Jeweldean rode into town and walked straight to the bank office, letter in hand.

The bank teller and sheriff were both inside, talking. They looked up when Jeweldean walked in. "Well howdy ma'am. What can I do for you today?" The bank teller, Duke, asked.

"I'm here about this letter I received in the mail the other day. Did you send it out?" Jeweldean held up the paper.

"Yes, Jeweldean, I did send that letter out."

"Why?" Jeweldean slammed the papers down and leaned on Duke's desk.

"Because you haven't paid your bills in over four months. That's a lot of money that we aren't receivin'." Duke responded and leaned back in his chair.

"Yes, I understand that, but my husband went missing. I was too worried about him and his whereabouts then payin' my bills. Sonny always pays them for us, but since he went missing they couldn't be paid. Plus, I was pregnant with my third child, running a ranch on my own, all while trying to keep food on the table for my ranch hands and my children." Jeweldean didn't realize just how irritated this made her.

"Yes, and we were sorry to hear about Sonny, but we hear that he is back now. And the bills still need paid." Duke rubbed his chin where he had stubble from his newly shaved beard.

"Okay, then how can I pay them?" Jeweldean asked. She looked from the sheriff to Duke. Duke was a plump man in his late fifties, who looked like he has had one too many cinnamon rolls in his days. The sheriff, Beau, (casually spelled 'Bo'), is the exact opposite of Duke. Beau is a younger man in his mid twenties, and is tall, skinny, strong, and looks a little too good in a cowboy hat and spurs. Almost all of the gals, even some young, married gals in town tend to swoon over him whenever he passes by. Ironically, him and Jeweldean grew up together, and he, too, once had a thing for Jeweldean; she turned down his invitation to court him...three times. Beau had also asked for Jeweldean's hand in marriage, which she declined both times. They stayed friends, though.

Beau sat casually on the corner of Duke's desk chewing on the end of a piece of straw and whittling a stick, pretending not to eavesdrop on Jeweldean and Duke's conversation. Jeweldean looked back to Duke when he began talking.

"Well, since Sonny is the primary owner of the ranch, he will need to come in here and we can discuss the options." The bank teller replied.

"What are the options?"

"Well, that's why Sonny has to come in so we can discuss them."

Jeweldean sighed, stood up, and crossed her arms. "Is there anything I can do right now to help this matter go away?"

"I reckon that you could have Sonny stop in later today and we could talk about this."

"Sonny just got home a week ago and he's busy getting the ranch back to normal. Can he come in later this week?"

"I'm sorry, Jeweldean, the only option is to have Sonny come in...today."

Jeweldean sighed and put her hands on her hips and looked at the floor. "Okay, I will talk to him. But he ain't coming in until tomorrow, at the absolute earliest." Jeweldean looked up at Duke.

Duke looked from Jeweldean to Beau and back to Jeweldean. "Okay, but the sooner, the better, you know that, right?"

"Yes sir. I understand."

"Okay, then we have it settled. I will see your husband no later than Friday."

"Okay. Thank you." Jeweldean grabbed up her papers off of Duke's desk and began walking towards the door when Duke called her name. She turned around.

Duke's voice came out in a sympathetic tone. "You know that Clint's stayin' in town? He's been askin' to talk to y'all for a while now. Said that you up and fired him."

Jeweldean almost ground her teeth, instead she asked, in the most polite voice she could muster, "Where's he stayin'?"

"Just up yonder at the motel. You should know that he's cleaned himself up, Jeweldean."

"I'm sure he has." Jeweldean sarcastically mumbled under her breath. Then, in an audible volume, Jeweldean replied, "Well, thanks for your time, Duke. I'll be sure to send Sonny out soon to talk about this." Jeweldean said, then she walked out of the bank. Instead of going to the motel to see if Clint really had cleaned up, Jeweldean mounted up and headed back to the ranch.

                                                        ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You see, daddy? I've been workin' on my swing. Carver and Austin been helpin' me." Cody said to Sonny, who was sitting on a fence rail watching Cody try to rope a wooden dummy.

"Yeah, I can see that. You're gettin' much better. Let's see you swing again." Sonny said to Cody. He had forgotten how much he missed Cody and all of their special times that they shared.

