A vision of Nanny Lucy standing in the middle of the living room came to mind. April had just graduated and had a decision to make about going to college or getting out on her own. It was one of her grandmother’s bad days, when she was mean and hateful.

“You can either live here and commute to college,” Nanny Lucy had told her, “or I’ll give you the amount of money that the first semester would cost me, and you can have what you’ve saved through the years to go with it. But if you take the money, don’t ever ask me for another dime.”

She’d taken the money and blown every bit of it by Christmas. No matter how down and out April had been, Nanny Lucy had stayed true to her word and never offered to help her out again.

That’s no excuse for the decisions I’ve made, April thought as she watched the scrub oak trees and the mesquite thickets go by at seventy-five miles an hour. I didn’t have to mess up my life, but I did.

“You sure are quiet back there,” Flynn said.

“Just enjoying the cool air and the scenery,” April said.

“Maybe we should sleep in the SUV tonight,” Nessa suggested.

“I’ll take the sofa and a fan before I ever spend another night in a vehicle,” April said, “even if one is hot and the other is cool. And I call first dibs on the bathroom for a shower when we get home.”

She felt like the prodigal son in the Bible stories that she had learned in Sunday school as a child. Nanny Lucy had dragged her to church four times a week: Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday-night Bible study, and Friday-night choir practice. By the time she was a teenager, not even the social aspect of going to church was something she liked, but by damn, Nanny Lucy said she would go, and she did.

“Maybe we should all go to the waterfall and have a swim before we take our showers. If I’m remembering right, that part of the creek is spring fed, and the water is cool all year round,” Flynn said.

“Sounds good to me,” Nessa agreed.

April let her mind go back to the hours and hours she had spent at the falls when she was a teenager. A few times she’d even gone skinny-dipping and let the cold water wash over her naked body. Nanny Lucy would have picked a switch and given her ten licks with it if she’d caught her, but she’d gotten away with it every single time. Not once had she felt like she should drop down on her knees and repent for swimming in the nude.