“Hey,” Matthew answered on the second ring, “did you change your mind about being my best man and about running from who you are?”
“No, and I’m not running from something, Dad, but running toward a better life. I do have a couple of questions about Nanny Lucy,” Flynn told him.
“Fire away, but you’ve got to remember that I moved away from Blossom as soon as I graduated from high school. One of my older friends got me a job in the oil field business down around Austin, and I only went back to visit Mama for holidays,” he said, “and then only if I knew Isaac wouldn’t be there. I got sick and tired of his preaching at me when I was a teenager. I sure didn’t want to listen to him list my sins when I was an adult.”
“Did you know that your father was a womanizer?” Flynn asked.
“Oh, hell, yeah!” Matthew laughed out loud. “Everyone knew that he chased skirts, even Mama. They had some hellacious arguments about that when me and Isaac were kids. Seems like we were about twelve and thirteen when he started spending most of his nights on the sofa. I guess they tried to make it work one more time, though, because Rachel came along.”
Flynn could feel the hard bark of the tree pressing into his back, but he didn’t shift positions. “Did you ever feel like Nanny Lucy loved Isaac more than you?”
“That was a given, too. She always said that he was a good boy like Uncle Ernest, and I was the bad child like my father. I guess I proved her right, didn’t I?” Matthew’s chuckle crackled like an icicle in a child’s hand. “I didn’t want to end up like Daddy. I wanted Mama to love me like she did Isaac, but I got told that so much that I figured, ‘What the hell. I’ve got the name; I’ll just prove her right.’”
Sweat rolled down Flynn’s face and dripped off his jaw. Was he fooling himself into believing that he could change the course of nature?
“How did that make you feel?” Flynn asked.
“After a while I didn’t really give a damn,” Matthew answered. “What brought all these questions out anyway? You never asked me anything like this before.”
“We’ve just been talking a lot about her. Moving into the house has brought back memories. I wondered how you felt about the way things were done when you were here,” Flynn said.
“It was life. I didn’t whine or pout because I wasn’t the favorite. I’m like Dad. Isaac is like Mama. Nothing could change that. It’s just the way things are, and she reminded me every day of it,” Matthew said. “You need to get out of there, Son. That place isn’t healthy.”
“I like it here, and I’ve got a part-time job that takes me away from the house in the afternoons. I’m hoping it turns into a full-time job later,” Flynn told him. “I’m helping Jackson Devereaux build furniture.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Matthew’s voice shot up and got a lot shriller. “You’re trained to manage oil rigs, not piddle around with junk like that.”
Flynn hadn’t expected much support, not when his father had always been affiliated with the oil business in one way or another. “I have found that working with my hands is relaxing. For the first time in ages, I whistled on the way home yesterday evening.”
“And just how many women are you going to meet working out there in the sticks? You’re thirty-one years old. It’s time for you to settle down. Remember that you are the last living young O’Riley in our family. Having a son to carry on the family name is on your shoulders,” Matthew fussed at him. “Marry a good woman, have a child or two or three until you get a boy, and then . . .”
Flynn butted in before his dad could finish: “And then leave her like you did.”
“I’m sorry that you don’t like the genes you got, Son. And if you want to change, then I wish you nothing but the best,” Matthew said, “but you do need to remember that you really are the last O’Riley male in the family. I promise I’ll quit giving you hell about turning your life around if you’ll just keep that in mind.”
“I appreciate that, Dad, and I never thought about being the only male heir,” Flynn said. Talk about a burden! Not only was he trying to turn his life around, but now he had to think about perpetuating the family name.
Maybe it would be best if the O’Riley name died with me, he thought.
“Well, think about it, and the best of luck to you in finding a good woman and staying with her for fifty years. Your Mama was a good woman and deserved better than she got. Maybe when you figure things out, you’ll be more like her than me,” Matthew said. “I’ve got to go now. Delores needs me to look at a wedding venue. It would be nice if you’d come to the wedding, even if you are too stubborn to be my best man again.”
“We’ll see how things go.” Flynn felt like he was becoming more like his mother, and he liked the difference it was making in his life. Just a little more work, and maybe, just maybe, he would be ready to really fall in love for good.
“Bye, then,” Matthew said, and he ended the call.
Flynn put the phone back in his shirt pocket. “Well, how about that? I can’t believe that my father admitted that Mama deserved better.”
April was fifteen minutes early to work, but she sat in the car for a while, trying to still her mind. It had done nothing but run in circles since the night before. Finally she pushed open the door and inhaled the hot air as she crossed the gravel parking lot.
Now I understand why Nanny Lucy was the way she was, but why couldn’t someone love me unconditionally in my life? she asked herself as she opened the door into the clinic.
“I’m so glad you’re here. I’ve got a chamber of commerce meeting.” Maudie already had her purse thrown over her shoulder and was heading for the door. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Yes, ma’am,” April said, and then she headed back to the shelter area. “Good morning, my pretties.” She took a fluffy yellow kitten out of the first cage. The little thing cuddled down in her arms like a baby and began to purr.
“I love you,” she whispered.
The kitten purred even louder.
“And you love me no matter how bad I messed up in the past.” She almost smiled.
She sat down in the rocking chair with the kitten, and in minutes all the stress left her body. She began to hum a lullaby, and the kitten closed her eyes. This was truly the life—knowing that a little homeless kitten loved her so much it could trust her.
“Someday you’ll have a wonderful home, and the people there will pet you and play with you, but until then, we need to get your cage cleaned,” she whispered as she stood up and laid the sleeping kitten on the chair.
Someday you will have the same, the voice in her head said.
I’d be happy if I could just have a family of my very own. April sighed and then got busy taking care of the animals. But she hummed one tune after another the rest of the afternoon. The troubles she had brought to work with her disappeared one by one until, by the end of the day, she was happier than she’d ever been.
Chapter Fifteen
For a few days, Nessa put the idea that her grandmother was not perfect out of her mind and dived into finishing one quilt top and starting another. She listened to the older country-music playlist on her phone as she worked so that she wouldn’t think about what she had read in the diary. Every evening she took a walk to the waterfall and spent a couple of hours trying to make up her mind whether to go back to Turkey and teach another year or stay in Blossom. If she went back, maybe April would finally come to grips with her demons and go back to her own bedroom. Sleeping in the living room didn’t give the poor girl a bit of privacy.