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in her bed needing her father while he found solace elsewhere. What kind of example would he set for his daughter? He didn’t even attend church with her.
    She shouldn’t be so judgmental of him. He still hurt over losing his wife. How would she be in that situation? Wait—I am in that situation.
    Cora fell asleep while saying her prayers, but she didn’t stay asleep because of her tossing and turning. She couldn’t seem to get Rex off her mind. At three in the morning, while she wrestled with her covers, his truck pulled into the drive.
    What had he been doing all night? Was he drunk? If so, why had he put his life at risk like that? Cora fought the desire to go downstairs and check on him. Instead, she rolled over in her bed and forced herself to go back to sleep.

* * *
    Seven a.m. on the alarm clock rang all too early for Cora. Once she was dressed, she headed down the hall to wake Susie. After breakfast, they left for church. Church was exactly the thing Cora needed to make her feel a part of the community and to get her mind off Rex. Everyone she met treated her like she belonged there.
    After they returned home from lunch at Ms. Lottie’s, Cora and Susie went for a swim. Cora laughed at Susie’s charismatic way of running and jumping in the pool with her water wings and nose plug. Her potbelly kept her from staying under the water for too long.
    After swimming, they walked around the ranch, meeting the ranch hands and petting all the animals. The pigs were Cora’s favorites. She couldn’t think about the fact that they’d all eventually end up on the breakfast plates.
    When Susie’s bedtime finally came Sunday night, Cora felt more exhausted than her tag-along. She poured a glass of lemonade and headed through the double French doors onto the porch and toward the back porch swing. Would Rex join her there tonight?
    Only a minute passed when splashing in the pool and voices caught her attention. She leaned forward in the shadows and listened.
    “Rex, swim over here. I bet you can’t catch me,” a husky voice purred.
    Rex’s baritone voice responded, “Shhh, you’ll wake up the whole house. Besides, I can too catch you.”
    A trellis of roses prevented Cora from seeing the pool and shielded them from seeing her, as long as she remained seated. Who was the woman in the pool? She couldn’t look because Rex might see her, and he’d surely be furious with her. So instead she eavesdropped, craning her neck.
    “Come on, let’s go in the house,” the woman begged.
    “Are you crazy? My parents are in there,” Rex stalled.
    “Then let’s go in the barn or the pool house.” The woman splashed in the water.
    “We can’t. Not here.”
    “Take me to your cabin, then.”
    “No!”
    “Rex, when are you going to give in to me? Every time I ask, you find an excuse.”
    “I’m not comfortable being with you…here, I mean.”
    “Why?”
    “Veronica, drop the subject. Let’s get out of the pool.” Rex’s mood had changed unexpectedly, like the weather in March.
    “Don’t get out of the pool. We could stay here. No one would know.”
    As the woman tried to convince Rex that they could have a secret liaison in the pool, Cora struggled with how best to get up from the swing and silently head back into the house. She refused to be present for what might happen.
    Once inside, Cora put her glass in the kitchen sink and hurried through the kitchen to the foyer and up the stairs toward her room. Her face felt hot over what she’d overheard. Anger rose in her chest at Rex for being so open with his love life, and resentment ran a close second. He obviously didn’t hold his wife’s memory as close to his heart as he pretended.
    An hour later, Rex cranked his truck and pulled out of the drive. Cora fell asleep in a huff.
     

* * *
    Cora filled her days with creating beautiful memories with Rex’s precious child. Susie clung to her every waking hour. Pearl relieved Cora of her duties every afternoon for an