"Well," Randy said after Novato and Wexler had hauled Joel away, "I’d say that went about as well as could be expected. I’d actually expected tonight, but at least he didn’t keep us waiting. Like I said, he was an idiot to try something like that in our territory."

"Randy," Rachel said. "You were wonderful. I guess I knew about you and your martial arts, but I never realized you were that good."

"It’s just something Blake and I and a few others do on down time in the winter, to keep from getting too out of shape," he replied. "Fortunately, it’s something I’ve rarely had a need to use. I’ve had to actually use the skills a couple times before this, and for once I’m glad I had them."

"I’ve seen him practice," Nicole said. "But that’s the first time I’ve ever seen him have to use them, and I can tell you he was actually holding back a little."

"Did you actually mean that about bridge abutments?" Rachel asked him a little warily.

"Well, yes and no," Randy said. "Having said it in public around you folks I wouldn’t exactly do it that way if I had to, but there are other ways. It shouldn’t be an issue though, at least for a while, and by then the rest of this will be over with."

"I’m still worried," Rachel frowned. "What if he makes bond and tries to come after us again?"

"If he does, he’s not going to have long to wish he hadn’t tried it," Randy said flatly. "We’re just going to have to keep our guard up a little for a few days, but it should only be for a few days. I’m not saying I’d actually kill him, but the rest of his life in a wheelchair isn’t out of the question. Rachel, I said I’d protect you from him, and I mean it. You don’t have to put up with that kind of shit out of him anymore, and you need to learn that."

"I guess," she said. "It’s still just hard to believe that it’s over with."

"Uncle Randy," Jared spoke up, the first time he’d spoke in several minutes. "How do you learn to do stuff like you did to Dad? Can I learn it?"

Randy squatted down to be able to look Jared in the eye. "It takes a lot of time to learn it," he said. "I’ve worked on it longer than you are old, lots longer. That doesn’t mean you can’t learn it, because you can. The thing of it is that you have to learn the responsibility that goes along with it, and that’s the hard part. You can’t just go around beating up people because you feel like it, because that can get you into a lot of trouble in a hurry. That’s why I set it up so your father would have to attack me, so I could do it in self-defense. That’s not easy to do. If I’d been the one to attack him, then I would have been the one in trouble, not him. There’s an old saying, ‘The best defense is a good offense,’ and that was true here. So, yeah, if you are willing to accept the responsibility, Mr. Walworth and I can get you started at it, but not now, not until you have had the chance to think all this over and get a few things straight in your mind."

"I guess," Jared said. "I just wanted to know it so I could do something like that if he ever comes after me again. I’m tired of him hitting me all the time."

"I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, not ever again," Randy said. "But it’s something that’s not bad to know, since there are other bad people out there." He looked up at Rachel and added, "That goes for you, too. Nicole knows enough to take care of herself if she has to, but not like I do. There’s no reason you should have to deal with it again, at least for I’d guess three to five years depending on what the judge says. That’ll give you plenty of time to get the divorce settled and get your feet back under you."

"You think?" Rachel asked.

"It’s a guess," Randy sighed. "But like I said, this is our territory, it isn’t his, so it’s probably a pretty good guess. We’ll just have to wait and see. And, that makes me think of a phone call I have to make, and I ought to do it pretty quickly."

"What’s that?" Nicole asked conversationally, and a little surprised at how calm everyone was.

"I need to call Matt Schindenwulfe and ask him not to take Joel’s case," Randy said. He glanced over at Rachel and added, "He’s the family attorney, and he’ll be handling the divorce, so it probably would be a conflict of interest."

"Probably a good idea," Nicole agreed. "You might want to call someone over at the shop to see about the door."

"Yeah, might as well do that, too," Randy agreed. "I haven’t even looked to see how bad he messed up the door frame yet, and probably Harry will want some photos before he’ll let me have anyone work on it, but I might as well get Carlos to finding someone. What with that and Harry having to come back over, it’s probably shot in the fanny for this afternoon."

"There’s always tomorrow," Nellie said – she’d been staying back out of the way. "Randy, you remember a long time ago when we had that discussion about setting your priorities in life?"

"Yeah?"

"I’d say one priority you set for yourself worked out pretty good. That was very impressive. I didn’t realize you had those kinds of skills."

"Like I said, the real intent is exercise, not actually using them," he said. "But it is nice to know that I can use them if I have to. I better go get on the phone."

It was most of an hour before Novato came back. "I guess we’d better get the rest of the paperwork done, since this is going to be a multiple felony thing," he said. "You were right, he broke into your dad’s house. He kicked in the side door of the garage and went in through the kitchen. Tore the place up pretty good, too, enough so that we can add felony malicious destruction of property to the list. It’s starting to be a pretty good one."

