Page 75 of 5 Golden Flings

“That’s magical, you know.”

“Isn’t all of the holiday supposed to be magical?” she asked Ms. Tinsel as the woman circled behind the counter.

Her father had always thought so. “My father loved Christmas trees. We always had one.” AndEdelweiss. He’d played different variations of that song over and over during the holidays. For such a rugged outdoorsman, he’d had an unnatural affinity forThe Sound of Music.

This oversized ornament wasn’t traditional. It was metal with various delicate ornament outlines cut from it to let the light through. The metal had a bronze look that reflected the yellow light inside in an almost hypnotic manner.

“It would be nice for you to carry a piece of Christmas on your journey. A little light to light your way...” Ms. Tinsel’s laughter somehow sounded like a bunch of jingle bells. “Besides, this is one of my special wishing ornaments.”

She lifted the ornament to show a tag on the underside. The Wishing Well Ornament Company, it said. That was taking things a bit far...

“It’s well-known that a single heartfelt wish on one of these ornaments will come true by Christmas.” Why did Ms. Tinsel’s smile seem to reach in her mind and convince her?

Brynn shook her head to rid herself of the silly notion.

Somehow, she was becoming okay with the woman reading her mind. Maybe it was her gentle smile or the soothing comfort of her voice. “Yes, I think I’ll take it.”

She handed over the ornament and let her mind wander while the woman wrapped up her purchase. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to go through her father’s holiday decorations yet. Of course, he’d only been gone for six monthsand it had taken all of that time to make decisions on the real estate and his nature photography business.

She’d been practically running it since she was fifteen years old, but that hadn’t prepared her to make the legacy decisions on whether his photos and prints should be liquidated. Especially since he’d become relatively famous in the art world under an assumed pseudonym.

In the end, she’d decided to continue to manage his original prints and turned the reprint business into her agent’s capable hands. Her father had been her life. Now that he was gone, she felt more lost than she’d expected. Of course, she’d had little time to prepare.

He’d kept his cancer a secret from her, just as he had several select things in his life. Only the pain meds had made him talkative in the end...and given her thenamesto go with the rage she’d harbored since she was eight years old.

For good reason...

“Wake up. Brynn, wake up.”

“Daddy?” Brynn rubbed her eyes as the light from the hallway spilled into her darkened bedroom. Suddenly the lamp at her bedside blinked on.

“Come on, girlie.”

“Why, Daddy?” She just wanted to go back to sleep—she was a notoriously deep sleeper. She certainly didn’t want to change out of her nightgown into the clothes her father was dragging out of her dresser drawers.

“It’s not safe here. We have to go.”

“I don’t want to.” She poked out her bottom lip. Her dad was a sucker for that.

But he didn’t even glance her way. “Now, Brynn.” His voice was hard, determined. He never spoke like that. It scared her. “Don’t argue with me for once.”

He set the clothes next to her on the bed. “Quickly now.”

As she changed clothes, he dumped out her school backpack and started stuffing clothes in it. Then he dragged her socks and shoes over.

He looked silly crouching in front of her with her pink backpack but he wasn’t laughing. The lines on either side of his mouth and eyes were deeper, darker than normal. Finally, he tucked her blanket around her and picked her up. “Let’s go.”

As they headed for the door, her panic spiked. “Daddy! Rocky!”

“Right.”

He spun around and grabbed her stuffed dinosaur from the bed—a completely impractical creature in hues of purple and red. He squeezed the animal between them.

“You hold onto him, you hear?”

She hugged tight onto the soft squishie as he pulled her close against his hard chest. Then he ran for the stairs.

Brynn blinked, pushing the reverie away to focus on finishing the purchase before her. She reached for the bag on the counter, only to have the woman’s warm hands come to rest on top of hers.

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