"Do you mind if we stop for coffee?," Rachel asked, covering her mouth with her hand as she yawned. "My treat!"

Even though they'd only pulled onto the highway a few exits back, Colby was quick to agree. Rachel couldn't understand a word Teeter said. But since the woman was nodding her head, Rachel assumed that she was also feeling the need for a caffeine boost.

Rachel yawned again. She and Jamie stayed up talking while his son was sleeping. And when they finally fell asleep, the little one kept waking up. To his credit, Jamie tried his best not to jostle the bed around when he got up with the baby. But Rachel was a light sleeper and quickly decided it would be easier just to get up and help him with the baby than to fall asleep only to be woken up again in a few minutes when he climbed back into bed.

"Over there!," Dakota squealed, nearly smacking her mother across the face in her excitement to point out the nearest Starbucks. Colby parked the oversized truck near the back of the lot and Rachel sent Dakota in with money and their drink orders. For whatever silly teenage reason, Dakota was overly excited about going inside by herself. And since she was probably about to hold up the line ordering some sort of ridiculous tik tok drink, Rachel was more than happy to wait in the car.

When Dakota emerged from the coffee shop a few minutes later with a tray of drinks in her hand, Colby was still laughing at Teeter for claiming that this was her first time at Starbucks. Rachel smiled, enjoying their playful banter even though she could only understand half of it. She didn't argue when Rip told her he was sending a few of his cowboys home with her to help her pack up her things. But she wasn't expecting to enjoy their company so much. And even though she knew Daniel couldn't get into her email anymore, there was a chance he might be stalking outside her apartment waiting for her to eventually show back up. She felt safer with her reinforcements. Especially since Dakota was with her.

Packing up her apartment didn't take long. Rachel and Dakota had to move every time Daniel found them. So they left any unnecessary baggage behind at least five moves ago. They packed up the rest of their clothes and personal items. Rachel filled a large tupperware bin with the few nice kitchen items she managed to hang onto. The furniture was all thrift store junk or items then plucked from the roadside. Rachel left it behind, accepting her neighbor's offer to dispose of anything he couldn't sell online if he could keep the money from the things he sold.

They headed for her bakery storefront next. Rachel wrapped her arm around Dakota on the way, letting the girl snuggle into her side. Moving out of yet another apartment wasn't as scary this time as it had been before. But it still brought back unhealed trauma for the girl.

"That's the last time we're ever gonna have to do that," Rachel promised, smoothing her hand over Dakota's sapphire hair. "I promise." It was not the first time she'd made the same promise. But Rachel hoped it would be the last. The guilt she felt about not being able to protect her daughter from everything that happened between her and Daniel was palpable. Dakota couldn't even go to school like a normal kid with how many times they had to move. And Rachel regretted not moving them back in with her parents when her dad urged her to come home. Rachel stayed away because she was afraid for them. Daniel threatened to burn her parent's entire house down with them inside it if she ever tried to go home. A threat she knew he was capable of carrying out.

The bakery was another quick stop. Rachel hired movers to bring her things to her new storefront location. So she just had to mark the things they were supposed to take with large orange stickers. Colby and Teeter helped her pack up the baking supplies that were still good and a few of the smaller more breakable items that she was too nervous to leave for the movers.

Rachel wasn't sure what to do with all the frozen baked goods her freezers were full of. She had nowhere to keep the items, not without them thawing and going bad. And the freezers had to be emptied because they weren't hers. But she hated to throw out so much perfectly good food. It was Dakota's idea to take all of it to the local food bank and donate it. The woman that ran the place was a regular bakery customer of hers. And while she was sad to hear that Rachel was moving to Bozeman, she was extremely happy to have the giant assortment of high quality treats to hand out to her patrons. The woman spread everything out on a big table and encouraged Rachel and Dakota to pose for a few pictures with her. Rachel picked out the best one and sent it to Jamie, frowning a little at her phone when he didn't immediately respond. He was usually as bad as Dakota with his devices. Rachel shrugged it off and climbed back into the truck.

Her parents' house was last. And Rachel felt the swell of emotion before they had even pulled all the way into the driveway. The last time she was there was for her parent's funeral reception. She'd let the house sit empty since then.

"It feels weird," Dakota whispered. "Like Grandpa Rob might come out the door and start saying stuff about my ripped jeans."

