Holly spun around, pointing at every wall. “There’s no closet in this room. The dresser only has three drawers, and look at that tiny mirror. The lighting is horrible. How am I supposed to put on my makeup, and where am I supposed to hang my clothes?”

“You sounded like you were dying!” Lily grabbed the doorjamb and fanned herself.

“You’ve taken away everything, including my closet, where I—” Holly stopped herself short and threw herself backward on the bed.

“Where you what? Hide your marijuana?” Lily asked. “See that?” She pointed toward a sturdy clothes rack in the corner. “That’s what I used for a closet when I lived here, and I’m still alive. I don’t expect it will kill you to use it until you go away to college.”

Holly sat up and let one trained tear roll down her cheek. “Please take us home. I will never smoke pot again in my life, or drink or sneak out at night or—” She clamped a hand over her mouth.

Lily sat down on the bed beside her and gently wiped away the tear with her fingertip. “After that confession, honey, we aren’t even going back to Austin for a visit until summer gets here. You’ll graduate in a little more than three years. Then you can go to college and have a real closet. Or hide a whole rope ladder under your bed.”

Holly’s expression changed from one of pure repentance to absolute rebellion. “When I get out of this prison, I’ll never come back, not even to your funeral.”

“I won’t know it. I’ll be dead.” Lily stood up and headed for the door. “It’s raining. The boxes are all inside the house. At least their contents will be dry. And FYI, one of the boxes with your name on it is filled with hangers. I remembered to pack them while you had breakfast this morning. Holly, darlin’, I do love you.”

Holly sprang off the bed and tipped her chin up in the air. She whipped around dramatically and ripped the tape off a box. Lily turned and headed back down the stairs as if nothing had happened.

“Whew! That was intense,” Mack whispered as he followed her.

“That was just a little bit of temper and a well-trained tear. Intense was when I walked in that library bathroom and caught her smoking a joint,” Lily said. “Are you sure you can handle us living here?”

“I’m a teacher.” He stacked one box on top of another and started back up the stairs. “I’ve seen a little bit of everything.”

“I was a school counselor until Holly was born, but living with a kid twenty-four, seven is different than having them in a classroom for an hour a day,” she said.