Fiona awoke to the aroma of bacon and coffee blended with something sweet reaching her nose as she threw the covers back. Noises across the hall told her that her mother and Jud were getting around, too, so that meant Dora June was serious about taking over the kitchen. The sun wouldn’t be peeking over the horizon for another hour, but things had always started early in Dry Creek. The store was open by seven so the old guys could come for their morning coffee and discussion of politics.
“Politics, aka town gossip,” she said to herself. She was used to getting up early because she’d had the early shift at the coffee shop. Folks who had to be at work by eight wanted time to drink the first cup in the shop and then take one with them to sip on throughout the morning.
Fiona dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a soft dark green sweater and fished an old comfortable pair of cowboy boots from the back of the closet. Seven years she’d been gone and had only been home for a short while and yet old habits had come back as if she’d never left. Shaking the bugs out of her boots. Sitting on the step to put them on. Tucking the legs of her jeans down into them.
Katy laid a hand on her shoulder. “Good morning. Ready to go to work again?”
Fiona stood up and hugged her mother. “Good morning to you, too. Hey, I forgot to tell you that Lucy Hudson wants me to take over her books, too. She might come by and talk to me this morning.”
“Ladies?” Jud stepped out of his room. “Books? What books?”
“Fiona went to school to be an accountant. She’s always been good with figures,” Katy said.
The pride in her mother’s voice made Fiona’s heart swell. She’d always known that her mother loved her but that morning she felt it down deep rather than just heard the spoken words.
“We might need to talk about the Lucky Penny business, then,” Jud said.
Fiona blinked and tried looking away, but it didn’t work. Wearing snug jeans, a dark blue thermal knit shirt with the top two buttons undone and the sleeves pushed up to his elbows, and scuffed cowboy boots—well, that was definitely sex-on-a-stick right there. Then add in bedroom eyes that hadn’t had enough sleep and blond hair that curled when it was too long, and it was enough to make a saint sit up and take notice.
“Mornin’, Jud,” she said. “I’d be glad to take on the accounting for the Lucky Penny.”
He nodded slightly toward her and then turned his attention to Katy. “Smells like Dora June was serious.”
“I love home cooking.” Fiona started down the stairs.
“My girls have always had healthy appetites,” Katy giggled.
Dora June was bustling around in the kitchen. She wore a red sweatshirt with a picture of Santa Claus on the front and green sweatpants that were rolled at the hem. “I know I must look crazy but I love the way this feels. All soft and Christmas like.” She pushed the sleeves up to her elbows. “Sit right down and have a nice cinnamon apple muffin while I fix y’all some eggs. I didn’t want to cook them until you were here because cold eggs are horrible.”
“Dora June, you don’t have to wait on us.” Fiona buttered a warm muffin and rolled her eyes. “You should be baking for a fancy coffee shop. These would sell for five dollars each where I used to work.”
Dora June beamed. “Aah, honey, wait until you taste my orange cranberry. I like to make them in the holiday season. Speaking of that, I make cookies every Saturday during the season so I can have them for my Sunday school class. Y’all will have to eat the broken ones.”
“Well, now, that is surely a chore I will look forward to.” Jud smiled. “Where’s Truman this morning?”
“He eats at five every morning and goes out to do chores by six. I expect he’s over at the house trying to prove it was the Christmas tree that caused the fire. I cried and worried until after midnight, but finally a voice in my head had a talk with me and I’m fine with things this morning. I’m sixty-eight years old and…” She prattled on as she cracked eggs into a bowl and whipped them into a yellow froth. “I’ve been praying for two years that God would show Truman that it’s time for us to retire and do something else. I didn’t want the answer to be what it was, but who am I to question God?”
Fiona buttered another muffin and got the message as loud and clear as if it had been delivered through the voices in her head. The old truck barely making it to Dry Creek, the way things were working out, they were all answers to the prayers that she’d had in her head those weeks when she ran out of food and had no money. She’d been led to Dry Creek for a reason.
“Now Truman”—Dora June poured the eggs into a cast-iron skillet with melted butter in the bottom—“he’s got to make his own peace and God has a little harder time convincin’ him than he does me. He’ll be back in the middle of the morning and we’re going to Wichita Falls to buy clothing.”
“Don’t worry about supper,” Fiona started.
