“I can pray that they’ll change their minds, though, can’t I?” she muttered.

Lily made a right turn into the lane, and the school bus pulled in right behind her. The kids beat her into the house and were already in the kitchen by the time she’d gotten her coat hung up and her purse set on the bottom step of the staircase.

“Are, too!” She heard Braden already arguing with his sister.

“Am not!” Holly’s voice had gone all high and squeaky.

Lily crossed the foyer and went into the kitchen. She checked on the pork roast she’d put in the slow cooker that morning. “Are what?”

“Holly’s friends, Rose and Ivy, are going to a party tonight in some old barn. Isaac said that they want her to go with them. I told her to be careful because rats live in old barns, and she’s scared of little bitty mice, so she’d probably faint if a rat started chasing her,” Braden said.

“How’d you find out about that?” Lily asked.

“Isaac told me. Some of the high school boys work out on the ranch for his daddy, and they were bragging about outsmartin’ the police. They didn’t know that Isaac was in the tack room,” Braden said, and then grinned. “I guess I could go with her—so if there is a rat, I could chase it away.”

“How would little old bitty you take care of a dam—darn—rat?” Holly shivered. “And I’m not going anywhere tonight but up to my room to work on my math. If I have trouble, Faith said I can call her and she’ll walk me through the problem.”

“You are mean,” Braden smarted off.

“You are obnoxious,” Holly told him.

“Both of you eat a cookie, and don’t talk with food in your mouths,” Lily told them.

“Mack should be home by now, right?” Braden asked.

“He had an after-school meeting,” Lily answered. “He won’t be here until late.”

“I can take care of the feeding,” Braden said. “You want to help me, Holly?”

“Only if Mama goes with us,” Holly answered.

“Why?” Braden frowned.

“Because if there’s a mouse out there, you’ll get it by the tail and chase me with it,” Holly replied.

“Get finished with your snack, and we’ll take care of the evening chores together.” Lily figured it would be well worth her time to get Holly interested in the goats.

Of course, Holly had to change her clothes, braid her hair, put on fresh lipstick, and get out her oldest boots. Not even the goats were going to see her looking like a bag lady. Lily put on a pair of jeans, a flannel shirt, and her dad’s old work coat. It didn’t fit her much better than it had Braden.

“I’ll show y’all how it’s done.” Braden puffed up with pride on the way from the house to the barn. “It’s not hard, and you’re goin’ to love the new babies, Holly. They’re even cuter than a cat.”

“Not possible,” Holly declared.

The feeding chore only took half an hour at the most, but they spent another hour in the pen, petting and loving on the new babies. Holly was the child who begged for five more minutes when they had to go back to the house, and who pouted when she had to leave behind her favorite little black-and-white kid that was only a couple of days old.

After supper, Holly and Braden hurried to the living room to watch an old movie. They’d argued all during the meal about a funny scene. Holly said that one thing happened in it; Braden swore that it didn’t. That would keep them busy for a couple of hours, Lily thought. She went upstairs to take a long, soaking bath.

She adjusted the water, got it just to the right warmth, and then dropped all her clothes on the floor. Her phone pinged with a text from Sally. Her boss wouldn’t be in the shop until after ten the next morning. Then there was one from Mack saying that his meeting was running longer than he’d thought.

She sent a smiley-face emoji back to Sally and a message to Mack telling him that they’d taken care of the chores. She immediately got a heart emoji back from him. She laid the phone on the ladder-back chair beside her towel, added some scented oil to the bath, and sank down into the warm water.

When the water had gone lukewarm, she got out and wrapped a towel around her body, made sure the coast was clear, and padded down the hall to her bedroom. Once she was there, she dressed in flannel pajama pants and a faded T-shirt left over from Christmas several years before.

Both kids had finished their homework, and everything was quiet downstairs, which meant that the controversial scene in the movie had not played yet. After all the bickering that usually went on, Lily appreciated the moment. She took out the journal, peeked inside the velvet pouch with all the money, and sighed. She’d have to figure out where to go on a cruise when summer arrived. The Caribbean? Or maybe Alaska?

She tucked the money back into the secretary and was about to go over to Holly’s room when her daughter came in with her two notebooks. “The movie is boring, but I was right about that scene. Can we read some more about Jenny now?” She crawled up in the middle of Lily’s bed and opened her notebook.

“Sure, we can.” Lily joined her on the bed, opened the journal, and began to read:

Jenny Medford O’Riley, March 1908: Oklahoma is a state as of last November, but that hasn’t changed the way we live here in Dodsworth. I got a letter from Mama a few days ago, and I’ve read it dozens of times. My tears have made the ink run in places, especially when she told me my brother had died, leaving behind a wife and two children. I have such fond memories of the times I spent with Samuel when we were young. I hope that my daughter, Rachel, and her brothers have memories like that. Rachel is now twenty-one, married, and has a daughter and a son of her own. It’s hard to think that so much time has passed, but months and years stand still for no one. I’m glad that Rachel is happy. She was such a rebellious child, and I wanted to pull my hair out before I got her raised. We have settled into life here in Oklahoma, but I do miss Mama. She’s getting on up in years now, and I do wish I could see her once more before her time comes to an end.

“Mama, if I live a long way from you when I leave home, will you write me real letters that I can keep and read over and over?” Holly asked.

“Of course I will, but where are you planning on living?” Lily answered.