They took the bags, dropped to the floor with them, and then dug through the tissue paper to pull their gifts out.
Evie’s eyes widened, and then she gasped and squealed. “It’s a red headband with jewels! Like a princess!”
Beth pulled hers out and waved it over her head. “Look, Daddy. My headband is blue with jewels. I will be a princess, too!”
“Thank you, Miss Katie!” they cried, and launched themselves at her, hugged her madly, then shoved the headbands on their heads like the old pros they were and bolted out of the room to find a mirror.
Sam was still grinning.
“Good choices, Miss Katie. You rock,” he said.
“So it would appear,” Katie said.
“Since you forgot my nail polish, will you at least stay and visit with me long enough so I don’t feel left out?” Sam asked.
“I brought blueberry muffins instead,” she said.
“All the better,” Sam said, and pulled her up into his arms and hugged her. “What’s your poison?” he asked as he opened the refrigerator door.
“I’ll take a Pepsi,” she said, and set the box of muffins on the table.
“Coming up,” he said, as he unscrewed the lid and then set the drink on the table in front of her. “So, where did you eat lunch?”
“At Ronda’s Café,” Katie said.
“Ah…gossip central. So, tell me what’s going on in Borden’s Gap.”
“Since I don’t know the people they were talking about, I’m not sure what’s new and what’s not, but I don’t think Rita likes her son-in-law, and Louise just sold the old Butterfield house to someone’s son who just got married. And Shirl is on the hunt for husband number three.”
Sam waved a wooden spoon in her direction.
“For someone who doesn’t know the area, you got a lot of useful info. You’d make a good witness,” Sam said.
Katie thought of Mark and the mess he was in. “I try not to get involved in anything that might send me to the witness stand.”
Sam laughed it off, but he knew immediately what she was referring to. However, she had not shared any of that with him, and unless she did, he knew nothing.
The girls came running into the kitchen to show off their headbands and insisted Sam take pictures.
“Send them to Granny and Papa!” Beth said.
“And Gram and Grandy,” Evie added.
“Those are my parents and Shelly’s parents,” Sam said as he wiped his hands and picked up his phone.
Katie watched the twins posing and noticed that in most of the pictures they were either hugging each other, had their arms around each other’s waists, or had their heads together. It was such a visual image of how connected identical twins could be.
“Okay, girls, I have the pictures, and if you want any supper, then you need to go find something to play or it’s not going to get cooked.”
“We’re starving!” Evie cried.
“Starving!” Beth echoed.
Katie grinned. “So am I…and mine’s already done. I’m leaving, too, so Daddy can get busy. The girls can walk me to the door and you just keep cooking, ’cause they’re starving.”
Sam rolled his eyes. He hated to see her leave, but he had no good reason to keep her beyond just wanting to be in her presence.
“Come back anytime!” he yelled as she was walking out the door, and then she was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Mark Roman had forgotten how flat Kansas was, but there was something about the prairie that called to him, and now he was back and only a half a mile from home, wondering if he would be able to hear it again.
His parents knew he was coming. It was almost suppertime. He knew his mom would have made something special, even though she shouldn’t have. It had been so long since he’d been home that he didn’t deserve special.
As he turned off the highway and started up the long blacktop road to the farmhouse sitting in the middle of hundreds of acres of waving wheat, he shuddered.
His dad would be awkward.
His mother would cry.
And his room would be a time capsule of who he’d been, which was better than a visual of who he was now.
As he drove toward the house, the wheat growing along the edges of the road was waving as if in welcome, but when he glanced in the rearview mirror, it appeared as if the road was disappearing behind him. Closing him in.
He’d escaped from here once.
It wouldn’t happen again.
And then he was pulling up to the house and parking beneath the wide three-car portico. As he got out, he heard a cry of welcome and turned around.
His mother was running toward him, her arms outstretched, with such a look of joy upon her face. And he was in shock.
When had she grown old?
His dad came down the steps behind her, slower, less certain of how to receive the prodigal son.
Mark’s eyes welled. He started walking toward them, and then caught his mother up in his arms and held her.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he kept saying over and over.
And then his dad was there, holding the both of them.
“Welcome home, Son,” he said. “Welcome home.”
Mark had left to make his fortune and come home with the scars of what he’d done to himself.
He would never get over it.
He would never forget.
But here was where he’d learned right from wrong, and here was where he needed to be to reset his moral compass.
***
Monday came in a flash of light as the first rays of sun appeared, still hidden behind the looming hills and the treetops of the Tennessee pines.
Katie had alternated between nightmares and dreams. She was awake before her alarm went off and dressed before dawn. It was a workday at school. There was a meeting in the cafeteria with coffee and doughnuts as an added incentive to show up on time, and then everyone was off to work in their rooms.
Katie was fully prepared to be the new kid in school. She was a pro after all her years of being moved from foster family to foster family. It was nerve-racking and a little exciting to have a whole new set of students again.
So when the time arrived to set off, she was anxious to get there and excited at the thought of a new year in a new location.
She walked out of the house to get in her car and found a huge handmade sign in her yard.