"Mama's here!" Gracie shouted simultaneously.

The two women came through the door talking while he answered the call. He listened for a minute and then said, "I'm on my way." He crossed the room in a couple of long strides. "Glad everything is fine, Amanda. Victor has gotten his car stuck in the mud down at Hattie's. They saw my truck parked outside when they came home from getting ice cream and they need help."

"I'll walk you out." Kate sucked in the fresh air when they were on the porch. "You never get this in the city."

He wrapped his hand around hers. "What?"

"Stars this bright or this scent after a rain."

"It's the smell of wet dirt." He stopped when they reached his truck and pulled her close to his chest. "I wish we'd met sooner, like when we were in our twenties, and that we'd had a whole yard full of little kids like Gracie. You would have been an awesome mother, Kate."

"But we weren't these people back then. We might not have even liked each other at that age. Look who I ended up picking later."

"I would have liked you at any age."

"Really?" Kate cocked her head to one side.

"Absolutely. Though you are right. Right out of college, neither of us would have enjoyed tonight the way we did. I'll see you tomorrow, Kate."

Watching her stand on the porch and wave until he was out of sight kicked his pulse into high gear.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

It seems like we've been waiting for hours."

Amanda checked the time on her phone. "It's not even seven o'clock yet. We've only been here ten minutes, Jamie. They have to get settled and get the preliminary talkin' done. Don't be nervous. If not, then we'll go back to what we were doing, right? You have a teaching job in Dallas. I've got the shop. It's not like we are going to have to stand on the street corner and beg for quarters."

"You are so right," Jamie said, fidgeting with a speck of lint on her skirt. "But Gracie is so happy here. I wish they'd call one of us into the meeting and get it over with."

"Don't think about time. Think about us sitting outside in the hallway on metal folding chairs. To me, it feels like we're in trouble," Amanda said.

Jamie smiled. "I was so shy, I never had to sit in the hallway. My teachers are probably still in shock that I grew up to become a teacher myself."

"Humph! Don't try to put that bullshit on my plate. The way you bowed up to me at the funeral, and with your temper, I ain't believin' a word of that," Amanda said.

"I was shy in high school. I learned to stand up for myself in college. How about you?"

"I was not a model student, so I did spend my fair share of time sitting on a chair just like this or in detention hall. I liked the latter much better."

"Why?" Jamie asked.

"Most of the time they assigned a teacher who'd rather be doing anything else but watching a bunch of unruly kids, so they'd leave the room. We'd break out the cards and I won enough money playing poker to buy after-school Cokes."

"Really?" Jamie gasped. "I figured you for a shy little thing like Kate and I were."

"Not until later, after Aunt Ellie got me straightened out in the church."

"Amanda?" Victor poked his head out the door. "We're ready for you."

"Wish me luck," Amanda said.

"You don't even need it."

"Thank you."

Amanda had dressed in her best maternity slacks and shirt, styled her curly red hair in a twist, and applied makeup. The job might not bring in the money that she'd made at the bank or even the clothing store, but it would be perfect for a single mother with a child. And Bootleg was a better place to raise a baby than in an apartment right in the city.

"Please have a seat," a lady she recognized from the church said.

The wing-back chair that Amanda sank into was a whole lot more comfortable that the metal chair out in the hallway. She waited while they shuffled through her resume and recommendation letters she'd gotten from the bank, Aunt Ellie, and Wanda.

"I am Andrea Drysdale, the president of the Board of Education," the woman said. She introduced three of the other five members, finishing, "You already know Victor, who has highly recommended you for this position."

Amanda nodded at each of them. "I'm pleased to meet you all. You all know how I came to be in Bootleg, right?"

"We do," Mrs. Drysdale said and then lowered her voice. "And off the record, we're glad to hear that the man who conned Iris is dead. We aren't going to let anything that he caused or did influence our decision. Do you have any questions about this job?"

"Could I stretch the yearly salary into twelve payments so that I would have a summer paycheck? Do I work in the summer months, and if so, could I bring my baby with me?"

