Chapter 17

Lisa woke up to lots of noise coming from the kitchen. She looked at her phone and realized that she needed to get up. She made her way to the bathroom to brush her hair and her teeth before she joined the family.

When Lisa entered the kitchen, Lou was cooking, Katie and Georgie were joking around, and Amy was helping Lyndy with pouring a cup of juice. Katie noticed Lisa first. "Hi, Lisa. Did you sleep okay? I hope we didn't wake you."

Lisa smiled at Katie. "Hi, honey. I don't really know what woke me up, but it was time for me to get up anyway. I don't like sleeping in too late." She turned to Georgie and said, "I know you probably want to spend time with your mom and sister today before you go over to Fairfield, but I was wondering if you had some time to talk about Fairfield business. I just want to talk to you a little more about expectations and organizational stuff. Edwin will be the person you talk to there, and between the two of you, I can hopefully get up to date with everything."

"Sure. I'll make sure to make some time to talk to you about everything sometime today. I'm nervous about doing the job, but I'm glad that I can help you get back on your feet with your business. You've always been so supportive of me." Georgie looked over at what Lou was cooking up. "Mom, there's not that many of us here. You're cooking enough to feed an army."

Lou looked over her shoulder at Georgie. "It's not every day that you're home. I'm just happy to have you here. I may have gone a little overboard. We'll have leftovers to eat later."

"Just invite Dad over. All of this will be gone very quickly," joked Amy, and everyone laughed.

When Jack came in from doing his morning chores and going for a ride, Lyndy ran to him and gave him a hug. He bent down to return the hug. "Hi, Lyndy! Good morning!"

"Hi, GG!" Lyndy then ran back to where she was sitting.

Jack noticed Lisa standing off to the side, watching the family interact while Lou made breakfast. Watching her watch the family, he fell in love with Lisa all over again. He knew he could be setting himself up for heartbreak, but he couldn't help it. Lisa just brought it out in him.

"Okay, breakfast is ready," announced Lou. "Georgie and Katie, can you help me carry everything to the table? Everyone else, go have a seat."

Jack helped Lisa into her chair and then leaned down and quietly said, "Good morning."

Lisa got chills up her spine at Jack's closeness. She kept her head down but turned slightly and said, "Good morning." Looking around to see if anyone noticed their exchange, Lisa was relieved to see that everyone was bustling around and weren't paying attention to them. After Georgie sat down at the table, she spoke to her. "I wanted to mention in case I forgot to later, but you can use one of the Fairfield trucks while you're there even on your down time. I'm sure you'll be back here some nights and also want to run errands and get groceries."

"Oh yeah. I need to get groceries. I was thinking about waiting to move over to Fairfield until tomorrow morning, but maybe I'll go tonight so I can get all settled, get groceries, and just be there in the morning." Georgie looked nervous but excited about the job she was about to undertake.

"I can take you over today so you can drop off your stuff, get a truck, and go buy whatever supplies you need," offered Jack. "Oh, and you'll need keys. I'll give you my house keys for now. We still have Lisa's here so I can make myself a copy from hers."

Georgie grinned. "Thanks, Jack."

"Lisa, what exactly will Georgie's responsibilities be?" asked Lou.

"Well, she'll essentially be my eyes and ears at Fairfield. No one there except for Edwin knows about my amnesia, so I just need someone there who I trust to help with the administrative side of things. Since she's worked there before and even helped in the office, she has knowledge of how I do things that a groom or a trainer wouldn't have."

Lou pointed out, "That's a lot of pressure on Georgie. Is she going to be making decisions, or will she just be there as sort of your go-between?"

"She'll basically be my proxy. I'll be expecting to make final decisions about things, but I need someone to be at Fairfield to execute those plans. I'll be talking more to Georgie about all of this later."

While Amy, Lou, Jack, and Katie were cleaning up after breakfast, Lisa and Georgie sat down in the living room to talk more about Fairfield. "So one thing I wanted to ask for help with was contacting clients to let them know that I was injured in an accident and that although I won't be there in person to deal with the day to day stuff, I will still be working behind the scenes."

Georgie nodded. "Yeah, I can help with that. Do you want to write something up that I can send out? They know you and know your reputation, but I'm a nobody to them. They may just view me as a nepotism hire. I kind of am, but they don't know that you staying away from Fairfield is beyond just your injuries, so that message needs to come from you."

