Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 120708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 604(@200wpm)___ 483(@250wpm)___ 402(@300wpm)
“With all due respect, I don’t think it was.”
Frank looked at me with a confused look. “You don’t?”
“No,” I said with a smile. “If you hadn’t bought it out from under her, then I wouldn’t have bought the lake house from my parents, and Timberlynn wouldn’t be living with me. She wouldn’t be working with a rescue horse right now, and I wouldn’t be working alongside her.”
Frank nodded. “I like you, Tanner. I like your family as well. I see why Timberlynn has fallen in love with Montana. I feel…different here. More at ease, and it’s the first time that I don’t feel guilty for feeling happy.”
“Why on Earth would you feel guilty for being happy?”
The horses walked on as Frank and I rode in silence. I could see he was working through some emotions, so I waited for him to speak when he was ready.
“Timberlynn doesn’t know this, but she was a bit of a miracle child. Lynn, my wife, was told she couldn’t have kids. When we ended up getting pregnant with Timberlynn, I had never seen her so happy. She loved that little girl so much. Prayed for years for her, and cried so much when she found out she was pregnant. When she died, I couldn’t understand why God would do something like that. My wife should have been there for every moment of Timberlynn’s life. The guilt I felt was, at times, almost too much for me to handle.”
“Is that part of the reason you stayed away from her? She told me you never came to any of her events, no school functions. Nothing.”
He cleared his throat and quickly wiped a tear away. “Yes, that is part of the reason. And because of the guilt. I caused the accident.”
That took me by surprise. “Sir?”
“I looked back at Timberlynn in the seat. Took my eyes off the road. If I had been paying better attention…”
His voice trailed off, and he looked away. I noticed where we were and saw that my father and Brock had kept going on the trail. I stopped Trigger, and Frank did the same with Lucy.
“I’d like to show you something, Frank. If you don’t mind getting off our horses and taking a small walk up that hill.”
He glanced over his shoulder and then nodded. “Okay.”
“We don’t have to tie the horses up; they’ll stay right here.”
As we walked up the small hill to the overlook, I tried to figure out what I wanted to say. In the end, I left it up to the man upstairs to get all my words straight in my head.
“This is where I brought Timberlynn on our first unofficial date.”
Frank laughed, then stopped when he saw the view. For miles before us stretched open pastures, some more covered in snow than others. Cattle and horses walked freely, some even running and enjoying the warmth of the sun beaming down on them. Crystal Lake was iced over, but somehow she managed to reflect the snow-covered mountains around her.
“That house, next to the lake there, is where Timberlynn and I live.”
“It’s…beyond words. The sky here looks so…massive. Like it goes on forever.”
I laughed. “Welcome to Montana. Big sky country. You should see it in the spring and the summer. And if you think this is beautiful, you should see it in the fall.”
“I see why Timberlynn wants to live here. It’s so different from Georgia.”
Turning, I faced Frank. “Frank, have you ever talked to anyone about the accident? Losing your wife? Raising Timberlynn alone?”
He shook his head. “No. Timberlynn had a therapist for a little while, but I pretty much went right back to work and have buried myself in it since.”
“You realize it wasn’t your fault, the accident.”
His body slumped. “I needed to get Timberlynn out of the car first. She begged me not to leave her, but I had to go back and get Lynn. Someone was trying to help Lynn out of the car, and when I got there, they told me she was gone. I pulled her out of the car and just remember screaming out her name. For the briefest moment I wondered if I hadn’t gotten Timberlynn out first, if I had gone to Lynn, would it have made a difference. I hate that I even had that thought.”
I could feel my throat aching as I attempted to hold back my emotions listening to Timberlynn’s father relive that awful day.
“The doctors told me she had broken her neck, so she most likely died instantly. It still didn’t make me feel any better. I replayed it over and over in my head. Why did I look away from the road?”
Frank rubbed the back of his neck and then let out a humorless laugh. “I’ve never talked to anyone about that day. Never.”
“Must be something in the air here—your daughter told me pretty much the same thing.”