Good Enough (Meet Me in Montana #3) - Kelly Elliott

Prologue

“Ninety-eight bottles of milk on the wall, ninety-eight bottles of milk! Take one down and pass it around, ninety-seven bottles of milk on the wall!”

Mommy laughed as Daddy and I sang as loud as we could. “Goodness, how much longer until we get to the beach house?” she asked as she looked back at me.

“We just started the trip! We’ve got hours to go before we get there,” Daddy said, then turned and winked at me. “It’s our song, right, sweetheart?” He smiled, the sun shining on his hair, and I smiled back.

Suddenly, Mommy started to scream, and Daddy turned back to the road. Loud sounds from outside caused me to look out the window. Cars were driving all wrong. One was coming right toward us. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Frank!”

I closed my eyes and didn’t open them, even when I felt everything flying in the car and hitting me. Mommy screamed again, then everything stopped, and I couldn’t hear her anymore. At least until I heard another lady screaming and loud voices all around me.

“Call 911! Someone, call 911!”

“You need to get your little girl out of the car!”

Someone grabbed me, and I cried out. “Mommy!”

“Do not open your eyes, Timberlynn,” Daddy whispered as he took me from my seat. “Do you hear me? Keep them closed.”

I nodded and buried my face in his chest. “I won’t. I pwomise.” With my eyes closed tight, I slapped my hands over my ears, hoping all the loud noises would stop.

Daddy wrapped his arms tightly around me. “Don’t do this. Please don’t take her from us! God, please. I need someone to take my daughter! Please, I need to help my wife!”

Daddy moved me, and I was placed in someone else’s arms. I instantly cried out. “Daddy, no! Please don’t leave me! No!”

He stopped and looked back at me. “Timberlynn, I need to go get your mommy out of the car.”

My eyes drifted past Daddy and I looked at our car all bent and out of shape. “Daddy?” I yelled as a woman’s voice called, “Go! I’ve got her. Get her out of the car!”

“Daddy!” I shouted again as I watched him run to the car.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. Shh…your mommy and daddy are fine. Just close your eyes.”

I didn’t listen to the stranger. I watched as Daddy ran to our car. It was the wrong way up. The wheels…I could see the wheels. Another man, a policeman, helped Daddy get Mommy out of the car. Then Daddy screamed so loudly, making both me, and the stranger holding me, jump.

“Oh, no,” the stranger whispered and quickly turned me away from Daddy. She looked at me and smiled. “Your name is Timberlynn?”

I started to cry harder, but I nodded.

She smiled and wiped the tears from my face. “It’s going to be okay, Timberlynn. It will all be okay.”

I looked past her and saw Daddy on the ground, Mommy sitting in his lap. She was bleeding, and he was crying as he rocked her. Why wasn’t she getting up to come get me? I tried to run to him, but the strange lady held onto me tightly.

“It’s okay, Timberlynn. It’s okay.”

She buried my face into her chest, and even at my young age, somehow I knew she was not telling me the truth. That nothing would be okay. It would never be okay again.

Chapter One

TANNER

I sat on Trigger and stared out over the open pasture as I got ready to rope with Chance. You could almost feel the winter storm about to come in and blanket the distant Colorado mountains with snow. Right now they had patches of snow that only hinted that it was winter. My body ached to be home, though. To see the Montana mountains I had grown up in and loved so much. I sighed and looked down.

My ankle ached ever so slightly, and I rotated it completely out of habit. I’d broken it months back when I jumped off Trigger and landed wrong after winning the final round in Tulsa. I had taken some time off of roping after that to let it heal and stayed at my folks’ ranch back in Montana. It wasn’t anything that kept me from roping, though, and I could have easily pushed through the pain, but I needed that break. It was more of a mental break than a physical one, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself back then. And now I yearned for the Montana skyline to be