One baby step forward, Lily thought. At least she asked before she went running off to her room, and she had talked to her about her new friend.

“Sure.” Lily nodded. “Is she your age?” Lily wanted her to stick around and talk some more.

“She’s a junior—she’s already got her driver’s license,” Holly replied, and was gone before Lily could ask anything else.

She heard the back door open and could hear Braden saying something about the flowers. Then he raced up the stairs. She started to get up and head that way when Mack came into the living room and sank down in the recliner in front of her. “It’s sure enough been a Monday. How did your day go?”

“It went fast, and I got a lovely bouquet. Thank you,” Lily answered. “They’re beautiful. It’s been years since I had flowers. How did you know that yellow roses are my favorite?”

“I didn’t, and this is going to sound corny”—he almost blushed—“but the yellow reminded me of all the sunshine you’ve brought into my life these past days.”

Lily felt her own blush rising, but she couldn’t do anything to stop it. “That’s so sweet.”

Mack shrugged. “It’s the truth, and you should have flowers often.”

“Thank you for saying that. Now tell me about your day.” Lily steered the conversation down another path.

“I broke up a fight between two girls,” Mack said. “Girls are meaner than boys, and they fight dirty. Then I had to take a student to the office for smoking pot behind the ag building. He’s got four weeks of in-school suspension, ISS. To top it all off, I caught another kid in my classroom with one of those vapor cigarette devices. That got him a week in ISS.”

“I guess kids are the same no matter where you live,” Lily groaned. “I was hoping that those things wouldn’t even be here in Comfort.”

“Honey, that sort of thing is everywhere, but we have fewer students, so we can control it a little better than they can in the big schools,” he said. “I’m getting an afternoon snack—an apple and a glass of sweet tea. Can I bring you something?”

“Just tea. I’ve been nibbling all day,” she answered.

“Prop your feet up and rest a few minutes,” Mack told her.

Lily swung her feet around so that she was stretched out with her back against the arm of the sofa. When Mack returned, he brought a tray with two glasses of tea and a plate with an apple and four cookies on it. He sat back down on the recliner and picked up the apple first.

“What do you know about Faith Torres?” Lily asked.

“She’s a straight-A student, but like her brother, she’s not popular. She’s tall, has dark hair, and wears glasses. She drives a flatbed pickup truck and brings her brother to school every day. She may be the brightest kid to ever come through Comfort High and will probably be the valedictorian of her senior class,” he said. “Why are you asking?”

“Rose and Ivy thought Holly’s braids were ugly today and made her look like a little girl. It must’ve offended Holly. She told me that Faith is her new friend.”

“Kids go from one group to another all the time.” Mack took a drink of his tea. “Faith is a really good kid. I guess she’s what you and I would have called a nerd in our day.”

“Nerd is better than pot smoker.” Lily reached for her tea at the same time Mack was setting his glass back down. Their hands touched again. Her breath caught in her chest, and her pulse jacked up several notches.

“I’m going to ask you a dumb question,” he drawled. “Do you feel chemistry between us?”

Her chest tightened. Of course she felt something between them, but she damn sure didn’t want to talk about it like they were discussing the price of goat feed. And yet . . . they were adults, not hormonal teenagers who jumped into the fire with both feet when they felt something for another person. How many times had she told her clients in therapy sessions to talk things out?

“Why is that dumb?” she asked.

“It kind of sounded dumb in my head, and even more so when I said it,” he said.

“Yes, I do feel something between us.” She nodded. “I’ve wondered if it’s because I haven’t dated all that much. How about you?”

“No dates in three years. Nothing serious since Natalie,” he admitted.

“Do you think it’s because we hav-haven’t,” she stammered.

“No, I think there’s definitely an attraction between us, and I’ll tell you right now, up front, you deserve better than me,” he said.

Lily frowned so hard that her eyes became mere slits. “Why would you say a stupid thing like that?”

“I’m a high school vo-ag teacher, and I’ll never be rich. Hell, I’m forty-one, and I don’t even own a house. I’ve just got a pickup that’s paid for and a herd of goats,” he said.

“Why, Mack Cooper, are you thinkin’ marriage?” she joked. “You haven’t even kissed me yet.”

“I’m just thinking that we shouldn’t start anything without being completely honest, and, honey, I can remedy that kissing part anytime.” His green eyes twinkled.

Lily felt heat rising to her cheeks when she thought of kissing him. How in the devil would it even work if they did decide to go out, or got into a relationship beyond friendship? They lived in the same house with Holly and Braden underfoot all the time. “I’ve got two kids,” she blurted out.

“I’ve got forty goats.” He grinned.

“Did you say it’s time to go feed the goats?” Braden came across the room and leaned his arms on the back of the sofa.

Point proven, she thought.

“Yep, it is,” Mack answered. “I reckon we both need to get changed so we don’t ruin our good clothes.”

“I’ll be down in five minutes.” Braden ran up the stairs.

Mack crossed the room and bent to brush a sweet kiss across her lips. The tenderness of his mouth barely touching hers and his drawl combined to send a heat flash through her whole body. If that brief contact created such an effect, a relationship might burn down the house.

Lily feared that supper would be awkward, but it wasn’t at all. The kids bantered as they ate their chicken and dumplings and fought over who got the last piece of chocolate cake. When they’d finished with the cleanup, Mack got out a whole stack of papers to grade, and the kids disappeared to their rooms.

She thought about sticking around or watching an old movie, but she was afraid that Mack might think she was angling for another kiss, so she went upstairs to her room and took the journal over to Holly’s room. She rapped on the doorframe and asked, “You ready for the next chapter?”

“You mean entry?” Holly asked.

“Either one.” Lily held the book up so she could see it.

“Yep, but, Mama”—Holly put away the book she’d been reading and got out her notebooks—“I wish it was more like a diary where they wrote in it every day. I like the way my paper is coming together. I even let my history teacher look at what I’d done, and he said it was excellent work.”

Matilda Smith Medford Massey, June 1886: Jenny was married today. I’m sure that it won’t be remembered like the event when the president of the United States married his lady in the White House earlier this month. But to me, it was much bigger since I was right there in our little church with her. I’ve always regretted not having my mother at my wedding, especially the second one, since it was on our plantation. We’ll miss Jenny, but she’s only five miles away, so we can see her every month or so. I’m hoping that her husband is as good to her as William is to me, and that she never has to deal with a cheating man like her father. If she does, I plan to shoot him and drag his body out into the woods to feed him to the coyotes. My mama would have done that for me if she’d known what I was living through in those days.