Lily nodded in agreement. “You’re right. It’ll fill up quick now that church is over.”

This time Sally beat Mack to the punch when the lady at the counter told them the cost for three of them to eat at the buffet that day. “My treat,” she said, “since I elbowed my way in on what could have been y’all’s private dinner.”

“The more the merrier,” Mack said, “but thank you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lily said. “Thank you. Next time maybe I’ll even have something cooked at home.”

“That’s why I’m bein’ nice.” Sally picked up a bowl and filled it with salad from the buffet.

Once they’d sat down in a booth, Sally said, “Hey, Ruth-Ann came by yesterday, mainly just to snoop like always, but—oh, hey!”—she waved and motioned—“y’all don’t mind if Teena joins us, do you?”

“Not a bit,” Mack said. “We’ve got an extra chair.”

“Anyway, the newest gossip is that you’re pregnant, Lily, and that I’m getting married this summer to a guy I met on the internet,” Sally said.

“Well, damn!” Mack grinned from ear to ear. “I guess you’ll have to make an honest man of me. When does Ruth-Ann say we’re getting married?”

“She’s not sure, but she’s positive that it could ruin your career as a teacher, Mack, and she just wondered”—Sally put air quotes around that last word—“if you and I might be going to raise our tagalong kids together.”

Lily almost choked on a sip of her sweet tea. “Are you kiddin’ me?”

“Not one bit,” Sally giggled. “But now it’s time to ’fess up. How in the hell did you and Mack get a baby started so fast? Me and my imaginary boyfriend, according to Ruth-Ann, have been seeing each other since Thanksgiving, but good Lord, you and Mack have only been living together for weeks.”

“I heard that, too.” Teena sat down with them. “I’m jealous that y’all get to be pregnant together, and I didn’t get invited to join y’all.”

Mack chuckled. “Don’t you just love small-town gossip?”

“Hey, next week, it will all change,” Teena said. “Since we’re having dinner together, I’d bet that the newest will be that you’re the father of both their babies, and having an affair with me, too.”

“I’d better take vitamins to keep up with all that,” Mack told them.

Lily felt a slow heat moving from her neck to her face. Sure, they were joking, but after what she and Mack had been discussing in the truck, she couldn’t help but wonder what a child of Mack’s would look like.

Lily had lived in this same house her whole life, but today, the gray stone place looked warmer and more inviting when she walked up on the porch with Mack by her side. A rush of warm air met them when Mack opened the door for her. He helped her with her coat and followed her to the kitchen. He put on a pot of coffee, and she got down a couple of mugs.

Comparing two men was like comparing apples and oranges, or maybe pineapples and pecans, but she couldn’t help doing it. Wyatt had never helped her do one thing in the kitchen throughout their marriage. She worked as many hours as he had, but since she had done her job from home, that hadn’t mattered to him. He’d always been too busy building his career to have much interaction with the kids even before the divorce.

She wondered what would become of him if Victoria did find a younger man. He’d given up his job at the firm, where he’d worked so hard to climb the corporate ladder, and had gone to work for Victoria a few months after they were married. If he got kicked out of the love nest now, he’d basically have to start all over on the bottom rung. Good.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Mack said.

“I was just thinking about how nice it is to have help in the kitchen. I appreciate you having the coffee made and sometimes even breakfast when I come downstairs.” That was the truth, even if it wasn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

“Mama used to tell me that you get to know someone best when you work beside them, and I love any time we can spend together.” He took down two plates and got the cutlery from a drawer. “When I first moved in here, it seemed strange to use your mother’s dishes and pots and pans, but after I’d settled in, it made me feel like family.”

“What did you do with what you had?” she asked.

“I’d been living in a little trailer behind Mama and Daddy’s place north of town. It was furnished, and I pretty much used paper plates when I didn’t eat with the folks. When they sold the place, the new owners wanted the trailer for a grandfather who was going to live with them. This place was a godsend what with everything already here. I just moved your folks’ bedroom stuff up to the spare room and bought myself new furniture,” he said.

“Did you unload that old secretary before you moved it?” she asked.

“Nope,” he answered. “I collected up four of my FFA boys, and they helped me.”

Lily decided right then that she wasn’t bringing a single bit of her furniture from Austin. She’d sell it all and put the money in the velvet bag for a vacation next summer. The past was going to be left in the past. Her future was in Comfort in her old two-story stone home, and hopefully Holly’s jury would come in with a positive verdict.

After dinner she and Mack cuddled together in front of the television to watch episodes of Justified. Her head was on his shoulder, and being there with him on a buttery-soft leather sofa that her parents had bought twenty years ago felt right. Having his arm around her as they talked was comfortable and yet exciting at the same time.

Her thoughts wandered back to the journal, to the last entry that Jenny had written, about her father leaving the family for another woman. Someday, like Lily had told him, Wyatt was going to wake up and realize what he had given up for Victoria. Maybe it would take until he never met his grandchildren, but he’d realize it.

She snuggled down closer to Mack and fell asleep with his arm around her.

“Mack! Guess what?” Braden came into the house yelling loud enough to wake the dead over in the next county.

“What?” Lily opened her eyes but didn’t move away from Mack.

“We’re in here, and what happened? This time he said, ‘Mack,’ not ‘Mama.’” Mack whispered the last part.

Lily glanced over at the grandfather clock just as it chimed three times. Braden rushed into the room. “It’s snowing! Look!” He bent forward. “It’s still in my hair.”

Mack pointed toward the window. “Well, would you look at that? Maybe we’ll have enough to make a snowman tomorrow after school.”

Braden threw up a hand to high-five with Mack, and then with his mother. “We’ve never got to build a snowman before. Where’s Holly? I got to tell her.”

Mack stood up and stretched. “It’s time to go get her. Want to go with me?”

“I think I’ll stay in where it’s warm.” Lily got to her feet.

“I’ll go with you,” Braden said. “Bet I can beat you to the truck.”