‘‘I think about you that way.’’ He saw, even with the distance, the way her eyes widened, darkened, the way her pretty smile slid away so that she only stared. ‘‘I don’t want to. I tell myself not to. But I think about you that way. Now go on inside,’’ he told her gently.

‘‘Ethan—’’

‘‘Go on. It’s late.’’

She managed to turn the knob, to step inside, shut the door behind her. But she turned quickly to the window to watch him get back in his truck and drive away.

It was late, she thought with a shiver that she recognized as hope. But maybe it wasn’t too late.

SEVEN

‘‘ I APPRECIATE YOU HELP ing me out, Mama.’’

‘‘Helping you out?’’ Carol Monroe tsk-tsked the thought away as she knelt to tie the laces on Aubrey’s pink sneaker. ‘‘Taking this cube of sugar home with me for the afternoon is pure pleasure.’’ She gave Aubrey a chuck under the chin. ‘‘We’re going to have us a time, aren’t we, honey?’’

Aubrey grinned, knowing her ground. ‘‘Toys! We got toys, Gramma. Dollbabies.’’

‘‘You bet we do. And I might just have a surprise for you when we get there.’’

Aubrey’s eyes grew huge and bright. She sucked in her breath to let out a sharp squeal of delight as she jumped down from the chair to race through the house in her own version of a victory dance.

‘‘Oh, Mama, not another doll. You spoil her.’’

‘‘Can’t,’’ Carol said firmly, giving her knee a push to help herself straighten. ‘‘Besides, it’s my privilege as a granny.’’

Since Aubrey was occupied running and shouting, Carol took a moment to study her daughter. Not sleeping enough, as usual, she decided, noting the shadows smudged under Grace’s eyes. Not eating enough to feed a bird either, though she’d brought over Grace’s favorite homemade peanut butter cookies to try to put some flesh on her girl’s delicate bones.

A child not yet twenty-three ought to paint her face a little, put some curl in her hair, and go out kicking up her heels a night or two instead of working herself into the ground.

Since Carol had said as much a dozen times or more and had been ignored on the subject a dozen times or more, she tried a different tack. ‘‘You got to quit that night work, Gracie. It doesn’t agree with you.’’

‘‘I’m fine.’’

‘‘Good hard work’s necessary for living, and admirable, but a person’s got to mix in some pleasure and fun or they dry right up.’’