Nessa took a long drink of her beer, but it didn’t touch the fire raging in her hormones. Right then she didn’t care if there was a million dollars for each of them, or if the hope chest turned out to be empty. She just wanted to talk to Jackson alone and figure out where she stood with him. She was through being mad and was ready to get things settled.

April was the first one to speak up. “I think there’s keepsakes in there that were valuable to her but not worth much. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a bomb went off when the lock is turned. She was so disappointed in us that she might be ready to end the O’Riley line right here and now.”

Nessa’s blood ran cold. Poor Nanny Lucy had had so many disappointments in her life, beginning with Grandpa, that she just might have put his head in the hope chest, too.

Flynn turned up his beer, took a long drink, and then set it on the coffee table. “Let’s just get it over with. Anyone want to send up a prayer or make a confession just in case April is right?”

“There’s not a bomb in there,” Jackson chuckled. “She might blow y’all into eternity, but she wouldn’t harm a hair on my head. She liked me.”

“You willing to bet on that?” Nessa asked.

“Yep, I am.” Jackson turned and gazed into her eyes a second time.

“If you’re that confident, then drag it out here,” April told him. “But let’s make a pact right now between us three. If there’s something in there that will tear apart the friendship we’ve built, then let’s burn it tonight and pretend it was never there.”

“I agree,” Flynn said.

Nessa took one more swallow of her beer and set it beside Flynn’s bottle. “Me too.”

Jackson pulled the chest away from the wall and removed the key that was taped to the back. He didn’t make a big fanfare but simply slipped the key into the lock and turned it. “Does one of you want to have the honor of lifting the lid?”

April shook her head.

Flynn just stared at the thing.

Nessa got to her feet, took a couple of steps, and eased the lid up. It bumped onto the floor. “There now. It’s done, and it did not blow up in our faces.”

“What’s in it?” Flynn asked.

Nessa bent down and picked up an envelope from the bottom of the hope chest. “Just this. Looks like a letter. Either of you want to read it, or should I?”

“You do it,” April said. “If she had a favorite among the three of us, it was you.”