When Hannah yanked opened the front door two puppies dashed between her legs, ran out onto the porch, and down the steps. Amelia and Sadie followed close behind, waving their leashes.

“Benji, Carole, come back here,” Amelia yelled.

The puppies raced around the yard, getting closer to the road by the second. Grace took the steps two at a time, and she and Amelia finally collected the wriggling bundles of fur and transported them to the pen behind the kitchen. Sadie trailed behind with the leashes.

Hannah turned and shook her head, but said nothing. The last thing she needed to concern herself with now was puppies, but it was clear they must install a fence out back so the puppies could be outside and safe.

With the puppies tucked and settled in their cage, and Sadie settled before the television in the guest bedroom, Amelia beckoned Grace to the kitchen. “I must talk to you.”

Grace pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and sat. “Why the conspiratorial tone?”

“A cup of tea?” Amelia nodded toward the boiling teapot on the stove.

“Sure. Why not?”

Amelia made them each a cup of tea and set the box of Splenda on the table near Grace, who opened two packets and poured their contents into her cup. “At least this doesn’t have an aftertaste, and I can enjoy a cup of tea.” She looked at Amelia. “What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Amelia collapsed in the chair across the table, told Grace about her meeting with May at Lake Louise, about May’s confessing her feelings to Denny, about Charlie arriving, and May’s landlady calling her to May’s room. “May’s been through the wringer, and she’s trying to pull herself together. She’s taking an eight-week nurse’s aide course at A-B Tech. She lost her job at the factory. Awful work, assembly line, minimum wage.”

“I’m very sorry for May. She must have felt humiliated when she went to Denny Ledbetter and that happened. I feel sorry for him, too. What could he say? She’s way older than he is.”

Amelia nodded and folded her arms across her chest. She tossed her head and laughed lightly. “And fool that I am, I invited May, in the most offhand, casual manner, believe me, to stay awhile with us until she got settled.”

Grace pictured the shy, silent May telling Denny that she was in love with him. Amazingly, Alma had been right when she said that something was going on, though she assumed it was a mutual caring between Denny and May. “Doesn’t it strike you as ludicrous that May would want to live here with us, almost across the road from Denny, if she’s so humiliated? It’s unavoidable, if she stays here, that she’ll run into him. What can May be thinking?”