“Oh, we’ll be back by then. I’ve got a chicken in the slow cooker and plan on making dumplin’s tonight.”
After he’d finished breakfast, Jud carried his dishes to the cabinet, rinsed them, and put them in the dishwasher. Fiona followed so close behind him that she caught a whiff of his aftershave with every breath.
“Y’all been raised right,” Dora June said seriously. “Now get on out of here and go to work and I’ll busy myself with my jobs.”
Fiona wanted to remind Dora June that she wasn’t the boss, that she might have taken on the job of chief cook and maid, but that didn’t give her any parental rights or even grandparent rights, but she kept her tongue.
“You got that right, Miz Dora. I’m procrastinatin’ going out there in the cold wind to feed cows but I suppose it’s got to be done,” Jud said. “Thank you for the mighty fine breakfast. You mind if I tuck a couple of those muffins in my pockets for a midmorning snack?”
Dora June beamed. “Let me get you a couple of them plastic bags to put them in. Don’t want crumbs in your pockets drawin’ ants. You want to take along one or two, Fiona? There’s plenty.”
“I’d rather have two biscuits stuffed with leftover eggs and bacon. That would make a great lunch,” Fiona answered.
“I’ll get the bags and, honey, around here it’s dinner and supper.”
Fiona nodded and pasted on a smile.
Katy parked beside a line of five pickup trucks with their engines still running and old ranchers huddled down over the steering wheel like a buzzard over roadkill.
“Mercy, the old guys are here early today,” Fiona said.
“They’re always waitin’ for me to open up on Monday so they can talk about the whole weekend. Men gossip every bit as much as women,” Katy laughed.
Doors slammed as the guys crawled out of their trucks and followed Katy and Fiona into the store. They’d barely gotten inside when the pastry man arrived bringing in the usual order of pastries. Katy flipped on the lights and adjusted the thermostat while the fellows headed for the table in the back corner. Before Fiona could get the coffee made, Herman Hudson yelled at her to bring a dozen doughnuts to the table.
“I know Miz Lucy made you a good breakfast,” Fiona said.
“That was two hours ago, darlin’. Man my size has to eat more often than three times a day. Besides, these old codgers here are going to help me out with the doughnuts,” Herman chuckled.
Herman lived in bibbed overalls and always had a smile for anyone he met. He and his wife, Lucy, had been friends with Fiona’s grandmother, Irene, since long before Fiona was born. He’d always felt more like a surrogate grandfather than a customer and he’d fallen right back into that place that cold November morning.
“Old! Who you callin’ old?” one of the other men said. “And where in the hell is Truman this mornin’? I wanted to talk to him about that fire.”
“Lickin’ his wounds, I imagine,” Herman said. “Katy took him and Dora June in over at Audrey’s Place. He didn’t want to go, but Dora June…well, let’s just say she stood up to him and he don’t mess with her when she takes a stand. She’ll put up with a lot of shit but when she sets her mind, he’d better go on and do what she says.”
“I’ll be damned,” another old guy said.
“He’ll get over his snit, I expect, and we’ll see him right here tomorrow mornin’,” Herman said.
“Hey, I heard that them boys has got half the land cleared at the Lucky Penny. I swear they’re going to make that ranch something to sit up and notice for sure. They ain’t afraid of hard work or long hours neither one.”
While her mother took a couple of doughnuts up the street to Lizzy’s feed store, Fiona refilled the coffee cups and went back to dusting shelves. Besides, she could hear what those old codgers were saying a lot better from that vantage point than she could back behind the counter.
A blast of warm air greeted Jud when he pushed his way into the feed store that morning. Lizzy looked up from the counter and licked the chocolate frosting from the second doughnut from her fingers. It was the eyebrows and the shape of the faces that proved the Logan ladies were sisters. And maybe the attitude and that hip-swaying walk that made men take a second look and drool.
“Gettin’ colder. Feels like snow out there,” he said.
Lizzy laid a catalog to one side. “Weatherman says we’re in for another cold blast. I can’t believe we’re getting hit two years in a row. How’s things with Truman in the house?”
“Haven’t seen him. He was gone at breakfast. According to Dora June, he leaves earlier than we do. I feel sorry for them. It can’t be easy losing everything like that, but Dora has accepted it.”
Lizzy poured a mug full of coffee and handed it to him. “She surprised me last night. I thought he always ran the show but it sounds to me like whenever she digs in her heels, he’d better obey.”
