The McRae Series 01 - Twelve Days Sam and Rachel

lose people, baby girl. I know that. And you've lost so much. I wish I could have spared you that, but don't let anyone tell you that you've been selfish or that any of this has been your fault."
    "I just been feeling sorry for myself, and it's gone on too long."
    "Rachel, I don't recall anyone telling me I'd spent too much time grieving for your mother. Nobody tried to rush me into getting over her, and don't you let anyone push you, either."
    "No one's pushing me," she said. Except maybe for Miriam, but she thought Miriam was justified in what she'd done. Rachel should probably thank her. "I just need to get on with my life. I need to figure out what I'm going to do with myself. I started thinking the other day that I really need to find a job."
    Her father eyed her sharply at that. "What kind of nonsense is that. You have a job."
    "Taking care of the kids, for now. But once that's over..."
    "Rachel, I'm not talking about the kids. I'm talking about everybody. You take care of everybody. You always have. It was kittens and baby birds that fell out of that nest in the big tree in the backyard when you were growing up, and now it's everyone around you."
    "It's not a job." It was just what she'd always done.
    "Of course it is, and it's an important one, too. Maybe it's not the kind of job where people see you heading off to work every morning and where they give you a paycheck once a week. But it's much more than that. When your grandfather got sick, I didn't know what we were going to do. Your mother had spent a lot of years taking care of this whole family, but she wasn't as young as she used to be and maybe she was already sick herself and we just didn't know it at the time. But I worried that she'd wear herself out taking care of your grandfather and I didn't want her to do that. I didn't want you to have to do it, either, but you stepped in and did, and I have to tell you, it was a relief to me and your mother. You and your grandfather had always been so close, and you and Sam were here, and... Well, after the baby, I thought you needed something to keep you busy, someone to take care of, too."
    "I did." It had been hard, but it had given her a reason to get out of bed every morning, and she'd needed one back then.
    "He needed you, and you were there. You were there for your mother, too. Did you know that your sister Ann almost dropped out of college? Thinking that someone had to be here to take care of your mother, and she didn't think it should be you after all you'd gone through with your grandfather?"
    "No. She never said anything about that." Everybody had helped in that time, but Rachel had been the one who was there day after day. She'd felt like she had to be, that there was nowhere else she could have been while her mother was so sick.
    "And that's just what you've done for the immediate family," her father said. "That doesn't begin to cover what you've done for the whole town, from Meals on Wheels to the art classes at the community center to the work you and Sam have done with the Chamber of Commerce to put this town on the map. I'm very proud of you. I always have been, and don't you dare let anyone say you haven't spent your life doing a lot of very important work."
    Rachel had never thought about it that way. In truth, she'd always been busy, had always tried to help out in any way she could. But still...
    "It's a gift, Rachel. The way you try to make things easier and better for everyone around you. I don't want to think about the kind of place this world would be without people like you. You know, you," he added, "are your mother all over again. You know all that she did. You know how much she added to your life and to everyone's lives around her."
    "She did," Rachel agreed. Everyone loved her mother. Everyone depended upon her.
    "She'd be proud of you, too. In fact, if she were here, she'd be able to say this a lot better than me. But I did my best."
    "Oh, Daddy," she said. He was the best. "I love you."
    "I love you, too, baby girl."
    She turned weepy on him for a moment and just let him hold her, and then got herself together and called everyone to dinner.
    * * *
    Sam slipped in the back door just in time for dinner, finding his father-in-law still here. Sam had seen his car in the driveway and wondered if Frank was staying for dinner. It looked like he was. He was deep in conversation with Zach, Zach eating up every word, when Sam came in and took his seat at the crowded table in the