“I do.” Mack nodded. “Braden came to the 4-H meeting today with his new friend. Isaac Torres is a good kid. He’s a little shy, but he’s super smart. He’s always on the superintendent’s honor roll.”

“Then it’s all right for Braden to—” Lily started and then stopped. “Is he Levi Torres’s son? The Torres Ranch folks? Didn’t you and Levi graduate the same year?”

“We did, and yes, Isaac is his son. Levi married a girl he met in college. She’s from down around Houston and grew up on a ranch like Levi did,” Mack answered.

“Levi was smart and shy, too,” Lily remembered, and stopped herself before she added, “A lot like you.”

“You’re the mother, but I think Braden and Isaac will be good for each other.” Mack reached for a brownie.

“Why’s that?”

“Braden is outgoing, and he’ll help Isaac in that department. From what I see in Braden, he needs someone to challenge him intellectually, so Isaac will be a help to him that way. Same way that Holly is good for Rose and Ivy. Their parents are strict with them, so you don’t have to worry about her smoking pot. Yet they could sure use someone like Holly to give them a little push when it comes to grades.”

“Holly wants to go to Friday-night choir practice with the girls, and Braden wants to know if he can go to the ranch and hang out with Isaac on Saturday. What do you think?” Lily hadn’t asked for anyone’s input where her kids were concerned in years, but she really needed Mack’s opinion.

“If they were my kids, I wouldn’t have a problem with either the choir or the ranch,” he said.

“Thank you.” It was beginning to look like she’d made the right decision in her fit of anger over their behavior.

“I talked to my mother and dad today,” Mack said.

“How are they doing?” Lily carried her coffee to the table and sat down on the other side from Mack.

“Dad’s not good,” Mack replied. “He’s getting more confused about time than ever. They haven’t been here since the end of November, but he thought it was two days ago, and he told me to make Adam help me with the goats. Mama’s got her hands full with him, but she’s doing okay.”

Lily reached across the table and laid a hand on his. “I’m so sorry. That has to be the worst disease ever.”

“Thank you.” Mack patted her hand with his free one. “I asked Mama if she realized Adam had a problem, and she said yes. She thought he’d outgrow it, and then felt like it was too late to do anything about it when he broke up my engagement with Brenda.”

“Parents don’t like to admit their kids have issues,” Lily said.

“You didn’t mind admitting your kids had problems. You took steps to keep them from getting into more trouble than they were already in. Even though they whined and threw hissy fits, you were a solid, good mother and did what was best for them.”

Lily could have kissed him for that bit of encouragement, but Braden came bursting into the room at that very moment. She jerked her hand free from Mack’s and said, “I didn’t even hear you coming down the stairs. You usually make enough noise that the neighbors think it’s thundering.”

He held up a foot. “I only got on my socks. I thought I’d wear Grandpa’s boots as well as his coat.”

“You wear a size eight. Your grandfather wore an eleven,” Lily told him.

He jerked an extra pair of socks from his hip pocket. “I’ll stuff the toes.”

“We really should make time to get that kid a pair of rubber boots and a work coat,” Mack said.

“Yes!” Braden pumped his fist in the air. “Can we get them before I go visit Isaac on his ranch?”

Mack glanced over at Lily. “We could take him to the feed store tomorrow evening. They don’t close until six, and they carry coats and boots.”

“Please, Mama,” Braden begged.

“I suppose,” she agreed. “If you’re really going to be in 4-H and show goats, you should have a warm coat and boots that will keep your feet dry.”

Braden ran to her side and wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you, Mama. Can we go get them right after school, and can Mack go with us?”

“Be glad to,” Mack offered.

“Don’t see why not,” Lily said at the same time.

“See why not what?” Holly poked her head around the door.

“I get to go to the feed store and get boots and a coat,” Braden sing-songed.

“If he gets to do that, can I go to Sally’s store again?” Holly asked.

“Why don’t you and I go to Sally’s, and these two guys can go to the feed store?” Lily asked.

“Fine by me,” Braden said. “A girl don’t belong in a feed store, anyway.”

“Hey, now, they have all kinds of western clothes for girls in there,” Mack said.

“Then I want to go there instead of to Sally’s. Rose and Ivy have western belts that they wear with their jeans. Can I have one of those?” Holly asked.

“We can look at them.” Not long ago, Lily had been arguing with these two about moving to Comfort, and now they argued about rubber boots and a western belt. She almost pinched herself to see if she was dreaming.

Later that evening, after Lily had taken a bath and washed her hair, she went to her room and got the journal. She adjusted the lamp so she could see better, then like a kid with a dollar in a candy store, she couldn’t help herself from peeking at the next entry in the journal. She knew that she probably shouldn’t keep reading the journal without sharing it with Holly, but she was drawn to it that evening.

December 1870: My precious son was stillborn a month ago. He was a month early and so very small. He was a perfect baby, but he never took a breath. I don’t know if I will ever get over the feeling that it’s my fault. What did I do wrong? Rayford doesn’t seem to care that we buried our baby, or maybe he doesn’t know how to show it. I’d like to think that’s the reason he’s so indifferent, but in my heart, I’m sure it’s because he has a new woman. I refuse to be like Henry’s wife, so I put on a front and keep going.

Lily tore a page off a notepad on the nightstand to use as a bookmark, closed the journal, and let what she’d read sink deep into her soul. She’d had to put on a brave front when Wyatt left. She hadn’t lost a baby, but she had just lost her mother—and a marriage. Grief was the same, no matter what caused it. She could relate to the way that Matilda held on to her dignity through it all, and wondered if Rayford had ever changed. She was tempted to keep reading, but if she did, she knew she wouldn’t stop until she’d read the whole journal, and she needed to get some sleep.