Katie got put to bed hours after her normal bedtime.

"That was a fun night." Beth cuddled Rip in their bed.

"Me too. It's just us right now though." Rip lent over and gave her a kiss.

"Mmmhmm, we better use it wisely."

Katie slept through the entire night, coming in to Beth and Rip's room hours after her normal wake up time. Rip had gotten up and already left for work, leaving the two girls in bed. She climbed up in to their bed and only saw Beth.
"No Daddy?" Beth rolled over opening her eyes and pulled Katie in to her chest.

"He's at work."

"Oh. I wanna rope." Beth laughed, she definitely had not forgotten that from yesterday.

"You are definitely your Daddy's daughter."

Out in the corral Rip was talking to John.
"Sir I was wondering if you had books from when Beth was a kid? Or anything else?"

"What do you want with that stuff."

"Beth remembered that she had the same books as what Katie picked out yesterday. I was hoping Beth could pass them on to her."

"Come around after dinner and I'll dig it out."

"Yessir."

Dinner rolled around and Beth had made spaghetti bolognaise. They waited for Rip to arrive home, Beth on the porch with a wine watching Katie try riding her bike solo for the first time on the gravel driveway. Each time she would fall off she was quick to get back up yelling to Beth that she was ok, the times she took longer than normal to get up Beth would yell out to her that she was ok.
Rip parked further down the drive noticing that Katie had her bike in the way and was now climbing on the frame he had made months ago. He liked coming home to seeing Beth on the porch and having Katie run up to him waiting to be thrown around and played with. He smiled at Beth who waved a spare bear at him before Katie ran into his legs.

"Hi cowgirl."

"Wanna see me ride, I did it myself."

"All right, let me say hi to Mama and then you can show me." Rip walked over to Beth as Katie ran to get her bike.

"Hi honey. How are you?" Rip kissed her on the lips as she passed him a beer.

"Hi baby, I'm good. Busy day—"

"Watch me!"

"Duty calls honey." Rip walked down towards the gravel drive way as Katie started pedalling. She hadn't mastered stopping very well or turning around, instead opting to fall off on to the grass before riding back towards Rip.

"Good job baby, you did great." Puffed from riding, Katie thanked him while he helped her take the helmet off. Rip noticed a scrape on her knee that was now covered in mud and grass.

"Did you fall off a few times?" Pointing at her knee, Katie looked down shrugging her shoulders telling Rip it was ok.

Inside the cabin Beth had heated up the dinner as the pair came inside.

"C'mere kid, let me see your knee." Rip picked her up easily and sat her on the counter while Beth put the dinner on the table.

"Looks like it won't need stitches…" Rip joked, "… definitely needs to be cleaned."

"What happened?" Beth came over hands on her hips.

"From where she fell off her bike earlier I think." Rip grabbed the first aid kit they had recently bought since having Katie.

"This is going to sting a bit cowgirl." Rip wiped antiseptic over the cut to clean it, Katie winced before looking at Beth who held her hand but didn't cry out.

"All done. You were braver than Jimmy." Katie laughed at Rip as he lifted he from the counter.

"Dinner is on the table."

"Smells delicious Beth."

They sat down to eat together, Rip and Beth discussing their days. Rip noticed that Katie was playing with her food more than she was eating it.

"I thought this was her favourite?"

"It is. Katie, do you not like it?"

Katie sighed before saying that she didn't like it as much anymore. Beth understood why her mother use to get annoyed cooking dinner when the kids would decide they no longer liked something.

"Ok. You need to eat some of it." She nodded but Rip could tell she was forcing it down. He waited for her to eat a bit more before he would go up to the lodge but she was taking a while.

"I'm going up to the lodge, are you alright with her?"

"I wanna go see too."
Beth shook her head at Katie. "No chance kid. You're going to eat more of that and sit here until you do. Katie pouted but said nothing.

"See you later then." Rip waved back to Beth before leaving.

"I found all these Rip." John showed Rip three large boxes stacked up. Each labelled different, books, clothes and toys.

"All her favourites are in there."

"Thanks sir."

"One more thing" Rip followed John down the hallway. "This is her old bookshelf from her room, thought Katie might like it." There was a bookshelf in a dark timber that had a painted Y on the side with B. Dutton underneath.

"You're welcome to do whatever with it you like. I'll help you load it up."
"Thanks, probably should be getting' back. Left Beth with Katie who decided she no longer like spaghetti. It'll be bath soon." John chuckled knowingly.

"See you tomorrow Rip."

