to Comfort to take care of our precious goats,” Holly answered.
“Well, you did the right thing,” Lily assured her. “Now let’s go eat and then get on home.”
“Can I please have a bath tonight after Braden has his turn in the bathroom?” Holly asked as they went back out into the restaurant. “I know my turn is in the morning, but I can’t sleep if I don’t have one. I feel dirty all over, not just my hands.”
“Yes, you can.” Lily spotted Mack and Braden waiting behind an older couple who were having trouble deciding what they wanted to order.
When it was their turn, Braden ordered the double-meat bacon-cheeseburger meal deal and a chocolate shake. Holly just nodded and said, “The same.”
“I’ll have a chocolate malt,” Mack said, and then nodded toward Lily.
“A vanilla ice cream in a cup, please,” she said.
Lily took her credit card from her purse, but Mack had already laid money on the counter. “It’s on me tonight,” he said.
“Thank you. Seems like I keep telling you that all the time,” she told him.
“I like doing things for you and the kids.” He grinned. “Let’s go find a booth and get these starving kids fed.”
The kids rushed ahead to claim the bigger round booth in the corner, but they weren’t arguing, which meant they still weren’t over the fear.
“Don’t let the smile fool you,” Mack said out of the corner of his mouth. “I’m trying to keep my cool, but it’s not easy.”
“I’ll be fuming for a week,” Lily said. “Should I call him or wait and let him go crazy about where they might have gone?”
“That’s your decision. I think the man is already insane for treating those kids like that, but he deserves to know what happened to them. It might wake him up,” Mack said.
When they got home, Holly went straight to the bathroom even though she was supposed to wait for her brother to have the first turn. Braden wanted to go check on the goats, so Mack got a flashlight and took him to the barn. Lily paced the living room floor—around the sofa several times, to the window looking out over the big front yard, and back to circle the sofa again.
After half an hour, Holly yelled down the stairs. “Mama, will you come up here, please?”
Lily took the steps two at a time and found Holly sitting on the side of her bed. Her white bathrobe was belted tightly around her waist, and a towel turban was wrapped around her head.
“Are you okay?” Lily asked.
“No, I’m not, but I’m not scared anymore,” Holly said. “Now I’m pissed—I mean, really angry. How could Daddy do that to us? You moved us here, but you never left us alone in a place like that. And you’ve never put anyone before us, like he does Victoria.” She rolled her blue eyes toward the ceiling. “I wish Mack was my daddy. He came and rescued us and fed us and brought us home. And now he’s out there in the goat pens with Braden, making him feel comfortable and not afraid.”
“Your father was mad because you kids don’t like his wife.” Lily sat down on the edge of the bed beside Holly. “I’m sure that he was thinking that he’d go back to the motel by your bedtime”—she checked her watch—“which is in about an hour. He thought you’d be all repentant and ready to do what he wanted you to do tomorrow.”
“It don’t work that way,” Holly said. “When we’re scared, we call you and now Mack. Y’all don’t throw us in a garbage can like that motel like we’re trash. I felt so sorry for Braden. He was really scared.”
Lily moved over and put her arm around her daughter. “I’m so sorry that this happened.”
Holly snuggled closer to Lily. “Daddy always takes us to a fancy place with no bugs or mice, and he’s never driven off and left us all alone like he did tonight. If I have a nightmare, can I come sleep with you?”
“Of course you can.” Lily hugged her even tighter. “Right now, I’m going to take a quick bath before Braden gets back from the goat pens. But I’ll be right across the hall, and honey, nothing is going to hurt you. He’s never taking you anywhere ever again.”
Holly tucked her chin against her chest. “Promise, Mama? He’s going to be really mad.”
“I promise, and he can get glad in the same britches he got mad