"Doesn’t surprise me," Randy said. "I should have thought that he’d try to go there first. So, what happens now?"

"Well, he’ll probably go up for arraignment in the morning," the police chief replied. "Matt Schindenwulfe said he couldn’t take the case, so he’s got Pat Roberts for an attorney. My guess is that the judge won’t set a low bond since he’s from out of state and an obvious flight risk with multiple felony charges against him."

"So you mean he could be out of jail tomorrow?" Rachel asked fearfully. "Randy, what are we going to do?"

"Deal with it," Randy said. "I already told you. And with that broken arm and bad shoulder, he won’t be good for much."

"Just because the judge sets the bond doesn’t mean that your husband will be able to post it," Novato pointed out. "I don’t know what you know about the process, but what a bail bondsman usually does is cover the bond with a cash payment, and a lien on property or something. If your house is in both your names, that means you’d have to agree to the lien. You might want to think about not doing that."

"No way in hell," Rachel sneered. "I doubt his parents would cover it, either. He hasn’t treated them much better than he treated me."

It took a while for Harry to get done with taking statements from everybody and getting photos of the damaged door for evidence of the break-in. About the time he finished up, Carlos drove up in his pickup. In spite of owning the company, Randy was at best an amateur carpenter, while Carlos held a union journeyman card he’d earned before finishing college. "Busted the hell right out of the frame," he commented after a quick look. "The door seems to be all right, though. I can patch the frame for tonight, but you’d probably better figure on replacing the whole thing."

"I’ll get a new one ordered tomorrow," Randy told him.

Carlos was still working on the door when Ryan showed up. He reported that while Joel had made a mess of the house, there really wasn’t much that he could see that had been damaged. "I’d really rather not have Linda come home and find it," he said.

"I can have Randy or Nicole bring me over in the morning to help you work on it," Rachel offered. "I’m used to cleaning up the messes that Joel makes."

"No big deal, I’m about halfway through with it by now, and I should be able to have it wrapped up before I hit the hay," her father told her.

One thing led to another, and since the afternoon was advancing it soon became dinner time. Blake and the police chief didn’t stick around, but Myleigh and Trey, then Danny and Debbie soon showed up to meet Rachel and see what had happened. Ryan was dispatched to the Super Market to get hamburger patties and buns; soon Randy and Ryan were working at the gas grill, which was loaded with meat. "Sounds to me like you pasted him a good one," Ryan said softly as he worked at flipping burgers.

"Not all he deserved, but enough to do the job," Randy told him.

"You know, I sure am glad that we decided to have you come home rather than driving the truck back."

"Yeah, we should have thought that one through a little more," Randy agreed. "But with any kind of luck, it’s a problem we won’t be facing again."

"At least for a while," his father smirked. "I talked to Matt Schindenwulfe, and he thinks four years if the judge is in a good mood, and longer if he isn’t."

"Four years might teach him a lesson," Randy grinned. "I get this vision of Joel yanking open her door after he gets out and being met by her new husband, who’s about as big as Blake and with Blake’s skills. Then we’d see just how pushy he is."

"It is a nice vision. The only problem with it is that I don’t think Rachel is going to be ready to have a man in her life again quite that soon."

"Oh, maybe, if it’s the right guy, but I don’t know of any candidates right at the moment. You’re right, she’s got quite a bit of ground to cover before she’s ready, but having Joel on ice for a while ought to help out, I hope. You do anything about getting a job for her?"

"There are some possibilities, but we’d have to shuffle some things around."

"Same here, but Regina is awful busy and I think we could use her for a while, anyway. It’s beginning to look like our summer intern isn’t going to work out, and there’s some stuff she could do to fill in."

"That’ll do for the summer," Ryan agreed. "When things slow down in the fall, there might be something opening up in the office over at the plant. We could switch her over if we need to."

"We’ll just have to wait and see how useful she makes herself," Randy replied. "It might be we want her to stay at Clark Construction, I don’t know. I don’t know how anxious she is to get to work, I’ll have to talk to her."

"It probably would be the best thing for her," Ryan advised. "It’d help make the point that things have changed and would give her something besides Joel to think about. It’ll be a little better when your mother gets home. That’s going to be a couple days yet."

"You heard from her?"

"Yeah, this afternoon. They made it as far as Reno last night and I guess they spent some time playing the slot machines. They’re going to take their time, and I guess Salt Lake City tonight, maybe. That means another couple days before they get home, at least."

"It’d be nice to take that drive sometime, but I guess it’s not going to happen anytime soon," Randy said sadly.

"Your time can come," Ryan pointed out. "I mean, it’s possible you, or maybe you and Rachel, will have to go back out to San Jose to settle things up for Joel."

