The boy was simply ensorcelled by all that abundance of feminine beauty. He sputtered and gulped.

Nathan interrupted to give the kid a break. “I see you still consider pie a food group.” He grinned at Lily, who blushed. “I’ll have the chicken. Sweet potatoes and some corn bread. Tea and a slice of the pecan for me. With ice cream.”

Once the boy was out of range, Nathan turned back to Lily, laughing. “That boy might hurt himself you got him so twisted up.”

“I was going to go home but then I’d have been late and you might have thought I wasn’t coming, and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” She looked less than pleased at the last bit. But he liked it just fine.

“You make clothes?” He steered her back to the conversation they’d been having earlier.

“Oh, yes. I do. I made what I’m wearing. Anyway,” she continued as if it wasn’t an amazing thing that she’d made the clothing she wore, “two years ago I started making a limited number of outfits and separates every year. I have a consignment place in Macon that I work with. They sell my stuff there and I’ve got word-of-mouth clients.”

She sipped her freshly delivered tea before continuing.

“But Beth suggested I set up a little website. Nothing too fancy, just pictures of the items I had in stock and also some of the other pieces I’ve made in the past to be special ordered. There are different places online—crafting communities and the like—and I can have my store listed there as well.” She shrugged. “So a friend of mine, another photographer I know, owed me a big favor and today he paid up by taking pictures of me for the website. I’ll need a way to make a living here. The extra money will be helpful.”

“I guess I was wrong.” About so many things.

“About what?”

“I was just wondering if you’d be back to Macon again once the situation with Chris evened out. I figured you would.”

“I told you I was back for good.”

“You did. I misjudged you.” He paused when their food arrived.

“I missed this place.” She looked around, avoiding the subject. He let her. For the moment.

“I lived in Atlanta for school and liked it. I’ve traveled around the country and even went to Italy three years ago, but Petal is home. How’s your mom holding up?”

She sighed and forked up some potatoes. “Some days she’s close to the woman she was when I was growing up. Those are the days I think she’ll pull her head out of her behind and get her life in order. Some days she’s stuck in a bottle with a handful of pills. Christ. I don’t know what to do with her.”

“I take it your dad isn’t any help.”

“If only I happened to be a twenty-year-old looking to cash in.” Her laugh was laced in irony. “He told me to take out a loan to send Chris to military school.”

He had his own crazy, selfish, abusive parents, but hers were worse to his mind. There was no reason for a good kid like Chris to have fallen behind the way he had. No reason for it to have gone on for so long before Pamela admitted she needed some help. And for any man to turn his back on his own child so he could keep on getting some young thing in his bed? Nathan wanted to punch the guy right in the face.

“You’re making a difference with him. He’s much calmer. His work is better. Consistent. He’s not so sullen and angry all the time.”

“It’s that program you recommended, actually.”

Nathan had told Lily about an afterschool tutoring and mentoring program. It was therapeutic, the adults were experts in one field or another, and the other kids were often facing troubles at home like Chris, or worse. The older ones, the tutors, were kids who’d overcome those troubles. It was a great option. One that would have been cut had it not been for a fundraising drive Tate’s mother-in-law held last fall. Polly Chase had been able to raise enough to keep the program for two days a week—once in the middle school and once in the high school—for the next two academic years.

“Glad to hear it. Tim does some volunteer work, takes on some of the older kids who may be interested in filling journeyman positions with local businesses like his.”

She smiled at him. A real smile, like the one she’d given Derek, and it made him miss what they’d had, that easiness between them.

“Really? I’m not surprised. He’s hanging out with some kids I think will be better for him in the long run. It’s been a month or so, but I’m cautiously hopeful. I’ve been very grateful for all the support he’s received from the school.”

“Is your sister not helping at all?”

“Is that a rhetorical question? She’s still telling our mother to hold on, that our father will finish up with his little friend and come back. The worst part is, I think my mother believes it. He’s so mean to her, it would be the worst thing possible for her to go back. But…” She shook her head and ate for a while. “It’s none of my business if she does. But I think it would be bad for Chris to have our father in and out of his life. Parenthood isn’t a place you visit when you get bored.”

“You’re right. He’s lucky to have you.” And he was.

“He’s my family.”

“Yes, he is. But a lot of people don’t put the same meaning into it that you do.”

“Or you.”

Really she was irresistible.