"Yes, most secretaries do like to have their checks in the summer. Though you will still work during that time. You can choose either the month after school is out or the month before school starts for your break. If you choose to work all three months, you will be paid extra. And you can bring your child during those months," Andrea answered.

"If you stay organized through the year, there won't be much to do but answer phone calls in the summer," Victor said. "Anything else?"

Amanda nodded and asked, "You have taken into consideration that the earliest I could start to work would be mid-October? And that right now they still suspect me and Jamie and Kate of murder?"

"We have and have made arrangements with a retired teacher to take the job for the first six weeks," Paula, the elementary school principal, answered. "And all that other business will take care of itself, we have no doubt. So?"

"Yes, I'm interested." Amanda's heart kicked in an extra beat as she fought the urge to do a wiggle dance in her chair.

"Amanda, we are offering you the job. We have the contract drawn up. The salary comes with health insurance. You will have to add dental and vision, but that will all be decided later when you put your baby on the policy," Victor said.

"Oh! Then you are hiring me right now?"

"Yes." Victor grinned. "Are you accepting?"

"Yes, I am. Where do I sign?"

Kate waited on the porch with Hattie and Gracie that evening. She was every bit as antsy as Gracie, and nothing helped. Not ice cream or playing games or counting stars or trying to figure out how far the moon was kept them from wondering what was going on at the school.

When Jamie parked her van, Hattie raised a hand into the air. "Well, praise the Lord, they are home. I called Victor twice and he won't tell me anything. All he'll say is that it's classified. The old coot. I'll get him back."

Kate tried to read Amanda and Jamie's body language, but they didn't give a single thing away until they reached the porch. Jamie opened up her arms to Gracie and said, "You ready to move, kiddo?"

Gracie torpedoed herself into Jamie's arms. "This is just what I wanted, Mama." She planted kisses all over her mother's face.

"So you got the job?" Kate exhaled loudly. "Amanda?"

"I will start work six weeks after school begins."

"And you will let me babysit, right?" Hattie asked. "I'll come right here to the cabin so you don't have to take the baby out in the weather."

"Hattie, you are an absolute godsend. I'm so lucky to have you. They said if I work through the summer, I get extra pay." Amanda beamed. "I'm hoping that when I wake up, this not a dream. I can even take the baby with me in the summer."

How could Conrad have treated these two women the way he did? Kate could understand why he was such a son of a bitch with her. He'd married her for money and when he didn't get it, he rebelled like a petulant child. But Jamie and Amanda hadn't been born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths, and they damn sure didn't deserve what he had put them through.

"Is it real? They won't change their minds?" Gracie whispered.

"We are really going to live here." Jamie hugged her again. "I promise. We should call Mama Rita. I think you should tell her."

Gracie squirmed out of her mother's arms and danced around the porch. "Can we tell her right now?"

Jamie handed her the phone. "Don't hang up when you get done. I want to talk to her, too."

Kate hugged both Amanda and Jamie. "Congratulations to both of you. To all three of you, really-Gracie wanted this as much as you did."

"I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what you could do at the school." Hattie glanced over at Kate.

Kate patted the elderly woman gently on the shoulder. "I have a job in Fort Worth."

"But I can see in your face that you'd like to stay here. My mama used to tell me to never close a door until you see what's on the other side of it," Hattie said.

Kate had heard that before, but it really sank in that warm summer evening. She didn't really have two doors before her like in that old television show. A beyond-comfortable lifestyle had been given to her, one that she knew and could do. She imagined an extra door in her office. If she chose to step through it into a very different office, would she have regrets? But if she didn't, wouldn't she always wonder?

"Don't ever look back and wonder if you might have been happier if you'd chosen another pathway to walk," Hattie whispered.

Before Kate could answer, her phone pinged. She glanced down at it to see a message from Waylon. Shall we send them flowers tomorrow?

She smiled and sent one back. Already done and balloons for Gracie.

The next one said, Pretty sure of yourself. Call me when things quiet down?

