Tyler knelt down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Does this make us parents?”

  “I’m not sure how the family tree goes with cats, but if this is the whole litter, I’ll take them both,” Monica answered. “It would be a shame to separate siblings.”

  “I should go find whatever hole she’s getting out at and fix it before I take her home,” Tyler said. “Did you ever wish for a brother or sister?”

  “Just every day of my life,” Monica answered. “Did you?”

  “Yes, I did,” Tyler answered. “Remember when we used to play that game about naming our kids when we got grown?”

  Monica nodded. “The boy was going to be either Creed or Logan. The girl was going to be Sophia or Stella. I still want a big family someday. I don’t want to raise an only child.”

  “Me, either.” He took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I guess that’s a stop on down the road for the train, though, isn’t it?”

  “Yep,” she said. “For now, we’ve got two kittens to raise.”

  “I don’t want to leave, but I should get on over to the house and figure out where that hole is. If she can get through it, then possums, raccoons, or rats could get in the house. Want to come with me?” he asked.

  “Sure.” She nodded. “I should get an idea of what all we’re going to have to do to get your place ready, and I can help find Sheba Houdini’s secret.”

  “That sounds like a video game.” Tyler chuckled and helped her to her feet.

  “Maybe we should sell the idea to a children’s publisher. The cat keeps getting out, and the possum keeps coming into the house. Oh my! How does the child figure out how to keep one out and the other one in,” she teased as he kept her hand in his and led her outside.

  Winnie’s house was an exact replica of Dotty’s, except for a few minor details like white countertops in the kitchen instead of blue, and paneling on the walls. But now the walls were covered with nail holes where Tyler had removed all the old wood.

  “This is going to take a lot of patching,” Monica said.

  “I know,” Tyler groaned. “The paneling was put up with nails, and you can see that they used lots of them. I’ve called a crew to come in here and put up new drywall and get it ready to paint.”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me,” Monica agreed. “Is there somewhere you don’t want me looking?”

  “I’ll take my bedroom and bathroom,” he answered. “You can check out everywhere else. I can’t imagine where a hole big enough for her to get through might be, but evidently there is one.”

  Monica looked under the kitchen sink, and everything was all right there. The second place she tried was the cabinet beside the sink. When she opened the door, she found a possum curled up asleep on the bottom shelf. The animal didn’t take but a few seconds to scurry down a hole and disappear under the house.

  “I found it,” she called out.

  Tyler came running from the bedroom and dropped to his knees. “I wonder why the flooring is . . . oh, I remember now. Granny had the whole house replumbed a few years ago, and the plumbers had to take up the flooring in a couple of cabinets. Look!” He pointed. “They forgot to screw this floor back down.”

  “And this is where she stored her cast-iron skillets,” Monica remembered. “The weight of them would have held the flooring down. I can see where the board slipped forward when Winnie moved the skillets, but how did Sheba open the door?”

  “The catch is broken,” Tyler said. “I’ll get a drill and some screws and fix it. Then we can bring her and the kittens back over here. Thank goodness you saw her coming out from under the house.”

  “Like the song says, we can do anything together.” Monica smiled.

  “Yes, we can,” Tyler said, and leaned over to brush a sweet kiss across her lips.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Everything was going so well in Monica and Tyler’s relationship that, by the end of the next week, she had dismissed the feeling that the other shoe was about to drop. She had turned in her application packet to Gloria, and that Friday, she dressed in a cute little pink suit for her interview. She slipped her feet into white shoes with a chunky heel and then checked her reflection in the long mirror at the end of the hall.

  Seeing Tyler’s vehicle in front of his house, and a cute little sports car beside it, didn’t send up any warning flags. Tyler had said he would be going in late that morning, because the drywall guys were coming, and he needed to be there when they arrived. Evidently, one of the workers drove a fancy car, Monica thought. She hesitated on the porch, took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, and then headed to her own car.