Jud sipped the coffee. “They’ve been married a long time. I guess she picks her battles. This is so good after being out in the cold all morning.”
Lizzy motioned the last chocolate doughnut. “Help yourself if you want.”
“No, I just ate two big muffins that Miz Dora gave me this morning.”
“What are you in town for?” Lizzy hopped up on the counter and crossed one leg over the other.
“About ten bags of cattle feed,” he answered.
“I heard that Lucy Hudson is going to talk to Fiona about doing bookkeeping for their ranch. We should get her to take care of the Lucky Penny.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing all morning. We all hate to do the paperwork and there’s lots of it with a ranch.”
“I worry about her, Jud. She thinks she won’t be happy here.”
“Do I hear a but in there?” Jud asked.
Lizzy nodded. “But I’m not sure what it is. We’ve always wanted her to come back, but it has to be her decision or she will never be content.”
“Why did she leave?” Jud asked.
“All I know is that she wasn’t happy here.”
“Here’s my credit card. I’ll go load up the feed and run back through here to sign the bill. And, Lizzy, you and your older sister are wise to love her enough to give her wings to fly and not try to hold her down.”
“Thanks.” Lizzy smiled.
Jud didn’t actually need a thing from the convenience store that morning, but he wanted to see Fiona.
Tell a man he can’t have something or that he can’t do something and that will give him incentive to go after either with a full head of steam. The voice in his head sounded remarkably like his grandfather’s.
A few flakes of snow fell from the sky as he stepped out of his truck at the convenience store. It was shaping up to be a second hard winter in Dry Creek. Last year Blake had to run things by himself. At least this year there were three of them to share the work load, plus two women who were absolutely the best rancher’s wives in the whole state of Texas.
“I’m in the back room at the table trying to make heads and tails of Mama’s books. Holler when you get ready to check out,” Fiona yelled.
He stopped long enough to pour a cup of coffee and carried it to the door where a floral curtain had been pulled to one side. “Looks like you aren’t going to get any moss on you today.”
She looked up and frowned.
“A rolling stone gathers no moss,” he explained.
That netted him half a smile.
She laid her books aside. “Well, there won’t be a bit of moss on me if that’s the truth. I’ll be here until eternity dawns getting Mama’s books in order. If she’d ever been audited, they’d have never found their way through the maze.”
“I heard Lucy Hudson is bringing her things to you, too.”
Fiona rolled the kinks from her neck. “That’s probably fifty years’ worth of work.”
Jud removed his coat and hat and tossed them on the table in the corner, set the coffee on the end of the desk, and rounded the end. He stopped behind her chair and massaged her shoulders and neck muscles, his fingers digging in the knots that had been there far longer than the four days he’d known Fiona.
“Why are you a rancher?” she asked.
“Because I love the job,” he answered.
“Women would pay big bucks for you to do this for them. If you did it naked from the waist up, you could charge double,” she teased.
“And if I did it totally naked?”
“Oh, honey, the sky would be the limit.”
“Want me to close that curtain and take off my clothes?”
Fiona shook her head. “I’m just sayin’, not askin’.”
“You need a break. Come up front and have a cup of coffee with me,” he said.
“After that massage, I’d follow you to the moon and back.” She stood up, got her foot tangled in a cord, and stumbled right into his arms.
“Whoa, there, darlin’. I know I worked the kinks out of your neck, but I didn’t touch your legs,” he teased.
One second she was straightening up; the next he was looking down into her green eyes and then his lips closed on hers. The kiss set off bells and whistles so loud that he couldn’t hear a damn thing but ringing in his ears. Her lips were soft and the way her hands pressed against his chest sent bursts of heat right through his shirt to his skin. Dammit! Dammit! He’d never been so attracted to a woman in his whole life. It wasn’t fair that fate had put her in his pathway and then said he couldn’t have her.
“Hey, Katy, where are you?” Sharlene yelled. “I need a cup of coffee. Okay if I pour it?”
Fiona took a step back and frantically licked her lips. Jud picked up his hat and coat from the table.
“I didn’t even hear the bell,” she whispered.
“I thought it was just more of those going off in my head after that hot kiss.” He quickly settled the hat on his head and put the coat on, more to cover up the bulge in his jeans than for warmth.
