“Great!” April crossed the living room and dining area and went straight to the kitchen. “What do I smell?” She removed the lid from the slow cooker and sniffed.

“Kidney bean soup,” Nessa said. “Yeast rolls are on the stove to go with it.”

“I’m not waiting on Flynn.” April filled a bowl with the thick soup and put two rolls on a plate. “I’m starving. Nanny Lucy never made this. Where did you get the recipe?” She set the food down on the end of the table and took a bite. “Sometimes I had to do some basic cooking when Nanny Lucy had bad days. I wonder now how on earth she cared for me during those times.”

“One of the church ladies used to bring it to soup-and-sandwich nights at my dad’s church. When I asked her for the recipe, she gave it to me,” Nessa said.

April buttered a hot roll and took another bite of the soup. “Is it hard to make? I could eat this stuff every week.”

“Might be the easiest soup in the world to make,” Nessa answered. “You crumble up a pound of hamburger in a pot with a small diced onion, cover it with water, and boil until the meat is done and the onions are tender. Pour in two cans of kidney beans and a can of tomato sauce. Then add about a cup of ketchup and a fourth cup of Worcestershire sauce and simmer. I make it and pour it into a slow cooker and let it simmer on low for a few hours. Daddy liked to add a little more Worcestershire sauce to it. Mama always served it with hot rolls and an assortment of sliced cheese.”

“Well, it’s really good,” April said.

“Glad you like it.” Nessa put away the sewing machine and cleared the table of quilting scraps. “I’ve kind of felt something in the air all day, so I’m not surprised there’s a tornado watch.”

“Maudie says every time a little breeze kicks up around these parts, the weather folks issue a tornado watch. She says we shouldn’t start to worry until they call it a warning. Then we shouldn’t get our underbritches in a twist until we feel it in the air,” April said between bites.

“She must be a hoot to work for.” Nessa thought of her previous principal, who had never seemed to smile. Then she thought of the electricity she’d felt in the air all day. Could it have been the approaching storm and not her anxiety over talking to Jackson?