Page 11 of Beside the Rolling Waves
Matt had a long conversation with him, after Becky came to him crying because Rodney wasn’t communicating with her.
Rodney had held fast. He didn’t want Becky to see him like this. He had been telling her how successful he was, bragging some, just wanting her to know that she was getting a guy who was successful and that she could be proud of.
“She would have understood if you told her right away. Women don’t like it when their guy hides things from them. But it is what it is now,” Matt said, making a smacking sound with his lips as he thoughtfully turned away from Rodney and looked out the window.
Another snowstorm was coming down hard, and it was going to make travel to the Chicago suburbs treacherous. But he had business he needed to take care of before he came back up to meet with Becky Wednesday afternoon.
“How is Becky doing?” Davis asked. “She became a little distant since she lost contact with you. She checks in once in a while, but I don’t hear from her regularly like we used to.”
It was surprising to Rodney. He hadn’t realized that. She wasn’t that far away up in Raspberry Ridge, but he supposed winter with this kind of snow made any distance a distance that no one wanted to travel.
“She looked fine. She was angry, but…fine. She has four beautiful Clydesdales, and she was taking good care of them.”
The Clydesdales looked like they were in excellent health, which told Rodney that she had enough money to feed her horses, so she was probably eating okay too.
It was hard to tell what she looked like underneath her bulky winter clothes, but obviously she was up and working, and angry. Very angry.
“I knew she had horses,” Davis said thoughtfully. “She got them a few years ago. They are her pride and joy. The culmination of years of dreams.”
“What does she do with them? Give carriage rides on the beach?” Rodney asked. He was desperate for any information onBecky, but he hadn’t really wanted to admit that he didn’t know anything. As in, no contact for years.
“Yeah. She was trying to build a business of giving carriage rides. Not just horseback riding along the beach. She had to choose one or the other, because she couldn’t afford to keep her riding horses and get the Clydesdales.”
Davis said this casually, although Rodney felt like he could read between the lines. He bet that Davis either had given Becky a loan for the horses, or knew who had.
And if he knew Becky, she’d pay back every cent, with interest. Even if she had to take it out of her blood.
He looked around the well-appointed study. The deep mahogany bookshelves were filled, almost overflowing, with books on a variety of different subject matters. Davis was an excellent businessman, and he was widely read. He was one of the smartest people that Rodney knew. Very savvy. Ford Hansen had him beat hands down. Still, they were equally kind, equally bighearted, and they had equally wonderful wives.
Both of them would tell him in an instant that his choice of wife would make or break his life. After all, it was the single most important decision a man would make after choosing to follow the Lord.
Matt, who, with his wife Jubilee, owned a riding stable along the lake and rented out riding horses throughout the summer for tourists, was also a savvy businessman. But his interests were more geared toward his family, and he wasn’t as wealthy as Davis. But in wisdom, he was just as rich.
These were two of Rodney’s favorite people in the world and the men who had come along beside him, even giving him a place to stay, when he had gone through his difficult teenage years. He almost veered off the straight and narrow, but along with Becky, these guys had kept him honest.
“I guess I don’t know what to do. She was so angry at me she wouldn’t talk. She did agree to meet with me at the diner in Blueberry Beach on Wednesday, but…she didn’t seem like she was going to be very forgiving.”
“Well, I don’t know that I have a whole lot of good advice for you. Just be honest and humble. And apologetic.”
“I guess I have to agree. I definitely feel like it’s best to be honest from the beginning. It’s harder to get yourself out of a hole once you’ve dug it around yourself and fallen into it.”
Rodney had to wonder what in the world he was thinking about at the time, because in hindsight, he could see that Davis and Matt were absolutely right. But at the time, he had been dead set against Becky ever finding out about what had happened. Now, it was time to face the piper, and with so much happening, he wasn’t sure that he was going to be able to give Becky the attention she deserved. After all, he was still trying to run a business, and he was going to somehow have twins to take care of.
Hopefully Becky would do the heavy lifting on that, and he would pay for things. Although… He had no idea how she was expecting to break it down. If she was trying to run a business, she probably wasn’t going to have any more time to take care of two babies than he did. Perhaps they would both have to make sacrifices. Somehow, he thought he was probably more equipped to do that than she was.
“Beyond Becky, I’ve never wanted to let anyone who’s invested in me down. You two, and Ford Hansen, are among the top. Cord helped me get started with the horses, but Becky took that all over.”
“When you stopped talking to her, she got completely away from your horses.”
That was true. He’d ended up having to sell them. He hadn’t wanted to, but it had actually been helpful, because it had givenhim some of the money he needed in order to pay his previous creditors off. He had to declare bankruptcy, but he had paid back every cent he owed.
“I remember you being concerned when you got out of the horses, that Cord Stryker would be upset with you. He wasn’t,” Matt said, lifting a brow, as though daring Rodney to remember.
“You’re right,” he said easily, grimacing a bit when he remembered how nervous he had been to go see him. He’d been so afraid that he was going to be upset after all of the time and effort that Cord had put into him. Instead, he’d been happy, wishing him well, telling him if he ever needed anything to not be afraid to knock on his door, because he’d help with anything he could.
“I think the generosity and kindness of people sometimes surprise us. Sure, people get mad about stuff and that surprises us too, but you have some really good people around you. Ford is not going to be disappointed in you if you don’t make one billion. He would be more disappointed in you if you didn’t take care of Becky’s sister’s twins.” Davis raised his brows. “And I know I’m proud of what you’ve done. I’m proud of the way you handled yourself when things didn’t go well for you. I’m proud of how you made sure that you paid everyone back. Because it would have been easier to walk away. I’m proud of how you got up from the ashes, prayed about it, and then dove right back in. There aren’t a lot of people with grit like that.”
“He’s friends with Becky. He really doesn’t have any choice but to have grit like that.”
