out?” Shelley asked.
“Yeah.” Gia shot her a sheepish grin. “Kind of.”
The screen door creaked and Darynda came out onto the porch holding her cell phone. “Madison, Erma wants to know if you can print off copies of your spreadsheet in a big sans serif font, so that she can distribute it to the Quilting Divas. I’ll take it back up to the hospital when I go.”
“Sure thing.” Madison looked relieved and darted for the door. “Grammy’s computer password the same?”
“It’s still you girls’ names and birthdays all run together.”
“Thanks.” Madison disappeared inside the house and Darynda followed her.
“Do you think she’s acting weird?” Gia asked Shelley.
“Who, Darynda?”
“No, Maddie.”
“I dunno. I haven’t seen her in five years. She seems bossier than ever if that’s what you mean.”
Mike came outside, smoothing his cowlick down with his palm. “I’m headed home, Honeysuckle.”
“Thank you so much.”
He walked over to Gia’s rocker.
Oh dear. She supposed she should say or do something fiancée-ish. But what?
He leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Don’t get up. I can see that you’re elbow-deep in needles and thread.” Then he kissed her lightly on the cheek.
As far as kisses went it was next to nothing. A soft brushing of his warm lips. No one on earth would call that kiss erotic.
But inside of Gia something weird, wild, and wonderful happened. A calm, pleasurable tingling started at the top of her head and slowly oozed down her spine, triggering a euphoric sensation inside her, much like the aftermath of a full-body orgasm.
Shocked, she felt her eyes widen, her jaw fall, and her pulse quicken.
What was this lovely sensation?
Mike smiled down at her as if he knew exactly what he’d done and strolled away, leaving Gia topsy-turvy.
Just then Madison burst from the inn, waving a piece of paper in her hand, distress painted on her face. “Stop quilting this instant. Family emergency. Grammy is about to lose the Moonglow Inn!”
Chapter Nine
Madison
INTENSITY: The amount of pure color or muted color present in a fabric.
FIX THIS.
Madison assembled her sisters and Darynda in the kitchen. In the middle of the table sat a letter from the bank, threatening foreclosure if three months of back payments weren’t received within the next two weeks. Along with it, a stack of bank statements, unpaid invoices, and a calculator.
She’d done the math. Grammy was forty-six thousand dollars in debt.
“We’ve got trouble,” Madison said. “Big trouble.”
No one argued.
“How did this happen?” Madison stared pointedly at Darynda. “Did you know about this?”
Looking stricken, Darynda interlaced her fingers, rested her joined hands on the table, and slowly shook her head. “I knew the inn had gotten a few bad Yelp reviews and your grandmother planned on fixing up the place, but I didn’t know she’d taken out a mortgage against the house.”
“I can’t believe she put her livelihood, and our ancestral home, in jeopardy. This isn’t like Grammy.” Madison paced around the table where everyone else was sitting, palm to her forehead. “The house was one of the first homes ever built in Moonglow Cove. It’s a local treasure.”
No one said anything. They all knew that.
“Well?” Frustrated, Madison settled her hands on her hips.
“Do you think the brain tumor messed with her decision making?” Gia traced a groove in the wood grain of the table with her fingertip and didn’t meet Madison’s eyes.
She didn’t have to look at her for Madison to know that tenderhearted Gia was struggling not to cry.
“If she borrowed the money to fix things up”—Shelley tilted her head back and waved her hand at the water stains on the ceiling—“where’d the money go?”
“Good questions,” Madison said, feeling stronger now that she had something that was within her control to tackle. “I’ll need to go through these bank statements. Try to track down what happened. If I could find where the money went—”
Darynda cleared her throat. “I can answer that.”
All eyes swung her way.
“Helen paid a contractor who never showed.”
Madison’s mouth dropped. “She gave him all the money? Up front?”
“I don’t how much she paid, I only know what she told me. That she paid a contractor and he disappeared on her.” Darynda sat with her hands in her lap and her shoulders squared, a tight little unit unto herself.
“Why didn’t you call me?” Madison glared at the elderly woman. “Why didn’t you at least tell Gia since she lives in Moonglow Cove?”
“You’re not holding me responsible for this, are you?” Worry and guilt saturated Gia’s voice.
Madison shook her head. No. Yes. Kind of.
“Helen was embarrassed.” Darynda brushed