"Oh, dadgum, I missed it again." Cody said when the rope fell short of the dummy that was attached to a hay bale.

"That's okay. Here, let me show ya." Sonny said, jumping down from the fence and walking over to where Cody was. "You have to lift your elbow a little more, and when you swing, make sure the palm of your hand stays facin' down until the rope reaches it's highest point. You don't the rope to form an eight. And you also don't want to swing it to low or else it'll knock your hat off." Sonny teasingly flipped Cody's hat off of his head. Cody giggled and placed it tightly back on his head. "Okay, here watch me, I'll do it real slow for you. You ready?"

Cody nodded and kept his eyes glued to Sonny as Sonny slowly swung the rope over his head and back down again.

"You see?" Sonny asked.

"Can you do it again? Only this time, do it as fast as you can."

Sonny chuckled. "As fast as I can?"

Cody nodded. "As fast as you can."

"Okay. Here goes." Sonny replied. He quickly swung the rope, and then threw it so it went around Cody. He didn't pull it tight, however, not wanting to hurt Cody.

"Hey, you roped me." Cody smiled and wiggled out of the rope.

"Here, you try now." Sonny handed the rope back to Cody.

Sonny watched as Cody kept trying to swing the rope. After about five more times, Cody had it down-pat and with three more tries, he was able to rope the dummy.

Cody jumped up and down. "Did you see it? Did you see it, pa? I got it again."

Sonny smiled, "Yeah, I saw it buddy. You're getting better. Pretty soon you're gonna be ropin' just like me. Heck, you might even be able to come on a round-up with me soon."

Cody's face lit up as if he was just offered all the candy in the candy store. "You think so pa?"

"I know so buddy. Throw it again." Just then, Jeweldean rode up next to them.

"Do you wanna see me throw my rope, ma? Pa said that I'm gittin' real good and that I could go on a round-up with him once I get good 'nuff." A very excited Cody said to Jeweldean.

"Sure honey." Jeweldean replied. Jeweldean watched as Cody swung the rope over his head and threw it. It landed perfectly on the dummy. Jeweldean smiled and clapped.

"Good job, Cody. Your daddy's right, you're gonna be ropin' as good as he does one of these days." Jeweldean said and winked at her husband.

"You think so?" Cody asked.

"Yes I do, sweetie." Jeweldean turned to Sonny and leaned down in the saddle. "Can I talk to you in the barn for a second?" She whispered to Sonny.

Sonny looked from Jeweldean to Cody. "Hey buddy, keep workin' on your rope. I'm gonna go talk to your mama, okay?"

"Okay, daddy." Cody replied. He turned back to practice his roping.

Jeweldean dismounted and Sonny followed her to the barn. "What's wrong, honey?" Sonny asked once they were inside the barn.

Jeweldean untacked her horse and put her in her stall before answering Sonny.

Jeweldean looked at Sonny and sighed. "I went into town today to talk to the bank."

"The bank? About what?" Sonny asked.

"This." Jeweldean retrieved the letter from her pocket and handed it to Sonny. Sonny read it through, twice, then looked at Jeweldean.

"Why on earth do they want to foreclose?" Sonny asked.

"Because..." Jeweldean turned away from Sonny. Why couldn't she just tell him the truth?

"Jewel?" Sonny walked up behind Jeweldean and placed his hands on her shoulders. He asked in a concerned voice, "Why does the bank want to foreclose on the ranch? Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

Jeweldean turned back around. "Because I didn't pay the bills while you were..." She couldn't finish.

"You didn't pay the bills?" Sonny asked in disbelief. Jeweldean could tell that he was becoming frustrated, just as she was.

"Sonny, I couldn't. I was too busy worrying about you...and I had never paid bills before. Then, I had Sadie, and I had a lot of other things going on too." Jeweldean didn't realize how frustrating this was making her too, until her words came out more harsh then she meant for them to be.

"You couldn't pay them? We have five other ranch hands who could've helped you, including Clint." Sonny's voice began to raise. He threw the bank letter down on a nearby hay bale.

"No. No, you know what? I couldn't count on Clint. Why? Because he was to busy getting drunk and tryin' to make a move on me!" Jeweldean hadn't realized that her and Sonny had been yelling until there was dead silence between them after she blurted out about Clint.

