The weather reminded him of another morning, more than a decade ago. It was his seventeenth birthday and the first time that his girlfriend had stayed for the whole night. She had tried to sneak out, but his dad had caught them kissing at the front door. Matthew had just smiled and said, “Good taste, Son. Is her mama married or divorced?”

“What was that sigh all about?” Nessa asked.

“It’s fairly cool. There’s a little wind blowing. I could be up in the house finishing up the wiring job so that we could set the air conditioners tonight, but oh, no! I’ve got to be out here quilting,” he answered without mentioning that particular memory.

“Poor baby,” April teased. “How about Nessa and I go get the air conditioners this afternoon while you finish up the wiring?”

“Ouch!” Flynn flinched and almost turned over his chair when he stuck himself with his needle. He’d forgotten how much the prick of a needle could smart.

“Don’t be a wuss,” Nessa laughed. “A drop of blood isn’t going to get you out of doing your job. Nanny Lucy keeps Band-Aids in the cabinet above the file cabinet. Put one on your boo-boo and keep working.”

Flynn dropped his needle on the quilt and carefully pushed back his chair. Nanny Lucy would claw her way through six feet of dirt and haunt his dreams if he ruined this special quilt, even if they all agreed that it was as ugly as a wild hog. He used a tissue to wipe the blood away, applied a bandage, and went back to his chair.

“I’ve figured out our system,” April said. “This is a king-size quilt, so there’s thirty rows going up and down”—she waved her left arm back and forth—“and twenty-four going across.”

“And that means?” Flynn picked up the needle and was a lot more careful this time.

“It means that we each stitch around each of ten squares every morning,” April explained. “One long five-inch section will be done, then we move on to the next one.”

“And we’ll be done in twenty-four days.” Nessa hummed as she worked.

“Do we work seven days a week?” Flynn asked.

“We should talk about that and also agree on whether we get to leave when we finish our ten squares for the day,” April said.

“We can’t very well work ahead because of wrinkling.” Nessa frowned.

“I vote that we get to leave when our portion is done,” Flynn said.

“But only if your stitching is as good as ours,” Nessa told him. “The quilting club will never let it pass inspection if your stitches are an inch long.”