"You know, that sounds good, but I think that’s one trip I’d just as soon not make."

It was getting dark – late this time of year – when everybody went home, leaving Randy and Nicole and Brent home with Rachel and Jared. "Good grief, what a day," Randy commented as the last visitors left. "I’m not a whole lot better off than I was yesterday for being tired."

"I think we need a soak in the hot tub," Nicole said. "I think that would relax all of us."

"You have a hot tub?" Rachel asked. "I didn’t notice."

"On the side porch, on the way to the garage," Randy told her. "Nicole and I use it, oh, two or three times a week."

"It was a big help in the latter stages of my pregnancy," Nicole told her. "We had to dial the temperature down a bit so it was safer for Brent, but it’s back up to normal now."

"It would be nice," Rachel said. "That’s one of those things it would have been nice to have, but Joel wouldn’t hear of it, of course. He must have thought I’d get some enjoyment out of it."

"Then let’s do it," Randy said. "The only thing is that Nicole and I are usually nude in the hot tub. We don’t have a rule about no swimsuits in the hot tub like some people do, and we’re willing to go along with the wishes of our guests."

"God, I don’t know," Rachel sighed. "I mean, I guess I could do it, but what about Jared? We’re still on California time, it’s nowhere near bedtime for either of us."

"Let’s let him decide," Nicole suggested.

When the put it to Jared, who had been watching a DVD in the living room, he decided on swimsuits, which surprised no one but made him feel a part of the process. Everyone headed upstairs to change. Randy and Nicole were back down on the side porch by the time Rachel and Jared joined them. It turned out that Jared didn’t even have a swimsuit, but was making do with a pair of shorts; Rachel had on a one piece swimsuit complete with skirt that made her look positively dowdy.

"That’s pretty conservative," Nicole commented dryly. "Don’t you have anything that’d be better for being with friends?"

"No," Rachel said sadly. "This is the only swimsuit that Joel would let me have, and even then I only got to wear it a couple times. He said that he didn’t want other men looking at me, not that I was much to look at, anyway."

"Rachel," Randy shook his head. "You know that Joel was full of shit, don’t you?"

"I guess so," she sighed. "But I don’t have anything like you have on, Nicole."

"Nicole, take Rachel upstairs and find her something decent to wear," Randy said. "Something that will make her feel as pretty and appealing as she is. Something that would give Joel a shit fit." He turned back to his sister and said, "Rachel, those days are behind you, and we’re going to help you believe it."

"All right," she said. "But I don’t want to put you to any extra trouble. I’ve caused you enough trouble today as it is."

"No you haven’t," Randy told her. "Joel, yes; he caused me more trouble than I really wanted to deal with, but you’re not Joel and you don’t have to answer to him anymore. Wearing that swimsuit is just answering to him, and that’s causing me trouble."

"I guess," she said. "It’s just so hard to quit thinking like that so quickly."

"We’re going to work on it," Randy told her. "I remember you with a nice bikini body, so let’s see if you still have it."

Nicole and Rachel headed into the main part of the house, leaving Randy alone with Jared. That made Randy feel just a touch awkward; he’d thought he’d have nine years to learn how to talk with a nine-year-old boy; now he was going to have to learn on the fly. "Let’s get into the hot tub," he suggested. "If your mother is like she was when we were growing up, it’ll take them a while."

"It’s not over my head, is it?" Jared asked shyly.

"No, you can stand up anywhere, and there are seats about a foot and a half down," Randy told him. "It may be a little warm for you when you first get in, so just sit on the edge and ease your way in slowly. If you get too warm, just sit back up on the edge again."

"All right," the boy said uncertainly, clambering up on the pool deck and sticking his feet tentatively in the water. "It is kinda warm," he said after a few seconds.

"Just take your time," Randy said, deciding to sit up on the deck with Jared for a while rather than getting all the way in the tub. He reached for something to say, and finally had to settle for, "So how are you liking Spearfish Lake so far?"

"It’s nice with Dad not around," Jared replied. "It’s sure not like it was last winter, is it? I got to see more around here then."

"Well, things have been a little crazy," Randy said. "This afternoon was pretty busy, but things should ease up some, now. I hope you’ll like it here."

"It’s going to be better with Dad not yelling at me all the time," Jared said flatly. "The only thing is that I don’t know anybody here except for you and Aunt Nicole and Grandma and Grandpa. I didn’t have a lot of friends in school at home, and I never got to play with them after school or anything. Do you think I can find someone here?"

"I don’t see why not," Randy smiled. "I don’t really know anybody around your age, but your grandma will be back in a couple days. She teaches fourth grade, so I’ll bet she can find someone for you to be friends with."

