"I haven't heard your voice that cheerful in years," Teresa said.

"Crazy, isn't it?" Kate said. "I'm in a situation that borders on bizarre and I'm actually kind of content. Tell Joyce hello for me, and I'll have the work done by quittin' time today."

"It's on the way. Keep me up-to-date on this soap opera. I never had time to watch those things, but then my daughter wasn't starring in one."

"Will do, and thanks," Kate said.

Kate picked up her laptop and carried it to the front porch, propped her feet up on the railing, and settled down to work. It wouldn't be difficult to work from home in conditions like this. Plenty of sunshine, sweet tea beside her, barefoot, no constricting clothing, and her blonde hair in a ponytail-a really nice change from her usual office attire and four walls.

A gentle south breeze brought Gracie's squeals from the dock to the porch, and Kate heard the occasional splash and remembered enjoying the pool in their backyard when she was Gracie's age. Her father would sit in a chair grading papers, and she'd squeal and splash all she wanted. Sometimes her mother would join her in the pool, but when she did, it was all business and exercise. Teresa would swim to one end, kick off, and repeat the process until she got her desired number of laps for the day. Then she would get out, wrap up in a white terry robe, and kiss Kate's dad on the top of the head on her way inside to get dressed for dinner.

"I hadn't thought of that in years," Kate said as she opened the folder Joyce had sent, and in seconds she was engrossed in finishing a project she'd started a month before.

Amanda sat on the deck all afternoon with a romance book in her hands. Her back hurt from two nights on the sofa. Aunt Ellie had found mice had eaten into the one in the garage, so she'd had to go out and buy a new full-size bed for Amanda. Tonight her aunt and her new bed would be there.

More than reading, she'd spent time watching Gracie and Jamie down on the dock. Oh, how she wished that there was no such thing as ultrasound equipment that could tell parents the sex of their child. She would have loved to at least hope for a little girl like Gracie. The little girl was such a bundle of joy and happiness all rolled into one that just watching her run up and down the shoreline was delightful.

She expected any moment to wake up and find that this whole past week had been nothing but a horrible nightmare. Everything was so overwhelming that she wanted to crawl into a closet and not come out for at least a year. By then maybe she could digest all that information Kate had told them while they'd made lunch together.

After finishing off a bottle of water, she eased up off the chaise lounge and went inside to the bathroom. On the way back outside, she picked up two more bottles. How twenty ounces of nothing but water could make her have to go to the bathroom at least three times was a mystery.

She stretched back out on the lounge, pulled a big floppy straw hat down over her eyes, and wished that all love stories could have a happy-ever-after like she read in romances. In a few seconds, she was sound asleep, and she didn't wake until she heard her aunt's voice right beside her.

"Hey, girl, are you going to sleep all day and night, too? Or are you going to come on inside and have that sub sandwich you ordered?" Aunt Ellie asked.

"No and yes." Amanda stretched. Then reality reminded her that her life was nothing like the romance novels, and she sighed. Life would never be the same.

Aunt Ellie, God love her heart and soul, had been Amanda's savior most of her life, and though she was past fifty, her aunt was still taking care of her. She looked plumb worn out that evening, but then she'd worked all day and then driven an hour to bring the bed to Bootleg.

"You look tired. Sit a spell and let's visit," Amanda said.

Ellie shook her head. "I want to get home before dark. I'll stay while you eat, but then I'm leaving." Ellie extended a hand. "I stopped by that barbecue joint that you like and brought ribs. You can save those for later."

Amanda put her hand in Ellie's. "Thanks for everything. I've missed you." She slung an arm around Ellie's shoulders, and they went inside together. "Let's eat and then we'll move the old bed out and the new one in. We do share food around here, so we'll put the ribs on the stove and if the others want some, then fine. If not, I'll have the leftovers for breakfast."

"Barbecued ribs for breakfast?" Ellie frowned.

"I'm pregnant." Amanda patted her shoulder.

Jamie yelled up from the bottom of the stairs, "Is that ribs I smell? You didn't tell me you were cooking supper, Amanda."

She and Gracie appeared. Jamie picked up a T-shirt from the back of a kitchen chair and jerked it on over her bright-orange two-piece suit. Gracie wore a cute little bathing suit with Cinderella on the front, and she kept right on going down the hall.

"She's going to change into something dry." Jamie held out her hand to Ellie. "I'm Jamie, and you must be Amanda's aunt Ellie."

Ellie shook hands with her and nodded toward the table. "Amanda has no idea how to make barbecue, but I know where to buy it."

"Thank you. I was going to make us a sandwich, but that smells so good. Nothing like a whole afternoon in the water to build an appetite," Jamie said.