Sonny stood still, then he looked at Jeweldean. "He did what?" Jeweldean heard the hurt, sadness, disbelief, and confusion that coated Sonny's voice.

Jeweldean sighed and closed her eyes. "One night, Carver was reading to Cody and Clint walked in. It was the night that I had Sadie. Cody asked Carver and Clint if their daddy was dead, and Carver and Clint had different answers. They walked out to the porch and had it out there. Words were said and Carver accused Clint of having feelings for me. The next day, I walked out to Clint's bunkhouse to talk to him about what happened the night before, but he wouldn't let me in. When he finally did, I could smell the alcohol and I knew he was drunk. Then, he kissed me. I slapped him when he tried to kiss me again, so I...I..."

"What did you do, Jeweldean?" Sonny growled between gritted teeth. He stood with his hands on his hips, and looking at Jeweldean.

Jeweldean looked at Sonny. "I fired him, Sonny."

"You fired him? What were you thinkin'?" Sonny asked. He threw his hands in the air in disbelief.

"He was drunk and he kissed me. He wouldn't let me go after the first time he kissed me, and he was trying to kiss me again."

"Clint wouldn't do that." Sonny scoffed.

"You don't believe me?" Jeweldean asked in disbelief. She had been yelling up until this point. She was so surprised at what Sonny just said that her voice came out in a whisper.

"I have known Clint my entire life. He has never drank a drop of liquor in his whole life. And he would never, ever, try to make a move on another man's wife. Especially when that man is me."

"Sonny, why don't you believe me?" Jeweldean said, tears stinging her eyelids. Sonny not believing her stung her heart.

"Because you lied to me, Jeweldean. You said that everything was fine here. I even asked you if I had to run into town to take care of anything and you said no!" Sonny yelled.

"Because I thought I could solve this by talkin' to the banker." Jeweldean waved her hand in the air, pointing towards town.

"Four months of bills that never got paid? You thought that could be resolved in just one conversation?" Sonny looked at Jeweldean. When she opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out, Sonny shook his head and turned his back on Jeweldean.

The tears that Jeweldean had been holding in began to spill out. Her and Sonny had had a few small arguments in their marriage, but never one this bad. Jeweldean knew that no matter what she said, or did, Sonny was going to stay mad for a long time, and she didn't blame him, but it killed her to fight with him. Besides, now Sonny didn't even trust her anymore.

Through her tears, Jeweldean walked up to Sonny, and said, in a voice just barely above a whisper, "I'm sorry, Sonny. Please forgive me. I tried my best. I was too worried about you to even think about the bills."

Sonny shook his head. "You tried your best? Well, you obviously didn't try very hard." Sonny stomped past Jeweldean and grabbed Bronco from his stall.

Sonny was tacking up Bronco when Jeweldean asked, "Where are you going, Sonny?"

"To try to clean up this mess that you left me." And with that, Sonny snatched up the bank letter that had now fallen to the floor, mounted up, and spurred Bronco into a ground-eating gallop as he headed toward town.

Once Sonny was out of Jeweldean's sight, Jeweldean fell to the ground and began sobbing.

"Why are you doing this to us, God? Where are you? Why aren't you helping us?" Jeweldean screamed at the roof of the barn as she sobbed. "What did I do wrong to make you leave me here, alone? It's not my fault."

Jeweldean couldn't stop the tears that fell as she sat on the floor of the barn. As she sat crying, she thought about how much fun their family has had this week. How many good talks her and Sonny had had. She thought about his first night back, and how, every night, he whispered sweet words into her ear as he held her close. Thinking of all the good things that had happened this week made Jeweldean cry even harder.

Jeweldean wasn't sure how long it was before her tears slowed and she picked herself up off of the ground and ran into the house.

Jeweldean stopped dead in her tracks when she heard a small voice behind her ask, "Mama, where's daddy goin'? Is he gonna come back?"

Jeweldean tried to wipe away her tears as she turned to face Cody. She knelt down so she was almost eye level with him. "Daddy had to go into town for a bit to talk to the bank."

"When is he coming back, ma?" Cody asked.

Jeweldean couldn't make her voice work, instead she just nodded then stood up and ran into the house. Was Sonny going to come back? It takes a lot to get Sonny mad, and with as mad as he is, she couldn't be sure if he would come back.