Haywood laughed and told Isabel he believed he could eat just another small slice of that coconut pie if she’d cut him off one.

Out in the kitchen, Jane Ann set the remains of a pork roast on the kitchen counter. “Come for a ride?” she asked her brother. She slid soiled tableware into the dishwasher basket. “It’s been ages since you and I took the horses out together.”

“Sorry, kid, I really did tell Eric I’d pick him up before two. Maybe next time.”

“Sure,” she said, trying not to whine.

A CD she’d borrowed from Annie Sue lay on the counter where she’d left it when they came home last night. Drops of water had splashed on the cover, and she carefully blotted them away with a paper towel, then set it atop the refrigerator out of harm’s way.

“It’s just that I never get to see you alone. Now that you’re at Carolina, you’re gone most of the time. And when you do come home, you’re either hanging out with Gayle or your friends. It’s like the older you get, the less I see of you. Like you’re not part of the family anymore.”

“You and I spent the whole morning together,” Stevie protested.

“In church? Here with Mom and Dad? I don’t count that being together.” She went back to putting away the leftovers.

“Well, what about yesterday? You were at the carnival with your friends all day while I was out here alone with the ironing board and washer.” Stevie held the refrigerator door open for her. “Things change.”

He grinned and draped a dishtowel over her head. “But you’re always going to be my doofus sister, no matter how old I get.”

Jane Ann crumpled the towel into a ball and aimed it at his head; he ducked and caught it just before it hit his tea glass on the counter.

“Good hands,” she said. “I still wish you’d come riding, though.”

“I wish to hell I could, too, kid.” He sounded so sincerely regretful that she was mollified.

“Well, don’t let it wreck your life. Actually, I’ve got homework myself. Two more acts of Shakespeare to read.”

“Miss Barnes’s class?”

“Yeah, and she expects us to know the meaning of every single word.”

“I know. I had her, too, remember?”

So okay. Yes, thought Jane Ann as they shared groans over the toughest teacher at West Colleton High. He will always be my brother.

Twenty minutes later, Stevie was helping Eric throw his duffel bag in the back of the Jeep.

“This is crazy, you know that, don’t you?” he said when they were on the road and heading east, not north toward Shaw in Raleigh.

“When else’ll we have this chance?” Eric said logically. “Sunday afternoon? The place should be deserted. You don’t think it’s fair Lamarr should get cheated out of what’s rightfully his, do you?”