  A movement in her peripheral vision made her jerk her head around to see if Sheba had gotten loose again. Her heart did a nosedive into the dirt when she saw a tall, blond-haired woman backing out of Tyler’s house with him in tow. The screen door was halfway open, so Monica got the full impact of the woman wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling his face down to hers, and locking onto his lips.

  Monica felt like she was watching a car wreck. The whole scene was horrible, but she couldn’t force herself to look away or even blink. The kiss ended, and the woman walked slowly out to her car, got behind the wheel, and put on a pair of oversized sunglasses. She stuck her arm out the window and waved, and then left a dust trail behind her.

  Tyler stepped out onto his porch, saw Monica, and started toward her, but she managed to get to her car, get in, and drive away before he could reach her. Her phone rang several times while she drove to her interview, but she ignored it. She didn’t want to talk to him, not yet. Had that blonde spent the night in his bed? Had she just showed up, or had he called her and invited her to his house? How many more women from his past would she have to deal with?

  When she got to the parking lot in front of the assisted living center, she laid her head on the steering wheel and tried to talk herself out of even going in for the interview. She couldn’t live beside Tyler, or maybe even with him in the future, and be content with his old girlfriends popping in and out of his life.

  Maybe it was a one-night stand that you weren’t supposed to see or know about, the pesky voice in her head suggested. This is the second time you’ve caught him with another woman. Wake up and realize that he’s trouble.

  “No!” she yelled, raising her head.

  Her phone rang again, and this time, she fished it out of her purse. “Might as well get it over with,” she muttered.

  “Hello, Tyler.”

  “We need to talk. I’m a block away, and you have ten minutes before your interview with Gloria,” he said.

  She ended the call and got out of her car. When he pulled into the lot, she was sitting on a park bench under a huge pecan tree in front of the building. He got out of his vehicle and sat down beside her.

  “You’ve got eight minutes. I need one to walk from here to Gloria’s office,” she said.

  “I was in a relationship with that woman you saw two years ago. Her name is Audra. I met her in college, and we were together for a year. We broke up because she wanted to get married, and I couldn’t commit to that. I was still in love with you, and I didn’t have a whole heart to give to anyone.” He raked his fingers through his hair.

  “Did she spend the night with you?” Monica asked.

  “No! Hell, no!” Tyler shook his head. “She came by the house . . .” He paused.

  “Just to kiss you?” Monica checked her phone for the time.

  “No!” His voice sounded like he was bewildered. “She showed up about five minutes before you saw us together. She said that she hadn’t gotten over me and wanted to know if we might start things up again. I told her all about you, and how you were the reason I couldn’t commit to more with her in the first place. I don’t know why she kissed me, but please know that she did that, not me. But”—another pause—“I’m glad she did.”

  “Really? Why’s that?” Monica asked.

  “Because I felt nothing. No sparks, no chemistry. Not one single thing like I feel when we kiss or even when you just touch my arm or my hand,” he admitted. “I had to talk to you right now and explain.”

  How would you feel if one of your old boyfriends came back and kissed you? Nana’s voice was back in her head. Give that some thought before you go off all half-cocked and end it with him.

  As if he could read her mind, Tyler said, “I’d be seeing red if the roles were reversed here. I can only imagine how you are feeling right now—especially after that fiasco ten years ago. Please, trust me when I say that I would never do anything to jeopardize this second chance we have.”

  If you want something bad enough, you’ll fight for it. Nana’s advice came back to mind.

  “Now, it’s my turn.” Monica glanced at her phone again. “I don’t know how many of these beautiful women you’ve got hiding in your past. I don’t want to know, but I’m very much aware of the few relationships I had that didn’t work out for me. I do trust you, Tyler, and I’ve got a remedy for this problem. We’ll move in together. My house is already put together, so let’s live in it. We can furnish your house with the furniture you bring from your rental property and use that place for our guest house. When my folks or yours come to see us, we’ll have room for them, or if Nana and Winnie want to get away from here for a day or two, like at Christmas, we can let them stay there. Now, I’ve got to go to my interview. Think about it.” She stood up and smoothed the front of her skirt.