Beth had done the bath routine and now was on the couch with Katie in her pyjamas when Rip got back. He hung up his hat before sitting across from them. Beth knew exactly what he was going to talk about.
"Katie, we need to set some rules. Things you can and can't do." Katie looked up at Beth to see her reaction.
"Number 1, you need to listen to us when we tell you to do something." Rip started listing off the rules he and Beth had agreed on.
"Number 2, if you want to go riding or near the horses either Mama, me, John or Uncle Kayce have to be with you.
"Number 3, you use your manners always."

Beth spoke up, "Last rule is that if you think something is not good or you feel unsafe you get Daddy or me to handle it."
"Do you understand?" Katie nodded at Beth before bursting in to tears. Rip look at Beth confused as to why she was crying.
"Am I in trouble? Do you not want me anymore." Both Rip and Beth couldn't help but laugh.

"No cowgirl, we want to make sure you're safe so we have to have rules. You're not in trouble." She nodded wiping tears away.

"You're stuck with us baby." Beth added.

"Well I got some stuff from John, you two go upstairs for five minutes and I'll bring it in." Beth looked at Rip as if he was mad.
"Let me surprise you both Beth."

"Fine, come on Katie." Rip brought the boxes inside and the bookshelf moving the coffee table to make more space. He yelled upstairs for them to come down and to sit on the couch.

"What in there?" Katie asked trying to stand on the couch to get a better view.
"Let Mama look first." Beth got up and opened the box that said clothes, lifting out a yellow dress.
"Where did you get this? I can't believe he still has this. Baby, this was my dress when I was your age." Katie got off the couch to stand next to Beth who was kneeling over the box. Rip sat down next to them, going through the box.
"What does that say?"
"It says books, let's see what is in there." Beth helped Katie open the box which was stacked full of books. Rip peeked in the toy box whilst the girls looked through the books.

"This is like my book Mama!" Pulling out a book in the series Beth had bought today.
"I know, we can read that one next."

"Look at this!" Rip pulled out a child's rope catching Katie's attention, Beth rolling her eyes.
"My daddy always wanted me to play with that." Smirking at Rip. Katie reached for it from Rip and tried to swing it like Lloyd showed her.

"Careful there! Daddy and you can play with that tomorrow outside only." Both Rip and Katie nodded grinning.
"And for my final surprise, this is it!" Rip got up and moved to show them the bookshelf. "Somewhere for all your books kid. It was your Mama's, see here, it says B. Dutton." Katie touched the wood before putting a book in it.
"Maybe we can ask Mama nicely if we can add a K in front of the B for you." Katie looked at Beth waiting for a response. Beth smiled and nodded her head. She couldn't help but think how angry she was for what Jamie did to her but how lucky she was to have Rip and now Katie. Rip kissed Beth on the head whilst he helped Katie put books on the bookshelf in the corner of the room.

"Daddy, Tate calls John Grandpa. I want one too."
"Baby, he is your Grandpa because I am your Mama and he is my Daddy. That's how it works."
"Oh. Can I call him that?"
"I think he would love that cowgirl." Rip replied.
"Pick a book Katie and Daddy will read it to you before bed. Rip I'm just going to clean up down here." Katie grabbed her new book and Rip took her upstairs whilst Beth went through the boxes one more time, allowing herself to enjoy the memories. She grabbed a teddy bear that she loved as a child and went to sit out on the porch.

Rip came back downstairs to the house looking the same, he couldn't see Beth anywhere. The porch light was on so Rip went to turn it off before noticing Beth's head outside.
"You ok?"

"Bad memory, she go down ok?"

"Yeah out like a light. Wanna talk?" Rip sat down beside her on the step noticing she had tears down her face.

"No, not this one." Beth couldn't look at him. Rip moved her hair out of her face.

"Tell me anyway."

"I made two decisions in my life based on fear. They nearly cost me everything and now we have her and I swear to fucking god I will not make her feel the way I did as a kid."

"Beth I could tell you this until my dying day that you are everything to us. You'll never make that little girl in there feel less than." Rip pulled her in to his side and kissed her head. He heard the front door creak open knowing who was there.
"C'mere kid. You didn't stay asleep long." Katie went to Beth rather than Rip.

"Sad Mama?"

"A little, but I'm ok." Rip took off his jacket putting it around Katie as the three sat outside looking at the stars.

"Pretty hey baby." Katie lent back against Beth and reached out for Rip's hand.

"I like the stars."

"Me too cowgirl."