"Hey, Jamie," Hattie yelled from the front door. "Are you here?"

Jamie quickly crossed the deck and went inside. "Right here. We were just coming in from an afternoon swim."

"I wondered if I could steal Gracie to help me at the church. I've got to get things set up for tomorrow's Bible school. Lisa is going to help me, so I thought maybe Gracie might like to go along," Hattie said. "I could have called, but I was driving right past anyway."

Gracie shot out of the bedroom wearing nothing but panties and a T-shirt. "Please, Mama. I want to go see my new friend."

"How soon?" Jamie asked.

"About twenty minutes. I've already got Lisa out in the car, but I need to pick up treats for tomorrow at my house, so I'll get Gracie on the way back through. Just grab her booster for me." Hattie nodded toward Ellie. "Hello. I'm Hattie Bell from next door."

"I'm Ellie Hilton, Amanda's aunt. Pleased to meet you," Ellie said.

"Hey, Hattie." Amanda waved. "Where's the nearest dump ground?"

"What are you throwing out?"

"The king-size bed in the master bedroom," Amanda answered.

"Would you mind donating it rather than tossing it? You remember Gracie's friend Lisa whose house burned down? Her dad could probably use it," Hattie said. "They live in the second house down from the bank. It's yellow with white trim. Belonged to his grandma, and she let him use it until he can settle up with the insurance company."

"Be more than glad to donate it," Amanda said. "But it's a bed and, well . . . you know."

"It does have a mattress cover, right? And it's washable?" Hattie asked.

Amanda nodded.

"That's wonderful. I'll call them and let them know. They have a pickup truck, so if you'll just set it out on the porch, I'm sure they'll come by and get it. His name is Paul Terry. Someone donated a bed for Lisa, but he's been using an air mattress and I know he'll be real happy to have a bed."

"Even with the history?" Ellie asked.

"Honey, once it goes out of this house, the history is wiped clean." Hattie grinned. "Gracie has time to eat, and I'll have plenty of cookies so she and Lisa can have some later."

"Can I go out to the car and see Lisa now?" Gracie bounced up and down like a windup toy.

"No, you can eat your supper and then get on some shorts. She doesn't have to be dressed up tonight, does she?" Jamie asked.

"Play clothes is fine." Hattie started toward the door. "I'll call Paul soon as I get to the car."

In the middle of getting Gracie settled at the table, Jamie heard someone knock on the door. It was too soon to be Hattie, so it was probably that detective. Where was Kate? She was the one he usually had questions for.

"I'll get it." Jamie wiped her hands on a paper towel.

She was expecting Waylon to be on the other side of the door, but it was three younger men, none of them over thirty. "Can I help you?" she asked out of caution.

"I'm Paul Terry, and these are two of my buddies from the church. Hattie called and said you had a bed to give away. We thought we'd come help you tear it down and put up the new one for you. It's the least we can do." Light-brown hair, some crow's feet around the hazel eyes-a man that wouldn't turn many heads until he smiled, and then bushels of charm came out.

Jamie opened the door and motioned them inside. "Come on in. The bed is in the last room on the left, and the new one is out there on the back of that pickup."

"And the bassinet? Does it come into the house, too, or is it leaving?" Paul stopped in the middle of the room.

"It's arriving," Amanda called from the kitchen.

Jamie heard Aunt Ellie say something about how having it there would help Amanda get through the hard times.

"If you'll bring it in, too, it would be a big help," she said.

Paul smiled again. "You got it. To get to sleep on a real bed, I'd move a whole houseful of furniture."

Amanda yelled from the kitchen again, "Hey, Paul, you can have all the bedding, too, but you'll have to wash it."

"Thank you." Paul raised his voice, but his eyes were on Jamie. "This is the answer to a prayer. I am very grateful." Then he nodded toward Jamie. "You are Gracie's mother, right?"

"Yes, I am." Jamie nodded.

"She's all Lisa has been talking about." Paul's smile got even wider at the mention of his daughter.

"Well, Gracie is quite taken with her new friend, too." Jamie was reluctant to return to the kitchen.

I'm not going to propose to him. I just want to get to know him better if his kid and mine are going to be friends, she argued with the voice in her head.

Kate pushed open the sliding doors into the kitchen and raised an eyebrow at Jamie. "What is going on?"

"We're giving away the bed. You got a problem with that?" Amanda answered quickly.

Kate shook her head and yawned. "I do not. What time is it?"

"Six thirty, and barbecue is on the stove if you are hungry," Amanda answered.

"Good grief! I was working down on the dock and time got away from me," Kate said.

The guys came out with the bed and loaded it onto their trucks. Then they took in the new bed and a bassinet filled with cute baby things. Ellie wanted to get home before dark, so she hugged Amanda and hurried off while Jamie finished getting Gracie's plate ready.

