“You do that, and make him go feed the goats with you. He should get his hands dirty once in a while,” Orville said.

“Darlin’, Adam is the president of a bank,” Nora reminded her husband in a soothing voice. “He hates any kind of outside work. Remember? He even has a gardener to take care of his yard.”

“I’m hungry,” Orville said. “I’m going to get some cookies and milk. You want some, Mack?”

“I’m good, Dad,” Mack said. “Mama, I have to go now.”

“Just one more thing before we hang up,” she whispered. “I’m taking it off speaker now. I knew Adam had problems when y’all were little, but I didn’t want to believe it. After that thing with Brenda”—she paused for a full twenty seconds—“I didn’t know what to do, so I ignored it and hoped it would go away.”

“It’s not your fault, Mama. Look, the bell is ringing, so I’ve got to go. We’ll talk later.” Mack ended the call. Ignoring problems didn’t make them go away, but at this late date, what good would it do to talk about the issues concerning his brother? His father used to say that a person should let sleeping dogs lie, so unless his mother brought it up again, that’s what he planned to do.

He caught a glimpse of Holly in the hallway with Rose and Ivy. He thought it might embarrass her for him to speak to her, so he just eased on past and hurried to the vo-ag building.

Some of his students were working on rabbit hutches. Others were helping Barry, Drew’s son, refinish a stock trailer for his State Fair of Texas project. It had come into the shop looking like crap, but it would be downright beautiful when they got it finished. As he went from project to project, giving encouragement here and there, his mind kept going back to how comfortable he’d been with Lily the night before. Talking to her had brought Adam’s problems out into the open and helped Mack realize that there was little he could do to help his brother. It had also solidified the fact that he was no longer the brother who had to walk in Adam’s shadow, and that Mack was at last comfortable with his life, just the way it was.