“We just want to come home, Mama. This place is scary,” Holly said.

“Remember our safe word?” Lily asked.

“Alligator,” Braden said.

“Don’t open the door until you hear that word. Mack and I will be there in a few minutes. We’re already on the outskirts of San Antonio. Now repeat that hotel address to me one more time.”

Lily was livid when she hung up the phone.

Mack was right behind her when she turned around. “Everything all right?”

She shook her head, almost afraid to open her mouth because of the language that would spew out. “We need to go get the kids right now. I hate to do this to your folks, but . . .” Tears of anger began to flow down her cheeks.

“You go get in the truck. I’ll make it right with everyone and be out there in two minutes.” He was already putting on his coat as he started back to the dining area.

She’d just gotten her seat belt fastened when Mack got behind the wheel. “Are they hurt? Was there an accident?” He started the engine and made a U-turn to head back toward the highway.

“Neither, but . . .” She told him what had happened and then gave him the hotel address.

“Good God, Lily, that’s a hotel in the crappiest part of town. I wonder why he didn’t at least put them up in one of the nicer places on the River Walk.” He slapped the steering wheel. “What in the hell is he thinking?”

Lily held her hands tightly in her lap. “I don’t know, but this is the last time he gets to take them anywhere. He gave up his rights to see them at all at divorce court, so if he wants to see them again, he can come to the house.”

“I’d like to get ahold of his sorry ass tonight,” Mack growled. “Those kids better be all right when we get there.”

“They’ll be fine. We have a safe word, and they won’t let anyone into the room unless they hear it. How far is it from here?” Lily asked.

“Fifteen minutes at the speed limit, but we’ll make it in ten,” he answered.

Her thoughts went from strangling Wyatt to worrying that something horrible would happen before she got her kids out of that motel. Every minute lasted two hours, and it had only been three seconds short of eternity when Mack made a turn into the parking lot of a 1950s-style motel.

“Room 228,” Lily said.

Mack pulled his truck right up in front of the door, and she bailed out before he turned off the engine. She rapped on the door with her knuckles and yelled, “Alligator.”

Holly already had her suitcase in her hand when Braden threw open the door. A cockroach ran up the side of it, and she squealed loud enough that a man in the next room cracked open his door, too.

Mack had gotten out of the truck, and he quickly snapped pictures of the room and the roaches before he brushed the bug away, then stomped on it.

“Just a bug,” he told the man.

“That ain’t the first one,” Braden said as he wheeled his suitcase outside. “Here’s my key, Mama. Daddy kept the second one.”

Lily took the old-fashioned key on a fob from him and marched up to the office. The door was locked, but there was a window to the left of it with a note: No vacancies. Leave key in slot. She dropped the room key in what looked like a mail slot and went back to the truck. Both kids were already strapped into the back seat.

“We were scared, Mama,” Braden said. “We ain’t never stayed in a place like that. Holly wouldn’t even sit down.”

“Not after a mouse ran across the bed. Mama, I’m never going with Daddy again. If he wants to talk to us, he can come to our house or call on the phone,” Holly said.

This was the child who had wanted to go live with her father and who had hated her a few weeks ago? Lily started to remind her of that, but she was so grateful to have her kids back unhurt that she couldn’t say a word.

Braden agreed with his sister. “Me, too. I chased the mouse, and it went through a hole in the wall. And then I heard a lady in the next room squeal. I guess she was afraid of them, too.”

“I took a few pictures just in case he takes you back to court for visitation,” Mack whispered to Lily.

“Thank you,” she mouthed.

“You kids want something to eat?” Mack asked. “I see a sign for a McDonald’s at the next exit.”

“Yes,” Holly said. “Daddy got us a pizza, but we didn’t eat any of it. I’m starving.”

“I am, too,” Braden said.

Mack made the next turn and found the McDonald’s. “Want to go in or order at the window?”

“Go in, please,” Holly answered. “I need to go to the ladies’ room and wash my hands. I didn’t touch anything after I saw the mouse, but I feel dirty.”

Braden unfastened his seat belt and got out of the truck. “That place wasn’t even fit for us to turn our goats loose in. I’ll go wash up, too.”

“Come with me, Mama?” Holly asked.

“Sure, I will,” Lily answered.

When they were alone in the restroom, Holly washed up and then held her hands under the hot-air dryer. “Do you think they’re clean now, Mama, or should I wash them again?”

“I imagine that they’re clean enough,” Lily told her.

Holly nodded. “I tried to stay brave for Braden, but I’ve never been so scared in my whole life. Why would Daddy do that to us? We just wanted him to know that we didn’t like fancy dinners, and we didn’t want to go to the Alamo again. He called us ungrateful, but we weren’t even mean and hateful like we were to you when you said we were moving to Comfort.” Tears began to stream down her face. “I’m sorry, Mama. I’m sorry that I smoked pot. I’m sorry that I yelled at you. I’m sorry that I almost said I hated you.”

Lily gathered her daughter into her arms. “It’s all right. I forgive you. I’m just glad there was a phone in the room so you could call me.”

“We had to charge the call to the room.” Holly hiccuped.

“That’s just fine.” Lily held her close and patted her on the back. “I’m glad you called. When did your dad say he’d be back to get you?”

“If we didn’t call him, then he said he’d be there by eleven tomorrow morning at checkout time, and he said that we were going to the Alamo, or he’d pay for us to stay in that place for another day, and he’d get us in time to get us back to Comfort to take care of our precious goats,” Holly answered.

“Well, you did the right thing,” Lily assured her. “Now let’s go eat and then get on home.”

“Can I please have a bath tonight after Braden has his turn in the bathroom?” Holly asked as they went back out into the restaurant. “I know my turn is in the morning, but I can’t sleep if I don’t have one. I feel dirty all over, not just my hands.”

“Yes, you can.” Lily spotted Mack and Braden waiting behind an older couple who were having trouble deciding what they wanted to order.

When it was their turn, Braden ordered the double-meat bacon-cheeseburger meal deal and a chocolate shake. Holly just nodded and said, “The same.”

“I’ll have a chocolate malt,” Mack said, and then nodded toward Lily.