grew to twice its size, and he growled deep in his throat.
“What’s the matter with him?” April asked.
“He probably smells all those animals on you and thinks that you brought one or more of them home,” Nessa answered.
April dropped down on her knees and called Waylon over to her. He walked all the way around her, sniffed her jeans, and then nudged her hand and started purring. She stroked his fur and said, “I wouldn’t ever love those others like I do you. They’re sweet and they are my job, but you’re the boss.”
“Amen to that,” Nessa said. “He’s been right under my feet most of the day. He wanted to lay on my pattern pieces, or else sleep right beside the sewing machine.”
“Hey, honeys, I’m home,” Flynn called out when he came through the door. “And this AC feels wonderful.”
“That’s ‘cousins’ to you, not ‘honeys,’” Nessa scolded. “Go get washed up. Supper will be on the table in about ten minutes.”
“Yes, Mother,” Flynn teased.
Nessa shook a fist at him. “You call me that again, and you’ll be eating on the porch in the heat.”
Flynn laughed out loud and headed to the bathroom. He came out a few minutes later, got the salad dressings from the refrigerator, and poured three glasses of sweet tea. By then Nessa had the spaghetti on the table, and she and April were in their seats. Then he sat down at his normal place and even said a short grace when Nessa asked him to do that.
“Nanny Lucy wouldn’t like it if we didn’t give thanks. How was your day, Flynn?” Nessa asked.
“Amazing,” Flynn answered. “I’ve always liked doing new things, but working with wood is more calming than anything else I’ve tried. How about you two?”
“Got the job, and I love it.” April heaped her plate full of spaghetti and then added two thick chunks of bread to the side. “My main work is in the shelter, cleaning up the pens and playing with the animals. No one came to adopt any of them today.”
“Our new normal,” Nessa said.
“What does that mean?” April asked.
“You go to work at the clinic. Flynn goes to Jackson’s place. I work on quilting all afternoon so that when the craft fairs start up, I’ll have something to take,” Nessa answered. “That’s our new norm, and I think I like it, but what happens when we get the quilt finished?”
“Maybe by then Maudie will let me work more hours,” April said.
“And Jackson will decide he needs me to do more.” Flynn crossed his fingers up in the air like a little boy.
“Then our norm will change, and we’ll have to adjust to whatever it is then.” Nessa slid the salad over to Flynn.
“Yep,” April and Flynn said at the same time.
After supper, Flynn shooed Nessa out of the kitchen. “You cooked. I’ll take care of cleanup.”
“You wash,” April said. “I’ll dry and put the dishes away.”
“Well, thank you both,” Nessa said. “I have been hunched over a sewing machine all day, so I’m going for a long walk. See you later.”
She rounded the end of the house and stood at the edge of the path. Going left would take her to Jackson’s place, but showing up on his porch again so soon might seem awfully forward. Still, she would love to sit and talk to him some more. With a long sigh, she turned right and headed toward the waterfall.
The sound of water tumbling over the rocks brought back memories of all those times when she and her two cousins had run all the way from the house to the falls and jumped in without even a second thought. The race had decided who was the fastest, and the last one in was the loser. Pretty often Nessa, with her short legs, was the last one to dive into the cool creek water. She had never gotten to swim at home, unless the girls’ prayer group got to go on a retreat where there were only girls involved. Isaac believed that girls and boys swimming together in scanty bathing suits would cause all kinds of impure thoughts. Trouble, in a nutshell.
“Yeah, right,” Nessa muttered. “My one-piece bathing suit couldn’t be called scanty by any stretch of the word.”
Tex came around the curve in the path and shook himself, sending water flying everywhere. Nessa laughed and dropped to her knees to pet the dog. “I wish I could just jump in the water like you can. You don’t have to