She nodded. “I’d love to marry William, but he seems so hesitant. Maybe he’s not sure I’m the one for him. I just wish I knew for sure because I need to keep moving forward.”

Before they could continue their conversation, SuAnn opened the door holding a large covered cake plate. “Morning, girls!”

“Mom, you scared me to death!” Janine said, holding her hand over her heart.

“Get dressed, Janine. We’ve got an errand to run, the three of us.”

“I have work, Mom,” Julie said, standing up.

“Oh, poo! Dixie can handle it for another half hour or so.”

“Where are we going?” Janine asked.

“What kind of neighbors would we be if we didn’t welcome our newest resident over at the lighthouse?”

Janine looked at her sister, each giving a knowing glance at the other. They knew what their mother was up to. She wanted the gossip, and she was ready to go straight to the source. God help the new resident because SuAnn was going to find out her life story as soon as possible.

Chapter 3

Emma knelt in the middle of the flower bed, hunched over as she pulled out weed after weed. It was amazing any flowers were growing at all, but daffodils were hearty plants, apparently. When Henrietta had called to say that the flower beds needed to look perfect before they started giving tours, Emma realized just how much she’d taken on. Was it going to be worth it just to hide from her old life?

Plus, she’d never been much of a gardener. Living in apartments for her whole adult life didn’t lend itself well to getting in the dirt. Her job had been far too demanding to worry about planting flowers. Most of the time, she was working overnight hours and wouldn’t see the fruits of her labor if she had planted a garden.

As she stood over the plant bed, catching her breath, she felt a small sense of accomplishment when she looked at the pile of weeds she’d pulled. Each one represented a cleaning out of sorts, although she wasn’t prone to deep metaphorical thoughts.

“Well, hello there, new neighbor!”

Emma turned to see three women standing there. The one who spoke was older, and she was carrying a large glass cake plate with something inside. The other two women, one with shoulder length straight hair and the other with a huge head of curly hair, stood there like they were embarrassed.

“Hi,” Emma said. She felt a bit like the new kid at school.

“Sorry if we scared you,” the straight haired woman said. She figured she should learn their names.

“Oh, it’s fine. I was just working on this flower bed. I’m Emma,” she said, reaching out her hand.

“Nice to meet you. I’m SuAnn, and these are my daughters, Julie and Janine.”

After all of the handshakes, Emma stepped back and forced a smile. An awkward silence hung in the air for a long moment before SuAnn took over again. She was a forceful one, that was for sure.