“I saw him at the falls, and we talked,” Nessa admitted. “You really are thinking of yourself, aren’t you?”

Flynn raised a dark eyebrow. “Yes, I am. I’m a work in progress, and I really like my job. So fess up and tell us what happened.”

“I believe it was you who said you didn’t know us well enough to tell us all about your private life and past. Well, darlin’ cousin”—she dragged out the last two words—“I’m saying the same thing right back at you. I’m going to get a piece of chocolate cake. Anyone else want one?”

April followed her into the kitchen. “You’re changing the subject, so there’s more to this story.”

“We talked about our problems. There! Are you satisfied? You’ve pulled the big secret out of me.” Nessa lifted the glass dome off the cake stand and cut a wedge of cake for herself. “Either of you want to join me?”

“I’ll have a piece,” Flynn said. “I want milk with mine. How many glasses should I pour?”

April answered both questions. “I’ll have one, too. What problems did you talk about?”

She waved her arm around the kitchen. “Mine, his, ours, as in yours and mine.”

“What is my problem?” Flynn poured two tall glasses of milk and set them on the table.

April wondered if Flynn even knew the depths of his problems. She sure didn’t know just how far hers had gone, but she felt as if she was making progress—one baby step at a time.

Nessa pulled out her chair with her free hand and sat down, putting her cake right in front of her. “The same as mine and April’s, evidently. We all want to know why we are the way we are. How our parents could have had the same parents and turned out so different. Where did the genes actually come from? It’s easy to see that my daddy got Nanny Lucy’s love of God and religion, but where in the world did Uncle Matthew get his penchant for womanizing, and where did Rachel get her rebellion?”

“Rachel and April weren’t preachers’ kids like you, but with Nanny Lucy’s religious streak, they might just as well have been, and you know that preachers’ kids usually have a rebellious side, either when they’re young or later on in life,” Flynn answered.

“And why did Nanny Lucy love you both more than she did me?” April took her seat. “It was as if she saw something in me that just flat-out pissed her off every single day. No matter what I did or how hard I tried, nothing was right.”

“I don’t care where the genes came from. I just want to change the ones I got from my dad and replace them with Mama’s.” Flynn put the first bite of cake into his mouth.