She sent him a smiley face symbol.

"That was Waylon, wasn't it? I can tell by the expression on your face," Hattie said.

"I'd make a poor poker player." Kate smiled.

"When it comes to Waylon, I can read you like a book, girl."

Kate was so jealous of Jamie and Amanda that evening that it was a wonder she wasn't the same shade of green as the Hulk. They knew what they wanted and went after it. Kate knew what she wanted, but a nagging fear kept her from being willing to make a change. Pure insanity. She'd been in Bootleg less than a month. Not long ago she and Conrad's other two wives were at his funeral. That was not enough time for her to even consider a drastic change.

Decision based on the heart. Hattie's words stuck in her mind. The only time that Kate had done that, she'd wound up married to Conrad.

Be honest, the voice in her head argued. You weren't paying a bit of attention to your heart in those days. That was one time your mother was right.

Kate pushed the voice away. "Hey, I've got a bottle of chilled wine waiting, and Hattie brought over a sinful chocolate cake."

"And I can have milk with my cake, right?" Gracie was still wiggling in excitement.

With an arm around Gracie's shoulders, Kate whispered, "Out of a stemmed wineglass, so you can pretend."

Dear Lord, what have I done? was the first thought in Jamie's mind that Saturday morning when she awoke. The thrill of getting the job had passed, and the reality of actually moving from the city to Bootleg set in. All through the process of making up her mind and then signing the contract, she'd thought she was making the right decision even if it did seem rushed. But that morning she doubted herself. She moaned and immediately checked to be sure that she had not wakened Gracie.

Her child was gone! For a split second she panicked, and then she heard her out in the house laughing with Kate. Jamie hopped out of bed, and something fluttered in her peripheral vision. She whipped around to find Gracie's balloons straining against the strings holding them down. Right beside them was her bouquet of daisies. The congratulatory card was unsigned, but there was no doubt in her mind that Kate and Waylon had sent them.

"Stop it!" she scolded herself, not the balloons. "You made this choice. Now plow ahead without regrets."

She sniffed the air and caught a whiff of warm maple syrup, bacon, and coffee mixed together. Pancakes and coffee sounded like a right fine way to start the day.

Neither Amanda nor Kate looked a bit better than she did.

"Did we do the right thing?" Amanda asked.

Jamie sucked in a lungful of air and said, "Of course we did. It's normal to second-guess such a drastic change."

"Not as radical as if Kate said she wasn't going back to Fort Worth," Amanda said.

Jamie poured coffee into her mug. Maybe not, but to her it was every bit as big a decision as any one Kate would make. And now with the cabin undecided, she might have to rent another place and move furniture.

Kate motioned toward the stove. "Amanda left pancakes for you, and the syrup is warm."

"Still nesting, are you?" Jamie glanced at Amanda, remembering her days in that mode just before Gracie was born.

"Yes, and weeping at commercials, too. We're discussing whether or not we'll ever get married again," Amanda said.

"Not me," Jamie said. "What I've been through is enough for me without having to adjust to married life all over again."

Although, if she was honest, she'd never really done much adjusting with Conrad. He'd popped in and out occasionally, only staying a week at a time. That wasn't much of a marriage.

Amanda sighed. "It seems like all that happened years ago, instead of just a month."

"Don't it, though?" Jamie set her mug on the table and went back to get the plate of pancakes. "Where's Gracie?"

"She's waiting on the porch for your Mama Rita. So, say the perfect man came along and you fell in love with him. Would you change your mind?" Amanda raised an eyebrow toward Jamie.

She poured syrup on the pancakes and thought about the question for a full minute. "I'd have to do double time on the trust issue. He'd not only have to be good to me but also to Gracie. And believe me, if it happens, I will have him investigated," Jamie said. "If he finds out and don't like it, he can hit the road."

"That's exactly what I said. I may even hire two separate investigators to make sure it's done right," Amanda said.

"Did you ever . . ." Kate hesitated long enough to take a sip of coffee.

"Ever what?" Jamie asked.