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tell Grandma it’s fine for you to help Grace every once in a while.”
    â€œGrandma’s going to be m-a-d,” Heath said. “I don’t think she likes Grace.”
    â€œGrandma doesn’t even know her,” Teddy said.
    â€œYes, she does,” Heath replied. “I heard her on the phone. She said that Grace is a tramp and her mother killed some reverend dude.”
    The frustration Kennedy sometimes felt toward his mother reasserted itself. “Grace Montgomery graduated first in her class at Georgetown, which is a very tough law school. And she’s become an excellent assistant district attorney. There was an article in the paper not long ago saying she’s never lost a case.”
    â€œWhat does that mean?” Heath asked.
    â€œIt means she’s earned some respect, okay? And your grandmother doesn’t know that anyone killed the reverend.”
    â€œYou’d have to be an idiot to believe anything else,” Heath said.
    Kennedy twisted in his seat to give his oldest son a pointed stare, and Heath immediately backed off. “That’s what Grandma said,” he added sheepishly.
    Rubbing the five-o’clock shadow on his jaw, Kennedy returned his focus to the road. “Sometimes Grandma says a little too much,” he said, although almost everyone in town suspected the same thing. He’d even wondered on occasion. “The Reverend Barker went missing years ago. No one knows what happened to him.”
    â€œDoes that mean I can go to Grace’s tomorrow, Dad?” Teddy said.
    Kennedy remembered the resentment shining in Grace’s eyes when she’d looked up at him in the parking lot of the pizza parlor. “Does she realize you’re my son?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œHas she said anything about me?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œOkay, you can mow the lawn, but don’t go inside the house.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œThat’s the rule. Either obey it or stay completely away.”
    â€œWhat about my cookies?”
    â€œShe can give them to you at the door, okay?”
    There was a moment of silence, but Teddy sounded somewhat mollified when he answered. “Okay. I left her a note. I bet she’ll have them for me tomorrow.”
    â€œWill you bring me one, too?” Kennedy asked.
    â€œCookies have carbs, Dad,” Teddy replied.
    Kennedy chuckled. “Do you even know what carbs are?”
    â€œNo, but Grandma does. She hates them.”
    â€œThat’s because she’s watching her weight.”
    â€œMom used to make the best cookies,” Heath said.
    Kennedy heard the melancholy in his son’s voice and felt the familiar weight of his loss. Heath and Teddy missed their mother terribly. Kennedy missed Raelynn, too. He missed her fingers curling through his hair, her laugh, her presence in their home. He also missed not having to deal with his overbearing mother on a daily basis.
    â€œI’ll get you both one,” Teddy said softly.
    Again, Kennedy remembered the look Grace had given him. “Just don’t mention that one of them is for me,” he added with a rueful laugh.

4
    â€œS o…tell her,” Madeline prompted, nudging Kirk Vantassel’s foot with her own.
    They were sitting around the coffee table in the living room, relaxing after the impromptu dinner Grace had served—chicken and pasta with a green salad and sourdough rolls. Kirk had brought over some Vicki Nibley for Mayor signs, and Madeline had made a big deal about what traitors they were not to support the candidate endorsed by her paper. Kirk admitted he didn’t have strong political views. He said he was just trying to help his father get a date with Vicki, who’d been a widow for nearly five years. His reasoning made Grace laugh. But now that Madeline was changing the subject, she felt a measure of unease trickle through her veins. Grace knew from their earlier