“Sure, you can.” Sally pushed her empty plate back and picked up a cookie. “But I really think it will be good for you to get out of the house. I’ve been opening at nine, but if you want to come in at eight and leave at three thirty, that’s just fine by me. Oh, and I cleared it with my CPA before I even came out here. She says that I can offer you insurance and vacation time.”

“You’re making it very tempting,” Lily said. “But what if things don’t work out here and I go back to Austin? I’d be leaving you in a bind, and what am I going to do if I go back without any clients?”

“You can always go back to working for a school. You know how the state is always crying for school counselors.” Sally pushed back her chair and stood up. “Even with that, you’d be getting out of the house. I’ve got to run. Thanks for the lasagna and cookies. Think it over and we’ll talk again in a couple of days.”

“I will.” Lily stood and walked her friend to the back door. “And thank you for the offer.”

“Hey, I couldn’t think of anyone I could work with every day until you came home. Seems like a win-win to me.” Sally gave her a brief hug and put on her coat and scarf. “It’s colder’n a mother-in-law’s kiss out there. I see Mack and Braden comin’ this way. They look half-frozen.” She hustled on out to her business van and honked the horn as she left.

Mack threw up a hand in a wave, but Braden kept his hands tucked into his coat pockets. Their shoulders were hunched against a fierce north wind that rattled the tree limbs. The weatherman had said there was a cold front on the way, but she hadn’t realized that it had arrived. She checked the thermometer hanging on a porch post and saw that it was below freezing—that meant the temperature had dropped more than twenty degrees since she had looked at it that morning.

“Mama always said that if you don’t like the Texas weather, just stick around twenty minutes and watch it change,” she muttered to herself as she got down everything she needed to make hot chocolate.

As soon as he and Braden were inside, Mack removed his stocking hat and gloves, shoved them into his mustard-colored work coat, and hung it on one of the hooks by the back door. He kicked off his rubber boots and set them beside Lily’s father’s old boots. Lily’s mother had said that she just couldn’t part with the last boots he’d worn or his old stained work coat that hung on a nail above them.