“Lord…I remember this ring, but I never knew it was her engagement ring. Are you sure you want to give this up?”

“I’m sure. If Ava is the woman you love, remember Mama helped raise her, too. She will love it, and I’ll bet she remembers it, too.”

Hunt closed the box. “Thank you for thinking of her.”

“I was thinking of you, too,” Emma said. “Mama would be really happy to know it was being passed on to another member of the family.”

“Then, I thank you, and this is so going to be Ava’s engagement ring. Next time you see it, it’s going to be on her finger.”

Emma sighed. “I’m glad you approve. Now I’m going to get out of here so you can finish your lunch. I can’t wait to see what this place looks like when you’re through with it, and I keep wondering who’ll live in it next.”

“It needs to belong to new people who’ll put good energy into it,” Hunt said.

“Agreed,” Emma said. “So, Birdie said we were all coming over soon to get what we want of Mama’s stuff before the auction.”

“She said something about coming this Saturday,” Hunt said.

“Then Saturday it is. You and Birdie are the only two take-charge, organized people in the family.”

Hunt walked her to the door, then after she was gone, took the ring and put it in an inner pocket of his duffel bag. Now he needed to figure out the perfect way to give it to Ava tonight.

* * *

A new shipment of cattle cubes had just come into the store, and Arnold Hollis was getting ready to move pallets to the far end of the building. But when he got on the forklift and started it up, the lift wouldn’t work. He got off, saw oil leaking out of the hydraulics, and sighed, then went looking for Dub.

Birdie was coming up the hall and Arnold waved her down.

“Hey, Birdie. Have you seen Dub? The hydraulics are out on the forklift, and we just got in a new shipment of cubes that need to be moved.”

“He’s out back, I think. Want me to go get him?” Birdie asked.

“Just tell him the forklift is leaking fluid. I’m gonna go start moving the cubes by hand.”

Birdie eyed the stoop to Arnold’s shoulders and knew he was already depressed about his boys being in jail.

“Why don’t you just wait a bit, or get some of the guys to help you?” she said.

“I need to stay busy,” Arnold said, and then winked at her. “Keeps a man out of trouble when he stays busy, you know,” and then walked back into the storage end of the building.

Birdie smiled, thought nothing more of it, dropped off the paperwork Dub wanted, and went back to her office.