“No, thank you.” Holly snarled at the idea. “Where’s Mama?”
“I’m right here.” Lily came out from the kitchen. “How was your first day?”
Holly shrugged. “Fine.”
“Did anyone comment on your new earrings?” Lily asked.
“Rose and Ivy liked them, and . . .” Holly stopped before she finished and brushed past her mother. “And my history teacher says we have to write a paper on someone in our family. It can be on anyone, but it has to be fact, not fiction, so we can’t just make up a character and pretend we’re related to them. Rose tried to tell him that she was kin to Santa Anna, and he said she had to have documents to prove it.”
The family journal instantly came to Lily’s mind. “When is your paper due?”
“The last day before spring break,” Holly said. “But I don’t have any interesting people in my family, so what am I going to do?”
“I’ve got an idea. We’ll talk about it tonight after supper,” Lily told her.
“All right.” Holly shrugged. “I’m going to have cookies and milk. I didn’t like the cafeteria food today, so I only ate the dessert. What’s for supper?”
“Potato chowder and hot rolls. Got homework?” Lily followed her.
“Nope,” Holly answered. “But the sooner I can get on the history assignment, the better. I hate waiting until the last minute to do my projects.”
Mack went to his room, changed into faded work jeans and an old T-shirt, and was on his way across the foyer to the kitchen when someone rapped on the door. He started that way, but Adam pushed inside without waiting.
Like always, he was dressed in a suit, tie, and loafers. Other than a few crow’s-feet at the corners of his eyes, he didn’t look a lot different than he did in high school. One twin is good-looking; one is plain. One twin doesn’t age; the other one looks every bit of his forty-one years, Mack thought. But if the truth were told, Mack would bet dollars to goat droppings that he was more comfortable in his own skin.
“What brings you to the boonies?” he asked.
“Had some property to look at over this way again.” Adam raised an eyebrow at the kids’ coats when he added his trench coat to the mix. “Mama told me that Lily Miller has come back to Comfort and is living with you.”
“More like I’m living with her—she owns the house,” Mack answered. “What property are you looking at?”
“I’m ready,” Braden yelled as he bounded down the stairs, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Adam.
Mack made introductions. “This is my twin brother, Adam. And this is Lily’s son, Braden. We’ll be a few minutes, Braden. Want to have some cookies and milk before we go?”
“Sure.” Braden nodded and then turned his attention back to Adam. “Nice to meet you. For twins, y’all sure don’t look alike.”
“Thank God,” Adam chuckled.
Lily came out of the kitchen again. “Hello, Adam. It’s been a while, but you haven’t changed a wink. I just made a fresh pot of coffee, and there’s homemade cookies on the table. Y’all help yourselves.”
“What? No hug? It’s been twenty years since I’ve laid eyes on the beautiful Lily Miller, and I don’t even get a hug?” Adam flirted.
“Sorry, I’m fresh out of hugs, and it’s Lily Anderson now. I’ll be back down here in a few minutes. I’ve got a phone call to make.” Lily hurried off up the stairs.
Mack had never seen a woman brush Adam off like that. His poor brother checked his reflection in the mirror hanging above one of the chairs.
“Got a hair out of place?” Mack asked.
“Shut up,” Adam growled. “I’m going to take her up on that coffee. It’s cold out there, and it’ll warm me up.”
“Hey.” Holly nodded to both of them as she passed through the foyer and went upstairs.
“That’s my sister,” Braden said. “Don’t pay any attention to her. She’s just in a mood. Let’s go get some cookies. My mama makes the best cookies in the whole world. I hope they’re peanut butter today. That’s my favorite, especially dipped in good cold milk.”
Mack followed Braden and Adam into the kitchen and went straight to the coffeepot. He poured two cups and carried them across the room. He set one down in front of his brother, who’d already taken a seat, and took a chair across the table from him. He added two spoonfuls of sugar to his mug and took a sip.
“Only sissies have to have sugar in their coffee,” Adam said. “Or dip cookies in their milk.”
“Guess I’m a sissy.” Braden made a show of dipping a cookie in his glass of milk. “Me and Mack do this all the time, don’t we, Mack?”
“Sure do.” To prove the point, Mack dunked a cookie right down into his cup.
“Never,” Adam answered. “I hate crumbs floating in my coffee.”
“The best part is when you get a spoon and eat all those soaked-up crumbs from the bottom,” Braden said. “Sometimes I let half a cookie just drop off in my cup so I’ll have even more.”
Mack bit back a smile when Adam shivered at the thought. Adam could never stand for dirt to be under his fingernails, among other things.
“So how are things between you and Charlene?” Mack asked.
“Right now I’m living in a hotel. We haven’t filed papers yet,” Adam replied. “Mama is mad at me. When Dad is lucid, he won’t talk to me, and when he’s not, he thinks I’m a teenager and is constantly giving me advice. And to top it all off, my secretary quit.”
It was hard for Mack to be sympathetic when his brother had brought all of it on himself.
Lily had been restless all day. She’d gone up to her bedroom so she could call Sally and talk to her in private. Leaving Adam like that might be rude, but she’d never liked him, anyway, so a phone call seemed like a damn good excuse not to have to be around him. Fate had to have had a part in all this. It simply could not have happened by chance.
She called Sally and was about to hang up after six rings, but Sally finally answered. “Hello,” she huffed.
“Are you all right?” Lily asked.
“I left my phone on the checkout counter, and I was all the way back in the furniture room,” Sally said. “What’s going on? Did the kids do all right on their first day of school? Damn, I’ve got to lose weight. I can’t even catch my breath.”
“Kids did fine. Her new friends, Rose and Ivy, loved her earrings.” Lily took a deep breath and spit out, “If you were serious about that job offer, I can come to work Monday morning.”
“Halle-damn-lujah!” Sally squealed. “You bet I’m serious. I’ll get a set of keys made for you and bring them to church Sunday. This is wonderful, amazing, awesome, and all the other adjectives in the dictionary.”
“I thought maybe I’d come in Friday morning so you can show me how to ring up sales,” Lily said.
“I’d love that.” Sally’s breathing was almost back to normal. “Do you remember that old cash register over at the ice-cream shop? The one we used when we worked there in high school?”