She blinked several times and then caught the aroma of bacon and coffee finding its way under her bedroom door. She was awake, thank God, but she hoped that was one dream that never came true.

Throwing back the covers, she got up and dressed in a sundress. She even applied a little makeup. When she reached the end of the stairs, she called out, “Hey, I’m following my nose.”

“Me, too,” Jody said from right behind her.

“Bacon, biscuits, and western omelets.” Paula pointed to the counter. “I woke up hungry, so I made enough for all of us.”

“Thank you.” Mitzi picked up a plate and heaped it up with food.

“I didn’t even realize how much I missed this kind of breakfast,” Jody said as she filled her plate and carried it to the table. “I love pastry, but it takes second place to this.”

Mitzi carried her plate to the table and sat down. “So how are y’all this morning?”

“Much better,” Paula answered. “I wasn’t surprised at the way Mama reacted, but I wasn’t ready for the pain that it caused. Selena called last night to rake me over the coals, again. I let her go on for a few minutes, then reminded her that I’d been disowned, so that leaves her to jump every time Mama said frog.”

“What’d she say about that?” Jody asked.

“She hung up on me,” Paula answered. “She and I’ve been down this path before. She’s so much like Mama that they can’t get along for long.”

“That ought to be a circus,” Jody said.

Paula shrugged. “Mama’s disowned me many other times before.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell us all this?” Jody asked.

“It was too embarrassing to tell anyone, even y’all,” Paula said. “But I’m fine this morning. Now that telling them is over, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.”

“Remember me tellin’ y’all that my mama made me pray on my knees twice a day for thirty minutes?” Jody asked.

Mitzi’s eyes widened so big that they hurt. “I remember, but I still can’t figure out why she’d do that.”

“Evidently she thought I was going to be a bad child and was hoping that would help me be good.” Jody set about eating breakfast.

“How old were you?” Mitzi asked.

“I can’t remember when I didn’t do it. I thought everyone did it. Mama said you didn’t talk about what you did in secret because that was a sin,” she said between bites.

“That’s just downright mean,” Paula said.

“Holy crap! I said ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’ when I was a little girl, but thirty minutes would be an eternity to a kid,” Mitzi said.

“It was.” Jody nodded and turned her attention toward Paula. “When did Gladys disown you the first time?”