“Thank you,” Nessa said, and then she remembered that she’d made cookies and had planned on offering them to the ladies while they examined the quilt. “Let me give you some coffee in a to-go cup and some cookies to snack on as you travel.”
“That would be great,” Vivien said.
Nessa hurriedly filled two disposable cups with coffee and put a dozen cookies in a paper sack for the ladies. They each gave her a hug and told her again what a great idea it was to hang the quilt the three of them had finished. She followed them out to the porch and waved until they were out of sight.
“Nanny Lucy used to do this when Mama would come and get me,” she remembered, and she wondered if her grandmother had been truly sorry to see them leave—or relieved. So many secrets.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Nessa thought back over the past three weeks as she ran a brush through her hair that evening. In her mind, Nanny Lucy’s place had always been the house of freedom. To April, it had been a prison. To Flynn, a place of sorrow because his mother had died while he was in Blossom. She still thought it was strange that one house could be so different for each of them. But then, Nanny Lucy hadn’t treated April the same as she had Flynn and Nessa.
“You about ready in there?” Flynn rapped on the door. “I told Jackson we’d probably be over there at six thirty.”
“Give me one more minute,” she called out. I don’t know if I’m anxious because we’re going to open the hope chest or if I’m nervous because I have to face Jackson again. I can’t avoid it, no matter what, so I might as well suck it up and get it over with.
“Ten, nine, eight,” Flynn counted down. When he got to five, she opened the door.
He used both hands in a flourishing gesture to point at the quilt hanging above the sofa. “What do you think?”
“It’s still ugly as sin”—Nessa forced a smile—“but I love it. It’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lives hanging up there to remind us of the summers we got to spend together. It’s kind of like a whole array of family pictures.”
Flynn and April both nodded, and then April held up the folded quilt they were taking to Jackson’s house. “Are we driving or walking?”
“We should drive this time,” Flynn answered. “We don’t know what’s in the hope chest. It could be nothing, but then it could be too much to try to carry back here.”
“We can take my vehicle,” Nessa offered. “Do either of you even want to take a guess about what’s in the hope chest?” She wanted them to talk so that it would take her mind off seeing Jackson again.
Flynn opened the door for April since she had her hands full. “Not me,” he answered. “If we hadn’t already found the stuff in the closet, I would have said pictures and important papers.”
“I just hope one of you gets married first,” April said. “I don’t want anything that’s in that old chest. I got sent to my room for a whole afternoon for just sitting on the thing one time. Nanny Lucy put high value on things, more so than people’s feelings. I’m never going to put something like a wooden box above the feelings of a person.”
Nessa was right behind April, and she hurried a little and gave her cousin a gentle sideways hug. “I’m so sorry that you had to live with the angry side of Nanny Lucy.”
Flynn closed the door and brought up the rear. “I loved our grandmother, but I’m just now coming to grips with the fact that she didn’t offer to let me stay here when Mama died. She knew what kind of man my dad was, and yet she sent me to him instead of raising me here, but I understand now that she was hoping that if I lived with my dad, he would shape up.”
Nessa slid in behind the steering wheel, waited until Flynn and April were settled into the SUV, and then started the engine. “Seems like y’all didn’t put her up on a pedestal like I did, but we’ve sure come a long way in just three weeks.”
“Yes, we have, and I’m glad for it,” April said from the back seat. “She must have felt real time pressure there at the end. I believe that she wanted us to make amends with the past, and maybe even with her, and that’s the reason we had to make that quilt.”
“Yep,” Flynn agreed. “I figured I would spend this month helping you two clean out the house and then go back to South Texas.”
“And I never thought that I’d be doing a job that I love,” April said. “Today Maudie and I set up a plan for me to take over the computer work for her. I’ll work half a day in the shelter and the other half in the vet office.”
“What can I say?” Nessa pulled to a stop beside Jackson’s pickup. “I came here with the idea that I would probably stay. I just hope this quilting business makes enough money that I can survive.”
Flynn stared at the white frame house. “This is it, girls. This is the day we’ve been waiting for. Do you feel a little like it’s Christmas?”
“Not me,” April answered. “It’s more like Halloween. I’m going to stand way back when Jackson opens that thing.”
“Thinking something scary might pop out of it?” Nessa’s chuckle caught in her throat.
“With Nanny Lucy, you never know. It could be filled with switches or dollar bills, but I’m not taking any chances.” April’s voice quivered.
Nessa shut off the engine and slung open the door. She had two things to worry about that evening, and the hope chest was the second in line.
Jackson stepped out on the porch and waved at them. “Y’all come on in. I’ve got cold beers or coffee waiting.”
“Thanks. A beer sounds good,” Flynn yelled across the yard.
Nessa noticed that April took a little longer than necessary to open the rear door, pick up the quilt, and get out of the vehicle. Could it be that she was serious when she talked about what could be in the hope chest? Nessa rounded the back of the SUV and waited for her cousin. “It’s going to be all right,” she reassured her. “Whatever is in there can’t hurt you now.”
“Probably not, but I still don’t want that hope chest. If I get married first and have to take it, I’ll give it to you or Flynn or make a bonfire out of it,” April declared as she hugged the quilt to her chest. “Guess I’ve still got a long way to go before I’m completely healed.”
“We can’t expect to be over the past in only three weeks, but we can close the door to it and choose to be happy one day at a time.” Nessa gave her another sideways hug.
“I can do that.” April nodded in agreement.
Jackson held the door for the two women and took the quilt from April. “Flynn told me this morning what you’re doing with the quilt you just finished. I think Miz Lucy would like that. So are we ready to open this thing, or should we have a beer and some kind of ceremony?”
Nessa glanced his way and saw as much confusion in his eyes as was in her heart. Good Lord, she thought, what if I judged him wrong? What if not simply asking him about the woman has ruined any chance of a relationship we might have had? I could just have asked.
“Let’s have a beer,” April answered.