“All I wanted was to get some stuff out of my room.” MJ used both hands, elbows resting on the table, to sip from her latte. “Think back. Look at our lives, let alone all those others. Roxie and Rich met and are married, Loren and Nate are engaged…”

“Which was my dream.” Roxie’s head wagged. “Whoever would have thought this?” She looked at Ginny. “Your life had the hardest change but you made it through. I know you can’t say you are over the grief, but you have come so very far.” She reached across the table and patted Ginny’s hand, but when Ginny turned hers over, Roxie squeezed her friend’s hand.

“And now Amalia is sharing my house, the twins are back in school, and Addy is building a cookie empire. Can you believe she was featured on that cooking show?”

“And from what I hear, more creative kinds of things are in the works. Her dad is flabber-dusted.” Amalia chuckled. “He tickles my funny bone all right.”

Anne braced herself on the table and stood. “Thanks, ladies, for doing so much to increase our business here. I better get back to work. Can I get you anything else?”

“You and I need to talk. I am pushing for you to cater the Realtors event,” Roxie said.

“And Rich has scheduled a company celebration at his, er, your place. See what I mean?” Anne grinned at all of them. “By the way, breakfast is on me.” She stared at each of them. “And don’t bother to argue.” She headed for the kitchen.

“Thank you,” they chorused. Anne waved without looking back.

“Whoever would have thought that one woman’s frustration when some tubs of her unfinished projects hit the floor, I know, and her head on the way down, along with a play on words, would turn into this…this vehicle for blessings for so many unknown others?” Amalia nodded as she spoke. “And you know what? I kind of appreciate knowing I’m an unfinished object, à la Pastor Mike. There is freedom in that.”

Roxie blew out a breath. “What a year this has been. I used to wish I could see into the future but no longer. I’m grateful for right now, for all of us, and for all the UFOs ahead.” She raised her iced latte so the others did too. “Onward!”

Acknowledgments

From the very beginning of my writing career, I realized that some books take a bigger team than others but all books are a team effort. And this is before the manuscript gets sent to the publishing house.

Some years ago I heard of the term UFOs, that is, Unfinished Objects, in reference to handicraft projects and items. Mostly those I knew of focused on crafts or needlework, quilting, painting, woodwork, and the list grew. A few of us from our church decided to form a group to assist each of us (and anyone else who wanted to join in) to finish something. I’d have loved to offer a prize to whoever could guess the number of those kinds of projects in my sewing/laundry room, but to do so would have meant digging them all out and counting them: totally intimidating. Many of us are great starters but then we often get distracted and start something else before we finish. So my thanks to the core group: Pat, Diane, Judy, and also to the others who floated in and out.