“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.

She ran a brush through her shoulder-length blonde hair one more time, reapplied lipstick, and picked up her purse. She found Jamie and Gracie already in the living room and breathed a sigh of relief. Jamie wore a cute little denim skirt that skimmed her knee and a sleeveless chocolate-brown knit shirt—and cowboy boots. Gracie was in one of her sundresses and white sandals. Her hair was pulled up into a side ponytail with a big white bow at the top, and Kate wanted to pick her up and swirl her around the room until they were both dizzy.

“You got all dressed up,” Jamie said.

“Not really.” Kate smiled. “I was afraid I’d be underdressed. My mother wouldn’t even sit beside me if I wore this to our church.”

“It’s not what you wear on your body but what you have in your heart.” Amanda appeared from the kitchen with a casserole dish in her hands. “Remember, Hattie said if we were staying for the potluck, we should bring something. I made a fruit salad this morning.”

“Are you staying?” Kate asked.

“Of course.” Amanda nodded. “I never turn down a big dinner like that. Since we all live in one house, this covered dish will take care of as many of us as want to stay.”

Gracie clapped her hands and did a wiggling dance in the middle of the floor. “Can we stay, Mama? Lisa says they always stay and now I can play with her more, and Mama, can she go swimming with me someday and maybe even have a picnic on the dock?” She stopped for breath and then went on. “And we could even play Barbies on the deck and . . .”

Jamie laid a finger over Gracie’s lips. “Right now you need to settle down, little girl.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Gracie said. “Did you know that Lisa already lost a tooth and the tooth fairy gave her a whole dollar?”

“Well, her tooth fairy may be richer than the one who visits our house, but it will be a while before you lose a tooth,” Jamie said as they left the house and stepped out into the warm morning breeze. “Why don’t we all go in my van? Seems kind of crazy to take three vehicles.”

Amanda headed straight toward the van, her baby bump well defined in a sleeveless bright-blue tunic worn over capri-length leggings. She’d changed her regular flip-flops for a pair of electric-blue ones with multicolored stones. With her red hair twisted up in a messy bun, she looked downright adorable that morning.

Kate hesitated but only for a moment before she fell in behind Amanda, opening the door for her so she didn’t drop the fruit salad. She’d never been to a potluck. Oh, well, it was only half a mile from the church to the cabin, so if things got too awkward, she could excuse herself and walk home. She really did feel like a duck out of water.

“Do you realize what we are doing?” Kate asked.

“Riding together to church and staying afterward to eat every kind of potato salad and chicken casserole imaginable?” Amanda asked right back.

“No, she’s talking about the three of us all arriving at the little country church together.” Jamie giggled. “Well, if Bootleg is anything like most small towns, it will provide fodder for the gossip mill for a whole week. Hey, Amanda, did you and Conrad ever attend this church?”

“No, we were on our honeymoon the one Sunday we were here,” she answered.

“Us neither, not on the honeymoon or any of the weeks we spent here in the summertime.” Jamie glanced across the console and met Kate’s eyes.

“I thought that’s where you and Gracie met Victor and Hattie,” Kate said.

“No,” Gracie piped up from the backseat beside Amanda. “We met them down at the lake. They were walking and we were fishing and they stopped and talked to us. And then we saw them at the festival.”

“That’s the first time she remembers them. She and I actually met them first when she was in a stroller and we went to the festival while Conrad did some business from the cabin,” Jamie explained. “And you? Did you go to church with him?”

Kate lifted one shoulder in a slight shrug. “I was only here for the honeymoon week. By the time the second summer rolled around after that, I wouldn’t have gone anywhere with him. So I guess this is a first time for all of us.”

“Except me!” Gracie piped up. “But don’t y’all worry. I will show you around and tell everyone who you are. Lisa is going to be so surprised that you came with me.”

According to her grandmother Mama Rita, Jamie was ninety percent bluff and ten percent mean, but the mean was so bad that no one had better call her bluff. That particular Sunday morning, mean was taking a backseat to bluff. It wasn’t that she was afraid to go inside the church, but it would be insanely awkward.

She was lucky to find a parking space not far from the front, where people were still going inside. “Best I can do,” she muttered.

Amanda pushed the button to open the wide back door. “Good enough. I’ll take this to the fellowship hall. Save plenty of room on whatever pew you find.”

“I’m going to find the restroom before I come in, so save me a seat, too,” Kate said.

Gracie put her hand in Kate’s as soon as they were out of the van. “I’ll show Kate where it is. I gotta go, too.”

Jamie intended to slip in the door and sit on the back pew, but evidently every mama, daddy, grandpa, and granny in the whole county had come out to see the Bible school program that morning. She searched both sides of the church for empty seats as she made her way from the back to the front and found absolutely no space except for the front pew. She sure wasn’t going to turn around and take a second look, so she slid into the corner of the long oak pew and picked up the songbook right beside her. Her hands trembled as she turned the pages without seeing the words at all. She could feel the people behind her staring and hear the buzz of whispers. It didn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what they were saying.

She’d never thought of quietness having a color, but it felt stone-cold gray that morning when everything went silent. She glanced over her shoulder to see Amanda, head high and belly forward, eyes straight ahead and then flashing a smile when she finally located Jamie on the front row.

At the funeral, she’d wanted to slap the shit out of that whining redhead, but right then Jamie was so glad to have someone beside her that she could have hugged Amanda.

“Looks like we should have left twenty minutes earlier,” Amanda whispered as she settled down, leaving enough room for Gracie between them. “No way we’ll sneak on over to the fellowship hall and hide in the shadows like we could have if we’d gotten a backseat.”

The buzz of conversation started as soft as the flutter of butterfly wings, but then it got louder and louder until it sounded more like a swarm of bees. Jamie chanced another glance, and there was tall, beautiful, blonde-haired Kate coming up the aisle holding Gracie’s hand. Now everyone in church would be speculating about which one of them that the little girl belonged to. She looked like the dark-haired woman, but the tall blonde brought her into the church.