“Might as well be,” Mack answered. “When do you go back to college?”

“Tomorrow,” she answered. “Just one more semester and I’ll have my degree.”

“That’s great. I’m glad you stayed with it. Still going to teach vo-ag somewhere?” Mack asked.

“Plannin’ on it.” She grinned and looked over his shoulder at the next customer.

Mack ushered Lily back to their booth with his hand on her lower back. A few customers smiled and others waved. He could almost read their minds—Mack was dating Lily Anderson. They were happy for him. There was chemistry, at least on his part, but he wasn’t sure that he’d ever be able to trust another woman, no matter how much he wanted to do so.

Lily slid into the booth beside Holly. “Thank you for treating us today.”

He took a place across from her beside Braden. “My pleasure. Ice cream is my ultimate weakness.”

“Mine, too,” Braden said. “I like it even better than cake, and I love Mama’s chocolate cake.”

Mack’s knee brushed against Lily’s under the table, and even through his jeans and her stretchy pants, he could feel electricity between them. What would it be like to hold her in his arms, or even kiss her? Just thinking about it made the dining area so hot that he removed his coat and draped it over the back of the booth.

Their order arrived, and each of them reached for their part of the food. Mack picked up his sea salt caramel Blizzard. Lily took her coffee from the tray. The ketchup bottle was on the table, and the kids grabbed for it at the same time. The argument over who got to use it first was settled with a contest of rock, paper, scissors. Braden won and took his time squeezing it over his fries.

Mack remembered having the same fight with Adam—more than one time. Adam nearly always won at everything, so by the time he was a teenager, Mack usually just gave over to his twin brother. Dozens of memories flashed through Mack’s mind—none of them had to do with ketchup, and all of them had to do with women. He wondered how Lily would react to Adam. There was no doubt that his brother would show up before long. Adam wouldn’t be able to stand the temptation of an available woman living with Mack. Oh, yes. He would definitely show up with all his charms as soon as he heard that Lily had moved back to Comfort.

Mack looked up from his Blizzard to see Lily staring right at it. He stood up and went to the counter for an extra spoon. He handed it to Lily. “Help me out with this. I shouldn’t have ordered a large one, especially when there’s a potluck at the school today for the teachers and the folks presenting the programs.”

“Are you sure?” She took the spoon from him.

He pushed the cup to the middle of the table. “Yep, I’m glad to share.” Truth was, he wanted to see if he got that little spark every time their hands touched. Sure enough, he did.

“Mama, what’s in Sally’s store, anyway? Does she have stuff in my size?” Holly finished off her tater tots and started on her Blizzard.

“I’ve never been in it, but it’s a vintage store, so I doubt you’ll be interested in anything,” her mother answered.

Lily dug into the ice cream a second time and let her mind go back to when Sally had said she was putting in the store. It was the month after Lily’s mother died, and they had all met in Blanco, the halfway point between Austin and Comfort, at the Dairy Queen there. Sally had been divorced for three years at that time, and looking back, Lily didn’t know how she would’ve survived that first year without Sally’s support and love.

Lily had thought her friend was out of her mind when she had told her that she was quitting her job and putting in an antique store in Comfort. A single woman needed job security with a benefits package. She damn sure didn’t need to use all her savings to open an antique store in a small town. Little did Lily realize just how smart Sally really was. Comfort, like Fredericksburg, was a tourist town that specialized in the past. People flocked to both of them to see hundred-year-old buildings and historical markers on houses and some structures that were even older than that. While in that frame of mind, they bought antiques.

“You’re a hundred miles away right now,” Mack drawled.

Lily jerked herself back to the present. “I was thinking about how crazy I thought Sally was when she quit her steady job and put in her shop. I’ve never been a risk taker, so . . .” She shrugged without finishing the sentence.

“Me, either, but sometimes a door opens that isn’t really a risk, but an opportunity.” Mack checked the time on his watch. “I should be going. Y’all enjoy the rest of the day.”

“Thanks again for treating us,” Lily said.

“Thank you,” both kids chimed in at the same time.

“You’re very welcome. See y’all at home,” he said.

There had been something between her and Mack when they both dipped into the ice cream at the same time. If anyone ever had a type, Lily did. She liked men who weren’t so tall that she had to tiptoe to kiss them. She leaned toward dark hair and was drawn to blue eyes. Mack was over six feet tall and had dark hair, but his eyes were green. He wasn’t flirty, and was basically a little shy. So why in the devil were there vibes between them? It simply didn’t make a bit of sense.

She was still pondering the situation as she drove back into town and parked the car in front of Yesterday’s Treasures. Braden opted to stay in the car this time with his book, but Holly seemed eager to go inside. As usual for her, any store that had a fancy dress in the window had to be a good place.

The bell above the door rang when they walked into the shop. Sally had been dusting a floor-to-ceiling bookcase that held white milk glass pieces of every size and shape. To her left was another case with nothing but cut crystal in it, and to her right was a third one with carnival glass.

She laid the dusting rag on the counter. “Welcome to my shop. I was hoping you’d come by today. I heard that you and Mack took the kids to the Dairy Queen for ice cream.”

“I’d forgotten how fast gossip travels in Comfort,” Lily sighed.

“Oh, honey, with all these new techie toys, it can make the speed of light look like a snail. If you burp, someone will put what you ate for dinner on Twitter.” Sally laughed. “So what do you think of my store? What was your first impression?”