“Good mornin’,” he said. “I thought y’all were going to sleep in this morning. Can I make you some waffles?”

“Just coffee.” She poured a cup. “Sally needs me at the shop. Holly wants to go with me.”

“I’m going to Kerrville this morning to look at a couple of goats,” Mack said. “Reckon Braden would want to go? I’m not leaving for a couple of hours.”

“I’m sure he would.” Lily sipped her coffee. “They were both in bed with me this morning when I woke up. Do you think they’ll get over last night’s trauma anytime soon?”

“Sure, they will,” he said. “They’ll be back in their routine on Monday, and pretty soon, it’ll just become a good story to tell.”

“I hope so.” She toyed with her mug. “I can’t begin to thank you enough for all you’ve done for us, Mack.”

“Right back atcha.” He grinned.

“Do I smell waffles?” Braden rubbed his eyes as he came into the room.

“You sure do,” Mack answered. “How many can you eat?”

“A bunch. I’ll make them.” Braden went to the counter, poured the right amount of batter into the waffle iron, and closed the lid. He nibbled on a piece of bacon while he waited for it to cook. “Holly says she’s going with you to work, Mama. I don’t have to go, do I?”

“You have a choice,” Lily told him. “You can go to the shop, or go with Mack to look at goats to buy.”

“Mack!” he said without hesitation. “I just didn’t want to be here all by myself. What if Daddy calls or comes? I don’t want to see him right now.”

“I talked to him and Victoria both last night. You don’t have anything to worry about, son. It will be a while before we hear from him. I’d better go get dressed.” Lily picked up her mug, refilled it, and carried it with her.

When she got to the top of the stairs, she heard her phone ringing. She couldn’t rush with a full cup of coffee in her hands, so she didn’t pick it up until the fourth ring. Expecting it to be Sally with instructions about the shop, she didn’t even check the caller ID, but answered, “Hello.”

“I’ve called four times in the last twenty minutes,” Wyatt growled. “Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

“What do you want?” she asked.

“To talk to you about last night,” Wyatt said. “Why is it that you can discipline the kids, but I can’t?”

“When I correct them, my methods are within reason. What you did last night wasn’t, and I’m not discussing this with you anymore until you apologize to them for what you did,” she told him.

“Are you going to apologize to them for taking them to Comfort?” His tone was iceberg cold.

“This has been an amazing move. They like their school, and they love living here in this wonderful, big roach-free house, so the answer is no. I did what I did out of love. You did what you did out of anger.” Little red dots of rage swam in front of Lily’s eyes again, so she sat down on the edge of the bed and made herself breathe in and out several times. If Wyatt had been right there in front of her, she would have gladly used the bedside lamp cord to strangle him. How dare he compare her moving to Comfort and getting the kids out of an unhealthy environment to the stunt he’d pulled! “Besides, Victoria called last night to tell me that you won’t ever be seeing them again. I guess she’s got your balls in a vise, doesn’t she?”

“It will be a cold day in hell before I apologize,” he said. “And Victoria does not control me.”

“I’m not arguing with you anymore. Just remember, when you’re old and alone, money makes a really poor companion. Goodbye, Wyatt.” She ended the call.

Her hands shook as she got out a fresh pair of jeans and a bright-red sweater. Until yesterday, she had never talked to Wyatt like that, not even when he told her he was leaving her and moving in with another woman. She had always given him his way on everything and never questioned him. Looking back, she could see that Wyatt had been the problem in their marriage from day one, with his control issues. Well, those days were over, and he could just accept it.

That morning, it felt damn good to finally speak her mind, and she wished that she’d stood up for herself sooner.

“I’m ready, Mama,” Holly said from the doorway into Lily’s bedroom.

“Then go on downstairs and have some waffles before we leave,” Lily told her.

“Is there yogurt and strawberries?” she asked.

“There’s strawberry yogurt.” Lily removed her nightshirt and pulled the sweater down over her head. Wyatt hated for her to wear red. He said that black or dark blue looked classy, but red made her look like a hooker. Come to think of it, how did he know about that motel, anyway?

“Good enough,” Holly said, and was gone.

Lily had thought her child was strange when she smeared yogurt over her waffles instead of butter and syrup. She figured it was a phase that Holly would outgrow, but she hadn’t, and the strange thing was that when Lily tried it, she liked it as well as Holly did.

Her phone rang again, and this time she checked the caller ID. With a long sigh, she answered it. “What do you want now, Wyatt?”

“Victoria and I are on shaky ground,” he said. “I love her and want to make this marriage work, so for a little while I won’t be calling or asking for the kids.”

“Well, honey,” she said with a saccharine voice, “you’re her fourth husband, and each one has gotten younger. Maybe she’s got her eye on someone else already. After all, when she enters a room with a boy toy at her side, it makes her feel the same age. When you reclaim your balls, give the kids a call. I expect they’ll be grown by then, so it’ll be their decision whether to let you back into their lives. Don’t call me again.” She ended the call and dropped the phone in her purse.

“And that is what you call real closure,” she said out loud as she finished getting dressed for work.

Mack woke on Sunday morning to the rattle of pots and pans in the kitchen. The sun had just begun to peek over the horizon, throwing a little light into his bedroom. He laced his hands behind his head and thought about where his life had been, where it was now, and where it was going. He liked the picture that had developed in his head, and sent up a little prayer that the third time was really the charm.

He got out of bed, dressed in his old jeans and a faded shirt, and padded across the foyer and into the kitchen in his bare feet. “Good morning. You look nice.”

“Thank you.” She smiled shyly.

Damn that Wyatt! The expression on her face said that she sure didn’t get any compliments like that very often, and Lily was the kind of woman who deserved them every day—hell, every hour wouldn’t be too often.

She poured barbecue sauce over a chicken that she’d cut up and put into a deep cast-iron pan. He opened the oven door for her. “I love barbecued chicken.”

She slid the pan in beside a pan of biscuits that were baking. “It makes for a good Sunday dinner. Just be the three of us since Holly is going to Granny Hayes’s again.”