Right at that moment, Lily felt a whole lot like her daughter. She had been jerked out of her church, taken away from her friends, and didn’t even have a closet, either. But deep down in her soul, she knew this was the right move. She’d brushed so many incidents under the rug, and told herself each one of them was just another phase they were passing through. Now it was time to jerk her head out of the sand.
She reminded herself again that a kid could kick any bush between the Red River and the Gulf of Mexico and a dozen friends would come rolling out, but they only got one mother—mean or otherwise. With a fresh start here in Comfort, she hoped she’d do a better job of being the mom they needed.
Fresh start? I’d say you’re coming back to your roots. Her mother’s gravelly voice, so much like her own, was so clear that Lily whipped around to see if she was coming out of the kitchen.
“Well, there’s that, too,” Lily muttered.
Chapter Three
Lily turned around slowly, taking in the whole room that had been hers before she left for college. The lace curtains were the only things that were the same. When Mack had moved into the house, he’d cleaned out everything from the downstairs bedroom into the room that had been emptied when Lily moved into her first apartment.
Why oh why hadn’t she come back to take care of things? She threw herself backward onto the bed and stared at the full rack of her mother’s clothing on the far wall. Vera had known that her time was short, so she’d taken care of all the legal business with her lawyer, and even arranged her own funeral. She’d made it so easy for Lily to simply lock the doors, put the key in the hands of Teena, her friend from high school and a real estate agent, and just walk away.
“Lily, where are you?” A voice floated up the stairs.
“Speak of the devil.” Lily raised her voice. “In my old bedroom.”
Teena didn’t even knock on the closed door, but came right on in and bent to give Lily a hug. A tall brunette without an extra ounce of extra weight on her slim body, she’d changed very little since high school. Not even having a set of twins had widened her narrow hips or put another inch on her waist.
“I figured I’d given you enough time to get here,” Teena said. “Mack was just getting in his truck to leave, and he said for me to come on in. Sally is on the way. We’ve got a couple of hours to help you get unpacked.” She glanced over at the clothes rack. “Those are your mama’s things. I remember that blue dress. She wore it to your folks’ anniversary party at the church the year before your dad died. All us girls went shopping with her to pick it out. Good God, Lily! Why haven’t you taken care of some of this before now?”
Lily drew in a lungful of air and let it out slowly. “I planned to, but if I didn’t, then I could pretend she was still here. If I didn’t come back to Comfort, well, y’all understand.”
“Yes, we do, but it’s time to let your mama go.” Teena straightened. “And that starts by taking care of some of her things. I’ll put all that on the bed so you can hang up your clothes. We’ll use the boxes you brought your stuff in to pack all Vera’s stuff. Sally and I will take everything to the church clothes closet when we leave today. Someone can get some good out of it.”
“Good out of what?” Sally leaned on the doorframe, huffing. “I’d forgotten how steep those stairs were.”
“Lily hasn’t even gone through her mother’s stuff,” Teena said. “Come to think of it, she hasn’t been home in five years.”
“I don’t blame her. When my mama dies, I’m going to give that job to my sister.” Sally met Lily halfway at the foot of the bed, grabbed Lily’s hands, and jumped up and down like a little girl. “We’re all together again. I’m so happy I could dance a jig in a pig trough on Main Street.”
Sally’s blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail. Shorter than Lily, she’d always carried a few extra pounds, but she’d been the life of the party when they were kids. Now she was divorced, had no children, and