"I would have helped tear down and unload for this supper." Jamie held up a rib.

"Mama, I got barbecue on my shirt. Does that mean I can't go to church with Hattie?" Gracie whined.

"It will wash. And you sound pretty tired to me to be going somewhere again tonight. Bible school until after lunch and then more than four hours of swimming and playing in the water?" Jamie laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Please, Mama, I want to see Lisa," Gracie begged.

"And she's looking forward to seeing you," Paul said on a trip back out to his truck. "Hattie loves to have the kids around her, and she told me she'd only be half an hour."

Suddenly a picture popped into Jamie's mind of Paul drawing her into his arms, brushing her hair back with his big hands, and then tipping her chin up for a kiss. She had to blink half a dozen times to erase the sight. Jamie could not remember the last time that she blushed, but a slow burn started at the base of her neck and shot around to her cheeks. The crazy thing was that not one thing had happened that should cause the hot little crimson circles but her own thoughts. Dammit! She was a widow of only a few weeks, and she had no right to even be thinking about another man, much less one she'd only met that moment.

Jamie nodded at her daughter. "Okay, but on one condition. When you get home, you go straight to bed."

"Deal." Gracie grinned.

Amanda's breath caught in her chest. Conrad used to say that word with exactly the same inflection. Would her son turn out to be like his father? She had to put it out of her mind or she would lose her appetite.

"I believe I saw a few sparks in this room when y'all shook hands," she whispered for Jamie's ears only. "You are blushing."

Kate overheard and whipped around from the stove. "There is a lot of color in your cheeks."

"I am not blushing," Jamie protested. "I've been out in the sun too much today. And y'all would do well to remember that we've all only been widows a few days."

"I saw what I saw." Amanda shrugged.

Kate carried her plate to the table. "I thought we were taking the bed to a dump ground."

Amanda pulled a paper towel from the roll in the middle of the table. "Remember hearing about Gracie's little friend's house burning? I gave the bed to her daddy. They offered to take it away and put up the new one for me."

"Pretty good trade-off, but I would have been glad to help with the moving-out and moving-in business," Kate said.

Jamie finished her second rib and wiped her hands. "Conrad would be livid about this, you know?"

"Good," Amanda said. "I hope he is twisting and turning in"-she glanced at Gracie-"in the place where I'm pretty sure he is suffering from the heat."

"That's a change of heart from that whimpering girl at the funeral a few days ago," Kate said.

"The veil has been lifted from her eyes." Jamie took Gracie by the hand. "This little girl needs to get a clean shirt on."

Amanda laid a hand on her stomach as the men brought the smaller bed into the house and carried it down the hallway. "I wonder if women in a harem feel like this," she said.

"Not in your wildest dreams," Kate said. "They know they aren't the only ones in the lives of their master or husband or whatever he is to them. Conrad taunted me with constant reminders about how I was too damn ugly to hold a man's attention. But Jamie only had suspicions, and you were completely in the dark. So, no, it's not like a harem. They all know one another and know exactly what is going on."

"He told you that? But you are beautiful and smart and so prim and proper that I feel like a country bumpkin around you," Amanda said.

"And I feel like a big, ugly sunflower in the middle of a beautiful rose garden when I'm around you and Jamie," Kate said.

Amanda's eyes grew huge when the guys hauled out the mattress. "Kate, will I be in trouble for giving away something that goes with the cabin?"

"I don't think so. When the probate stuff starts, they'll count every bed and every spoon in the kitchen," Kate said.

CHAPTER NINE.

When Kate was at home in Fort Worth, she and her mother had a standing date every Sunday. They attended church and then had dinner at a restaurant. One week Teresa made the reservations, the next week Kate did. After they had spent an hour and a half together over lunch, Kate would go home and do nothing but relax. In the summer she swam in the pool, usually doing laps like her mother did when she was a little girl. When it was too cold to get into the pool or when she wasn't in the mood, she watched recorded episodes of her favorite television shows.

If Gracie hadn't begged them all to go see her Bible school program that morning, Kate would have used the excuse that she had to get some last-minute work done. But she could not stand to think about disappointing Gracie. However, it did make her nervous to step outside her comfort zone and attend a church other than the one she'd been christened in as a baby and had gone to her whole life.

So there she was, standing in front of the mirror in a bright-orange floral sundress she'd bought on a whim when she had been looking at cruise brochures. Her mother would be so speechless that she wouldn't be able to utter "I told you so" if she could see Kate dressed like that. A lady wore appropriate clothing to church. She had an image to uphold, one that included a tailored suit, panty hose, and high heels. The image did not have time for a casual sundress and sandals.