Granny Hayes stood up. “I’ll let you take me home, and I thank you for the offer of dinner, but I’ve got dinner in the oven.” She glanced at the earrings again. “What’s your name?”

“Holly Anderson. Vera Miller was my grandma,” Holly answered.

Mack was shocked that Granny Hayes talked to Holly at all. He’d never seen her pay a bit of attention—good or bad—to any of the kids in the church.

Lily marveled that Holly had mentioned her grandmother, and wondered why she did that. Maybe she wanted the elderly woman to know that she wasn’t a stranger in Comfort. Holly and Braden both continued to surprise Lily more and more every day.

“Vera was a good woman. You look like she did when she was your age. Holly, would you like to have dinner with me, and afterward I could teach you how to make earrings if you’re interested in learning?” Granny Hayes asked.

“Yes, ma’am, if it’s all right with my mama, and I really do want to know how to make them and to make the shawls, too.” Holly looked up at Lily. “Please?”

“Thank you for the offer, Miz Hayes,” Lily said. “When y’all get done, you just give me a call, and I’ll come get her.”

“I don’t have a telephone or any of these newfangled gadgets. You can come get her at three thirty. That’s when I take my Sunday nap,” Granny Hayes said. “Don’t honk the horn. It spooks Dusty. We’ll be waiting on the porch.”

“We’ll remember that.” Lily could understand someone Granny Hayes’s age not having a cell phone, but she didn’t know a single soul this day and age that didn’t at least still have a landline. How did a person live without a connection of any kind to the outside world?

Very simply. Vera was back in her head.

Lily thought about how much simpler her life had been since she’d taken away all her kids’ devices, and nodded in agreement with her mother’s voice.

“I’ll go get the truck and drive it up close to the door,” Mack offered.

“I’m going with you,” Braden said, and followed right behind him.

Lily extended a hand to the elderly woman. Granny Hayes put her veined and bony hand in hers and said, “Thank you. Old bones like mine don’t like the cold weather or the wet, neither one, and when it’s both, they really do fuss.”

“You’re very welcome,” Lily said. In spite of the layers of clothing, Granny Hayes felt so light that pulling her to her feet was like picking up a bag of marshmallows.

“It’s a real chore on Sunday to ride into town for church,” Granny Hayes said as she moved toward the door. “But the Good Book says that I should give my best to the Master, so I try to do just that.”

“We’d be glad to come get you on Sunday mornings and take you home.” Lily followed behind her.

“I appreciate that offer. Sally has said the same thing, but the truth is, Dusty kind of likes to come hear the singin’,” she told them, “and the ride quiets my soul and gets me ready to listen to what Preacher Drew has to say to us.”

“Well, anytime you change your mind, we’ll be glad to come and get you,” Lily said.

Granny Hayes nodded and pulled her scarf up around her ears. When they were outside, Lily rushed around her and intended to open the truck door for her, but Mack beat her to it. Rain was dripping off the brim of his hat, but he had a smile on his face when he motioned for Granny Hayes to get into his truck. With the agility of a teenager, she hopped into the back seat and slid over to the middle. Lily got in right beside her. Holly ran around the truck and was already seated on the other side of Granny Hayes, buckled in, and had the door closed before Mack got behind the wheel.

“Don’t you wish you had got some rubber boots like mine?” Braden asked from the front seat.

“What good are they doing you?” Holly shot back. “They’re at home in the foyer, not on your feet.”

Granny Hayes chuckled. “I had a brother once, and he was a smarty-pants at times, too. But then in them days, I was just as bad as him.”

In her youth, Lily had seen the woman smile a few times, but she’d never heard her laugh. What made the old soul so solemn? she wondered. She’d have to remember to ask Sally about that when she went to work the next day.

Even in the rain and having to go the last mile on a dirt road, it took less than ten minutes to get from the church to Granny Hayes’s old log cabin. Chickens roosted on the porch, but they’d pecked the yard dry long since, and the rain had turned it into a giant mud puddle. A couple of ducks huddled against the door, and the mule, Dusty, had indeed come home to his lean-to shed not far from the house.

Mack pulled up right next to the porch, and chickens scattered every which way, but the ducks didn’t budge. Holly took a deep breath, got out, and ran through the puddles to the porch. Granny Hayes slid across the place where Holly had been sitting, hiked up her skirt to reveal black rubber boots, and trudged through the mud to the house.

“Go on in, child. I don’t believe in locked doors,” Granny Hayes called out.

Holly slung open the door and disappeared into the house. Lily slid over to the other side of the back seat and tried to catch a glimpse of what was inside the cabin, but all she saw before the door slammed shut was a big yellow cat.

“Don’t worry.” Mack locked gazes with her in the rearview mirror.

“Do you know anyone else who’s ever been inside that cabin?” Lily was now alone in the back seat of the truck.

“Nope, but then I’ve never heard her laugh before, either. Maybe the old gal is mellowing.” He drove out of the yard and headed back toward town.

“Comfort ain’t the boonies,” Braden said with a shudder from the front seat. “But this is, for sure. That lady reminds me of Granny Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies.”

“You’re too young to have seen that movie,” Mack said.

“My mother loved that crazy show,” Lily said. “She bought all the episodes on DVD when they came out. They’re probably still in the house somewhere. She showed the kids the movie the last time they stayed with her. Holly wanted to adopt a raccoon for a pet when she got home. I’m surprised that Braden remembers it. He couldn’t have been more than six years old.”

“It was dorky,” Braden laughed, “but I kind of liked it. Can we watch the movie again?”

“Sure,” Lily agreed. “Want to get it out of the buffet and watch it after dinner today?”

“That would be fun,” Braden said.

Mack thought it was the perfect Sunday afternoon—an old movie, Braden laughing until he had to hold his sides, and Lily on the other end of the sofa from him. It was all surreal, but he loved every minute. Right up until Adam breezed into the house without knocking. His brother removed his leather jacket and tossed it on the empty recliner, then sat down between him and Lily.

“I might have expected you to be watching some silly show like this.” Adam’s tone was downright cold.

Braden piped up from the other recliner. “I asked to watch it. Granny Hayes reminded me of Granny Clampett, and I remembered this movie. It’s so funny. You should’ve been here from the beginning. It’s almost over now.”