and Ken are gonna try to get a place halfway between here and Atlanta, so Ken can commute to work, butthey’ll be close to the city, too. He and I are just gonna go our separate ways without making it official.
We’ve seen all we want of courtrooms lately, believe me.”
Lily knew she still hadn’t answered Jack’s question. “And me, well, I’m not planning on sellingoff Charlotte’s and my condo yet. I figure Mimi and I will go back to Atlanta, and I’ll work on the book.
But there was something I wanted to ask you.”
“Uh-huh?” Jack’s eyes glimmered with hope.
“About Mordecai. I know Big Ben and Jeanie don’t want him back, and he doesn’t strike me as acondo kinda dog, so I was wondering —”
“Sure, I’ll take him.” Jack’s voice was tinged with disappointment. “There’s always room for onemore at the farm.”
Lily stopped walking and took both of Jack’s hands in her own. “The thing is, you know howMordecai is about me. He’s really gonna miss me.” She let go of Jack’s hands and draped her arms overJack’s shoulders. “So I guess I’ll have to drive up to the farm and visit him really, really often.”
Jack grinned. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” Lily grinned back. “I’d say I’d need to visit him every other weekend at least. Andsometimes Mimi could spend time with her mamaw and papaw while I spend some time alone with ...
Mordecai. If that’s okay with you, of course.”
“I think I could handle that.” Jack leaned down and met Lily for a kiss, resting her hands on thesmall of Lily’s back. When they parted, Jack said, “I do have a question, though.”
“What’s that?”
“What if in a year or two, I—I mean, Mordecai —what if Mordecai decides that he wants to seeyou more often than just on the weekends? What if he decides that he wants to be with you every minutethat he possibly can?”
Lily looked into the light blue eyes of this woman who was willing to give her not only love buttime, who was willing to wait until Lily had healed enough to marry her life with another woman’s.
“Well,” she said, “if he feels that way in a year or so, we may just have to make arrangements such thatthe two of us can spend more time together.”
“All right!” Jack hugged Lily close, careful to avoid her new tattoo.
“Well,” Jack said. “I reckon they’ll be wondering what happened to us.”
“Let’s go then.” Lily took Jack’s hand and walked across the field toward the fence that enclosedthe pool. She was ready to rejoin the party.
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