“I’m in the back, Sharlene! Be there in a minute. Mama ran over to Nadine’s,” Fiona called out as she started from the back room into the store.
“Fiona, is that you? What are you doing here?”
“Yes, it’s me,” Fiona said. “I’m helping Mama through the winter. You must have lost your touch, girl. I remember when you had all the gossip firsthand.”
Sharlene, one of the biggest gossips in town, flipped her shoulder-length blond hair over her shoulder and ran her hand up Jud’s arm. “Hey, handsome. Fiona, I haven’t lost my touch at all. I was in Abilene for the holiday with my boyfriend and I just got back today. I’ll be catchin’ up on all the news soon as I get to Nadine’s for lunch, but I wanted to run by and get a cup of coffee and visit with Katy first.”
Jud waved and started for the front door.
“I’ve got a boyfriend or I would simply have to sample the goods you bring to the table,” Sharlene teased.
“Your boyfriend is one lucky feller.” Jud flashed a brilliant smile and took two steps away from her.
“Oh, honey, as sexy as you are, just say the word and I won’t have a boyfriend in thirty minutes.”
“I might change my mind in that length of time.”
Sharlene laughed. “Poor baby! I don’t cheat when I’m in a relationship and my boyfriend is out of cell phone reception for thirty more minutes, so it can’t happen today. But don’t give up hope.”
“Never,” Jud drawled. “See you at home this evening, Fiona. I’ve got to get the feed out to the ranch.” He tipped his hat but his eyes were on Fiona. “Ladies…”
Sharlene watched Jud until he was in the truck and then turned back to Fiona. “I heard about Dora June and Truman’s place burning.”
“They’re staying with us at Audrey’s,” Fiona said. She couldn’t fault Sharlene for flirting or for watching that cute little tight-hipped swagger because she was doing the exact same thing.
“You’re kidding me.” Sharlene gasped. “After all the trouble they’ve caused?”
“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Fiona whispered with a nod toward the door, where Dora June and Truman were pushing their way inside the store.
Both wore coats that were too big. As usual, Truman looked like he’d been sucking on lemons and Dora June had a big smile on her face.
“Hello, ladies,” she said. “Sharlene, did you hear about the fire?”
Sharlene crossed the floor in a couple of long strides and wrapped Dora June up in a bear hug. “I’m so sorry to hear what happened to your place. If I had room, I’d sure ask you to come and stay with me, but my rental house only has one extra bedroom and Mary Jo is using it until she can get on her feet and find something.”
“We’re very comfortable where we are, but thank you so much, honey.” Dora June patted Sharlene on the shoulder. “It’s so nice to have good folks in a community when tragedy strikes. I came to ask you if you have a key to the house, Fiona. Your mama gave me one so we can come and go, but I got worried that maybe you didn’t have one, so I thought it best to stop and ask before we leave town.”
“Yes, I do have a key and if you aren’t home when I get there, I’ll get the dumplings started,” Fiona said.
“We’ll be there,” Truman said tersely. “Come on, Dora June. It’s an hour up there and an hour back.” He tucked her arm into his and led her outside the store.
“Poor old things,” Fiona said. “You get a gold star for that performance, girl. I swear if I didn’t know you so well, I would have believed that you really did want to give them a place to live.”
Sharlene smiled brightly and bowed. “He’s probably hating the taste of that crow pie he’s having to chew on right now. He’s an old bear but then I would be, too, if everything I had just went up in smoke,” Sharlene said. “Thank God I don’t have a spare room because I can’t imagine living with him. You are a brave woman, Fiona Logan.”
“I know they’ve been difficult but I feel sorry for them. No children and now their house has burned,” Fiona said.
“Me too, but I sure don’t want to live with them,” Sharlene said. “Now what’s this I hear about you being divorced?”
“For a year now,” Fiona said.
Sharlene and Allie had gone to high school together, so Fiona knew the woman but she and her sisters hadn’t ever been close friends with her. Still, Sharlene had no scruples or pride when it came to diving right into the personal lives of anyone she had a speaking acquaintance with.
“And Jud?”
“What about Jud?”
Sharlene tilted her head to one side and lowered her eyelids slightly. “Is he a roommate in that big old house or something more?”
“Good Lord, Sharlene! I’ve only been home four days. Right now, Jud Dawson is someone who lives in the house with me and Mama because he’s kin to my two brothers-in-law,” Fiona said.
