“I want to so you’ll understand how it is between me and Adam,” Mack said. “He’ll be coming around every so often. I don’t want you to think I’m a bastard because of my indifference to him. I love him, but I don’t like him so much. But back to my reasons. Brenda and I went back to college after three nights here in Comfort. She was acting kind of weird, and after we left, she told me that the second night we were here, she had slept with Adam out in the hay barn. They were married as soon as school was out, and of course, Adam got the family heirloom.”

“And it didn’t last, did it?”

Mack shook his head. “Five years later, I fell in love with Natalie, but you can bet your sweet soul I wasn’t bringing her around Adam. By then I was teaching in Hondo, and Natalie and I were living together. Mama and Dad came to visit one weekend, and I figure she’d mentioned Natalie to Adam. He showed up at the house one Sunday afternoon with the excuse that he hadn’t seen me since Christmas. History repeated itself. He left Brenda for Natalie.”

“Good Lord!” Lily gasped. “What’s the matter with him?”

Mack shrugged. “I’ve talked to Drew about it several times. He says that Adam can’t stand to see me happy.”

“And his last wife, Charlene?”

“That’s on him. She was Natalie’s third cousin. He met her at the wedding, and he divorced Natalie six months after they were married. He and Charlene got married a few months after that,” Mack said. “He’s always been the good-lookin’ twin, the one that could get any woman he wanted. I’ll never understand why he had to take away my happiness.”

“How can you even stand to be in the same room with him?” Lily asked.

“He’s my brother, and he has a problem. I can’t fix it, but I can’t seem to cut ties with him, either,” Mack replied.

“My sister and I got along well before she died, but then we were both really young. Sometimes I wonder if we’d have bickered like Braden and Holly if she’d lived longer than eight years. I was only five that year and just remember being lost without her. I admire you for continuing to be a brother to him after the way—” She stopped and stammered, “Do you think he was flirting with me because he thinks we are . . .”

“Probably, but then, you are a beautiful woman, Lily, and more likely, he simply couldn’t help himself,” Mack said.

“Well, I don’t like him, never have, not even in high school. I’m sorry to say that about your brother, but I don’t,” she said.

“I don’t like him most of the time, either, but I love him because he’s my brother. When I was so mad at him for what he did with Brenda and then again with Natalie, it brought on a guilt trip because we’re supposed to love our siblings. I’ve come to realize that you can love someone but not like them,” Mack said.