"Yeah, I'll work on that today, so you have it in the morning. It shouldn't take me long to do. I've been kind of writing it in my head, but I need to actually get it written down." Lisa talked to Georgie more about logistics and job expectations. When they were done talking, Lisa felt better about the future of her business, and she hoped Georgie felt better about her ability to do the job.

After Georgie and Lisa were done talking, she got up to go spend time with her mom and sister. They left to go shopping. Amy and Lyndy had already left to go for a ride. Jack took Georgie's spot on the couch. "How's it going? How did your talk go with Georgie?"

"It went really well. I'm very impressed by her, and I feel better knowing that I have someone like her to be my eyes and ears at Fairfield. I need to do some work today to get ready for Georgie being there tomorrow, but I think this will be a huge weight off my shoulders."

"Good. I'm glad. I hope that Georgie is able to help with your business and that you'll be able to go back to work eventually. Not that I don't love having you home all the time, but I just know you love your job, and I'm very proud of how successful you are."

"I do miss my work, but this time has been good to give me perspective on what's important. The last thing I remember was that I was working constantly and didn't have much of a personal life. Then I woke up to having a husband, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. It's a lot, but it has been nice to see that I do have a family. You probably know that I had wanted to have children, but obviously it never worked out for me, but having two beautiful and amazing granddaughters, and three beautiful and amazing great granddaughters is beyond my wildest dreams. Especially at my age."

Jack laughed. "Yeah, being a grandmother to Lou and Amy and a great grandmother at your age to kids as old as Katie and Georgie is a little unusual, but you loved them and cared for them as if they were your own, and I see you stepping back into that role a little bit. It's nice to see it because they really love you."

"Aw, I am starting to love them as well." It was easy for Lisa to love the girls because there wasn't an expectation that she would be anything more than someone who cared about them and tried to be there for them. It wasn't the same with Jack. There was a lot of pressure there to be his wife, and it was something that she wasn't ready for. She had admitted that she wasn't against the idea, but she just didn't have those kinds of feelings for Jack.

Lisa stood up from the couch and said, "I need to go do something for work. It's something that Georgie is going to take care of sending out, but I need to get it written first. I'll see you later." She went into their bedroom and shut the door and tried to write on the laptop while sitting in bed. Balancing a laptop on her legs and dealing with her cast made it too difficult, so she put the laptop back down. She considered trying to write it at the desk, but that was difficult as well. After giving up on typing the letter, Lisa went in search of pen and paper. When she popped her head out the bedroom door, Jack was working on his flies. "Hey, do you have a pen and a notebook or some paper I could use to write on? Typing a letter on the computer one-handed is too hard."

Jack went and found Lisa some paper, and she sat down at the dining room table to write while Jack worked on his flies. They both worked in a companionable silence and finished what they set out to do for the day. Lisa put the paper in the bedroom on top of her laptop and went back out to the living room, and sat down on the couch.

Jack looked over at Lisa and asked, "Would you have any interest in going for a walk or a drive? We could go down by the pond by the house, or we could drive over to the dude ranch."

Lisa nodded. "A walk sounds nice. I'll go change out of my pajamas and get some regular clothes on, and then we can head out."

Lisa wanted to attempt wearing some jeans. Everything else was either too dressy or too grubby for what she felt like wearing. The button was a bit of a struggle for her, though. She couldn't quite get her right arm in the right position to hold her button in the right place. Lisa had an internal debate about changing her pants. She knew she had others she could wear that would be perfectly fine, but she really wanted to wear these pants. They were cute, and wearing regular clothes helped her to feel a little better. She knew what she had to do if she wanted to wear the pants. After working up the courage, Lisa opened her bedroom door and poked her head out. "Can I ask you for a big favor?"

Jack stood up and walked toward the bedroom. "Sure. You know I'm happy to do whatever for you."

Lisa looked down at her jeans and then looked back up at Jack. Opening the door fully, she showed him what she needed help with. "I can't get my jeans buttoned," Lisa said sadly.

Jack chuckled. "I can see that, and I can help you." Jack stepped closer to Lisa and buttoned her jeans. He had a lot of feelings about it but hoped that he was keeping them under the surface. When he was done, he backed away. "Okay, all set. You know I don't mind helping you with things. I respect you and don't want to cross any boundaries, but I'm here if you ever need help with anything."

"Thank you." Lisa took a deep breath and said, "Okay, let's go for a walk."

