Adam thought he should demand to know where his brother was going, but he didn’t have the courage to ask. “I can’t wait to leave this place,” he muttered as he headed to the house and the shower.

Robbie wanted his brother to think he was heading off to some wild rendezvous but, as he often did, he was going to the Exton house. Vera was at work today, so there’d be no one to say, “Are you here again?” For the life of him, he couldn’t understand what Adam saw in her.

If he was lucky, Kelly would be there. Since Mac Exton died, their house had almost become an animal hospital. Dr. Carl didn’t care about what he called “the exotics” but Kelly loved them. Turtles with broken shells, injured possums, wounded birds. One summer Kelly took care of a young deer in the backyard. That ended when it escaped and ate all of Nella’s lettuces. After that incident, Kelly gave Robbie a copy of The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. He loved it.

As he pulled into the drive, he sighed. Alas, Kelly’s Jeep wasn’t there. He gave a single knock, then entered the house.

As he hoped, Nella was in the kitchen and the old stove was covered with big pots. The smell was delicious.

He rounded the corner, then halted. Not only was Nella there but so was Fortunata. To him, they were a beautiful sight. Two women, older but certainly not old, comfortably plump and smiling at him.

He took turns hugging and lifting them while they giggled like girls. “What smells so good? Besides you two, that is?”

They giggled some more.

“Beef and chicken broth,” Nella said. “We’re getting it ready to make soup.”

“And we made bread,” Forey added. “Think you could manage a slice or two?”

Robbie took a seat at the old kitchen table. It was stainless steel with a red Formica top. It had been scrubbed so many times that white showed through in places. “I’m starving. There’s no food in my house and Adam is being a jerk and...” He gave a sad sigh.

The women weren’t fooled; they knew him too well. They put before him a platter heaped with food. It was part traditional American and part Mexican. No matter what could be said about Kansas residents, they ate well!

As Robbie dug in, he wondered if he should say that he knew about Kelly’s engagement. She’d said it quickly, so maybe she was waiting for the ring before she announced it outside the family. “So what’s your news?” Did anything in the world taste better than bread fresh out of the oven? Nella bought cream from a local dairy and put it into her blender to churn it into butter. There was a pot of it on the table and he slathered the bread.