Nessa unfastened her seat belt so she could be free to move her shoulders with the music. “You’re right. As long as we all have each other, we’re going to be fine. I’m so glad that we all three are staying at the house.”

“Me too.” April nodded. “You and Flynn have helped me understand Nanny Lucy better, and that helps me to forgive.”

“I’m not there yet,” Nessa admitted. “I thought she was perfect, and my bubble has been blown. I was coming back to the home where I felt peace and freedom. And you were coming back to where you felt the opposite. But in the past few years, I could kind of see this side of her when I would come visit. She was glad to see me, but then I felt like she’d just as soon that I go on and leave her alone.”

“I got the same feeling,” April said with a nod of understanding, “but I thought she was probably better with you. She always gave me the impression that she loved you the most. I guess we all come across to others in different ways. I was a pain and a thorn in her side. You were the kid that looked like her and was born to her favorite child. Flynn was the one she felt sorry for because he lost his mother, and yet was disappointed in because he was like his father. We can’t change that,” April told her.

Nessa opened the door. “Well, I’m sure glad that you are here to help me.”

April pulled the keys out of the ignition and tossed them to her. “Don’t forget these.”

“See? Here to help me.” Nessa smiled, even though she wanted to throw beer cans at the front of the store, or maybe storm over to Jackson’s when she got home and use words that would fry the hair out of her father’s ears.

Crickets, tree frogs, and hoot owls combined their voices to serenade Flynn as he sat on the porch with a beer in his hand. A lonesome coyote lent his howling to the mix. Tex came around the end of the house and snuggled up next to him.

“Are you lonesome? Jackson had to run into town to get a gallon of varnish. He’ll be back soon.” Flynn rubbed the dog’s ears. “A month ago, I would have been sitting in a bar, sipping on this beer and scanning the place for a woman. Know something, though?”

Tex growled down deep in his chest and focused on the road.

“I’m happier right here than I would have been in a bar. Even though we’re not out hunting for women, you can be my wingman tonight.” Flynn continued to rub the dog’s ears.

Tex barked once as if agreeing with Flynn.