“Good! The way he was flirting, I might change my mind about him.” Sharlene winked and started for the door. “I still can’t believe that you came back to Dry Creek. We all wished we had your backbone when you left and didn’t even glance in the rearview mirror.”
“I’m not sure I’m staying forever.”
“I couldn’t do it. This is home and I’ll be here until they drag me out by the heels. See you later.” The bell above the door sounded loud and clear when Sharlene left.
“I’m still not staying forever,” Fiona said. But there was a little part hiding down deep in her soul that didn’t believe a word of it.
Dark comes early in the last days of November in Texas, especially when the sky is a solid sheet of gray. Katy had left from the store to go with a couple of her friends down to Abilene for a steak supper. Her car looked pretty small when Fiona parked it next to Jud’s big club-cab truck.
The cold wind cut through Fiona’s denim coat on the way from the yard to the house. If there wasn’t snow or sleet in those clouds, she’d be willing to eat a dirt sandwich for supper. The wonderful aroma of chicken filled her nose when she stepped through the back door into the utility room.
“So how was your day?” Jud sat at the kitchen table.
Her eyes were drawn to his big hands wrapped around that glass of sweet tea. “Busy,” she answered.
“I got here about thirty minutes ago. I took the chicken out of the slow cooker and just finished boning it. I don’t know how to make dumplin’s, but I got that much done.”
She removed her coat and hung it on one of the long row of nails inside the back door, kicked off her boots, and padded across the kitchen floor. “We’ll pour the broth into a pan and while it’s heating up to boiling, I’ll get the dumplings ready and stir up enough dough to make a quickie peach cobbler for dessert.”
“I love cobbler. What can I do to help?”
“Sit right there and stay out of my way,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am. I think I can handle that with no problem.”
She added a can of cream of chicken soup to the broth. By the time the broth reached a boil, the dough was ready to start dropping in half a teaspoon at a time, and the little cobbler was in the oven.
“Do we eat it in bowls like soup or do we fix other things to go with it?” he asked.
“Mama always served it like soup with thick slabs of buttered bread, cheese cubes, and sweet tea.”
“Mine did, too, except that we didn’t have the cheese.” Jud carried his empty glass to the cabinet and refilled it.
She had her back to him, and when his hands snaked around her waist, she jumped to one side and whipped around, a spoonful of dough in her hand. He backed up quickly, hands raised like she was holding a gun, and chuckled.
“Don’t hit me with that. I’d have to either change shirts or eat bare-chested and it’s too cold for that,” he said.
“Jud, we can’t…you know…start something we can’t finish…” She stumbled over the words.
“I was moving you to one side so that I could get into the cabinet. I wasn’t fixin’ to throw you over my shoulder and carry you off to the bedroom.” He lowered his hands.
“Just tell me to move,” she said bluntly.
“Move, Fiona. I need to get another glass out of the cabinet to fill with ice and tea for you.”
She stepped to one side.
“Don’t be so touchy,” he said.
“Don’t be so handsy,” she smarted right back.
“I like kissing you.”
At that, she had no words.
When the dumplings were almost done, she pulled the bubbling, crusty pie from the oven and set it on a hot pad. “That will be good with a scoop of ice cream on top. It’s always better warm, but I can eat it cold, too.” She went back to dropping dumplings into the broth. “I like kissing you, too, and that’s the problem,” she blurted.
“A problem, why?” He leaned on the counter, his big biceps straining the sleeves of his plain shirt open to show a thermal knit under it that stretched across his broad chest.
Before she could answer, a blast of cold air brought Dora June through the door. A few snowflakes were stuck to a brand-new navy blue coat and stocking hat pulled down over her gray hair. “We’re home. And bless your darlin’ heart, you started supper.” She sniffed the air. “Is that cinnamon I smell?”
“I sprinkled a little bit on one of those quick peach cobblers and the dumplings will be ready in about ten minutes. Y’all need help with packages?” Fiona asked.
Dora June removed her coat and carried it to the coat rack in the foyer. “I ain’t had a new winter coat in twenty years. Truman can bring in the sacks. It’ll do him good the way he’s been fussin’ about how much money we had to spend. You’d think we were paupers. Maybe totin’ things inside during a snowstorm will cool down his temper.”
