“You’re probably right,” Bliss agreed as she sat across the table, her back to the window. Outside the glass a robin was busy pulling up worms from the morning-damp lawn. Bliss didn’t have to like the woman, just hear her out. Unfortunately, Katie seemed to be one of those bubbly, wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve types that she found endearing.

“I have to admit, though,” Katie said, sipping her coffee as Bliss cut the rolls apart and placed one of the sugary confections on a small plate, “after living with three brothers it was a relief to know that I had a sister—well, really, two sisters!”

Katie, all five feet two inches of her, cut into her pastry. She was small and wiry, with quick movements and the exuberance of a brushfire at the height of summer. No moss grew under this little woman’s feet. “And what’s your name?” she asked as Oscar, slowly wagging his tail, galloped into the room, only to slide to a stop at the table.

“Oscar. I’ve had him a couple of years.”

“Well, you’re just adorable,” Katie said to the dog who wiggled at her feet. “Do you hear me? A-dor-a-ble.” Without checking with Bliss, she tossed the mutt a bite of pecan roll, which he tossed and gulped in one swift motion. She wiped her hands and asked suddenly, “Do you have any kids?”

Bliss ignored the jab in her heart and shook her head. “No. At least not yet. Never been married.”

“Neither have I, but I’ve got a boy—Josh. He’s hell on wheels and the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me. I always say kids are the biggest blessing and curse of your life. You love them so much you worry about them day and night.” She bit her lower lip and stared out the window, but Bliss guessed she wasn’t seeing the horses grazing in the field grass or one of the ranch hands shoring up the ramp to the back of the barn. No, Katie was in her own private world—a world that seemed to revolve around her son.

Bliss felt the same tug on her heartstrings that had become a regular feeling whenever she thought of her own childless state. Ever since coming to Bittersweet she had been conscious of her biological clock. This wasn’t a new experience. For the past few years as her friends and coworkers had become mothers, she’d felt her maternal instincts awakening, and she’d only wished she could have given her mother a grandchild while she was alive.

“Lately, Josh—he’s ten going on sixteen—has been getting into a powder keg of trouble. I’m telling you, when school’s not in session, look out!” Katie flung her arms wide, as if they’d been blown apart, before she finally turned away from the window and met Bliss’s uneasy stare.