Rachel nodded. She felt the same. And she realized that with all the chaos in her life, she never really took the time to grieve the biggest loss she'd ever had. Losing both her parents, who were her only family, at the same time was a lot. At the time, she just pushed the feelings down and buried them. She supposed that searching for her brother had been her way of coping with the loss. And now that she found him, Rachel felt a different kind of loss. The loss of all that would never be. She got to meet Rip's adopted family. But he would never get to meet hers. Her dad would have been all over him too. With his unusual upbringing, Rip was like a case study in nature versus nurture. Rachel's dad retired years ago. But the psychologist in him never really stopped working.

"You grew up here?," Colby asked, glancing around at the well manicured lawns and the perfect little cookie cutter houses. Rachel nodded. She was indeed the product of an HOA neighborhood. Since she was an only child, her parents wanted to live in a neighborhood so she would have other kids to play with. They didn't want her to be lonely.

Rachel pulled her phone out, checking first to see if Jamie responded to her text before she called her realtor. He hadn't. She wasn't upset by it. But she was starting to get a little worried. And she hoped his ex wasn't making any further problems for him. Rachel sent him another message, asking if everything was okay. Then she headed into the house.

Her code for the front door lock still worked. And so did the code she needed to silence the alarm system once she was inside. Stepping into her childhood home was like stepping back in time. Other than some of the smaller decor items, it was the same place she remembered from her childhood. Her mother decorated for every holiday. And the last one must have been Halloween. Because there were some seasonal items mixed in with the tastefully bland knickknacks and pictures.

The relator was on her way. And Rachel knew the process would go easier if she had the paperwork for the house in order. So she headed for her father's office, feeling oddly out of place when she sat down behind his large wooden desk. His computer was still running, playing the slideshow of pictures he used as a screensaver. It was mostly pictures of her and Dakota, with a few photos of him and her mother together mixed in. Seeing them again made her feel a strange mix of sadness and nostalgia. She'd give almost anything for one last hug from her mother and a piece of her father's bluntly honest advice.

Rachel reached down and turned the computer off before she pulled one of the large drawers open and began searching for the papers she needed. Her father had his desk neatly organized. Everything was divided out in labeled hanging folders Rachel was able to find the papers she needed without much effort. The drawer on the other side of the desk was full of her father's old patient files. Those were full of confidential information and would need to be shredded before she threw them away. Rachel left that drawer alone for now, pulling on the middle drawer to see what was inside. The drawer stuck. It was locked. Odd for her father who as far as she knew didn't have any secrets. Rachel rifled around on the desktop, looking for the key. But it was nowhere to be found.

"Hey Colby!," Rachel hollered. "Do you think you can get this drawer open for me?"

Rachel moved back, giving Colby and Teeter room to poke and yank at the locked drawer. Teeter darted off into the kitchen, returning with a butterknife. After shooing Colby out of her way, she jabbed the knife into the top of the drawer and pushed down hard, releasing the lock and popping the drawer open.

"Thanks!," Rachel exclaimed, thoroughly impressed with Teeter's lock picking skills. She didn't even scratch the wood.

Rachel plopped back down in her father's chair, eager to sift through the contents of her father's locked drawer. She was confused at first. Because other than the usual top desk drawer items like pens and stamps and stray paperclips, she didn't find anything other than a stack of pictures. And they weren't the type that needed to be kept away from prying eyes. It was just pictures of her and Dakota. And pictures of her mother. Rachel furrowed her brows, confused as to why her father was keeping the pictures in a locked drawer. Maybe he locked the drawer by accident, she thought. But upon closer inspection, she realized there was something odd about the pictures. All of them had been taken from a good distance away. And without the knowledge of the person that was being photographed. There was a photo of Rachel dropping off an order of cupcakes at an outdoor wedding venue that looked like it had been taken from inside a car in the parking lot. A chill ran up her spine as she looked at the photo. And when she flipped it over, she gasped in shock. There was a note written in black permanent marker on the back of the picture. Not just any note, but a threat. And a demand for money. Rachel shook her head. Daniel had not only been harassing her. He was extorting money from her father by threatening to hurt her. And her mother. What a sick pathetic loser.

Rachel collected the photos and shoved them into an envelope, fighting the urge to toss them straight into the trash. She wasn't sure if they would be of any use. But the next time Daniel violated his restraining order, she figured it wouldn't hurt to have proof that he'd been violating it for years. Maybe it would be enough to actually get him arrested for once. His sister would bail him out and get the charges dropped. She always did. But even Angela sometimes left him in jail long enough to dry him out a little. A knock on the front door pulled Rachel out of her thoughts. And she pushed her worries about her ex to the back of her mind as she headed for the door to let the realtor in.