“Not bizarre, honey. It’s right.”

“Right?”

“For the first time in a lot of years, I . . . I feel free ’cause I’m not livin’a lie.” Blue eyes met hers from across the table. “Your mother was a fine woman—I won’t take that away from her—but we weren’t happy together. Hadn’t been for a long time.”

“I know.” A dull pain settled in her heart. She’d felt the tension between her parents, known that theirs wasn’t a marriage made in heaven, but still, they had been married and Bliss, though she hated to admit it, still believed in “till death us do part.”

“She’s gone, honey,” her father said. “I would never have divorced her, you know.”

“Only cheated on her.”

He looked down and sliced his hotcakes with the side of his fork. “Guess I can’t expect you to understand.”

“I’m trying, Dad,” she said, unable to hide the emotion in her words. “Believe me, I’m trying.” Resting her elbows on the table, she cradled her cup in two hands. Through the paned windows she could see the barn and pastures. White-faced Hereford cattle mingled with Black Angus as they grazed on grass sparkling with morning dew.

The silence stretched between them, with only the ticking of the clock, the low of cattle, the rumble of a tractor’s engine in the distance and an excited yip from Oscar as he explored his new surroundings, breaking the uneasy quietude.

John washed down a bite of pancake with a swallow of coffee. “Since I had the heart attack and looked the Grim Reaper square in his black eyes, I’ve decided to do exactly what I want with the few years I have left.”

“And that includes marrying this . . . this Brynnie woman.”

“Believe it or not, Bliss, she’s got a heart of gold.”

“And a string of ex-husbands long enough to—”

“She made some bad choices, I know. So did I. And if it’s any comfort to you, I never ran around with another woman while I was married to your mother.”

“Just Brynnie.” Bliss couldn’t hide the bitterness in her voice.

“Yes.”

“Isn’t she enough?”

He shoved his half-eaten breakfast aside and skewered his daughter with a look of sheer determination. “I know you don’t approve. Can’t blame you. But no one was hurt.”

“What about Mom?”

“Your mother and I . . . We had an arrangement.”

“An arrangement?” Bliss sputtered, choking on a mouthful of coffee. “It’s called marriage, Dad, and one of the vows a person takes when they get married is fidelity. To be faithful. It doesn’t seem a lot to ask.” She couldn’t help the rising tone of her voice as if she were on the earth solely to defend Margaret Cawthorne’s honor. Everything she believed in was being tested and though she was trying, really trying to understand, she was having difficulty. Rise above it; it’s not a big deal, Mom’s gone, her mind argued with the loyalty that burned bright in her heart and the belief that love lasted a lifetime.