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had Aunt Rainbow or Oren found them. Meeting Oren and the conviction he and Rob were connected could have only been orchestrated by a God who loved them all and wanted His best for His children.
    Rob must have felt her gaze. So serious, she had a difficult time understanding how anyone who loved Jesus could wear such grievous expressions. Maybe she had something to do with it. Her rejection and flight had no doubt caused more bitterness to worm its way onto his brooding features. Would he lighten up now that he had a new family and was learning his heritage?
    “Hand me your plate, Rob, and I’ll serve you a spoon of baked beans.” Edna Mae opened the conversation. “Paisley says you’re in your element, working with your father’s tools.”
    “Yup. I can get lost in that shed for hours. Won’t be long and I’ll ship the ice skates off.” A glimmer of light entered his eyes and one vertical line smoothed from his brow. “Then I’ll uncover that milk truck and get her shining.”
    “Those were the days,” Edna Mae commented. “Even though I was a toddler, I always loved a man in uniform. There was a time when milk delivery guys were sometimes the first man a woman saw early in the morning, arriving in clothes as white as the milk they delivered in bottles. They even wore hats.”
    “Must have been something,” Paisley said. “We got our milk from farmers who had their own cows, even when we lived in the city.”
    “I have memories like that. Co-ops and the street markets, or the small farms we’d visit and work in the gardens in exchange for produce,” Rob punctuated. “Did it ever make you feel odd, the way you slipped in and out of homes and schools? Did you miss not really belonging anywhere, living without stability?”
    Edna Mae held dinner rolls in one hand and her salad in the other, seemingly enthralled by the conversation.
    “Odd? Guess I never thought about it. No. Moving around was what I knew.” Paisley accepted the rolls and smiled at him. “Occasionally I may have felt somewhat displaced, but it’s what I grew up with. I was more comfortable around adults. As far as school, I was never bullied and adapted by keeping mostly to myself.”
    “I’d guess you’ve always been pretty, and less attractive girls wanted to be your friend because you drew the boys. And the boys were too awestruck to give you a bad time,” Edna Mae inserted.
    “Oh, please.” Paisley laughed. “Maybe because the young people I knew grew up the same way. Besides, it was as though all the adults took an interest in the younger and taught what they could about their outlooks on life. Even if they didn’t live by rules, they had some valuable insights to pass on. I learned how to be an independent individual, to earn my own way. And I learned to accept others for who they are, getting along despite differences.”
    “I do believe I’ve caught Ms. Robbins in a little white lie.” Rob glanced at Edna Mae, then back at Paisley. He mouthed, “Later.”
    She hadn’t accepted his moodiness.
    “Speaking of moving, I wonder why my mother moved away from Mark Waverly. Did you know her, Edna Mae?”
    “Only in passing, she was a few years younger. I’m sure Precious had her reasons for leaving the way she did. Nora and I talked about this. More so with girls, I think, it’s normal to want to leave home and seek adventure elsewhere. But I’m also sure, based on the man Oren is and my respect for Mark’s kindness, he didn’t know about you.”
    “Is there anything you can tell me about her?” Rob leaned back in his chair, focused on Edna Mae.
    “I knew who she was, but I was out of school and working,” Edna Mae added. “I’m guessing Precious didn’t know you were on the way, Rob. Then when she was gone from Norfolk, she probably saw it as too late to bring to Mark’s attention. She was no doubt too embarrassed and ashamed to come crawling back home. I heard her father was a tyrant.
    “Later, as I