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Her worried look brightened into a smile. “Thank you and it will. And when you live to your late seventies with kids, grands and great-grands like me, you’ll be grateful that someone cared enough about you to make sure you stuck to a proper diet.”

“Not a chance,” Bas muttered under his breath as he scooted back to the table to eat his oatmeal.

Leah smiled as she looked at herself in the oval mirror she held in her hand. “I think even after all these years no one can take care of a woman’s head like you can, Kate.”

The older woman chuckled and waved her hand as if refusing to accept the flattering comment. “Doing your hair has always been easy. I’m glad you didn’t put all that crazy dye in it while living out in Los Angeles. That would have damaged it for sure. Your hair is just as thick and healthy as it’s always been.”

Leah smiled at the compliment. “Thanks.” Kate had been doing her hair ever since Leah was a teenager and her dad had agreed to let her get a perm. Kate was right, Leah’s hair had always been thick and healthy, but what Kate had been too nice to add was that it had also been unmanageable. While Jocelyn could get by with going to the hair salon every two weeks, Kate was sentenced to see Leah on a weekly basis.

Leah couldn’t help but remember those times. Jocelyn had been close to their father and she had been close to their mother. She’d died when Leah had been only twelve, and all Leah could remember was how empty she’d felt. Jocelyn had always been Daddy’s girl and hadn’t experienced the same sense of loss as Leah had. From the day they’d placed her mother in the ground, Leah couldn’t wait to move away from a town filled with loneliness for her without the mother she had adored.

“I was sorry to hear about your dad, Leah. Everyone around here was. He was a good man.”

Leah nodded. She hadn’t realized just what a good man he was until she’d found herself alone, hurt and out in California on her own. More than once she’d come close to picking up the phone and telling him what had happened to her and why she’d left the way she had. But shame had kept her from doing so.

Her only saving grace was actually someone with the name of Grace. How she had ended up on the woman’s doorstep one night, she still wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she was convinced she’d heard footsteps behind her while walking home alone from the restaurant where she’d worked. Remembering what had happened to her before, she had gone almost stone-crazy and had run to the first house she’d come to and begged for help.

Help had come in the way of an older woman, no bigger than a mite, who had offered her safety. Grace Thorpe had been a godsend. After making sure Leah was safe, she’d offered her food to eat and a place to stay, much better than the dump where she’d been living.

Grace’s two sons had threatened to move their mother in with them and their wives on a rotating basis, not wanting the old woman to live alone anymore. What Grace had needed was a companion, someone to be there with her during the day and to do the grocery shopping and drive Grace to church on Sundays. Since Leah worked at the restaurant at night, she grabbed the opportunity.

Half an hour later after leaving the hair salon, Leah was strolling through downtown Newton Grove, checking out the various shops and noticing what changes the town had made over the years. After living in the hustle and bustle of L.A. for five years, she appreciated the solitude and quiet a place like Newton Grove offered. She’d never realized how much she missed living in this town until now.

Tossing her hair out of her eyes, she kept walking, remembering a place close by that used to sell breakfast and wondering if it was still open. She had gotten up early and had started a pot of coffee but hadn’t made breakfast for herself, or her sister, who rarely took the time for breakfast.

Jocelyn.

Leah couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with her sister. There was never