“As bossy as you are, Nessa, and as smug as you are, Flynn, y’all would have wilted and died if you’d grown up here,” April said. “Nanny Lucy was a wonderful lady, but she could put a guilt trip on a person that went all the way to the bottom of the soul, and believe me when I tell you that she knew very well how to wield a switch. Ten licks was the minimum.”

“Are you serious?” Nessa was stunned.

“Y’all knew her as a sweet nanny for two weeks. Somehow you being here was when she had good days,” April answered. “But I was the bastard offspring of the daughter who had disappointed her and then died four days after I was born. At least once a day, more in the days after y’all left and went back home, she reminded me that I had my mother’s genes, and I knew that was a bad thing from her tone. It didn’t seem to matter if she was having a good or a bad day. I was always a thorn in her side.”

Nessa could well understand what April was saying. Looking back, she’d always felt like one of those thorns for her father. “I guess that’s where my daddy got his ability to make me feel guilty about even the air I breathe.” Nessa talked as she cooked breakfast. “He could put a guilt trip on Jesus, and he practiced on me almost daily.”

Both women glanced over at Flynn.

“Hey, my dad was too busy either chasing women, getting married and then chasing women, or getting divorced because his wife caught him chasing women to ever even talk to me.” Flynn shrugged. “I was just a bratty kid that he didn’t want to raise but had to when my mama died. I pretty much did what I wanted from the time I went to live with him—no questions asked except on payday, when he held out his hand for half of what I made to pay for my room and board in his house.”

“We should call that childhood the O’Riley curse.” Nessa set a platter of toast and bacon on the table.

“Amen,” April and Flynn both said at the same time.

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

When they went out into the shed that morning, Nessa walked all the way around the quilt. “I can show you how Mama and I did the smaller throws when we were making quilts for the elderly folks, but this is at least four times bigger than what I’m used to working on. On one like this, with only five-inch squares, my advice would be that we start on one side and work our way across, quilting around each square. This doesn’t look a thing like what Nanny Lucy usually made.”