His daughter loved Jane with her whole heart and soul, and they’d been planning on matching hairstyles for the wedding for months now. Elise, Jane’s mother, could plait hair into any number of braids, and she’d done one down to Britt’s ear on each side, then pulled them back into a ponytail on the back of her head. The rest of her hair fell in soft curls to her shoulders, and Britt had stood in front of the mirror for ten minutes after Elise and Jane had left the cabin.
“It’s still perfect, baby,” he whispered, smoothing down a couple of errant curls. He touched his nose to hers, choking on his emotions. “You’re beautiful.” He lowered her to the ground and kept a firm grip on her forearm until she found her balance.
Just like that, she was back to her cheerful and positive self, and Matt wondered how she did it. He wanted to retreat down the hall and punch something while he growled about how unfair life was. After the anger subsided, he’d fall to his knees and beg God to help him with his daughter.
For a while there, Matt had begged God to cure Brittany, but after several months of pleading without any change in her condition, Matt realized he’d been asking for the wrong thing.
He didn’t need Brittany to be cured; he needed to learn how to help her, take care of her, and protect her.
That was when Matt had decided he couldn’t stay with his ex-wife. The road since then had been mostly uphill, with plenty of ruts and potholes, but Matt felt like he, Keith, and Brittany were almost to the top of their personal mountain.
“Ready?” he asked the kids. “We better get going. It snowed eight inches out there, and we’ve got to get to the gardens by one.”
“I’ve got Britt,” Keith said quietly, stepping around Matt in the small kitchen and taking his sister’s hand. “You’re bringing the saddle, right?”
“Stars and lights,” Matt said, something his father used to say whenever he was surprised or scared. “I forgot.” He jogged down the short hall to his bedroom, where the stained and polished saddle waited over the armchair. He gazed at it for a moment, then hefted it onto his shoulder and rejoined his children in the kitchen. “Got it. Let’s go.”
Matt had already cleared a path to his truck, and he’d already driven it that morning. They got to the vehicle, and Matt put the saddle in the backseat with Britt. “You keep an eye on that, now, okay?” He grinned at her as she pulled her seatbelt across her lap and clicked it into place.
He got in the front with Keith, and since he’d only been home for about forty-five minutes, the truck still held some heat. He got it fired up and the heater blowing again, and they set out for the Royal Chinese Gardens, which lay on the outskirts of Denver.
The drive took a while, but at least the snow plows had been out to clear the roads. Matt sang along with the radio, grinning at Britt as she added her sweet voice to the country songs she knew. Keith rolled his eyes a time or two, but Matt saw him tapping his foot to at least three tunes.
The gardens touted masterfully carved hedges, rare plants and trees from China, and the biggest flowering blossom festival in the state. All of that happened in the springtime, though, and as it as the middle of January, and everything existed under two feet of snow, Matt didn’t think they’d be seeing any flowers today.
How wrong he was. The parking lot gate had blue and white flowers laced through it, telling people they’d reached the right destination if they were looking for the Hammond wedding.
Matt should’ve known. The Hammonds had more money than most people could comprehend, but they weren’t stuck-up or pretentious. They were, however, public figures, and as such, there was an image to uphold. As he parked in an empty spot, Matt saw no less than three people with cameras, each doing something different, though he wasn’t sure what.
“Come on.” He got out, and while the temperature could steal a man’s breath, he didn’t mind it. He hailed from Montana, and he’d been working his father’s farm for decades in weather much colder than this.
He retrieved the saddle from the backseat and listened to Keith tell Britt there might be icy spots on the sidewalk, so she needed to hold