Years ago, Taylor would stop by and say hello when she was in town. I watched her evolve from a giggling, larking teenager to a solemn young wife married to Woody and then divorced. When she went off to college, Jeanne and I saw less of her. Somewhere along the line she lost her teasing, friendly ways and became more serious, even strict. Jeanne worried about her and thought something had happened to take some of the spirit out of her. Since Jeanne’s funeral, Taylor hasn’t been to see me, which I admit hurt my feelings.

So I’m surprised when I answer the door in the late afternoon the day of the funeral and find her on my steps. She has changed into slacks and a T-shirt and looks more like the girl I once knew.

“Come on into the kitchen, I’m making jelly,” I say. “I got some plums the other day and they were yelling to be put up or thrown out.”

“Well aren’t you a sight in your pretty little apron.” She steps inside and hugs me tight.

She might have a few lines around her eyes and a few pounds at her waist, but her eyes are still piercing blue and her body is as compact as a terrier’s.

In the kitchen she steps around me to the stove, where the jelly is bubbling. “Mmm, that’s smells so good! You picked those yourself?” She opens a drawer, takes out a spoon and dips it into the brew, then waves it around to cool it.

“I’m not that ambitious. Truly Bennett brought me a peck and I figured I’d better do something with it.”

She tastes the jam and smacks her lips in approval.

“We’re going to have to talk in here. If I leave it too long, it’ll set up too hard.”

“Samuel, I may not be the world’s best cook, but even I know you have to be careful with jelly. My mamma drilled that into me every year when she canned.” She grins and a phantom of her outgrown, mischievous self flits across her face. “And every year she’d leave me to watch a batch and the phone would ring or somebody would come by, and next thing you know I’d forget all about it and it would burn. Lord, there’d be hell to pay.”

I laugh. “You definitely had other things on your mind when you were a youngster,” I say. We’re both smiling, enjoying the memories dancing around in the kitchen.

“While I’m finishing up, why don’t you tell me about those girls of yours?” She has three little girls who, if Taylor’s mother is to be believed, are all raving beauties. Taylor shows me some pictures on her cell phone and tells me something about each of them, although she pauses sometimes as if she has lost her train of thought.

“I’ll bet you’re a good mother.”

“It suits me. My girls make me really happy. I worry about the middle girl, my little Caprice. She reminds me of my sister, Sarah. So shy, and will go along with anyone who’s nice to her. The other two, Hannah and Grace . . . ,” she grins. “They’re more like me. Which may be a problem once they get older. It was fine, me being brought up in a small town. Not as much trouble to get into. But Dallas is a whole different place.”

I get her to help me pour the hot jelly into the jars I’ve got ready, and then we put a film of wax on top and seal the jars. Jeanne was the cook in our household, but somewhere along the line I became the maker of jams and jellies, and I’m pretty proud of what I come up with.

When we’re done we take glasses of iced tea out back under the trees to catch a little breeze and to talk. “Something tells me you’ve got a reason for coming here besides just checking in on me,” I say.

Her face flushes. “I’m ashamed that I haven’t come to see you since Jeanne died.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of. You two were close, I was just an innocent bystander. But I am glad to see you.”

She sips tea and sighs heavily as she sets down her glass. “I’m really worried,” she says.

“About Jack?”

She frowns. “No. I mean, yes, but that’s not what I was talking about. It’s my sister, Sarah. I think Curtis has her practically under lock and key. I’ve tried calling her and she sounds like she’s scared to talk to me. You know they’re living in one of those religious compounds out near Waco.”

“Religious compound? I thought it was a survivalist group.”

“It’s sort of one-stop shopping. It’s all under the umbrella of some religious leader who fashions himself like one of those Mormon offshoots.”

Despite the late afternoon heat, a chill passes over me. From the little I’ve seen of Curtis, and remembering what he was like as a youngster, he strikes me as perfectly capable of holding his wife a virtual prisoner, seeing to it that she takes care of his needs and allowing her no life of her own.

“Have you been to see her?”

She hunches over, looking defeated. “No, she told me not to try to see her. But I’d go anyway if I could get my husband to go with me. He thinks I should keep my nose out of it.”

“Remind me what your husband does.”

Her look softens. “Alex is a lawyer. He had his own firm, but when the economy went bust, he had to go to work for a big law outfit in Dallas. He’s not happy, but we’re lucky he has a job.”

“And doesn’t have much time to worry about Sarah’s problems, I imagine.”

She shrugs, her expression rueful. “Or anyone else’s, really. He works all the time. I tell him he’s going to regret not spending time with the girls one day, but he says he’d rather provide them with the things they want.”

“I saw you arguing with Curtis this afternoon. Was that about Sarah?”

Her eyes spark fire, her teeth clenched. “I hate him.”

I nod. “He and Jack don’t have any love lost between them either.”

“Oh, Jack,” she says. And there’s something forlorn in her voice that cuts me.

The sun is going down and the light is soft and quiet. My cows are starting to low in the pasture behind the house. “Let’s walk down and see my cows. They expect me this time of day.”

A lively noise drifts over from the football stadium up the street. Cars honk long and loud at each other as they pass, engines revving up. In the background the high school band is tuning up.

Taylor glances in that direction. “What’s going on?”

“It’s Thursday night.”

“And?”

“JV football. I’m surprised you don’t remember. I don’t usually go to junior varsity games, but a lot of people do. Why don’t you stay for the varsity game tomorrow night? Jack will be there, and it would be a good time to make amends with him.”

She scuffs her shoes in the dirt, but then her head comes up and she’s smiling. “Maybe I’ll do that. It would be fun. I bet I’d see a lot of people I know. With three girls, I never go to football games.” She tucks her arm in mine. “I’ll come if I can go with you. You can be my date.”

As we make our way down to the pasture, I use my cane to poke ahead of me to warn snakes to get out of the way.

“Why do you use a cane? You have arthritis?”

I tell her about the silly accident where one of my cows knocked me down and stepped on my knee. “I haven’t told anybody, but I have to have it cut open and fixed up.”

She shudders. “I’m sorry. Is it going to be okay?”

“Doc says yes. I guess I have to believe him. I’d just as soon you keep it quiet for now.”

Down at the pasture, Taylor goes right in with the cows, stroking noses and scratching behind ears. I smile, watching her. “You can take the girl out of the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the girl.”

“I miss cows. Mamma sold all ours after daddy started failing.” She puts her cheek next to one of the young ones. He’s usually skittish, but he’s instantly in love with her. When she tries to step away, he follows and butts up to her. She laughs. It’s a good sound.

When it’s too dark to see anymore, we walk back to the house. “I wasn’t able to give you much help with your sister,” I say.

She looks small, standing on the porch, illuminated just by the light from my front porch. “I have to go see her to settle my mind. Maybe I’ll get a girlfriend to go with me.” She laughs bitterly. “I guess Curtis isn’t going to kill me if I show up with a witness.”

“You really think he’s that dangerous?”

“I don’t know. But I won’t feel good until I see my sister.”

After I escort her to her car and she drives away, I stand looking at the sky. In the past couple of days the early mornings have been cooler, with high clouds that dissipate by mid-morning, and then the heat comes back in force. But the clouds are piled up in the west this evening. The weather will be changing. I’m ready for the heat to go.