Mack laid his pen down and looked up at her. “I don’t want to influence you, but I don’t mind cats or dogs. I thought about getting one or the other, but I didn’t want to ask you if it was all right. I mean, after all, you’ve given me the use of your home, even with all the furniture. It seemed a little much to ask if I could bring pets in the house, too.”

“I always had cats when I was growing up,” Lily told him. “There’s at least three buried out there under the pecan tree in the backyard. Smokey, Fuzzy, and Amos were their names. Amos died after I went to college, and Daddy buried him for me. The thing is, what if this job doesn’t work out? What if we all do have to move back to Austin at the end of the school year? We can’t have pets in our apartment in the city, and it would devastate the kids to have to leave them behind.”

“I’ve been meanin’ to talk to you about that.” Mack looked uncomfortable. “If that should happen, will you sell me this place? And if you do decide to move back, and the kids can’t have their pets in the city, I’ll be glad to adopt them.”

“I guess we’ll have to see what the future holds, but if I decide to sell the property, you’ll definitely have first chance at it.” She laid a hand on his shoulder. “And thanks for the offer to take on whatever pets the kids might have. I appreciate that.”

She removed her hand and headed out of the room. When she got to the staircase, she looked at it to see if it was as red as it felt. It wasn’t, so she held it to her face and was surprised to find that it was actually quite cool and not on fire at all.

She checked on Braden and found him reading another Harry Potter book. “You need to get your bath, brush your teeth, and be ready for sleep at nine thirty. You can read until ten; then it’s lights out.”

“I used to get to watch videos on my tablet until midnight,” he grumbled.

“That was before you got into trouble.” She closed the door, got the journal from her bedroom, and went across the hall to Holly’s room.

Her daughter was busy flipping through hangers on her clothes rack. “Would you like to have a closet?”