"That would be nice," he said, brightening a little bit. "Do they have Little League here?"

"I’m sure they still do," Randy said. "I played it when I was your age. I think practice is still getting going, but I’ll call around tomorrow and see if I can get you in the program, if you want."

"I’d like to," he said. "Dad would never let me do that. He always said he was too busy."

"Well, we’re pretty busy too, but not that busy," Randy said, slowly coming to realize that Joel had kept his son as isolated as his wife – and that he was looking at a bad case of bleacher butt from watching Little League games in the next few months. "That’d probably be as good a way as any for you to get to know some of the other kids around here. They’ll have a youth wrestling program in the winter, and I did that when I was your age, too. My martial arts grew out of that, and you might like to give it a try."

"I’d like that," the boy smiled. "Can you take me for a ride on your sailboat sometime?"

"Sure, that’s why we got it, so we can go out with friends and have a good time. The only thing is that I have to learn how to sail it, first. I don’t see any reason why you can’t learn it along with me."

"Wow, that’d be cool," Jared replied, showing more enthusiasm. "Do you think I could learn to take it out by myself?"

"Not just yet," Randy told him. "Probably when you’re older. I’m not to the point where I’d want to take it out by myself yet. It takes time to learn everything you need to know."

"I think I’m going to like it here," Jared smiled. "At least, I already know I’m going to like it better than when we were living with Dad."

"It’s going to take some getting used to," Randy counseled. "It’s probably going to take more getting used to for your mother than it is for you. I mean, it’s like that business about her swimsuit a few minutes ago. A lot of the old rules aren’t going to be the same anymore, and you both need to learn that they aren’t. That doesn’t mean that some of them still won’t apply, but we’ll all have to find out which ones they are."

"I guess," Jared said, obviously not quite understanding what Randy was saying. "Did you mean what you said about using this without any clothes on? I mean, boys and girls together?"

"Sure," Randy told him. "It’s one of those things we do differently than other people might do. It’s not necessarily right or wrong. Some people would probably think it’s wrong. I wouldn’t be surprised if your dad was one of them. Your Aunt Nicole and I know people who think we don’t go far enough. My feeling is that it’s all right to be in a hot tub without clothes on so long as it’s among close friends. That doesn’t mean we can run down Central Avenue with no clothes on. There have to be some limits, and that’s where we set ours. If you want to get in the hot tub either with or without a swimsuit, it’s fine with me either way. It’s your decision."

"Wow," Jared shook his head. "Dad would never have said something like that. He would have just told me what to do, whether I wanted to do it or not. And he never would have let me get into a hot tub without any clothes on. I mean, not ever."

"Well, it’s not your father’s decision to make anymore, is it?"

A few minutes later Nicole and Rachel came back downstairs. Rachel was rather shyly wearing one of Nicole’s more conservative bikinis – Nicole had some so hot that she’d only wear them when she was alone with Randy, and said that they made her feel more naked than if she was naked. Rachel was feeling pretty naked herself by comparison to the dowdy swimsuit she’d worn earlier, but when she walked into the room and saw Randy’s swimsuit and Jared’s shorts laying on the floor she started to feel overdressed again.

"Mom," Jared said. "It’s OK with me if you want to leave your swimsuit on or take it off. Uncle Randy said it was something we had to make our own decisions about."

Making a decision was still strange to her, but on looking at her son sitting naked on the edge of the hot tub, she made it almost instantly. In only a moment the bikini she’d borrowed from Nicole was on the floor, too. "California sure seems like a long way away, doesn’t it?" she said to him as she swung into the hot tub, feeling embarrassed and free at the same time.

"It sure does, Mom," Jared grinned. "I think I’m going to like it here."

Joel’s arraignment in the Spearfish County Circuit Court came the next morning. Neither Randy nor Rachel were there, but Ryan sat quietly in the back of the courtroom to check out the proceedings. After Joel pleaded "not guilty" the judge bound him over for trial, set a trial date, and set bond at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Joel’s attorney, Pat Roberts, argued that it was too high, but the judge stated that considering the charges and the fact that he was from out of state, that he was both dangerous and a flight risk, he refused to change the figure.

Rachel and Nicole were at home with Brent and Jared a couple hours later when the bail bondsman called to ask if Rachel was willing to sign a lien on the house in San Jose so Joel could be bailed out. "No way," she told him. "Let him rot, for all I care."

"He insisted that you’d sign the paperwork," the bail bondsman persisted.

"Like I said, not just no, but hell no," she replied. "And tell him if he manages to come up with the bail money somewhere else, I have two words for him: ‘bridge abutment.’"

"Bridge abutment?" the bail bondsman replied. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

"Just tell him," she smiled. "He’ll know what it means."

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