  “I don’t have to think about it.” He grinned. “I’m ready, but what good will living together do when it comes to old relationships?”

  “It’s quite simple. If one of your women comes to the door, I can kick her off the porch and send her on her way,” Monica answered.

  Tyler stood and wrapped Monica up in his arms. “I love you.”

  “I love you, Tyler Magee. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t.” She hugged him back. “Wish me luck with this interview.”

  “You don’t need it, darlin’,” he said as he lowered his lips to hers.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “How do I look?” Dotty asked Winnie.

  “Like an oversized blueberry.” Winnie giggled.

  Dotty gave her a dirty look. “I’m going to change into the black outfit I wore to the alumni banquet. I won’t have a bit of confidence in this thing after that ugly remark.”

  “Dotty Allen, the day you don’t have confidence hasn’t dawned yet,” Winnie told her. “The black looks better on you, anyway, and our new things are more stylish. That blue dress is more than five years old, and it looks like something an old woman would wear, or maybe be buried in.”

  “Good God, Winnie!” Dotty gasped. “I’m going to give the dress away if it makes you think of funerals.”

  “Give it to Gladys,” Winnie said, giggling.

  “She could never fit into it,” Dotty said as she pulled the dress over her head and put on the black pants outfit. “This will look better with my crown, anyway. Now, how do I look?”

  “Like you could dance to that badonkadonk song and take Henry away from Gladys,” Winnie answered.

  “I always say it’ll take a man with his own teeth, his own hair, and who doesn’t have to use a walker to bounce my bedsprings.” Dotty hooked her arm in Winnie’s and said, “Let’s go knock ’em all dead.”

  “That might not be the right thing to say when the youngest one in this place is over seventy,” Winnie told her as they walked down the hall together.

  The dining room was decorated with balloons and ribbons, and there were two long tables laid out with all kinds of finger foods. The crown was perched on a shelf under a banner that said MOTHER OF THE YEAR.

  “There it is,” Winnie whispered, “just waiting for them to announce my name.”

  “Or mine,” Dotty reminded her.

  “Hey, don’t y’all look amazing.” Monica crossed the room and hugged both of them. “Guess what? I got the job. Gloria called me this morning. I go to work in two weeks. I called my supervisor at the nursing home, and they agreed to let me use my vacation days for my two weeks’ notice, so we’ve got that time to work on our guest house.”

  “Guest house?” Winnie asked.

  Tyler walked up behind Monica and slipped an arm around her waist. “Did you tell them yet?”

  “I told them that I got the job, but not about the other,” she answered.

  “What other?” Dotty’s eyes widened.

  Before Monica could answer, Gloria tapped on a glass with a spoon to get everyone’s attention. “I’d like to ask everyone to find a seat so we can begin. First of all, thank you so much for coming out to our Mother’s Day celebration. It’s so good to see so many here this year to enjoy spending time with all the mothers and grandmothers that live at Pecan Valley. Before we begin, I’d like to announce that Leona, our RN, will be retiring in two weeks, and we’ve hired Monica Allen to step into that position. I won’t say take her place, because Leona can’t be replaced. Monica, would you stand up, please, so everyone can put a face to the name.”

  Monica blushed slightly as she got to her feet. Dotty started the applause, and everyone else joined in.

  “Thank you,” Monica said when the noise died down. “I appreciate that, and hope that I can do half the job that Leona has done.” Then she sat back down.

  “Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” Gloria said. “We’ll crown our Mother of the Year, and then we invite all of you to enjoy the food, stay and visit as long as you want, and come back to see us often.”

  Dotty reached over and grabbed Winnie’s hand. “This is it. We’re goin’ to win,” she whispered.

