“I’m sorry to hear that. Nora and Vera were good friends. You got kids?” Orville asked.

“Two,” she answered. “A boy and a girl. Braden is twelve. Holly is fourteen.”

“I fell in love with Nora when I was fourteen.” Orville reached over and touched his wife’s arm.

Even with the declaration of love, Lily could feel the tension in the room. Adam glared at Mack, who ignored him. Nora’s eyes kept shifting between the three men, as if she knew one of them would explode at any time.

“This is wonderful fried chicken,” Lily said. “Sometime you’ll have to share your secret with me.” She felt something touch her ankle.

“I’ll be glad to,” Nora said.

Adam was still shooting daggers at Mack, but his foot was sure enough sliding up the inside of Lily’s leg, and it kept going when it reached her knee. There was no way it could be Mack, because he was sitting right beside her. She dropped her chicken on her plate, reached under the tablecloth, and picked up his foot. His expression went from amusement to pain when she bent his big toe backward until it popped.

“Do you use rice flour instead of wheat?” Lily hung on to the toe with both hands like a bulldog with a bone, but she never took her eyes off Nora.

“No, just plain old flour. It’s technique, not recipe. The grease has to be just the right temperature, and oil doesn’t work as well as shortening,” Nora told her.

“I’ll have to try that next time I fry a chicken.” Lily shoved Adam’s foot away from her like it was garbage. “Please excuse me. Where’s the restroom?”

“First door on the left down the hall,” Nora said.

Lily’s heart pounded as she turned on the water and squirted liquid soap into her hands. She washed them three times, but they still didn’t feel clean, so she did them one more time. When she’d dried them and went back to the table, Mack was telling his father about the new baby goats. She took her seat and pretended that nothing had happened.

Adam glared at her, but he kept his foot away from her leg. She had a feeling that if he could do it without getting his hands dirty, he’d throw the bowl of gravy at her.

“I never thought I’d see the day that my fourteen-year-old daughter, who has always been a girlie girl, would be so tickled with a baby goat.” She entered the conversation as she passed the biscuits around the table again. “If I’d let her, she’d bring it into the house and let it sleep in her bed like a puppy.”

“I got to meet this child,” Orville said.

“And her brother, Braden, helps me feed every evening, Dad,” Mack told him. “You really should come to the farm and see the new babies while they’re still young. What do you say, Mama? Can y’all come next weekend?”

“Of course we can,” Orville answered for her. “We’ll come on Saturday and spend the day.”

Nora caught Lily’s eye and raised a brow.

“That would be wonderful,” Lily said. “The kids would love to get to spend the day with y’all.”

“Then Saturday it is,” Nora said.

“Is tomorrow Saturday?” Orville asked.

“No, but it’s real soon,” Mack told him.

Out of her peripheral vision, Lily caught sight of Adam’s scowl. Even at his age, he didn’t like not being the center of attention or not being invited to a family gathering.

“You could come and bring Brenda,” Orville told Adam.

“No, thanks.” Adam’s tone dripped icicles. “I’ve got better things to do than spend a day with goats.”

Orville looked like he might cry until Nora patted him on the arm. “Maybe another day Adam can get away from his busy schedule.”

Orville nodded, but his expression didn’t change. Lily wished she’d broken every bone in Adam’s foot for treating his father like that.

They’d just finished dessert—pecan pie with ice cream—when Lily’s phone rang. She excused herself and rushed to the other end of the room where she’d set her purse and coat on a rocking chair. She answered just before it went to voice mail.

“Mama, can you come get us?” Holly asked.

Lily’s blood felt like ice water in her veins. “Are you hurt? Has there been an accident?”

“No, we’re both fine,” she said. “But Daddy is mad at us, and he . . .” She started crying.

“Gimme that phone,” Braden shouted.

Things had to be catastrophic for Holly to let him have it without an argument. “We told Daddy that we didn’t want to go to a fancy dinner, that we’d rather have pizza or burgers, and that we didn’t want to go to the Alamo tomorrow. He got mad at us and said if we wanted to be little rednecks, then he’d let us. We’re in a hotel at”—he rattled off the address—“and he said to keep the doors locked other than opening it for the pizza guy. He wasn’t going to miss having dinner with Victoria or doing stuff with her tomorrow just because of ungrateful kids. He said if we changed our mind, then he’d come get us and we could join them. He ordered pizza for us, but it was cold and burned when it got here, and I had to give them a dollar of my allowance money to pay the bill because Daddy didn’t leave enough money.”

“We just want to come home, Mama. This place is scary,” Holly said.

“Remember our safe word?” Lily asked.

“Alligator,” Braden said.

“Don’t open the door until you hear that word. Mack and I will be there in a few minutes. We’re already on the outskirts of San Antonio. Now repeat that hotel address to me one more time.”

Lily was livid when she hung up the phone.

Mack was right behind her when she turned around. “Everything all right?”

She shook her head, almost afraid to open her mouth because of the language that would spew out. “We need to go get the kids right now. I hate to do this to your folks, but . . .” Tears of anger began to flow down her cheeks.

“You go get in the truck. I’ll make it right with everyone and be out there in two minutes.” He was already putting on his coat as he started back to the dining area.

She’d just gotten her seat belt fastened when Mack got behind the wheel. “Are they hurt? Was there an accident?” He started the engine and made a U-turn to head back toward the highway.