The Moonglow Sisters - Lori Wilde Page 0,80

out an exasperated breath. “What a shame.”

“Just as it was a shame you and your sisters had a falling-out,” Darynda said.

“How did Mom find out?” Madison asked.

Embarrassment colored Darynda’s cheeks. “She walked in on us during a private moment. I’m sure it was quite shocking to her, even though we were just in bed together snuggling, but with no clothes on—”

Shelley held up both palms. “You don’t owe us the details.”

“It wasn’t so much what your grandmother was doing, but who she was doing it with. Beth never cared for me. I called her out for sassing Helen. She thought it wasn’t my place and it probably wasn’t, but I can’t stand for anyone to mistreat the love of my life.” Darynda smiled at Grammy, both of their eyes shining with more tears.

“Is that why you’re rough on me sometimes?” Madison asked. “When you see my mother’s unattractive traits in me?”

“I can get pretty territorial when it comes to protecting Helen,” Darynda said. “I apologize if I’ve ever made you feel harshly criticized, Maddie. I was coming from a place of insecurity.”

“I appreciate you saying that, Darynda. It gives me courage.” Madison turned and took Shelley’s hand.

Shelley startled, eyes widening, then she said in a voice with a let’s-not-get-too-serious tone, “What?”

“I’ve been just as rough on you, Shelley. If not more so.”

“Pah.” Shelley slipped out of Madison’s grip. “Water. Bridge. I’m over it. Don’t get mushy.”

Grammy smiled a small wavy smile, her lips barely able to hold it up.

That sweet brief smile was both happy and heartbreaking.

Sadness moved through Gia, and she clenched her hands to keep from weeping at the pain they’d all suffered. Her body hurt over the past misunderstandings, the miscommunications, the missteps, the mistakes. They all loved one another and yet they’d caused each other so much heartache, and now they were losing Grammy, bit by bit.

But here was the beautiful thing. They’d finally come together.

Just in the nick of time.

In unison, without a word spoken, the three sisters moved closer, encircling the bed. Madison reached out and took Darynda’s left hand with her right, and Shelley’s right hand with her left. Shelley took Gia’s hand and on one side, Gia slipped her fingers through Grammy’s, while Darynda did the same on the other side.

They all looked from one to the other in their first moment of solidarity in five long years. Then Shelley, the cutup, who couldn’t bear much seriousness, started singing “Who Let the Dogs Out.”

Laughing, they sang and danced madly about the room until the stern head nurse burst in and threw them all out of the room.

Chapter Nineteen

Gia

PAPER FOUNDATION: A thin piece of paper with a drawn, printed, or stitched pattern that becomes the base for a quilt block when fabric is sewn directly onto it.

FROM THAT DAY in Grammy’s hospital room forward, the Moonglow sisters were once again inseparable, working in harmony for one unifying goal—to set up the pop-up store for the Fourth of July weekend and earn enough money to get the Moonglow Inn out of debt.

Grammy’s condition improved dramatically—even Dr. Hollingway was impressed and surprised—and they moved her to the local rehab hospital. The sisters visited whenever they could and devoted Darynda stayed by Grammy’s side, even bringing her own cot into the room so she could sleep there.

Mike took care of Darynda’s dogs, bringing them to his house to stay until Grammy was released from the rehab hospital. The Moonglow sisters would have readily taken on her dignified German shepherds, but the dogs were terrified of Pyewacket. Mike and the volunteers from the Chamber of Commerce finished the renovations and Madison updated the website just in time to book their first guests for the Fourth of July weekend, a middle-aged couple from Cleveland on their twentieth anniversary, returning to the beach where they’d first met.

The weeks leading up to the Fourth were frantic with activity and Gia had little time to hang out with Mike, but running the inn with her sisters felt like old times.

During the renovations, they’d all moved back into the single bedroom they’d shared as teenagers. They left it untouched to save money. Later, once the inn was on its feet again, they’d redo this room too.

Each night was like a slumber party as they dished about their lives while they’d been apart. Shelley regaled them with stories of cult life in Costa Rica with that irreverent hilarious way of hers. Madison glammed it up with tales from a TV reality-show host. Gia