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couldn’t wrap her brain around the picture of skinny, quiet Billy Michaels with vivacious, plump Mary Ellen. “I can’t believe your daddy let you date him.”
    “He didn’t at first, but he came around eventually. After you and J.T. left, there wasn’t much for either Billy or I to do. He started hanging out at the store all the time. Everywhere I looked, there he’d be, all scarecrow scrawny and silent. Finally, I just snapped and asked him what in the hell he was doing here all the time.”
    “And what did he say?”
    “He said he was watching the prettiest girl in town and trying to work up the courage to ask her if she wanted to go to the church social with him.”
    “Wow, I didn’t know he had it in him.”
    “You’d be surprised what that boy was hiding. Which explains why I’m pregnant again.”
    The mental image just didn’t bear examination. “I noticed J.T. is back as well. That must have stirred up a bees’ nest.”
    “Boy howdy, did it ever. All the old gossips ’bout killed themselves trying to outdo one another rehashing the old story.” A frown crossed her face but she plowed on. “It still burns me up when I hear Orleane and Pansy Campbell spouting their lies.”
    “Well, my mom was sleeping with the good pastor. I caught them right before Orleane came up the drive.”
    “You did? Really? Never mind. The fact is, neither one of them were married to other people. They were adults, and it wasn’t like he was doing her on the pulpit, for heaven’s sake. If this town got all fired up every time someone got caught having premarital sex, things would never settle down. What the hell else is there to do around here?”
    “But she was a gypsy, which means she was trash. You know how they all thought of me and my mama.”
    “Only the ignorant, jealous ones. They just wished they looked like her. How’s your mama doing, anyway?”
    A familiar pang of grief struck Nadya in the heart. “She’s passed on. Cancer. That’s why I’m back in town, tying up some loose ends.” She didn’t need to explain which loose ends.
    Tears welled up in Mary Ellen’s baby-blue eyes. She clutched Nadya’s hand. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I just loved your mama. I was always jealous of you. She was so exotic and young and pretty and didn’t make you go to church every Sunday.”
    “And I was jealous of your mom. She baked cookies and volunteered in the school and took you shopping in Atlanta every Christmas and Easter. How is she? And your daddy?”
    “They’re both fine. Daddy retired from the Forestry Service a few years ago when they were having cutbacks. He and Mama sold the house and the business to Bill and me and moved to a retirement community in Canton. We still see them every Sunday. Oh! Are you going to be here through the weekend? Mama would love to see you. You know how much she thought of you. She always said you were smart as a whip and the hardest worker she’d ever had.”
    “I don’t know yet. Maybe.”
    “Are you staying at the bed and breakfast? It’s nice and all, but so pricey.”
    “No, I’m staying at a hotel in Canton.”
    “That’s an hour away. And along all those windy roads. Why don’t you check out of the hotel and stay with us? That way you don’t have to drive back and forth all the time, and we can have a nice visit.”
    “I couldn’t. I wouldn’t want to intrude on you and Billy.”
    Mary Ellen’s face fell. “I understand. If I had the choice to stay in a hotel with maid service or in a house with two kids and a dog, I’d take the hotel too.”
    “But I would like to meet your boys and see Billy again. Maybe we can do dinner together soon?”
    “You bet. How about tonight? No, Bill has a meeting up at the ranger station. There’s talk of a developer coming in and clearing some of the woods that border the state forest. If that happens, it’ll throw the whole ecosystem into chaos or some such.”
    “Billy is a forest ranger? Really.”
    “Yup, he