He hugged her back just as tightly, everything gentle and good about him coming out in that hug. “I’m glad you came,” he said. “Did you like it?”
“Yes. It was so good.” Briar pulled back and studied his face. “You say he’s not like this every week?”
“Oh, he gives a good sermon,” Tarr said. “Sometimes it’s a little boring, or maybe my mind just wanders. I don’t know. Today was great, though. It really was.”
Briar got to her feet and held Tarr’s hand as they moved out into the foyer to leave. “I don’t want to talk to him,” she said when she saw the pastor there with a wife in an emerald-green dress at his side.
“No?” Tarr asked. “Why not?”
“I don’t know,” Briar said. “Do we have to talk to him?”
“No, not at all.” He shuttled her along the back of the line of people waiting to speak with the pastor.
The winter air outside blasted her but also provided a sense of escape for Briar. Back in Tarr’s truck, he turned toward her. “All right, do you want to get some lunch?”
“Yes,” she said. “Will you please take me to that Brazilian steakhouse you’ve been bragging about?”
Tarr chuckled and flipped the truck into drive. “Your wish is my command, honey.”
Briar liked the sound of that, though she knew Tarr could hold his own with her as well—and she liked that too. As shesnuck a glance over to him, Briar realized there was very little about Tarr that she disliked, and she let her eyes drift closed as she thought through the sermon once more.
The Good Shepherd is coming.What a wonderful promise—and one that Briar clung to with everything inside her.
twenty-eight
Deacon had been waiting for ten minutes past the pickup time for his orange chicken and beef lo mein. He glanced down the row of parking stalls, trying to remember if any of them had left and new people had parked while he’d been sitting there. He hadn’t exactly been paying attention, as he’d escaped the seventy-five-degree heat of his parents’ house in favor of picking up dinner that night.
His daddy had definitely gotten old, and he liked the house hot. Uncle Wes and Aunt Bree had stayed through Valentine’s Day, and Deacon had finally followed them up here to Coral Canyon a few days ago.
No one should live in Wyoming in February, Deacon knew that, and he reached to start his truck again, as it had gone off while he’d been waiting.
He wondered if his parents should come back to Ivory Peaks too. They’d only just retired here a couple of years ago, but Tucker was married now, with Jane having her family in Ivory Peaks too.
“They don’t need to worry about you,” he said with a scoff, though he knew his momma fretted over him continually. If they moved back to Ivory Peaks, she’d be able to do it much closer.
As the heater started to blow, Deacon picked up his phone and navigated to the group chat that only had his siblings on it.
You guys should see Momma and Daddy. They’ve gotten old. Well, Daddy at least.
Have they?Tucker asked.But they’re all right, right?
Yeah, they’re fine, Deacon said.
I do need to get up there and see them,Hunt said.
We just saw them at Christmas, Jane said.They were wonderful.
I just think, Deacon said, letting his fingers fly. He was the youngest of the Hammonds, but he possessed a pretty level head. It was the lawyer part of his father he’d inherited.
We all live in Ivory Peaks, and a lot of us are still young, having families. It’s like Uncle Wes and Aunt Bree. Why are they living up here alone?
He sent the text, wondering what his brothers and sister would think. They wouldn’t hold back, Deacon knew that.
I’d love to have them here again, Jane said.Do you think they’d come?
Daddy’s brothers are up there, Hunter said.That’s why they went,.
Yeah, but now Uncle Wes is moving back here, Deacon said.
