“Yep, it will.” Mack gently squeezed her hand.

“Mama! Mama!” Braden and Isaac ran up in front of her. “Can I go home with Isaac? His mama says it’s all right with her if you don’t care.”

“We’ve got to come back to town at three to visit my grandma in the nursing home, so we can bring him home then,” Isaac said.

“Pleeeease.” Braden looked up at her with his big brown puppy-dog eyes.

“It’s fine with me, but be home on time. You’ve still got math homework to do,” Lily told him.

“And I’ve got to help with the goats,” Braden said. “Thanks, Mama.” He and Isaac disappeared into the crowd.

“Looks like it’s me and you for Sunday dinner.” Mack grinned.

“Sally is joining us. Hope you don’t mind,” she said.

“Not a bit,” Mack replied.

Lily reached out to shake Drew’s hand as they passed by him. “Want to join us at the pizza place for dinner?”

“Thanks, but I wouldn’t dare. The sweet wife has made my favorite meal, and the boys are all home. Maybe another time,” Drew said, and then lowered his voice. “I was sad that Holly hasn’t been joining us for youth group.”

“She’ll be back, I’m sure,” Lily told him.

“That’s good to hear,” Drew said.

“We’ll have to make plans for y’all to come to the house some evening for supper,” Lily said.

“Love to.” Drew dropped her hand and extended it to the man right behind Lily.

They were in the truck and headed to the pizza place when Mack took her hand in his. “Why did you invite Drew to join us for dinner?”

“I want to get to know his wife better, and he’s your friend, and it seemed like the thing to do,” she answered. “Why are you asking?”

“You’re not worried about us being alone?” He countered with another question.

“No, Mack, I am most certainly not.” She chuckled. “But remember, Sally is joining us, too. And to be truthful, I’m actually looking forward to a dinner with no bickering kids and some adult conversation that doesn’t revolve around who ate more slices of pizza.”

He made a right turn into the restaurant’s parking lot. He snagged a good parking spot, and Sally pulled in right beside him. “Do you ever wonder if Sally will ever remarry or have children?”

“Whatever brought that question out of the blue skies?” Lily asked.

“I guess I’m wondering about you and Sally both,” he answered.

Lily shuddered at the idea of a baby at her age.

“I don’t know about Sally, but I really wouldn’t want to start over. Do the math—if I had another child now, Holly would be almost thirty when that child was just starting high school. What about you?”

“I wouldn’t mind a ready-made family.” He shrugged.

“Wouldn’t your folks want grandkids of their own?” she asked.

“Dad wouldn’t know if they were his biologically or not, and Mama gave up on that idea years ago. Adam can’t have children, and I . . .” He hesitated. “You know my story. Until you came along, I didn’t trust women anymore.”

“You’ve only been around me and the kids a short while,” she said.

“But it’s been a good time,” he declared.

Sally tapped on the truck window and motioned for her to lower the window. “We better get in there while there’s still a table.”

Lily nodded in agreement. “You’re right. It’ll fill up quick now that church is over.”

This time Sally beat Mack to the punch when the lady at the counter told them the cost for three of them to eat at the buffet that day. “My treat,” she said, “since I elbowed my way in on what could have been y’all’s private dinner.”

“The more the merrier,” Mack said, “but thank you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lily said. “Thank you. Next time maybe I’ll even have something cooked at home.”

“That’s why I’m bein’ nice.” Sally picked up a bowl and filled it with salad from the buffet.

Once they’d sat down in a booth, Sally said, “Hey, Ruth-Ann came by yesterday, mainly just to snoop like always, but—oh, hey!”—she waved and motioned—“y’all don’t mind if Teena joins us, do you?”

“Not a bit,” Mack said. “We’ve got an extra chair.”

“Anyway, the newest gossip is that you’re pregnant, Lily, and that I’m getting married this summer to a guy I met on the internet,” Sally said.

“Well, damn!” Mack grinned from ear to ear. “I guess you’ll have to make an honest man of me. When does Ruth-Ann say we’re getting married?”

“She’s not sure, but she’s positive that it could ruin your career as a teacher, Mack, and she just wondered”—Sally put air quotes around that last word—“if you and I might be going to raise our tagalong kids together.”

Lily almost choked on a sip of her sweet tea. “Are you kiddin’ me?”

“Not one bit,” Sally giggled. “But now it’s time to ’fess up. How in the hell did you and Mack get a baby started so fast? Me and my imaginary boyfriend, according to Ruth-Ann, have been seeing each other since Thanksgiving, but good Lord, you and Mack have only been living together for weeks.”

“I heard that, too.” Teena sat down with them. “I’m jealous that y’all get to be pregnant together, and I didn’t get invited to join y’all.”

Mack chuckled. “Don’t you just love small-town gossip?”

“Hey, next week, it will all change,” Teena said. “Since we’re having dinner together, I’d bet that the newest will be that you’re the father of both their babies, and having an affair with me, too.”

“I’d better take vitamins to keep up with all that,” Mack told them.

Lily felt a slow heat moving from her neck to her face. Sure, they were joking, but after what she and Mack had been discussing in the truck, she couldn’t help but wonder what a child of Mack’s would look like.

Lily had lived in this same house her whole life, but today, the gray stone place looked warmer and more inviting when she walked up on the porch with Mack by her side. A rush of warm air met them when Mack opened the door for her. He helped her with her coat and followed her to the kitchen. He put on a pot of coffee, and she got down a couple of mugs.