Noah refilled Teresa’s cup and then topped off his own mug.
Teresa swallowed the food in her mouth and then took a sip of coffee. “I can’t believe how well everything is falling into place. I feel like it’s Christmas one minute, and then I feel like the other shoe is going to fall if I blink.”
“Me too,” Kayla said.
“When the other shoe does fall and y’all have a big argument, are you going to throw up your hands and leave Birthright?” Sam asked.
Kayla shook her head. “I don’t intend to skate on thin ice. If I’ve got something to say, I’ll spit it out, and I fully well expect you to do the same”—she raised a dark eyebrow—“and to do it in English, not Spanish like you used to do when you cussed me out for something.”
“No pidas lo que no estás dispuesto a aceptar.” Teresa spouted off a string in her parents’ tongue.
“And that means?” Noah chuckled.
“It means not to ask for something unless you want it,” Teresa answered. “As you know, sister, I don’t hold back when I’ve got anything to say.”
“I guess that answers my question.” Sam laughed out loud. “They may attempt to scratch each other’s eyes out, but I’ve got a feeling if anyone messes with either of them, they’ll stand together to take care of the matter.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” Kayla said out loud, but her thoughts were going to the idea of giving Miss Janie’s things away and storing her furniture. Would she think they were forgetting her too easily?
Miss Janie’s voice popped into her head. Get on with your life. This is all just stuff I left behind. Use it, give it away, or burn it. I don’t need it anymore. I only need you girls to be happy.
Kayla had her answer, so she pulled a ponytail holder from the pocket of her jeans and whipped her curly hair up off her neck. “I’ll start in the closet. Do we leave the clothing on the hangers, Teresa?”
“That’s the best way.” Teresa followed her into the bedroom and set a box of garbage bags on the dresser. “It turned out to be a pretty day in spite of the weatherman’s forecast, so we can line the bed of Sam’s truck with a sheet and lay them back there.”
“I’ll drive slow to the church so they don’t blow out,” Sam said. “Folks there will be glad to help me unload them. While y’all do that, me and Noah will take down this hospital bed and deliver it, then come back and take the other furniture to my barn.”
“I’d like to keep the last dress I remember her wearing when I was still here,” Kayla said. “I saw it in her closet when I was hanging up her dusters last week. It’s the bright-pink one with white polka dots.”
“I want to keep one, too. The navy-blue one that she always wore to funeral dinners at the church,” Teresa said.
Teresa removed a garbage bag from the box and pulled open a dresser drawer. She had filled one with nightgowns and slips when she heard Kayla gasp.
“What?” Teresa asked. “You find a dead mouse? I remember you being terrified of mice. Never could figure it out, since we both lived in places that had critters and bugs.”
“If I’d seen one, I would have left footprints on you as I left this room,” Kayla said. “You’ve got to come help me get these two boxes down. I can’t reach them.”
Kayla watched Teresa looking up from her place on the floor. The boxes were on the top shelf. Getting them down would require a ladder or a kitchen chair.
“Too bad Noah’s left with Sam,” Teresa muttered as she got up. “I’ll get a chair.”
Kayla couldn’t take her eyes off the two boxes. One had her name printed in big block letters on the end, and the other one was marked with Teresa’s name.
Eternity plus three days passed before Teresa came back with a chair, climbed up on it, and gasped when she saw her name.
“This is kind of spooky,” she said as she pulled the first one down and handed it to Kayla. “I’ve gotten clothes out of this closet and hung them up in here for weeks, and I never noticed these.”
“Me, either.” Kayla sat down on the floor and removed the top of a box that once held reams of