Chapter Five

With three giggling girls in the house, and even more important, with those girls being right across the hall from his room, Braden opted to go outside that Monday afternoon and help Mack round up three goats that had gotten out of the fence. Lily was glad to hear Holly laughing and having such a good time with her two new friends and hoped to God neither Rose nor Ivy were pot smokers.

She was roaming around the house, trying to decide what would go and what would stay if she didn’t go back to Austin in the fall. She was about to pour herself a glass of sweet tea when the back door swung open and Sally called out, “Anybody home?”

“In the kitchen,” Lily called, raising her voice. “Want a glass of tea?”

“Love one.” Sally came into the room, taking off her scarf and coat. She tossed them on a chair, and then opened the cookie jar. “I skipped lunch, so I can have chocolate cookies.”

“Want a plate of leftovers?” Lily asked. “There’s lasagna on the stove.”

“Yes, and thank you.” Sally put the lid back on the cookie jar and got down a plate. “Does it ever seem like Vera is just gone to town or off to get her hair done? Everything in this house is still the same as it was five years ago when she was still bustling around in here.”

“Oh, yeah.” Lily nodded. “I’ve been trying to decide what to sell, what to give away, and how to make the place mine if I decide to stay past the end of summer. It seems like I’m throwing Mama away when I think of changing things.” She started to tell Sally about the journal, but she couldn’t. It had touched her so much that she couldn’t share it.

Sally heaped her plate and heated the lasagna in the microwave. Lily poured two glasses of tea, set them on the table, and then put a dozen chocolate cookies in a bowl. “There’s also ice cream if you want dessert,” she said.

“This is probably enough fat calories for the whole week.” Sally brought her plate to the table. “Is this Vera’s recipe?”

“Yep, that’s just the way Mama made it.” Lily sat down across the table from Sally. “What brings you out here in the middle of the day?”

“I got this brilliant idea,” Sally said. “I’ve decided that you need a change in your life. It needs to be more than just bringing your kids here to Comfort. Lord have mercy! Your mama died. You got a divorce and had to move from your home right after that. And now this with the kids. Woman, you definitely need something new in your life.”

“You think so? I thought I’d put a little ad in the newspaper about a counseling service here in Comfort. I can live on my savings until I get a clientele built up.” Lily sighed. Just thinking about marketing gave her a case of hives.

“Oh, yes, I do think so,” Sally said between bites. “And I’ve got just the thing for you.” She accentuated each word by poking her fork at Lily. “But before we talk about my offer, I should let you know that two people already provide private counseling here in Comfort. One is a certified psychiatrist who has a practice in Austin and sees clients in the evenings. The other works as a psychologist up at the Kerr State Hospital and sees folks on the side. I think you’d be wasting your money to put an ad in the paper. The town is too small to support three counselors.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Lily groaned. “I don’t have anywhere near that kind of training. I’m just a counselor. I guess I should listen to the kids and go on back to Austin. Maybe I can get my old clients back. I referred them to a friend when I decided to leave on such short notice.”

Sally laid a hand on Lily’s arm. “You need a change, so hear me out.” She put another bite in her mouth and washed it down with a sip of tea. “What’s your annual salary with the job you have? I know I’m prying into your personal business, but I need to know before I go on.”

Lily gave her a rough idea of what she’d made the previous year and then added, “But I do get a healthy child-support check from Wyatt. That money goes for whatever the kids need, and I still get to put away a small amount each month for their college funds.”

“I’ll pay you fifty percent more than what you were making as a therapist to come work for me at the vintage shop,” Sally said.

“Have you lost your mind?” Lily gasped. “You can’t make enough money at the shop to do that.”

“Yep, I do, and I need help,” Sally told her. “I have to lock up the place to go to lunch, and I practically have to walk around wearing an adult diaper so I don’t miss a customer. I should be out looking for stock at garage sales and especially estate sales, but I can’t leave the shop until after five. By then, everything is picked over. I want someone I can trust working with me. Someone who has a little bit of business savvy. You’re a perfect fit.”

“Can I think about it until the end of the week?” Lily asked.

“Sure, you can.” Sally pushed her empty plate back and picked up a cookie. “But I really think it will be good for you to get out of the house. I’ve been opening at nine, but if you want to come in at eight and leave at three thirty, that’s just fine by me. Oh, and I cleared it with my CPA before I even came out here. She says that I can offer you insurance and vacation time.”

“You’re making it very tempting,” Lily said. “But what if things don’t work out here and I go back to Austin? I’d be leaving you in a bind, and what am I going to do if I go back without any clients?”

“You can always go back to working for a school. You know how the state is always crying for school counselors.” Sally pushed back her chair and stood up. “Even with that, you’d be getting out of the house. I’ve got to run. Thanks for the lasagna and cookies. Think it over and we’ll talk again in a couple of days.”

“I will.” Lily stood and walked her friend to the back door. “And thank you for the offer.”

“Hey, I couldn’t think of anyone I could work with every day until you came home. Seems like a win-win to me.” Sally gave her a brief hug and put on her coat and scarf. “It’s colder’n a mother-in-law’s kiss out there. I see Mack and Braden comin’ this way. They look half-frozen.” She hustled on out to her business van and honked the horn as she left.

Mack threw up a hand in a wave, but Braden kept his hands tucked into his coat pockets. Their shoulders were hunched against a fierce north wind that rattled the tree limbs. The weatherman had said there was a cold front on the way, but she hadn’t realized that it had arrived. She checked the thermometer hanging on a porch post and saw that it was below freezing—that meant the temperature had dropped more than twenty degrees since she had looked at it that morning.

“Mama always said that if you don’t like the Texas weather, just stick around twenty minutes and watch it change,” she muttered to herself as she got down everything she needed to make hot chocolate.

As soon as he and Braden were inside, Mack removed his stocking hat and gloves, shoved them into his mustard-colored work coat, and hung it on one of the hooks by the back door. He kicked off his rubber boots and set them beside Lily’s father’s old boots. Lily’s mother had said that she just couldn’t part with the last boots he’d worn or his old stained work coat that hung on a nail above them.