Lily held up a hand. “One at a time, please.”

“Isaac and Faith want us to come to their house Saturday night for snacks and a movie,” Braden blurted out.

“Their parents said it would be okay, and we really want to go,” Holly said.

“And we won’t go to their house until after supper, like around six,” Braden butted in.

“We’ll be home by ten,” Holly said.

“That’s fine with me, but we’ll have to plan a night for them to come here real soon,” Lily answered.

“Are you going to marry Mack?” Holly asked out of the clear blue sky.

Lily’s mouth went dry, and her hands got clammy. “Why would you ask that?”

“You went to meet his parents, and they’re coming here to meet us,” Braden chimed in. “Me and Holly talked about it, and we really like Mack, but what if his mama and daddy don’t like us? I mean, they canceled the last time when they were supposed to come, and now they’re really coming, and . . .” His voice trailed off.

“Why wouldn’t they like you?” Lily set a bowl of fresh fruit on the table and poured two glasses of milk.

“I smoked pot. Braden’s still sporting an eye that says he got in trouble at school.” Holly sighed as she took a banana from the bowl. “What if they don’t like us, and Mack moves out?”

“I’m sure that isn’t going to happen,” Lily reassured them. “But we do need to talk about something here. Mack’s dad is Orville, and he has Alzheimer’s. Do either of you know what that is?”

“Nope,” Braden said.

“Is that when a person gets old and their hands start to shake?” Holly asked.

“No, that’s Parkinson’s. What I’m talking about is when people begin to get something known as dementia, and they don’t remember things very well. Sometimes they get mad because they can’t remember, or they think you’re someone else. Other times they’re better at remembering, so y’all need to keep that in mind.” Lily tried to explain.

“Is Mack going to get like that someday?” Holly’s eyes were wide. “We’ve been studying a little about genetics in science class. We kind of learned why some of us are short and some are tall, and some have blue eyes and others have brown ones. Is this something Mack might get? I don’t want him to not know me.”

“I don’t think so,” Lily answered.

“Good,” Holly said. “I’ll have to do some research on it when I get back to the library.”

“Does his mama have it, too?” Braden asked.

“No, she doesn’t. Her name is Nora, and she reminds me a lot of your Granny Vera. I would appreciate it very much if you spent some time with them.”

“All right.” Holly nodded. “But you didn’t answer our question. Are you going to marry Mack?”

Lily said honestly, “I can’t answer your question very well. We haven’t even been on a real date, and—”

“For God’s sake, Mama.” Holly butted in before Lily could finish. “We aren’t living in caveman days.” Holly’s tone was full of dramatic exasperation. “You can ask him out if he don’t ask you.”

“We’ve only been here a short while,” Lily countered.

“But we’ve lived together in one house for like what? Six weeks now?” Braden rolled his big brown eyes toward the ceiling. “So if you were dating him, it would be like a gazillion dates.”

“The only answer I can give you right now is that we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds. We can’t rush time,” Lily told them.

“Well, I’d be all right with it.” Holly finished her banana and milk.

“So you’re ready to stay in Comfort and not move back to Austin?” Lily asked.

“Duh!” Holly rolled her eyes. “Of course I want to stay here. This is way better than Austin, and besides, Sally said I can work in her store when I get sixteen, and who’d have Sunday dinner with Granny Hayes if I wasn’t here?” She did a head bob and then changed the subject. “Hey, when I get my homework done, would you and Mack play a game of Scrabble with us after supper?”

“Where’d you get a Scrabble game?” Lily asked.

“She was snooping in the old buffet in the dining room and found a whole bunch of board games,” Braden tattled. “I told her I could beat her because I used to play online on my tablet, back when we had Wi-Fi. Are we ever going to get it here?”

“I wasn’t snooping,” Holly argued. “I was just looking for something.”

“What?” Braden grinned. “A joint?”

Holly shoved a finger so close to his now multicolored eye that he jumped and almost fell out of his chair. “I was not, and I haven’t drank or smoked since we left Austin.”

“What’s going to happen when you get your phone back?” Braden argued. “All your pot-smoking, partying Austin friends are going to be texting and calling.”

Holly did one of her famous head wiggles. “I’ll take care of it. Are you going to run away and go back to your little hoodlum friends?”

“Nope,” he responded with a perfect imitation of her head roll. “I’m going to join 4-H and then FFA.”

Holly sighed loudly. “He’s horrible, Mama. Why didn’t you give him away at birth?”

“Because you needed me to take care of you,” Braden laughed.

At his last word, she stormed out of the room.

Someday they were going to stop their incessant arguing and be friends. At least Lily hoped so. Supper was in the oven—dessert in the refrigerator. She had a few minutes, so she wandered upstairs to see what, if any, other entries Rachel might have written in the journal.

“You got time to read another passage in the journal?” She rapped on Holly’s open door.

“Yes, ma’am.” Holly beat her mother to Lily’s bed.

Lily opened the flap of the old oak secretary, took the journal out, and opened it to the page where she’d left her bookmark. She was glad to see Rachel’s name on the next page, but sad that again so much time had passed between the new date and the previous one.

She read, “Rachel O’Riley Callahan, June 1926.”

“Yay!” Holly squealed. “We still got Rachel.”

Lily went on with a smile on her face:

“My sweet daughter Sophia has married and left Oklahoma. She fell in love with a man named Fred, who came to our parts a few months ago to buy cattle for his place in Texas. They corresponded when he went back to his home, and he asked her to marry him. I can’t say I’m happy about it. He still lives with his German parents, who I understand are very set in their ways. But she is eighteen and her mind was made up. It was either let her marry him or else she would have run away and done it anyway. She writes me a letter once a week. I learned that she hasn’t settled into the town or the place so well. I didn’t realize what a good friend she was to me until she wasn’t here anymore. To say that I miss her would be an understatement. I read her letters over and over and wish she would have listened to me. I could see that Fred was a controlling man, probably much like his own father. She wasn’t raised to bow down and kiss a man’s feet. I swear that I will be a nosy mother and give my boys a talking-to if they ever treat a woman like they own her. I just wish I could do that for Sophia. She sounds so homesick and miserable in her letters. I’ve told her that she can come back home, but she said that she made her bed and she will lay in it.”