to put this worry to bed, and think about the things that he could do something about, and leave the things that he couldn’t do anything about in the hands of the Lord.