“I like to keep you guessing. What do you have to eat other than chips?”

“Nothing. I was just going to eat chips for dinner. Then I had hating-myself-for-eating-chips-for-dinner on the schedule after that.”

“Girls. Come on. I’ll take you to dinner. Lily and Chris may meet up with us in a bit. She took him to get shoes and shorts for gym class too.”

“Why aren’t you over at Tate’s looking pitiful?”

He laughed as she grabbed her purse. “She’s not feeling well. William and Cindy took the kids for a while. Matt is spoiling her for a few hours with a quiet house and the air conditioner blasting. That and I wanted a beer and a chat with my favorite little sister.”

She grinned. “Nice one.”

Her apartment wasn’t too far from their favorite go-to Mexican place. More chips, giant margaritas, the best tacos ever and, as they entered, it was dark and heavenly cool.

“Thank God. I thought I was going to melt. My swamp cooler is ancient and it costs a million dollars to run.”

“Days like this I think about my plan to get Lily to agree to buy a house of our own so we can have a pool. She doesn’t want to do anything like that at her mom’s place.”

“It’s her house anyway.” Which was true. The house Lily grew up in was left to her in a trust. It had been a pretty cool thing because her father tried to pressure her mother into signing it over so he and his new and pregnant wife could sell it! Lily told them the news, told them to back off, and Beth had laughed and laughed.

“Yeah, and you know as well as I do, she’ll never displace her mother.”

Lily was a good-hearted person. She loved her family, and as much as Nathan was mad right then on her behalf, he wouldn’t have loved her as much if she didn’t have the same dedication to family as he did.

Lily’s mother needed a home to return to. And so Lily would make sure that happened, no matter what.

The server led them to a rickety little table near the back windows and they sat. She didn’t need a menu, but she did like what she saw coming in the door. She waved.

Joe Harris looked up, startled, and then smiled when he saw her and Nathan.

“Be nice or I will kick you in the goolies,” she said under her breath to her brother.

“Hey. Nathan, it’s good to see you. I wanted to thank you for the wedding invitation.”

Nathan indicated the empty chair. “You should join us if you’re not meeting anyone.”

Joe sat. “Thanks.”

Nathan nodded. “As for the invite? No problem. Just get us a good present.”

Joe laughed, and Beth wanted to hug her brother tight for being so sweet.

“Hey, Beth.”

She smiled, her belly filled with butterflies.

“Hey yourself, Joe.”

Nathan grunted. “What are you up to? Back here in town I mean.”

They paused long enough to order and then got back to talking.

“I took over the car-repair shop. I figure Polly Chase will keep me in business if no one else comes in.”

Polly Chase was notorious for her horrible driving.

Joe kept on. “Everyone ends up back here. Funny, you leave thinking thank God! And then you miss it the whole time you’re gone.”

Joe Harris had a sweet side. Beth liked that.

Nathan nodded, agreeing. “I don’t know that I got to that point for a few years. But by the time I was finishing up with my master’s degree, I was ready to come back.”

“I finished my BA a year ago. Took me a million years felt like. I don’t know how you stuck it out through grad school.”

Nathan looked up from his plate. “I don’t know how you stuck it out through Iraq.”

Joe’s good humor disappeared for a brief time. He shrugged. “I nearly didn’t.”

Nathan made a sound and Beth knew he regretted his comment. “I’m sorry, man. I meant to joke. But some things aren’t funny.”

Joe waved it off. “If you don’t laugh you cry, right?”

She wondered what the story was but didn’t press. She had the feeling it was bad. She knew it had been for so many of the soldiers who’d returned home. And for the families of those who hadn’t.

“What did you do there? In the army I mean.” She tried not to inhale her food and scare him off, but she was hungry.

“I was a mechanic. It was a good thing. I didn’t think so at first.” He laughed. “I didn’t have any skills. Well, not any that would have given me a job instead of time in the state pen.”

Nathan looked to her with a smirk.

“How long have you been back?”

“Two years. I knew I’d come to Petal eventually. I landed in Dallas a while. Worked in a friend’s shop where I filled out my training with cars and trucks. Why did you decide to be a teacher?”

Beth watched as Nathan and Joe talked. Nathan was an interesting man with a big giant heart. He liked Joe. She could totally tell. It was more than the fact that they’d known each other when they were young. It made her feel more comfortable around Joe, and in the end, it would help her plan as well. Nathan was a good judge of character.

“The whole time we were coming up, there were times when I really just wanted to throw in the towel. Shit was bad at home. I didn’t have the time for homework when we were trying to survive.” Nathan ate for a while before he continued. “But those times when it wasn’t Tate kicking my butt all the way to school, it was a teacher who reached out. Who cut me some slack, or who gave me a book that inspired me, who pushed me hard to do my best. I wanted to be that for other kids.”