“Yes!” April’s smile reached her eyes. “I choose Flynn for a partner. Nessa, you can have Jackson.”

“What if I wanted to play guys against gals?” Flynn asked.

“I remember us playing Pictionary when we were kids, and you were the best, so either it’s me and you against those two”—April swung her forefinger around to include both Nessa and Jackson—“or I’m going home to watch reruns of Criminal Minds on television.”

“She’s been hanging around you too much, Nessa,” Flynn said. “She’s almost as bossy as you are.”

“That’s a good thing,” Nessa said. “Don’t knock it. I’ll play Pictionary, but if you’d decided on Monopoly, I was going home.” She still wished that she had piped up and said that they should be going as soon as the hope chest was pushed back into the corner.

“I guess it’s me and you, doll, against the pros,” Jackson drawled like an old-time gangster. “Think we can whip them?”

Nessa shrugged. “Of course we can, but . . .” She gave him a long sideways look.

“But first we need to talk, right?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Our conversation might take a while,” he said. “Could we put it off until tomorrow morning when all the tension of opening the hope chest has passed?”

Nessa nodded again. She would have liked to have gotten it over with, but then, on the other hand, she might feel better if she slept one more night on the matter. Nanny Lucy always said that things looked better after a good night’s sleep and in the daylight, instead of darkness.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

As they had left his house the night before, Jackson had asked Nessa to come over the next evening after work so they could have their talk. The day dragged by like a crippled snail, and something akin to crackling electricity had hung in the air ever since she’d woken up that morning. She busied herself by cutting the pieces for a quilt kit. Jackson had said that Nanny Lucy’s kits sold even better than her finished products, so Nessa intended to have several ready for the fall craft fairs. “And four quilts, too,” she told Waylon, who was watching every move she made from a kitchen chair.

“I’m home!” April dropped her purse on the rocking chair nearest the door.

Nessa heaved a huge sigh of relief. She was so ready to get this visit with Jackson over with.

“Did you hear that we’re under a tornado watch?” April asked.

“I usually get that kind of notice on my phone, but I guess I wasn’t paying attention.” Nessa cut the last piece of cloth and put it into a ziplock baggie. “And I haven’t had the television or radio on all day. How did your day go?”