“Penny for your thoughts,” Mack said.

“I was just thinking about how nice it is to have help in the kitchen. I appreciate you having the coffee made and sometimes even breakfast when I come downstairs.” That was the truth, even if it wasn’t the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

“Mama used to tell me that you get to know someone best when you work beside them, and I love any time we can spend together.” He took down two plates and got the cutlery from a drawer. “When I first moved in here, it seemed strange to use your mother’s dishes and pots and pans, but after I’d settled in, it made me feel like family.”

“What did you do with what you had?” she asked.

“I’d been living in a little trailer behind Mama and Daddy’s place north of town. It was furnished, and I pretty much used paper plates when I didn’t eat with the folks. When they sold the place, the new owners wanted the trailer for a grandfather who was going to live with them. This place was a godsend what with everything already here. I just moved your folks’ bedroom stuff up to the spare room and bought myself new furniture,” he said.

“Did you unload that old secretary before you moved it?” she asked.

“Nope,” he answered. “I collected up four of my FFA boys, and they helped me.”

Lily decided right then that she wasn’t bringing a single bit of her furniture from Austin. She’d sell it all and put the money in the velvet bag for a vacation next summer. The past was going to be left in the past. Her future was in Comfort in her old two-story stone home, and hopefully Holly’s jury would come in with a positive verdict.

After dinner she and Mack cuddled together in front of the television to watch episodes of Justified. Her head was on his shoulder, and being there with him on a buttery-soft leather sofa that her parents had bought twenty years ago felt right. Having his arm around her as they talked was comfortable and yet exciting at the same time.

Her thoughts wandered back to the journal, to the last entry that Jenny had written, about her father leaving the family for another woman. Someday, like Lily had told him, Wyatt was going to wake up and realize what he had given up for Victoria. Maybe it would take until he never met his grandchildren, but he’d realize it.

She snuggled down closer to Mack and fell asleep with his arm around her.

“Mack! Guess what?” Braden came into the house yelling loud enough to wake the dead over in the next county.

“What?” Lily opened her eyes but didn’t move away from Mack.

“We’re in here, and what happened? This time he said, ‘Mack,’ not ‘Mama.’” Mack whispered the last part.