  “We tallied up the votes twice to be sure that we got this right, and we had a tie this year, so we asked all the staff members to vote one more time for either of these two sweet mothers,” Gloria said. “And the winner of this year’s Mother of the Year contest is Minnie Mason.”

  Winnie started to get up out of her chair, but Dotty pulled her back down. “She said Minnie, not Winnie.”

  “Well, crap!” Winnie said, “and to think of all the money I spent on candy bars.”

  Minnie, a little round woman with short, kinky hair dyed red, made her way to the front of the room. Gloria put the crown on her head and then led her down a stretch of red carpet as the background music for “Miss America” played.

  “Crown is all buried down in that silly-looking hair,” Dotty complained. “And her pink dress doesn’t do a thing for it.”

  “That’s one of them funeral dresses,” Winnie whispered.

  “We should sneak into her room tonight and steal the crown,” Dotty suggested in a low voice.

  “Nana!” Monica scolded.

  “I just want to be a queen one time,” Dotty said, pouting.

  “Well,” Winnie huffed. “The fact that you got the job, and we get to see you every single day, kind of takes the stink off this moment.”

  “Thank you for that,” Monica said.

  “And we do have other news.” Tyler took Monica’s hand in his.

  Dotty couldn’t think of a thing better than winning that crown, but she sighed and focused on the two of them. “Well, spit it out!”

  “We’re going to live together in my house and fix up Tyler’s as a guest house,” Monica told them. “That way, you two can come stay a few days over holidays with us.”

  “Oh my!” Dotty’s hands went to her cheeks. “Sweet Jesus and all the angels in heaven. My prayers have been answered. What made you decide to do that?”

  Winnie grabbed Tyler around the neck and hugged him tightly. “Yes! Whatever made you decide to do that?”

  “Well, it all started ten years ago, when I caught Tyler in the garage with Raylene Carter, and then a few days ago when . . .” Monica went on to tell the story of the woman who’d kissed Tyler.

  “But what has all that got to do with living together?” Winnie asked.

  “Nana told me that if I want something bad enough, I might have to fight for it,” Monica explained. “I figure if some hussy comes knocking on my door looking for my boyfriend, I’ll be waiting, and I can kick her off the porch. If she comes up with her hands knotted in fists, I’ll know that it’s time to fight for what I love.”

  Dotty and Winnie both broke out in laughter.

  “That’s my girl. When’s the wedding? I need to shop for a new outfit.” She cut her eyes around toward Winnie. “One that doesn’t look like a funeral dress.”

  Winnie clapped her hands. “I just love that you two have made up, and you called him your boyfriend. I’ve waited ten years for this day. When is the wedding?”

  “We’re taking it slow and easy,” Tyler said, “and we haven’t talked about a date yet.”

  “We’ve got to see if we can stand each other before we talk marriage,” Monica told them.

  “Oh, honey, that’s not going to be a problem. You’ve been in love your whole lives,” Dotty told her.

  “You’re right about that.” Tyler leaned over and kissed Monica on the cheek.

  “Amen!” Monica agreed, looking into his eyes.

  EPILOGUE

  Six months later

  Snow covered the ground and was still coming down the December day when Monica went to the little white brick church in Bells. Winnie and Dotty were riding with Ginger in the car behind her. Pink sponge hair rollers covered Monica’s head, and she prayed that her thick hair would be dry when her mother removed them. She parked right beside them at the backside of the fellowship hall, and all four women waded through snow that came up over the tops of their boots to the doors that led inside.

  “Nervous?” Winnie asked as they kicked off their boots and headed across the room.

  Monica stopped and stared. The room had been transformed into a beautiful reception hall, decorated with poinsettias in the middle of each table, and a fully adorned Christmas tree in the corner with wedding gifts under it. “Mama, this is beautiful. It’s like a Christmas fairy tale.”

  Ginger gave her daughter a sideways hug. “Honey, I was tickled pink when you and Tyler decided to have a Christmas wedding. I’ve had so much fun helping get all this together. Wait until you see the sanctuary.”