“Stella makes the best chocolate cake in the whole world, and there’s one on the table, so I think it was real,” April answered. “Y’all should remember Stella, if not by her face, by her voice. She was here on Wednesday afternoons every single week with Vivien for the quilt-club meetings. There were about six or seven of them, and they would exchange tips and all kinds of patterns in addition to talking about God and repeating church gossip. There’s a file cabinet full of the patterns out there in the shed.”

“When those women came around, I went down to the waterfall,” Flynn admitted. “I didn’t like being around them, and there were always leftover refreshments, so I didn’t figure I was missing anything.”

“I loved listening to their stories,” Nessa said, “and Nanny Lucy would give me scraps from the quilt pieces to play with.”

“Then maybe you should join the quilting club,” April said. “Since the shed is here, they’ll come around asking us if we want to join.”

“Are you going to join?” Nessa asked. “What if they want to use the shed for their projects? I’d hate to join and then be in the middle of a quilt when they needed the frame and space.”

“Nope!” April’s tone left no room for argument. “After we get that job finished in the shed, I don’t care if I never go out there again. I’m going to look for work somewhere around Blossom, though, because I’m tired of running from my problems.”

“And your problems are?” Flynn asked.

“Like you said earlier, I don’t want to talk about it with a couple of strangers, even if we do share DNA,” April told him.

“I can’t wait to get into the filing cabinets, but I don’t think I’d join the club even if they asked me,” Nessa said, responding to April’s earlier suggestion. “I’ve never been much of a joiner in anything. Any club or organization I was allowed to join when I was growing up had to be affiliated with the church, and”—she shrugged—“Daddy didn’t like it, but if I couldn’t be in 4-H at school, then I refused to join the young ladies’ auxiliary at church.”

“And I thought you were an angel.” April smiled.

Nessa shot half a smile toward her and changed the subject. “I’m hoping the mice haven’t been into the fabric cabinet in the garage. We could probably make more than one quilt while we’re here.”

“Whoa!” Flynn put up a palm. “Speak for yourself. If you want to sew every day this summer, then I won’t stand in your way, but darlin’ cousin, when we get the quilt finished that’s in the frame, I’m done.”