Ginger awoke Saturday morning to the sound of Flora’s and Betsy’s voices down in the kitchen. She got out of bed as fast as she could, dressed in one of the three pairs of skinny jeans she owned—none of which would even come close to buttoning anymore but she’d fit back into them soon—and threw on a clean T-shirt. When she’d finished using the bathroom and brushing her teeth, she carefully took the steps one at a time and got a lecture ready to deliver to Betsy if she’d started breakfast without her. Betsy was alone now, but she was having a doughnut and a cup of coffee.

“Flora, God love her heart, brought us pastries for breakfast, and she even took them out of the bag and put them on a dish for me.” Betsy pointed to the middle of the table. “We won’t be cooking this morning, but you might get out the milk and juice and four glasses. Flora knows how much I love the fresh doughnuts from that little shop in Hondo, so she drove into town at six o’clock this morning to get them fresh. Ain’t many friends would do something so sweet.”

“You’d do that for her,” Ginger said. “You keep potpies and cobblers in the freezer, ready to bake if someone is ailing or if there’s a funeral. I bet you’d even send a pie to Edith if her son was to die.”

“If I did, I’d add a tablespoon of rat poison to it.” Betsy picked up a second glazed doughnut. “These may heal my wounds quicker than anything.”

Ginger set a jug of milk and a pitcher of orange juice on the counter, poured herself a glass of milk and carried it to the table. She eased down into a chair and put a frosted doughnut with sprinkles on a napkin. “I used to splurge and get day-old doughnuts on the way home from work sometimes. Lucas said they weren’t fit to eat, but I dunked them in my milk or coffee and they were fine.”

“He wasn’t a very nice person, was he?” Betsy asked.

“Not really, but I’d never had a boyfriend before, so I didn’t have anything to compare him to.” Ginger bit into the doughnut. “Mmmm.” She made appreciative noises. “This is amazing.”

“That little shop does a fine job, but I hardly ever get them this early. They’re still good when we get into Hondo on Thursdays, but not like this.” Betsy licked her fingers and then picked up her mug and took a sip of coffee.

“We’ll never eat all of these,” Ginger said.

“Speak for yourself.” Connie entered the kitchen and went straight for the coffeepot. “I can put away four, and Kate . . .”

Kate butted in from right behind her. “Kate will eat until she’s miserable.” She filled a glass with juice and one with milk. “I’ll have coffee afterwards. Did you drive to Hondo this morning, Ginger?”

“No, ma’am,” Ginger answered. “Flora brought these to Betsy to help her get well.”

“If I push her down the stairs and break her hip, do you reckon she’d bring more, like maybe twice a week?” Kate teased.

“No, but if I kick you down into the basement and you wind up with a busted hip or leg, she might bring them for you,” Betsy shot back at her.

“Oh, stop your bitchin’ and enjoy the bounty that is before us. Kate, you need to say grace even though Betsy has already stuffed her face,” Connie said.

Ginger bowed her head and swallowed the bite that was in her mouth. Kate said a very short prayer, and as soon as she said, “Amen,” Betsy reached for an apple fritter.

“Now that they’re blessed, I get to start all over again.” She grinned.

“Munchies, huh?” Connie asked.

“Well, I did share a joint with Flora. Poor darlin’ needs a little something to help her get through the day with her mama’s attitude, and the mellow is wearin’ off, so yes, I’m just a little hungry,” Betsy admitted. “And besides, it would be a sin to let these doughnuts get stale.”

“Especially after Flora was good enough to go get them for us before daylight.” Kate was already on her second one.

“Us, my butt,” Betsy said. “She got them for me, and I’m being nice enough to share.”

“And we thank you for that.” Ginger reached for another one, then refilled her glass with milk. “Sloan called last night. He’ll be home this evening. He said it’s about a seven-hour drive from where he is and that he’s kind of made peace with what happened to him over there in Kuwait.”

