“Thank you, Dede.” For the first time, Mason kissed Sierra right in front of the boys. “Hi.”
She smiled up at him and Oliver, who stared down at her with a big smile on his face. “Hi.”
Her mom waved them over to the porch table where she’d set out slips of paper and colored pencils. “Let’s write our messages for your dad.”
Danny frowned. “Are we always going to do this for Dad’s death?”
It seemed ominous, but Sierra hadn’t wanted the first year to pass without them doing something. “Only this year. From now on, we’ll celebrate his birthday.”
“That sounds better.” Danny picked up the green pencil. “His favorite color.”
Mason put his hand on Danny’s shoulder. “That’s why your mom asked me to pick up green balloons. Your dad wore green ties with his suits all the time.”
Danny smiled up at Mason. “We gave him a new green tie every birthday. He liked them.” Danny frowned again. “They all burned in the fire.”
“He drank green beer once and his tongue was all green.” Oliver scrunched up his face. “It was yucky.”
“The beer or his green tongue?” Mason teased.
“I can’t drink beer.” Oliver stated that with all seriousness.
Mason tickled his belly. “Silly me. What was I thinking?” He set Oliver back on his feet and handed him the light green pencil. “What do you want to write to your dad?”
“I miss him.”
“That’s perfect, bud. Let’s get on that. If you can’t think of what else to say, you can draw him a picture.” Mason held his arm out so Sierra could slip in beside him. He held her to his side as they watched the boys write their messages.
Oliver stuck his tongue out a little while he carefully printed his block letters and tried to spell the words correctly.
Danny kept his hand over what he wrote, wanting his message to be private.
She glanced up at Mason and mouthed, Thank you. He’d made today easier for the boys. He’d given them permission to never forget their dad even if they were lucky enough to get an extra one like Mason.
Mason took a slip of paper and wrote a message, then read it aloud. “David, your boys are amazing. Thank you for bringing them into my life.”
Danny and Oliver stared at him for a long moment before they both smiled.
Oliver held up his note. “I drew him a picture of Horse.” Oliver couldn’t remember all the horses’ names, so he just called them all Horse.
“Love it.” Mason turned to Danny. “Did you finish yours?”
Danny held up six or seven rolled pieces of paper. “Do you think he’ll know what they say?”
“I think he hears everything in your heart.”
Danny turned to Sierra. “What did you write?”
She held up the first note. “I love you and miss you every day.” She showed him the second one. “Thank you for leaving me the boys so I’ll never be lonely without you because I see you in them every day.” She wanted Danny and Oliver to know that they reminded her of David. That she’d never forget him because she had them. She wanted them to know she thought about David every day.
She showed him the last one. “I got a great job. We have a new home. We’re happy.”
Danny hugged her. “He’ll be happy to know that.”
“That’s all he wants for us. I know this past year has been hard. We miss him. We wish he was here. But he’d rather see us smiling than sad for him.”
“I’m glad we moved to Grandma’s,” Oliver announced.
Dede rolled up the slip of paper she’d finished writing. “I just told your father how happy I am to have you all here with me.” She tied the note to one of the balloon strings. “How about we send these to your dad?”
Mason helped tie each of Danny’s and Oliver’s notes to the balloons. Sierra tied her own.
They gave all the balloons to the boys in the front yard.
“One at a time, or all at once. Doesn’t matter,” she coaxed the kids.
Oliver meticulously pulled one at a time free from his bunch and let it loose, marveling as each rose up into the sky.
Danny divided the bundles between his hands and let them go together, his hands raised, eyes to the sky as they floated away.
Sierra stood with Mason, his arm around her back. Tears gathered in her eyes. Grief over David’s sudden passing, missing what they had, wondering if they’d have fixed things or gone their separate ways, grateful for the time they had, and still suspicious about what he’d kept from her—her thoughts and emotions were all over the place.
Mason kissed her on top of the head. “You okay?”
“It just hits me sometimes. He’s gone. He’s not coming back. He’s going to miss so many things in the boys’ lives. And I still have questions about why he needed that loan and if he was hiding something even bigger from me.”
“About that . . .”
She turned to him, but Oliver ran over and slammed his little body into her leg and hip.
His arm gripped her leg and he looked up at her. “Mommy, look at them. They’re all going straight up to Daddy.”
She stared up at the sky with Oliver and brushed her hand over his head, so happy she’d done this with the boys. “I have something else for you and Danny.”
“Really? Can I have it?”
“Danny. Come up to the porch.” She waved him in from the yard.
Her mom stood on the porch with the two wrapped packages for the boys.
Sierra leaned down and kissed Oliver’s nose. “Grandma has a special present I made for you and Danny.”
Oliver took off up the steps to take his package from her mom.
Mason touched her arm. “Sierra, about the information you wanted . . .”
“Did your investigator get back to you?”
“Yes. I didn’t want to do this today, but I don’t want to keep it from you any longer.”
She studied his serious face. “What do you mean ‘longer’?”
“I’ve actually had it for a little while. I just didn’t know how to break the news to you.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “It can’t be worse than what I’m imagining. Just tell me.”
He glanced at the boys and her mom waiting on the porch. “Not here. We’ll go over it after the boys’ ride this afternoon. Maybe Dede can watch them while we talk.”
Her stomach tied into a knot. “It’s that bad?”
“If I’ve learned anything in my law practice, it’s that secrets are always bad. I wish I didn’t have to tell you what I know, but . . . you deserve the truth. I just hope you’re prepared to hear it.”
“Mom! Can we open these?” Danny called out.
Sierra touched Mason’s arm. “We’ll talk about this later.” She headed for the porch, then remembered what she was supposed to tell him about their ride. “Heather and Hallee are joining us at the ranch later.”
Mason stopped in his tracks behind her. “Why?”
She caught herself and turned back to him. “She wants to introduce Hallee to a horse.”
“I wish you’d told me about this sooner.”