It was a warm, sunny day. They walked down to the pond and stood there. Lisa took a deep breath. "It's so nice to be outside. I need to get out and exercise more. I feel like my muscles are loosening up a bit."

"Your bruises don't look so bad now either. Do they hurt as much?" Jack always thought Lisa was beautiful, but he was thankful that the bruises that marred her beautiful face were going away.

"No, although I may just be used to them at this point." Lisa was realizing that she was adjusting to just always having a low level of pain. It wasn't debilitating anymore, but it was just there. Like a low hum in the background.

"Do you want to walk around the pond?" asked Jack.

"Sure." As they walked around the pond, Lisa commented, "It's really pretty here. I'll be honest, I was surprised that I moved in here. I didn't think that I'd leave Fairfield."

Jack had wondered if Lisa was surprised by not living at Fairfield. It was one thing to finally move in after years of dating and being married, but for her, it was a sudden thing. "I was too, but I was so happy that you did. I loved having you around more. I always miss you like crazy when you're away. You know, it wasn't perfect when you moved in, though. We struggled at first."

"We did? How so?" Lisa asked.

"Well, we had to get used to living together full time. You stayed over sometimes, but it was just different living together. I'll admit some of it was me. I don't deal well with change, and I may have taken it out on you." Jack cringed. "I really don't like telling you about the mistakes that either one of us has made, but I also want to be honest with you about things."

"I can understand that, but I do appreciate the honesty. How can I understand my life that I don't remember if I don't know the whole story?" Lisa was a curious person. She wanted to know it all.

Jack knew Lisa was right. "You're right. You do need the whole story. We both made mistakes when you moved in, but there were also times when we just needed to make compromises and understand each other's expectations. Just continuing how we always lived after you moved in wasn't going to work. We figured things out so that you could continue to live at Heartland. It was hard, though. You briefly went back to Fairfield after I messed up and let it slip to Amy that you were having money problems. We were already struggling, and that was sort of the last straw for you. I was at home wallowing because I was frustrated. I thought I'd messed it all up, but Lou convinced me to apologize. I invited you over and made you dinner, and then I gave you a gift."

Lisa stopped walking and turned to look at Jack. "Did it work? Did I forgive you? What was the gift?"

"It did. We both apologized to each other. Oh, and the gift was a goat." Jack laughed, remembering the goat.

"A goat?" Lisa laughed. "Why on earth did you buy me a goat?"

"You had cloned a racehorse, but it wasn't performing like its genetic twin, so you were no longer able to sell it. Amy was working with the horse despite her misgivings about cloning horses because I had let it slip that you were having money problems. While she was working with the horse, he got attached to a goat who happened to be at the ranch. Spending time with the goat helped the horse to relax, and he began to perform better. You were able to sell the horse with the promise that the buyer took the goat as well." Jack still wasn't sure how he felt about the whole cloned horse situation, but at the same time, he trusted Lisa to treat her animals well.

"I cloned a horse?" Lisa was shocked by this revelation. "Wow. Are they allowed in racing? The last thing that I remembered was that they weren't."

"They still aren't, but you were hopeful that they might," said Jack. "I'm not sure that you've done it again since. Amy was really upset that you had done it in the first place because of the risks involved."

"I'm glad it worked out in the end, but it was pretty risky for me to do that. I must have really been struggling financially." Lisa realized that she not only had to come to terms with the people in her life, but also with the decisions that she made.

"You were, but you were determined to keep all of your staff employed despite the toll it was taking on your bottom line. It's one of the things I love about you. Even when you had every right to let people go, you refused because you knew that they had families to take care of and bills to pay. I was so proud of you for that. You're really amazing, you know?" Jack looked lovingly at Lisa.

Lisa blushed a little and looked away. She started walking again and said, "I'm getting tired. Let's go back to the house."

Jack knew that he had maybe said too much, but he wanted Lisa to know that he was proud of her. He caught up to Lisa quickly with his long legs, and they walked back to the house side by side.

Tim was standing next to his truck when they got back to the house. Lisa wasn't sure she was ready to deal with him again so soon. As they were approaching, she muttered to Jack, "What does he want?"

"You can just go ahead and go inside. I'll deal with him." Jack stopped in front of Tim while Lisa continued to head toward the house.

Tim stopped her. "Lisa, wait. I want to talk to both of you.

To be continued