“No, it’s my house,” Kate answered. But hey, if Gracie wanted it to be a castle, then Kate would gladly let her be the princess who lived there.

Gracie stood in the middle of Kate’s elaborate living room, eyes big as saucers, trying to take in the whole place at once. Where her daughter felt awe, Jamie was more than a little intimidated by the sheer size of the house. She’d realized that Kate came from money and had lived a life way above Jamie’s pay grade as a teacher, but this was surreal.

“Where do I sleep?” Gracie finally asked.

“My bedroom is upstairs, along with two others. Y’all can take your pick of whichever one you want,” Kate said. “They are pretty much the same.”

“Did Conrad sleep in either of them?” Amanda whispered.

“He liked the master suite on the ground floor,” Kate answered. “We’ll unload all this food in the kitchen and open up the containers.”

Amanda dropped her suitcase on the floor. “I’m so glad we opted for Chinese. I’ve been craving it for a couple of days.”

“After we eat, can I see his room?” Jamie whispered.

“Of course, but why?”

“Final closure.” Jamie shrugged.

Kate pointed down the hallway. “It’s the last door on the left. Mother and I cleaned it out before I went to the cabin. Unless she stored other stuff in there, it’s empty.”

“Thank you,” Jamie said.

Amanda had already started removing containers and chopsticks from the plastic bags and was setting them on the table when Jamie and Kate arrived in the kitchen. Jamie set the sweet-and-sour chicken in front of Gracie before she went hunting through the boxes for her spicier chicken.

“When I get done eating, can I explore the castle all by myself?” Gracie asked.

Jamie glanced at Kate, who nodded. “If it’s okay with your mama, I don’t care if you go on an adventure. Just yell real loud if you get lost so we can send the prince to find you.”

Gracie giggled. “You’ll have to come find me, Mama. We don’t have a prince in this castle. We didn’t bring Waylon with us.”

“So you think Waylon is a prince?” Kate asked.

“Yep, and you are a princess. He’s going to rescue you from this castle and take you to live on the ranch with him.”

“What makes you think that?” Jamie asked.

“It’s my story, Mama.” Gracie sighed.

Jamie didn’t voice it, but she felt as if she’d been admitted to a castle, too.

“That’s right,” Amanda said. “And I like her story.”

Gracie finished her food, broke open the fortune cookie, and handed it to Jamie. “Read it to me, Mama.”

Jamie straightened out the bit of paper and read, “You will find new things in your future.”

“What does that mean?” Gracie asked.

Jamie planted a kiss on her daughter’s forehead. “It probably means that you will make even more new friends in Bootleg when school starts.”

Gracie sighed again, this time with more drama. “I thought it meant I’d find a hidden treasure in this castle.”

Kate ate her last grain of rice and tossed the container in the trash compactor. “It’s not really a castle.”

“It’s her story,” Amanda reminded them. “Go and find the treasure, darlin’ girl. And bring it back for us to see.”

“But you only have about thirty minutes, and then it’s bedtime for you, little girl. We have to get up really early and go to the courthouse and you need to be all smiles.” Jamie kissed her on the top of her head.

Minutes later they heard her opening doors on the second floor.

“I want to see his room, too,” Amanda said.

Jamie pushed back her food. “Want to go with me?”

“Why don’t we all go together?” Kate led the way across the foyer and to the last room on the left. She opened the door and stood back to let them go inside first. “It’s just a room with a nice closet and a big bathroom. I bought this house after we were married because I loved this room and the view of the pool.” She pulled open the drapes to show them the backyard.

“So this isn’t where you lived before you married him?” Jamie asked.

“I lived in a small house, not much bigger than the cabin, and I loved the coziness,” she answered. “Do either of you feel anything about this room?”

Amanda walked over to the sliding doors leading out to the patio. “I don’t want to sleep in here, but it’s just a big empty room.”

“I’m done.” Jamie turned and left the room.

“Did it help?” Kate asked.

Jamie folded her arms over her chest. “It did.”

“How?” Kate and Amanda followed her back to the kitchen.

“It wasn’t just me that he couldn’t love. It was any woman. We were all just a game to him. Like a hunter chases down a white-tailed deer. Marrying us was equivalent to shooting us. Now I know it wasn’t because I couldn’t make enough money or wasn’t pretty enough or good enough in bed. It wasn’t me or you or Amanda.” Jamie picked up her suitcase and headed up the stairs. “I’m glad you invited us. It’s really, really over now, or it will be after tomorrow morning.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Amanda said.

“He lived here. He lived in my house, which you were paying for,” Jamie said. “And he lived in your little apartment. Nothing satisfied him or brought him happiness. He craved the hunt.”

“And look what it finally got him,” Amanda said. “I’m ready to get in that pool and pretend that we are on vacation. What are you going to do with this house after the summer, Kate?”

“Sell it,” she said without hesitation.

Amanda awoke with a start the next morning. She scanned the room and tried to figure out what she was doing in a five-star hotel. Then it all came back to her in a flash. She was in Fort Worth. Today she would go to the courthouse to get her maiden name back, putting the final touch on what had happened in the last month.

She hefted her round body out of the bed and drew the drapes back. Jamie and Gracie were sitting beside the pool having leftover Chinese for breakfast. Amanda dressed in the same outfit she’d worn to the funeral, a pair of black leggings and a flowing black top with a hankie hem that dropped to her thighs. She pulled her red hair up in a twist and secured it with a few bobby pins, applied a minimum of makeup, and repacked her suitcase. She took it with her so she wouldn’t have to climb the stairs again.

Kate was foraging in the cabinets when she reached the kitchen. “There’s oatmeal but no milk. I’ll take us all out for breakfast as soon as this is over.”

Amanda shivered. “I’m too nervous to eat anyway. The idea of standing in front of a judge gives me the jitters.”

“My legal department is sending a lawyer. For the most part, we’ll only have to answer a couple of questions, if that.” Kate threw an arm around Amanda’s shoulders and drew her even closer. “Look at us. Jamie has on her cowboy boots, I’m wearing high heels that are pinching my toes, and you have on your fancy flip-flops.”

“Just like the day we arrived at the cabin.”

“And we’d all rather be barefoot out on the porch, wouldn’t we?”

“Or down by the lake with our toes in the edge of the water.” Amanda smiled.

“That’s where we’ll go soon as today is over and we do some shopping,” Kate said.

Amanda took a couple of steps to the side. “I’d like to go to the discount stores and look for things for my baby girl. I don’t have a thing for a girl, not even something frilly to bring her home in.”

“Of course,” Kate answered. “We can go wherever y’all want, but please let me pay for our food today.”

“Done.” Amanda would gladly let Kate shell out the money for food, since it would take a chunk out of her bank account to buy baby things.

Kate glanced at the clock. “The driver will be here in five minutes. If you’ll call Jamie and Gracie in from the pool, I’ll make sure everything is ready for me to lock the doors.”