"And you let them live and even invited them to Christmas dinner? I always pictured you as a take-charge, don't-messwith-me woman"

"Billy Lee, you've pictured me all wrong. I'm a wimp."

"A wimp wouldn't have cut her ties as cleanly as you did. So you didn't want to know what was going on. At least when you found out for sure, you didn't sit around moping and feeling sorry for yourself. You walked out and started all over."

"But Gert made that easy to do," I answered.

"You'd have pitched a tent alongside Pennington Creek and used a public restroom before you'd have lived with Drew Williams after you found out he was cheating."

How had this man come to know me so well?

"The good?" he prompted.

There had been so many good things. To list them would take more than the time I had left in this topsy-turvy world that had spun my life in a hundred-eighty-degree turnaround.

"Good would be that Crystal and I are forming some kind of adult relationship. That Momma has had a few good days and that we got to celebrate the holidays with her. That I've got a house full of gorgeous things built by a new friend I cherish. Good would also be the mornings when I smell bacon and coffee as I stumble half asleep toward the kitchen. It's finding baby kittens and feeling safe. The good outweighs the ugly by far."

He smiled. "The bad?"

"Today," I answered honestly. "I hate confrontation. I still don't know how I had the courage or the anger to have that showdown with the Williams bunch. Dealing with Marty and Betsy was easier than that"

"If you could go back and redo any of it, would you?"

"No."

We sat there a few more minutes before I realized I'd just bared my soul. "Aunt Gert used to say that turnabout was fair play. So it's your turn, Billy Lee. The good, the bad, and the ugly of the whole year."

"The ugly. The way people acted at Gert's funeral. She was a fine lady, and she deserved to be mourned properly. You were the only one who was sad.

"The good. Gert leaving you the house so the hole in my heart was filled up again"

I was amazed beyond words. That was good in his eyes. He'd worked his fingers to the bone, and there was still work to do.

"The bad. Today."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why was today bad for you?"

"Because when Crystal and I came into the house and found you'd left without even touching your breakfast, I was afraid you'd gone back to Drew. It was a long day for me, until Crystal brought the truck home and told me what had happened"

He looked at his watch. "Ten, nine . .

He tossed off his blanket and held out a hand. I pushed aside my own quilt and took his hand to go inside. We'd watched the old year ebb out into history as the birth of a brand-new one came sliding into home base.

He kept my hand in his and nodded toward the other side of the lake, where fireworks lit up the dark sky. "Seven, six ..

"Five, four, three, two .. " He pulled me close and looked deeply into my eyes, a faint smile on his face.

The man was going to kiss me. My thoughts were jumbled and my mind frantic.

"One...

The kiss caused as many fireworks inside me as the ones showing their glory across the lake. Then he hugged me tightly and said, "Happy New Year, Trudy."

My ears were ringing so loudly, I wouldn't ever be completely sure what I said, or if I said anything. He kept my hand in his-surprisingly, it fit there as if it had been formed especially for that purpose-and led me through the glass doors into the living room.

"Good night. Sleep well." He leaned forward and brushed a sweet kiss across my forehead that was as passionate as the one on my lips.

I closed the door to the bedroom, sank down onto the bed, and stared at the ceiling, looking for answers to questions I couldn't even form. I began to rationalize. Billy Lee had wanted the day to end on a nice note and had felt obligated to give me the traditional New Year's kiss. There were just the two of us at the house, and I'd had a bad day. He was a good man and an almighty fine kisser.

I fanned my glowing face with the back of one hand. He'd made my toes, my lips, and everything in between tingle in ways it never had before. I wanted to kiss him again so badly, it was a chore to keep the bedroom door shut.

The next morning I awoke to the aroma of coffee and bacon but dreaded leaving the bedroom. I dressed slowly, made the bed, and invented a dozen things to keep me from going out into the kitchen to avoid the awkwardness that was sure to hang in the air like cigarette smoke in a cheap bar. Finally I opened the bedroom door and took a step out into the living room.

Billy Lee was the same as always. "Good morning. I thought I heard you up and around. Temperature is forty degrees, and the sun is rising, so we'll have a lovely day. What would you like to do with it?"

"Can we take the boat out and putter around the lake?" My voice came out sounding normal. Maybe I'd only imagined that he'd kissed me so passionately last night. Perhaps it was just a dream and hadn't really happened at all. No, not even my most vivid dream was that real.

"Sounds like a plan to me. I'll leave black-eyed peas cooking in the Crock-Pot, and we'll have them for supper. Have to eat our peas and greens today if we're going to have good luck all year. Did you bring a warm jacket? The wind can get cold out there on the water."

"I did," I said.

"I'll take along a quilt just in case you get cold," he said.

That was my Billy Lee, always thinking about me, and I loved it.

I set the table for two and found butter and jam in the refrigerator. Billy Lee had already whipped eggs for scrambling, and biscuits were in the oven.

"I'd better eat a double portion of peas and greens," I mumbled.

"How many did you eat last year?"

"Not a single bite, but I'm not jinxing what w h a t . I stopped. I'd almost said, "what we have"

I cleared my throat. "I'm not about to jinx any good luck coming my way"

We had breakfast just as if we were at home in Tishomingo. We talked about the cabinets Billy Lee was finishing for the kitchen and the stain we planned to use. A rich cherry finish. Not as red as mahogany, but something that would enhance the grain and go with the white marble countertops. I could already see starched white curtains on the windows and pots of herbs on the sills.

It was as if we were two old, settled married people. Only we weren't, and if that kiss from the night before was any indication of what being married to Billy Lee would be like, it would be far from "settled," and there wouldn't be any dull moments.

I wore a pair of jeans, a red turtleneck, and a zippered sweatshirt with a hood. The sun was warm, and Billy Lee tucked a quilt around my legs so I was cozy as I propped myself up on pillows and read an old LaVyrle Spencer romance book. I'd read it at least a dozen times before, but it was like having tea with an old friend: same friend, same tea, still good.

I sneaked peeks at Billy Lee all day. His blue eyes were piercing, and I wanted to touch his hair. At that thought, high color flooded my cheeks. I felt like I was too close to an open fire. I went back to fiction; it was much safer than reality.

"You want the new baby to be a boy or girl?" he asked out of the clear blue.