“Soon as he gets done, we can eat,” Fiona said.
“I’ll get my coat on and go help him.” Jud was out the back door in a flash.
Truman could be in a pout if that’s what he wanted, but Fiona fully intended to ignore him. It had been at least two, maybe three years since she’d had dumplings or peach cobbler and she wasn’t letting Truman O’Dell ruin it for her.
He glared at her when he and Jud toted in the first set of bags back to the bedroom. By the second trip, he just looked like a tired old man who wanted to eat supper, lean back in his favorite chair, and drift in and out of sleep while he pretended to watch television. Fiona felt so sorry for him that she could have wept.
When they sat down at the table, Dora June looked at Fiona and cocked her head to one side. Did she have dough on her chin or in her hair? Her hand went up to check.
“Fiona, you are the lady of the house. It’s your place to call on someone to say grace,” Dora June finally said.
“Truman, would you please?” Fiona blushed.
It was by far the shortest prayer she’d ever heard him say. When she raised her head, everyone stared at her again.
“What?”
“You want to dip the dumplings or should I?” Jud asked.
“Go ahead.” She’d spent a year eating at the cabinet or over the kitchen sink. The years she was married she had used her kitchen very few times. She’d forgotten all about the duties the lady of the house had in Dry Creek.
“Good dumplin’s,” Truman said after the first bite.
Fiona came close to dropping her spoon.
“Yes, they are and that pie looks real good, too. This is a treat to come home to food already fixed,” Dora June said.
“Thank you,” Fiona mumbled.
That was the extent of the conversation. Other than asking for something to be passed, they ate in silence, which was just fine and dandy with Fiona. She’d rather have quiet than an argument that would keep her from enjoying her supper. After they’d finished dessert, Jud refilled his sweet tea glass and carried it to his room. Truman muttered something about Dora June bringing a cup of coffee to their room when she had the kitchen cleaned and he disappeared.
“I haven’t changed my mind about you and that cowboy,” Dora June said bluntly.
Fiona cut her eyes around at Dora June. “Oh?”
“They might be hardworking cowboys like Lucy and Herman say all the time, but that ranch is what it is and no one has ever been able to change it. When their savings run out, they’ll leave and take your sisters with them. I’m not wrong. I’ve seen it happen too many times through the years. And just because your mama was kind enough to let us stay here don’t mean that I’ll change my mind.”
“Frankly, I don’t care if the whole family leaves Dry Creek because I’m not planning on sticking around a minute longer than necessary, either. Maybe we’ll all just leave together and the feed store and Mama’s store will close up. Whole town will probably fall into decay and die if that happens.”
Dora June narrowed her eyes into slits. “Your mama wouldn’t do that, but Jud will break your heart. Trust me, Fiona, this one is trouble.”
Fiona frowned. “I’m not sure that’s a bit of your business.”
“Your granny Irene was my best friend. I miss her.”
“What’s that got to do with you trying to tell me what to do?” Fiona snapped.
It started as a chuckle and grew into a laugh that had every one of Dora June’s three chins wiggling. She finally wiped her eyes with the tail of an old faded apron that had evidently come from the church clothes closet.
“You do have her temper. Nobody ever told Irene how to run her life. I always wished I could have gotten some of that for myself.”
“Never too late,” Fiona said. “Want to make some cookies tonight?”
“No, I do not! I’m going to wash a load of underwear so me and Truman can have clean things after our shower. I never wear under-britches right out of the packages and it was a real leap of faith for me to put on the ones I got at the church last night, but when you ain’t got anything else, you learn to be grateful for what you can get.”
“I’m going to make cookies and I’ll finish cleaning up the kitchen. You can get your laundry started,” Fiona said.
“Are you telling me what to do now?” Dora June raised a gray eyebrow.
“Yes, ma’am, I am.”
The older lady pursed her lips and settled her chins together in one big blob under her chin as she tilted her head down and looked up at Fiona over the top of her wire-rimmed glasses. “Just like Irene. Bossy as the devil. And look where it got her. Her mind is gone and she don’t even know her family.”
“Living with Truman, I’d think you would be praying that you’d get Granny’s dementia so you wouldn’t know him,” Fiona told her.
“Hmmmph!” Dora June snorted but her eyes twinkled in merriment. “Living with you ain’t goin’ to be easy.”