“Good luck with the house showing.”

“I have a tour of four places planned for them so it’s not just this one. They are just starting to look so I’ll show ’em all I can.”

MJ shut the gate and took the lead off Looper. “Go find Dad.” The dog yipped once and headed off around the house. She followed him to find Fred and Daryl sitting on the deck, a flat of plants on the grass. “I see you come bringing treasures, Fred. Good morning.”

“Good morning. We seem to have more than we can possibly use…”

“That’s nothing new. Ginny come with you?”

“Nope, she’s working on planting our pots today.” Fred swilled from his water glass.

MJ asked, “You guys want a refill? Or iced tea?”

Fred pushed back his chair. “Thanks but no. I’ll go get that other flat and be on my way.”

“Hey, is Ginny coming into town today?”

“She has a meeting at three,” Fred replied. “I think at the library. You need something?”

“It’ll wait.” MJ turned to her hubby. “I’ll be down in my room and I am not turning my phone on.”

Daryl nodded. “Fine by me.”

“Help yourself to lunch out of the refrigerator. There’s soup in the green container, sandwich fixings in the cheese drawer, and leftover enchiladas in the flat one on the second shelf.”

“What’s for supper?”

“I have no idea, it’s not even noon yet.” She pushed back the screen to the sliding glass door and, inside, poured a glass of iced tea and headed downstairs. Her quilt was going to be ready to machine quilt by the end of the day. She had already layered the underside, the filling, and the top on the four-by-eight table Daryl had built that folded up against the wall when she was not using it. It had not been put away for some time because she’d not gotten back to it for several weeks. This next step of pinning the layers was going to be done today. Therefore, the phone was off.

She looked up at the round clock when the bird call signaled two. No wonder she was hungry.

“MJ, you down there?”

“Coming right up, Ginny.” She jogged up the steps.

“Tried calling, but with no answer, I figured you’d turned your phone off.”

“I did. Want some iced tea? I’m just taking a lunch break.”

“Thanks, but I just stopped to say I’ve had a bunch of phone calls raving about the meeting last night.”

MJ pulled her cell phone out of her apron pocket. “A bunch of messages.” And dropped it back. “I am incommunicado today.”

“I know, the meeting last night inspired you to finish something else too?”

“How did you know?”

Ginny grinned. “I hooked on that rug for an hour and a half this morning, you know the one on the coffee table in the family room? The woman next to me said she got a rug done by making herself hook one or two rows every morning. I thought it was a good idea.”