“Can you tell us just exactly what did happen?” Kate asked.

Ginger nodded and started with when Sloan got the call from his granny telling him that his dog had died. When she ended, all the sisters were wiping tears on the cheap paper napkins that had come with the doughnuts. “And now he’s found out that there was nothing—not one thing—he could’ve done to save his friends that awful day, so he’s making peace with the past.”

“You are a blessing to us,” Kate said.

“Hey, I think you got that backwards,” Ginger disagreed. “Y’all have given me more than I could ever give back to you.”

“It’s all in my stones,” Connie said. “They’ve brought us spiritual guidance and emotional peace.”

“Bullshit!” Kate said. “Them colored rocks didn’t have jack squat to do with any of these past couple of weeks.”

Connie shrugged and pulled a little bag from her pocket. “Don’t swear at the stones.”

Betsy’s eyes grew wide, and her head bobbed up and down. “You better listen to her, Sister. I was tellin’ her that those rocks ain’t got power on Sunday afternoon about the time that Edith got here.”

Kate picked up the bag and kissed it. “Forgive me, O mighty stones, and don’t let me fall and break a leg or a hip. I don’t want to have to slide down the steps to the basement on my butt.”

Ginger couldn’t imagine a life without these women in it—or without Sloan, either.

Chapter Eighteen

The sun was just past straight up in the sky when Sloan drove past the Banty House that afternoon. He wanted to stop right then, but he’d been driving for seven hours, stopping only once for poor old Tinker to water a bit of lawn at a rest stop. The dog wanted to be out in his own yard to chase a rabbit through the mesquite thickets from behind the house all the way to Hondo Creek.

Sloan turned him loose and then went into the house, started a load of laundry while he took a shower and shaved, and then dressed in a pair of faded jeans and a blue T-shirt. Tinker wasn’t nearly ready to come inside, so Sloan filled his outdoor water bowl, got into his truck, and drove back up to the Banty House.

He parked at the curb and was halfway across the yard when the front door flew open and Ginger stepped out. “I was looking out the kitchen window, and you got here earlier than we expected.”

He opened his arms and she walked right into them. “I’m so glad to be home,” he whispered into her hair.

“I missed you.” She hugged him as tightly as she could with a baby the size of a big fall pumpkin between them. “Come on inside. Betsy and I’ve made a chocolate cake, and we have ice cream to welcome you home.”

“Just seeing you is enough of a welcome, but I wouldn’t turn down cake and ice cream,” he said.

“That’s so sweet.” She started to say something else, but the voices of the sisters arguing preceded them as they crowded into the foyer to greet him.

“Don’t just stand there in the door,” Betsy said. “Get on in here where I can hug you.”

“Besides, you’re letting the flies in,” Connie scolded.

“I’m so glad you got here early,” Kate yelled over from behind her two sisters. “Betsy wouldn’t let us cut the chocolate cake at dinnertime. She said we had to wait until you got here.”

“Oh, stop your bellyachin’,” Betsy said. “You had half a dozen doughnuts for breakfast. That was enough sugar to last you until Sloan got here.”

Both Sloan and Ginger stepped inside the house.

“Thank God that old truck made it.” Connie shut the door behind them. “I worried about you the whole time. You should get a new one, maybe one of them with a back seat.” She led the way into the dining room, where the table was already set with dessert plates and bowls.

“You drive a sixty-year-old car,” Sloan reminded her.

“To Hondo and back, not halfway around the world.” Connie continued to fuss.

“Besides, just how are you and Ginger going to take the baby for a snow cone when she’s old enough to eat them? It’s against all these new laws to have a kid in the front seat of a vehicle. Nowadays, you’ve got to put them in one of them newfangled car seats.” Kate brought out a container of ice cream.

“Well, now, that puts a whole new light on the subject, doesn’t it?” Sloan teased. “Do you think I should buy a pink one since the baby is a girl, and maybe put a gold crown hood ornament on it?”