“If I’m going to get the name, be damned if I won’t have the game.” Nessa tilted her chin up a notch. She didn’t want to ever be a submissive woman like her mother. “We will take my SUV since it looks like it could rain, and we’d have to put the groceries in the back of your truck. You can both put up with my bossy, or else don’t bother unpacking.”

“The preacher’s daughter cusses,” April teased.

“The preacher’s daughter has also had men that stayed the night with her and has been drunk off her butt a few times and is still bossy,” Nessa said. “With an overbearing father, I had to learn to stand up for myself or else I would have been married for more than a decade and had a houseful of kids by now.” She stopped at the door and turned around. “April, you can help me make our grocery list. Since you don’t like to cook and wouldn’t know cinnamon from paprika, I’ll do the checking and tell you what to write down.”

“Yes, ma’am.” April snapped to attention and sharply saluted her cousin. “Thank you, ma’am, for allowing me to follow your orders.”

“And now the smart-ass that I remember comes out.” Flynn chuckled. “Where have you been hiding it?”

April dropped her hand, and the expression on her face changed from sassy to blank in a fraction of a second. “Under lots of stuff that should be forgotten. For now we’ve got things to take care of this afternoon so that we can get out here in the morning and start quilting. The shed gets pretty hot in the afternoons, so we should work when it’s at least semi-cool, in the mornings.”

Nessa could relate to what April said. So many painful memories should be forgotten, but according to some of the things she had overheard the school counselor saying, talking about them was the best way to overcome your problems.

“What if we put a window unit out there?” Flynn stopped by his truck and took a couple of suitcases from the back seat.

April did the same thing, only her things were in two white garbage bags.

Nessa went back out to her SUV, hit the button to raise the hatch, and picked up two suitcases from a stack of boxes.

“Good God!” Flynn stared at the packed SUV. “Did you bring everything you own?”

“I don’t know about Nessa, but I sure did,” April said. “This is it, lock, stock, and barrel. A car that runs off fumes and bald tires, what clothing I own, and I think there’s a bottle of water left somewhere in the back seat.”