“You want a job as a substitute teacher? I can probably get you one at the school. We’re always short on qualified subs.”

“I hope I can build a little counseling practice here in Comfort. If I do, I wouldn’t have time to sub, but thank you.” She followed him up the staircase. “It’ll take a while to get clientele built up, but maybe in a few months, it’ll show some kind of profit. As long as I have a computer and Wi-Fi, I’m good.”

He turned around at the top of the staircase. “Guess you’d better call someone to install Wi-Fi, then, because we don’t have any technical stuff here. I’ve got a cell phone, but I don’t even use all the data I’m given every month.”

“We really are living in the boonies.” She managed a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Yep, and I love every single minute of it.” He disappeared into Braden’s room with the boxes.

She couldn’t quite agree with him, but she hoped that someday she’d be able to say, “Amen.” Right at that moment, Lily felt a whole lot like her daughter. She had been jerked out of her church, taken away from her friends, and didn’t even have a closet, either. But deep down in her soul, she knew this was the right move. She’d brushed so many incidents under the rug, and told herself each one of them was just another phase they were passing through. Now it was time to jerk her head out of the sand.

She reminded herself again that a kid could kick any bush between the Red River and the Gulf of Mexico and a dozen friends would come rolling out, but they only got one mother—mean or otherwise. With a fresh start here in Comfort, she hoped she’d do a better job of being the mom they needed.

Fresh start? I’d say you’re coming back to your roots. Her mother’s gravelly voice, so much like her own, was so clear that Lily whipped around to see if she was coming out of the kitchen.

“Well, there’s that, too,” Lily muttered.

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Lily turned around slowly, taking in the whole room that had been hers before she left for college. The lace curtains were the only things that were the same. When Mack had moved into the house, he’d cleaned out everything from the downstairs bedroom into the room that had been emptied when Lily moved into her first apartment.