“And?” April could tell by the way his eyes misted over that things had not gone well.
“She laughed in my face. Told me that she was already married and I’d just been her excitement for a weekend,” Flynn answered. “I have never, ever messed around with married women. As bad as my dad is when it comes to women, he has a steadfast rule about married ladies. Maybe he didn’t want to mess up two marriages at once. For my part, I don’t know why I didn’t figure things out, but I damn sure got burned.”
“Uncle Matthew might not go out with a married woman, but he doesn’t mind cheating on whatever woman he’s married to, which is about the same thing,” April said.
“I know, but I was trying to at least give him a little grace,” Flynn said.
“How long ago did this happen?” April asked.
“I bet it was right before we got the court decision on this place, right?” Nessa butted in before Flynn could say a word.
“Nope, a month before,” Flynn answered. “I moped around for a couple of weeks and finally decided that I needed some space to get my head on right and my life back together. If it takes a year, that’s all right by me.”
“Did you talk to your dad about what happened?” April asked.
“He would have just laughed at me. Two things he always told me were to stay away from married women and never go out of the house without protection.” Flynn buttered a biscuit. “And for the record, I don’t want you to leave, either, Nessa. Sitting down to family supper, and sometimes breakfast, has been pretty great. So thank you for doing this for us.”
“No problem,” Nessa said. “Your turn, April.”
“My turn for what?” April wouldn’t even know where to start untangling all her problems.
“Men that have let you down,” Nessa said. “You told us that you’d made bad choices with bad people. Fess up.”
April’s hands got clammy. She had put all the past into a box, taped it shut, and then buried it in the back of her mind. She wanted to keep it tucked away and never talk about it, but evidently tonight was confession night for the three of them. “I’m on the other end of that stick that Flynn was talking about. I was the one left behind with a broken heart, and for some insane reason, I kept making the same mistakes and expecting a different outcome. Some guy would say that he loved me, and suddenly I would do anything to keep him. He could lay on my sofa and drink beer all day and take my hard-earned paycheck at the end of the week to go out with his friends and have a good time and leave me at home. But hey, he loved me, right?” She shrugged and went back to eating.
“You didn’t have much of a home life here with Nanny Lucy, so you didn’t know what to expect out of a relationship,” Nessa said, realizing that she had pretty much been in the same kind of boat. She didn’t want a relationship like her folks had and had steered toward the wrong kind of men.
“Neither did you.” April shrugged again. “We were all wrong about each other. Did either of you ever go to counseling?”
“Not me,” Flynn answered. “I probably should have had therapy after my mom died, but Dad was too busy with all his stuff to even think about the grief I was shouldering.”
“My daddy would have told me that he could counsel me better than anyone outside the church. I heard him tell other people that. You do know that he’s got a place reserved in heaven at the left hand of God. Jesus has the chair on the right hand, and Daddy respects him enough that he won’t ask him to move over.” Nessa laughed. “I guess y’all want a confession from me now, right?”
Flynn nodded. “We’ve bared our souls, so tell us why you’re not married and producing a bunch of little red-haired kids.”
“I want the whole enchilada when I get married.” Nessa thought again of the night before and the pure contentment and happiness she’d felt when she was with Jackson. “I want the bells and whistles when he kisses me, and enough in common with him that we can almost finish each other’s sentences. And then I want to trust him so much that I’m sure down deep in my heart that he won’t ever cheat on me.” Hopefully, that was what this relationship with Jackson would bring her.
“I guess neither one of us is going to get that quilt we’re working on, Flynn,” April giggled. “From the glitter in Nessa’s eyes, I think she’s taken the first steps toward getting it and the hope chest.”
Nessa ducked her head, but that didn’t prevent a blush from turning her cheeks bright red. “One can only hope,” she muttered.
“As for me, I don’t think there’s a man out there that’s wonderful enough to make me blush,” April said. “I’ve been stung too many times, and I may never get over the pain or the feeling of stupidity when I turned around and let another man that was just like the last one into my life.”
“I plan on being one of those guys that women can put their trust in someday, so don’t say there aren’t a few good men left,” said Flynn.
“I’ll believe that when I see it,” April said.
“What’s your plan?” Nessa asked Flynn.
“Just what I’m doing now. Stay away from dating until I feel like I’ve got something worthwhile to offer a woman. Be a gentleman and be honest. If I don’t feel any chemistry on the first date, then call the lady and tell her. I’m not going to sweet-talk my way into bed with a woman on the first date, and maybe I won’t even kiss her until the second date,” he said, “and if it takes me a year or two, I want to be a guy like you just talked about, Nessa, not one of the jerks April just described.”
“Good plan,” April said. “Mine is about the same. No sleeping with a guy on a first date. No letting him move in in anything less than six months, and being up-front and honest from the beginning about what I want in a relationship. Your turn, Nessa.”
“I’ve dated lots of guys, got to a second date with a few, and a third date with only a handful. But there were no bells and whistles, even with the few where I could say that there was a relationship. Daddy thought I was a rebellious daughter, but I wasn’t really. I’ve never done drugs and actually drank very little. Been drunk maybe three times in my life. I have been sassy, and I do speak my mind, and Daddy couldn’t make me get married at eighteen.” She paused a moment before going on. “I wanted to experience the world, and I never want to wind up with a controlling man like my father. I guess that’s what scares me most. That I would misjudge a guy, and after we got deep into a relationship, he would expect me to be a submissive little wife. Then he’d get all bossy and wind up cheating on me before we even broke up.”
“So were there bells and whistles when Jackson kissed you?” Flynn asked Nessa.
“Like I said before, I don’t kiss and tell.” Nessa blushed again. “I’m sorry that we’ve all had these kinds of problems. Looks like one of us could have had a healthy relationship by this time in our lives.”
“You can’t build a brick house out of sticks and mud, or a relationship out of what we’ve had to offer.” Flynn reached for the bowl of potatoes.