“Will this be the rest of my life, thinking of Fred and what he likes—liked?”

Spook barreled past her to his dish, then stared at her with a sharp bark. “I know, your food is not in your dish. Sorry, sir. I’m falling down on the job.” She snagged a tissue off the box on the counter, blew her nose, wiped her eyes, and heaved a sigh. The cat had padded upstairs from sleeping with Addy at the sound of the refrigerator door opening. Cat food, dog food, fill the water bowl, make the coffee. Build a new morning routine. So far, Amalia had taken over the morning chores. Today I am going to learn how to set the coffeemaker the night before so I can wake up to the smell of coffee.

She grabbed her robe off the hook in the bathroom, slid her feet into her boots, and dog at her side, headed for the chicken house. She’d heard of a solar-powered gizmo to open the chicken house door at whatever time she set it. Might just be worth looking into.

Good thing she could open the door from the outside. She’d still not been able to force herself to go into the chicken house. Today was not going to be the day. Addy would gladly feed the chickens and collect the eggs. She left the gate to the chicken yard open so they would have free range like they usually did. Surely today she would see the hens drinking out of the low bird bath. One time she’d gotten a picture of them gathered around the concrete bath. The wild birds were not enthusiastic about sharing their bath with the big domestic birds.

In the barn, she dug grain out of the bin, dumped some in the manger for the pony and the donkey, and after throwing a couple flakes of hay in the steer feeder, poured a can of grain on top of that. “There you go, boys. Sorry to be late.” Last stop was Boss Lady, the Hereford cow, and her heifer calf, Bets. Fred had named her, after they had bet on the sex of the calf before it was born. This was Boss Lady’s first year to have a heifer, and they had planned to keep her. She was now two months old and still not real sure about those critters that walked on two legs.

Ginny had asked Addy to come down and brush Magic and Smoky. The kids used to ride them but had pretty much outgrown them. They had talked about buying a couple of horses so they could go riding, Addy loved to ride and so did Andy. Ginny did too. Perhaps if they—she—did, it would help loosen up her hips. Something more to think about.

The bottom of her robe was wet from the dew on the grass, but instead of going to change, she poured herself a cup of coffee and took it out on the deck, where the lounge beckoned her. Spook flopped down beside her and started licking the wet off his feet. With a plaintive mee-ow, the cat jumped up on her legs and walked up to curl in her sort of lap.