Building Dreams at the Rancher's Retreat

Even heroes need healing, and sometimes the hardest battles are of the heart.

After a devastating accident in the Army, Tank Callahan lost his arm but knows God must have a purpose for him. Now, at a veteran’s retreat center, he helps others while still living for the next adventure. But from the moment he meets Megan, his mission changes: he just wants to make her smile.

Megan Shaw is used to managing life on her own. Her dull office job lets her care for her disabled brother, but she barely has time to breathe, let alone find romance. The scars from her past relationship have left her guarded, convinced that God’s plan for her is one of sacrifice, not fulfillment.

As they navigate the retreat’s challenges together, Megan’s careful, structured world clashes with Tank’s wild, spontaneous spirit. As unexpected feelings grow, so do their doubts. Can Megan trust someone as freewheeling as Tank? And can Tank prove that love doesn’t mean giving up on life’s adventures?

Tank headed out early Sunday morning, figuring God would understand if he missed church. After all, it had been a month since he’d seen his sister and her fiancé, his old Army buddy, Seth. But they’d have plenty of catch up time today.

Tank and Riley had spent the summer with Seth in a back-of-beyond ranch cabin. Partly because Tank’s depression had gotten the better of him, and partly to help Seth come to terms with his own amputation. Tank had ended that summer with the determination to find a job that was better for him than doing the office work for the adventure company, and Riley and Seth had fallen in love. Which had been awesome except for Tank having to watch them make googly eyes at each other.

The two-hour drive from Colorado Springs gave him plenty of time to think. Too much time, maybe.

Seth had already found a purpose for his life—setting up a veterans retreat on his family’s ranch. A place where vets could go and relax around people who knew what they’d been through.

He and Riley had a lot planned for the retreat—horseback riding, shooting with bows and guns both, fishing, hiking, and even a cattle drive. Seth would love that—he couldn’t rope anymore, but he could still be a rancher.

And what was there for Tank? What did God have in store for him? Was he supposed to be in a career where he could make a difference? Or maybe bide his time until God showed him what big project he should get involved with?
He didn’t feel called to join his parents on their mission in Africa, but there must be something only he could do. He just had no clue what that was.

Right now, he just had to figure out the near future. He’d learned to drive a tractor, shadowed a forest ranger, and now tried his hand at construction. The outdoor aspect was great, but the people element was missing. Somehow he didn’t think God had saved him just so he could be by himself outside.

But anything he could think of with people meant being inside. Teaching was extremely impactful, medical careers as well. Even financial planners helped people sort their lives out. But they were all office jobs. And no matter how rewarding, he didn’t think he’d last forty years spending most of his time indoors.

So here he was with one more week of his construction job before he would search out another career to try. "I’m not so great on my own, Lord. A little help would be nice."

When Tank finally reached Black Rock Ranch, Seth’s brother Micah gave him the keys to an ATV. Tank revved the engine with a grin, then quietly drove past the pastures. Didn’t want to scare the horses, after all.

At the top of a winding, wooded trail, he stopped in an open meadow, mouth open in amazement at the changes. A building crew was raising walls on four cabins and a larger building was going up on the left, leaving a wide, open space between them.

“Close your mouth or you’ll catch flies,” Seth called, approaching with a grin.

Tank snapped his jaw shut, but only momentarily. “I can’t believe how much you’ve done.”

“You would have known if you’d come up in the last month,” Seth teased.

“Yeah, well…” Tank didn’t want to admit that coming up would have made it even harder. Seeing what he couldn’t have and all that. “You hiding Riley around somewhere?”

Seth’s face lit up just the way he remembered. Tank gave him a warning glare. “No mushy stuff; remember she’s my sister.”

“Hey, we’re engaged! We have a right to be mushy!”

Riley came around the corner and gave Tank a giant hug. “You got time for a tour?”

Seth led the way, waving his own artificial hand to point things out. “We’re going to have four cabins ready for a test group or two.”

“Focus group,” Riley corrected in a sing-song voice.

“Yes, ma’am,” Seth answered with a tip of his cowboy hat. “And we’ll have a campfire ring here, and meals in the Lodge.” He pointed to the large, half-finished building.

“We’re still planning to keep it low-key,” Riley added. “A retreat to get away from everything, relax, and play cowboy a little bit.”

Tank was disappointed. “You’re not going to have all the activities you talked about? The archery range and everything?”

“We will,” Riley assured him. “Archery targets, and I guess people can bring their own pistols, too. The horses won’t be bothered—they’re all pretty bombproof. And then the fishing and hiking and whatever else we can think of. People can’t ride horses all day, you know.”

Tank looked across the rough grass. “Target shooting over there?”

“No, that will be the corrals,” Seth said. “Two for the horses, I think, and then one for the cattle. We’ll have a few that they can herd down to the home pastures, and the next group can herd them back up. The shooting range will be on the other side of the Lodge.”

Tank sighed, imagining it all. Veterans—maybe amputees, maybe tied in knots with PTSD, or even people who had adjusted well to civilian life—all having a place to retreat with people who understood. Like he’d had with Seth and Riley last summer. Just relax and live, and not have to prove anything.

The noise from the construction crew’s generator made him wish the solar power was there already. Last summer at the cabin had been quiet and peaceful.

He looked around, not really focusing on anything but the memories in his head. Showing Seth how to shoot a bow one-handed. Waiting patiently through his friend’s temper when his prosthesis dropped a coffee mug. Helping him see that he was still capable of so much.

If Tank could do that for a living, he’d—

Wait a minute.

He didn’t want to be a therapist with an office, but wouldn’t the retreat be helping people the same way, just on a low-key basis?

He looked at Seth. At Riley. Then back to the half-built cabins.

Tank couldn’t help with a lot of their tasks, but… “Do you have all the activities planned? How many people you can handle on each, what equipment you need, transportation, things like that?”

Seth huffed. “We haven’t had time to do more than brainstorm a bit. To be honest, I think we bit off more than we can chew. At least as far as opening this summer.”

Tank ran his tongue over the edge of his teeth. “Are you going to have time to lead all the activities, or …would you need someone else for that?”

Seth and Riley looked at each other and grinned.

“You’re hired,” they said together. “We’d kind of hoped things would work out like this, but we thought we’d be the ones approaching you.”

A job. A job he’d love doing. A job he’d probably do without pay, if he could. He’d finish out this next week of construction and be up here just as soon as he could.

Outdoors, physicality, adventures, helping people. Plus horses, friends…all he needed to make life perfect. Well, maybe not all. Someday he’d like a partner to share it with, but for right now, this was great.

"What do you think, Lord? I know you kept me alive for a reason. I don’t know if this is my big thing or it will be something else, but I’ll be happy to help up here until You tell me."