The Moonglow Sisters - Lori Wilde Page 0,48

churning through Madison’s head. To her the quilt must represent everything that had gone wrong with her life.

But Madison had survived. Not just survived but thrived.

Shelley, on the other hand . . . Gia cast a sidelong glance at her other sister.

What had happened to Shelley? She’d lost her spontaneous vibrancy. A hollowness lurked beneath her eyes that hadn’t been there five years ago. She had been living with the guilt and shame over what she’d done. It couldn’t have been easy.

“Shelley,” Gia said, “would you like to tell us what you’ve been up to the past five years? We’ve been so busy with Grammy, we haven’t had a chance to—”

“Off-limits,” Shelley said. “If you can set up topic parameters, so can I.”

“Okeydokey.” Gia focused on her sewing, her curiosity about Shelley’s whereabouts for the past five years growing.

They worked in silence for half an hour.

Gia pulled her needle through the cotton batting, making sure her stitches were tight and even. The square she worked was pink-and-white-striped seersucker fabric, gleaned from the dress she’d worn as a volunteer candy striper when she was sixteen. She gave as much attention to the quilt as she would give her kites. This project was for Grammy. It meant something monumental, whether her sisters appreciated that or not.

The evening weather was balmy, the sea light gray and calm. The sky was slightly overcast with puffy white clouds, the setting sun playing peekaboo.

On the beach in front of the house, a young mother formed sandcastles with her three children, all girls in sunbonnets and heart-shaped sunglasses.

In between stitches, Gia watched the laughing mom play with her children as they giggled and ran from the waves. Her heart gave a strange little bump. She barely remembered her own mother, and part of her still longed for the hugs and kisses she’d lost. Nothing could make up for that.

Madison had tried her best to fill the hole left by their mother’s death. Gia had appreciated the attempt and took comfort where she could find it. But Shelley went in the opposite direction. Gia remembered frequent fights between her two sisters, with Shelley yelling at Madison, “You can’t tell me what to do! You are not my mother!”

Tonight, no one was talking about anything. Not even Darynda, who could usually find something nice to say. Gia thought maybe she’d been too strict with her rules.

Should she leave well enough alone and accept the silence? Or risk starting a conversation that could blow up? So many land mines lay between them. Resentment, hurt, guilt, shame. So much guilt.

The four of them were gathered around the quilt, Darynda taking Grammy’s spot on the north end. It felt good, having the square balanced by a fourth person, but Gia still felt her grandmother’s absence.

Hand sewing a quilt was a painstaking task, but Grammy advocated for the purity of hand quilting. Especially this wedding quilt, which was more of a piece of art than something intended for daily use. It was an heirloom, designed to be passed down.

The design was a triple wedding ring quilt. Three overlapping concentric circles. The pattern chosen by Maddie at the time of her wedding to represent the three Moonglow sisters. It seemed sad now, the history of the past weighing heavily on the quilt. Would they ever be connected like those three circles again?

“How was Grammy today?” Madison asked Shelley, her gaze on her sewing.

“Same.” Shelley got her needle threaded and started quilting her section. “I painted her toenails.”

“She would like that.” Darynda’s voice held a smile. “Helen did like to pamper herself when she had the time and money.”

“No doctor visited?” Maddie’s voice was light, but her jaw clenched.

“Not while I was there.” Shelley quilted the way she lived her life, loosey-goosey, with imprecise, relaxed stitches.

Gia didn’t mind Shelley’s quilting style. Her personality showed on the palette. When you studied the quilt, you knew right away which section she’d sewn. Madison, however, was not a fan of her loping style. She watched Shelley’s bendy wrist motions with pursed lips.

“So, nothing new at the hospital?” Madison asked. “No change at all? Nothing happened?”

Why did Maddie have to be so pushy? Gia noticed that Shelley glanced over at her tote bag sitting near the back door where she’d dropped it when she’d come in. Darynda was watching all three of them.

“Your number one fan was working today,” Shelley said. “That happened.”

“May June? She’s quite nice.”

“A little snoopy, don’t you think?”

Maddie’s head came up and she met Shelley’s