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head.
    Cathy followed him to the sink. “Please, Steve. Don’t do that to Mark. He’s had a rough year, and he came home to a changed family. I only want him to be comfortable here.”
    â€œAnd I’m making him uncomfortable?”
    â€œNo, that’s not what I said. I just don’t want you coming down hard with the rules. Give him some adjustment time. He’s only sixteen. He’s not supposed to have his whole life mapped out already.”
    Steve turned the water on full blast. “I’m not asking him to map it out. School is basic. You must agree with me on that.”
    â€œIt is basic,” she said, “but I can see where he’s coming from.
    I can understand why he doesn’t want to go study with Brenda’s brood.”
    Annie rounded up the glasses and took them to the counter. “If you ask me, he’s matured a lot since he got arrested. He’s had life experiences…not good ones. It’s got to be hard for him, coming back to his old life and everybody expecting him to be the same guy that went away. Only he’s a year older and a year wiser. And he’s a Christian now. And he just doesn’t quite know how to fit his new self back into the old skin. You know what Jesus said, about putting new wine into old wineskins?”
    Cathy just stared at her daughter. “I’m not sure exactly what you just said, but I understand the concept.” She looked at Steve. “She may be right.”
    â€œWell, if that’s true,” Steve said, “it only means he needs a little more guidance. That’s what we’re here for. Not just to throw him out in the world to make more mistakes.”
    Annie folded her arms. “I’m just saying to cut him some slack. It’s got to be frustrating coming back with everything changed. I know it is for me.”
    Cathy gaped at her. “Frustrating? Why?”
    â€œWell, the house is different. The renovation changed everything. And you and Steve all chummy and romantic, like two peas in a pod, and before you were just dating…Rick gone and me getting ready for college in the fall…Tracy in your old bedroom. Mark was the youngest in the family when he left, and now Tracy is. The birth order has changed. I read all about that in an article.”
    Steve wasn’t buying. “Amateur psychology notwithstanding, Mark Flaherty is still only sixteen. And if my parents had let me make my own decisions at sixteen, I’d be a fry cook alcoholic with children in every state.”
    Cathy couldn’t picture it, but she didn’t tell him so. She was getting a headache and didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

C HAPTER
    Five

    When Cathy crossed the yard to Sylvia’s for the prayer time they had scheduled earlier, Tory and Brenda were already there, leaning against the kitchen counter as Sylvia bustled around making her favorite dip.
    Tory, who seemed not to know what to do with her hands since Hannah wasn’t on her hip, munched on a carrot. “So she asks me if I want to work there part-time two mornings a week, helping with the six-to nine-year-olds.”
    â€œYou going to do it?” Brenda asked.
    Cathy came and stood in the doorway, and Tory picked up the vegetable plate and thrust it at her. “Here. Eat.”
    Cathy shook her head. “Can’t. We just had a family dinner. There were few survivors.”
    Sylvia looked up from the dip. “Oh, no. You didn’t have a family squabble, did you?”
    â€œWell, yeah…sort of. Long story.”
    Brenda slid up onto the counter. “We’ve got time.”
    Cathy grabbed a celery stick and bit into it. “But I want to hear what Tory decided.”
    â€œHaven’t decided yet,” she said. “Part of me wants to do it, but the other part feels like I’d be neglecting Hannah. But Mary Ann thought it would be good for me to work with the older kids. She