The cannonball she did into the water made the kids laugh. She did too. Cass asked her if he could take care of her messages, and she nodded to him. Before he picked up the phone, however, she put her hand over his.
“We’re not kidding about not having two pennies to rub together, Cass. I’ve been broke for so long I don’t have any idea what I’ll do if I ever get fixed again. The kids, they’re all I focus on right now. They’ve gone without more than any child has. This money, it’s not going to be to give us a better home, a nice car, or even a trip or vacation. It’s going to put food on the table. Coats on them when it’s cold. Shoes that I don’t have to pick up at the secondhand store. We need this more than just for the money, but for us to feel like we’re human again.” He kissed her cheek as he picked up her phone. “What was that for?”
“You couldn’t have said anything better to make me want to fight for you as hard as I can. Thank you.” He walked away, putting in the code for the messages. However, he was only a few feet away when he returned. “This isn’t from a bill collector, Lily. At least the first one isn’t. It’s from Missy Tyler. Do I have your permission to record these?”
“Yes. Do I want to know what she is saying?” He shook his head and told her not today. “Yes, at least not today anyway. Thank you for that. I didn’t even know she had my number. Is it bad?”
“No. Don’t think of it as bad. Just think of it as more information we can use in court. She was notified that we’re taking her back to court. She’s what you might call venting.” She told him there was a lot of that going around today. “I heard. Rogue will be here sometime tomorrow. Loman is talking to her now.”
Lily wanted to talk to her sister too. To tell her that things were moving along. But she also knew Rogue couldn’t talk to her about her job, more than likely what she was venting about. The one and only time her sister had vented to her was bad enough. She didn’t have any idea how Rogue was able to be as carefree as she seemed all the time and have to deal with the job she did.
When dinner was called, her kids got right out of the pool without complaint. She wanted to tell them they were great for not doing that when Billy sat beside her. Smiling big, she told her that since there was a pool here they could use all the time, they didn’t have to hate getting out of it.
“I love you, Mom.” Lily told her she loved her as well. “I know you do. I feel it in everything you do. The way you keep things from us when you’re upset. But I wanted to tell you I don’t just think of you as my stepmother. I don’t know that I ever did after Dad introduced us to you. But you’re my mother in all ways. Missy, what I plan on calling her from now on, was never there for me. Never came to my room at night and kissed me on the forehead like you do. She never worried over a temperature I had. Not one time did she ever go to something I was doing in school. You’ve been there for all of us when you really didn’t have to be.”
“Yes, I did.” Billy shook her head. “Then you have to tell me why you don’t think I need to be with you as much as I do.”
“The moment my dad was killed, you could have walked away. You could have said, ‘This is too much for a single person to take care of.’ But you didn’t. And when Missy took everything away from us, you—you didn’t say it was too hard. That you had a son of your own that you needed to care for. That’s another thing. You never treated us any different than you did Gabe, even though he’s your biological son. I love you for that and so many other things I cannot even list. There are so many. You have given us more in the last few years than our biological mother gave us in all our lives. I love you for that and will forever. Mom. The word means so much more to me than it ever did since you’ve come into our lives.”
When she walked away, Jane sat back down. She was crying, her beautiful cheeks red from them. When Jane blew her nose, she told Lily how much she had loved that. How, no matter what happened from now on, Billy and her other children had a place in her heart just as much as her other great-grandchildren. Then she left her there.
Lily was so touched that she had herself a good cry as well. They loved her. Not because they needed to, but because they wanted to. She wanted to hug them all up and hold them right then. But she knew it would embarrass them. Instead, she girded up her loins, as Rogue was so fond of telling her to do, and went into the house. Things were better. Not in any monetary way, but they were better for her all the same.
Chapter 2
Quin was never so glad to see his bed than he was tonight. It had been a long day and an even longer night with the animals he’d had to take care of at the Windle farm. It hadn’t taken him long to discover that the animals, all of them, had
