Carmen checked to see if she was holding a male or female and then kissed her kitten on the nose. “It’s a girl, and her name is Sugar.”

“Why’d you name a black cat Sugar?” Joanie asked.

“Because that song from Sugarland called ‘Stay’ has been on my mind all week. I’ve been begging Eli to stay with me and work this out, but now, like the song says, I’m telling him to stay where he is and not come back to me. The song has been good for my soul, so her name is Sugar.”

Chapter Seventeen

Sunday dinner was finished, and everyone had retired to the living room to hug up to the blaze in the fireplace. They had wakened to the first hard freeze and a slow, steady drizzling rain, so Luke had started a fire. Tootsie had in mind for them to go to church over in Manchester that morning, but because the weather was so bad, she’d changed her mind.

Joanie stared into the blaze and thought about Zoe that afternoon. Had her daughter gone to services that morning? Was she able to do any type of volunteer work where she was now, like she’d done at their little church in Sugar Run?

When her phone rang, it took a minute for her to realize that the ringtone meant it was coming from Zoe. She squealed loud enough that she startled Luke, who was sitting on the floor with his back against a hassock.

“It’s Zoe! She’s calling,” Joanie yelped.

“Well, then, answer the thing. She won’t have but a minute or two at the most for this first call. There’s a pad and pen on the table there,” Tootsie said.

“Hello, darlin’. You’re on speaker with Tootsie, Carmen, Diana, and Luke. How are you?”

“I’m fine, Mama. It’s tough, and I only get a minute to give you my address with this first call. Got a pen ready? Who is Luke?” Zoe asked.

“Luke is Tootsie’s nephew who drove us up here to north Texas in Tootsie’s motor home. I have a pen now.”

Zoe rattled it off, and Joanie read it back to her. “I’ve got ten more seconds. I miss you, Mama. Next week, we get to talk longer. I want letters, but I’m absolutely not allowed to receive anything to eat, and that’s a hard rule. I’ve got to hear more about you on a trip then. Bye, now. I love you.”

“Love you, baby girl.” Joanie barely got the words in before the call ended, and she hugged the phone to her chest. “I got to hear her voice. I’m going up to my room to write her a long letter.”

“Going to tell her about the move?” Tootsie asked.

“I think I just might. That way when she calls again, we can talk about it,” Joanie answered. “Are you missing the army wives’ support group back at home, Carmen?”

“Hell, no,” Carmen answered with a shiver. “I couldn’t stand all that sympathy right now. I’m glad we’re gone for a while. Besides, we have each other, and we hardly ever go to those support meetings anyway.”

Carmen’s phone rang, and like Joanie, she put it on speaker. Natalie’s voice broke just slightly when she heard everyone yell her name, but she gave her mother her address, told her that she loved her, and told her no candy, cookies, or anything to eat. Letters were all she could have.

“It’s a shame that we don’t even need to be told that, isn’t it?” Carmen said. “All of us are military, so we’ve heard the stories of what happens when a mama or granny sends food. I remember when Eli called me the first time in basic training. I wanted to send him a box of his favorite cookies. When he got home, he told me exactly what happened to a kid whose mama sent candy. I’m glad we know those things.”

Diana nodded, and her phone rang. It was the same message and the same short phone call, but she was beaming when the call ended. Just hearing the girls’ voices was better than expensive presents on Christmas morning.

Tootsie held out a notepad and pen. “Give me those addresses so I can write them down. I’m going to get a letter ready for all three of them. Did y’all file a temporary address change before we left Sugar Run?”

They all nodded.

“Then if they send a letter home before they get this address, it’ll get forwarded.” Tootsie eased up out of her recliner and headed to her bedroom. One by one the other three headed upstairs, with Joanie bringing up the rear.

“What about you, Luke?” Joanie stopped halfway up the stairs and looked toward him.

“The sofa is all mine now. I’m having a Sunday-afternoon nap.” He yawned as he stretched out on the empty sofa.

“Secrets,” Joanie whispered as she followed them to the second floor.

“What’s that?” Diana whispered.

“We’ve all got secrets that we need to tell our daughters, but we’d rather tell them to their faces, not in letters.” Joanie stopped at the door of her bedroom.

“I don’t have a secret,” Diana said.

“Oh, yes, you do. It’s a secret if you don’t want to tell Rebecca about Luke,” Carmen told her. “Hey, I got away without stationery or even a notebook. Either one of y’all got extra?”

“I got you covered. I brought two spiral notebooks,” Joanie said. “I figure that the girls won’t care if the letters are on fancy paper or not. I’ll bring one over to your room. And about that secret of yours, Diana. It goes beyond not telling Rebecca about Luke.”

“Oh, yeah?” Diana raised an eyebrow.

“Yep,” Carmen said. “I’d be willing to bet that you and Luke discussed something other than cats on your trip yesterday. We were going to have a talk about it in Tootsie’s room last night, but we played dominoes so late that she put it off until tonight. Tootsie says that we should have started a weekly meeting among us four as soon as we got here. I guess it’s never too late.” She shrugged. “Anyway, tonight she says that we’re all to be in her room as soon as Luke goes to the motor home.”

“Y’all are crazy.” Diana smiled. “We talk all the time.”

“Maybe so, but we’ve all still got a secret to tell our girls, and I’m telling Zoe all about mine in a letter, but we’re going to discuss everything tonight, and I do mean everything.” Joanie went to the armoire in her room, took a notebook from the shelf, and took it back out to Carmen. “You need a pen?”