citizens place of our own. We might be a small community, but I bet we’d draw people from the outlying communities as well, especially since it’s hard to get around much as we get older. But the town never did anything with the idea.” He paused. “I should be goin’. Them four sheep of mine are going to be carryin’ on if I don’t get some feed out to them.”
Noah poured himself another cup of coffee and headed toward the stairs. “Why do you keep sheep, Sam?”
“Delia liked to watch a baby lamb romp around in the springtime. When it got up big enough, we gave it to one of the farm kids to show at the county livestock show, and she got a big kick out of seeing if her baby won a prize,” Sam explained as he carried his plate to the sink. “Feedin’ lambs reminds me of her smile, so it’s worth keepin’ more around.”
“Please come again, Sam,” Teresa said. “There’s always plenty, and we love the company.”
Sam removed his cowboy hat from the hook beside the back door and settled it on his head. “Thanks again for that, but if I’m goin’ to be eatin’ here, I’ll have to contribute a little. I bought some beef from Jimbo Turner down the road from me last week. I’ll bring over some steaks when I come back.”
“That would be great,” Noah said, “but you sure don’t have to bring anything. Teresa always makes plenty, and if you’ll eat with us, I don’t have to live on leftovers.”
“Boy, ain’t you learned that leftovers is the best part?” Sam laughed as he disappeared out the back door.
What Sam said stayed with Noah all the way to his bedroom-office combination on the second floor. Leftovers were the best part. Did that pertain to life as well as food? After the main course was served, did the part that was left behind become better? If so, then what remained of his heart and life when he got sober would be the good years, right? Would Teresa or any other woman ever see it that way?
He sat down at his desk and pulled up the file that had Teresa’s and Kayla’s inheritance documents in it. Deciding how and what to do with all that money gave him a headache. He knew exactly what he would do with what Miss Janie had left him. He planned to live in Birthright and do his PI work out of the house right there.
Man was not made to live out his days on earth alone. His grandfather’s booming preacher’s voice rattled around in his head. Luther Jackson, brother to Miss Janie, had joined the service to get away from his religious family. Miss Janie said that after several years, her brother got tired of running from God, and although he made a career of the military, he became a chaplain.
“Maybe man was made to have a wife,” Noah muttered, “but there’s not many available women in Birthright, Texas.”
Chapter Five
Kayla Green awoke to the sound of gardeners working on the flowers that hot summer morning. She shielded her eyes against the sun coming through her bedroom window. When that didn’t work, she reached for the spare pillow and slammed it down over her face. Gardeners weren’t supposed to be there on Sunday, not even if it was hot as hell and the roses and lantana needed tending to. The sprinkler system should take care of that on the one day that Kayla could sleep late.
She finally tossed back the covers, grumbled the whole time she got out of bed, and put on a pot of coffee. Since she was already up, she thought about going to church, but that would require getting dressed, and she liked to lounge around in her pajamas on Sunday until noon. Then she would do what grocery shopping needed to be done and catch up on laundry.
Thinking of church reminded her of going to services with Miss Janie. She’d been glad to get dressed up in a nice, clean outfit those days, and even more glad that the snooty girls she went to high school with went to the bigger churches over in Sulphur Springs. She liked all the elderly people in the little Birthright church so much better than those hateful bitches.
But the other thing that it reminded her of was the smell of the church bus when it came around to their neighborhood on Sunday morning. Kids who had parents to