“Great, we’ll be by about nine o’clock, and we’ll leave on our trip from there,” Stella said. “I’ve got about five minutes before I go to the shelter to volunteer today. Want to tell me who you are mad at and why?”
Nessa almost smiled. “Miz Stella, it would take all day to make you understand, so I suppose the answer is no, ma’am.”
“In that case, goodbye, but if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here,” Stella said.
“Thanks for that. Bye now,” Nessa said, and she hung up the receiver a second time.
She went back to the bedroom and picked up the double wedding ring quilt top and carried it out to the shed. She planned to have all of them finished by September, plus at least one of the tops she had sewn up. She hung it over the edge of the wooden frame and went into the garage to forage for batting and backing. There was plenty of both, so she carried the bundle of batting and the precut muslin backing out to the shed. She would rather have gotten things into the frame, but it would be quite a job for one person, so she would wait until later when April and Flynn were home to help.
She went back inside the house and started rolling and pinning the border of the quilt they’d just finished. The whole time she thought about the picture on the back of the quilt.
“You had it tough, Nanny Lucy, but thank you for helping us to understand your reasons for what you did. I wish that none of us three would have inherited that O’Riley curse, though,” she said as she worked. “I want to be happy, not miserable the rest of my life, and you’ve helped me take steps toward that, but I’m still hurting from what happened with Jackson.” Listen to your heart. Nanny Lucy’s voice was so clear that she looked over her shoulder to see if her grandmother had truly risen from the grave.
April was in the middle of doing the daily cleaning when Stella and Vivien came inside. She looked up from a kitten’s cage and waved. “Hey, it’s good to see you out and about, Miz Vivien. Been a long time since I’ve seen you, and you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Bless your heart, darlin’.” Vivien beamed. “It’s good to feel better, but this sister of mine is dragging me off tomorrow on another mini vacation.” Vivien went straight to the dogs’ side of the room and took a half-grown Chihuahua out of a cage. She carried him over to the rocking chair and held him up on her chest like a baby. “This is kind of like a hospital nursery with a bunch of unclaimed babies that need love. And speaking of babies”—Vivien rubbed the little dog’s fur as she talked—“April, you look so much like your mother that it’s uncanny.”
“Thank you.” April grinned. “I just wish she would have lived, so I could have known her. When I was a little girl, I used to pretend that she and I were sitting beside each other at the waterfall. I would talk to her as if she was really there. Then when I was having really rough times as an adult, I’d do the same. It kind of brought me comfort.”
Stella patted her on the shoulder. “I believe that the spirits of those who have passed can come back and help us when we need them. There’s a reason for everything, and most usually it all falls right into place when we look back on it. I was there right after your mama gave birth to you. She loved you so much. I could see it in her eyes.” Stella took a step back. “And now we’ve got to talk about something else or I’m going to start bawlin’ like a baby. I hear that we’re inspecting the quilt tomorrow. What did you kids learn while you were working on it?”
“To talk to each other, and that it’s made from scraps of material that Nanny Lucy used to make clothes for us when Nessa and Flynn came to visit in the summer,” April answered. “Did y’all know about the picture she had on the back of the quilt?”
Stella smiled and nodded as she got a puppy out of a cage and kissed him on the nose. “We did. We saw a place that could take a picture and fix it like that, and when we told her about it, she wanted that one of her and you kids the last time you were all home together put on the back. When did you find it?”
“When we were taking it out of the frame.” April still got misty eyed just thinking about how much the picture meant to all of them.
“Stella told me you girls even made Flynn sew on the quilt.” Vivien giggled.
April finished cleaning another cage, put the kitten back into it, and then moved on down to the next one. “Of course we did. Nanny Lucy taught us all three the goose and gander law.”
Stella nodded as she recited the saying. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
“Yep, that’s exactly what she said.” April felt a weight lift off her shoulders at that good memory of her grandmother.
So you applied that law when you had an affair, didn’t you, Nanny Lucy? April asked, but she got no answer.
“Hey, anyone here?” Kent called out from the vet side of the building.
“Come on back,” April yelled.
Callie beat him through the door and ran across the room to wrap her arms around April. “Daddy finally brought me! Do you remember what I’m going to name my kitten?” She stopped long enough to suck in a lungful of air and went on. “Cindy, for Cinderella, because she has long blonde hair like you, and I like you.” She ran out of air again.
“She’s been bugging me ever since we saw y’all at Walmart to come back for the second kitten.” Kent’s smile lit up the whole room. “But two cats in the house is my limit.”
“But our house is so big,” Callie argued. “We could take all these poor little kitties home with us, Daddy.”
“Two!” Kent held up two fingers.
“But how will I ever see April again?” Callie’s chin began to quiver.
April stooped and gave the child a hug. “Darlin’, you can come see me anytime you want to. You don’t have to adopt a cat every time you come visit. And if your dad ever needs a babysitter so he can go on a date, maybe I could keep you for a few hours.”
“And maybe you can come to my house to keep me and see the kitties?” Callie’s expression changed from one of sadness to one of pure joy.
“We’ll see when the time comes.” April patted her on the back.
“Daddy needs a girlfriend, but he never, ever goes out.” Callie pouted. “Maybe you could just come for a playdate sometime.”
“Maybe, but right now, we’ve got to see which one of these kitty cats looks like a Cindy.” April guided Callie gently over to the cages.
“Thank you,” Kent mouthed.
“There’s a yellow one with a pink bowl, so she’s a girl.” Callie pointed to a fluffy kitten with blue eyes. “She looks like a twin to my Belle. I think they will like each other a lot.”
April took the kitten out of the cage and handed her to Callie. “Why don’t you take her over to the rug and see if she likes to play?”
Callie nodded seriously, carried the animal to the area rug in the middle of the floor, and sat down. The minute she turned the kitten loose, it swatted a toy mouse halfway across the rug, then grabbed it up in its mouth and laid it in Callie’s lap.
“This is the one, Daddy.” Callie looked up at her father. “She loves me so much she brought me a present.”