She wanted Gregg to stay. She’d seen the spark flickering between them and could imagine them one day married, living here in this house. Annie would grow up here, and there would be more babies. This house was never intended for one lonely old woman; it needed children. It needed the patter of footsteps on the staircase, the warmth of laughter echoing through the rooms, and the sighs of lovemaking whispered in the dark of night. If Darla Jean stayed, there was the promise of all those things, but if she decided to leave…

Ida shivered at the thought. It was not something she was willing to risk. It would be better for her to say nothing and make the necessary arrangements just as Bill had done. When she joined Bill in the hereafter, Darla Jean would inherit the house and all that was left. But for now, she had to leave things exactly as they were.

Later that afternoon when they went grocery shopping at Piggly Wiggly, Ida plunked a standing rib roast into the shopping cart.

Suzanna raised an eyebrow and asked, “Isn’t that a bit extravagant?”

“It’s a special occasion,” Ida said with a smile. “When Gregg gets his car back, I’m thinking we’ll have a lovely dinner party and invite Homer Portnick to join us.”

“Nice,” Suzanna said, “but a meatloaf would be just as good and more affordable.”

Ida struggled to hold back a grin as she moved on to selecting some fresh tomatoes.

Suzanna

Fear of Ginger

ALTHOUGH THE DAILY TRIPS BACK and forth to Barston meant two hours of driving every day, Suzanna didn’t mind. In fact, she enjoyed it. In the morning, she rose earlier, took time to apply lipstick, then twist her hair into a clip with a few carefully placed tendrils falling loose. On that first morning, she’d blushed when Gregg commented on how pretty she looked; then on the return drive back to Cousins, she’d stopped at the drugstore and bought mascara. That evening she wore her sundress when she picked him up.

Oddly enough, the commute back and forth felt rather like a date. They shot flirty smiles at one another, chatted easily, and laughed at things that were only vaguely humorous. Although she was reluctant to admit it, even to herself, Suzanna started counting the hours until she would pick him up again just moments after she’d dropped him off. That was until the third day. That afternoon Gregg telephoned and asked if she could pick him up at his brother’s house.

Before he finished telling about the porch set he and Phil were assembling, her thoughts flashed back to the morning she’d heard him talking about the sister-in-law from Florida. Going to her house was definitely was not something Suzanna wanted to do.

Several seconds of silence ticked by; then she sputtered something about not knowing where Phil’s house was and being terrible with directions.

“Oh, you won’t have any trouble finding the place,” Gregg said. “It’s on the same road as the school. Just keep going for another three miles, make a right on Verbena, and it’s two houses in.”

“Three miles, huh?” she stalled, trying to think of an out.

After a lengthy silence, Gregg asked, “Darla Jean, are you still there?”

“Um, yeah. I’m still here.”

“Well, it’s okay, isn’t it? You picking me up at my brother’s?”

There was no out. She couldn’t say no, because Ida would ask why. Feigning a sudden illness wasn’t going to work either since it was almost time to leave. With an edgy tremor in her voice, she answered, “Sure, it is. I was just jotting down the directions.”

“Okay then, I’ll see you at about five,” he said and hung up.

When Suzanna set the receiver back in its cradle, her heart was racing. She took several deep breaths and tried to gather her thoughts.

Why Florida? Why now, when everything was so perfect?

She reasoned that the chance of Ginger being from Sun Grove were a million to one. Florida was a big state. Sun Grove was a small town, a nothing place. Not the sort of town where frat boys would spend a summer. She was on the verge of buying into that thought. Then she remembered: Gregg and his brother hadn’t planned on visiting. Their car broke down. They were stranded.

Sun Grove was a place where a person could easily enough get stranded. Suzanna had felt that way for most of her life. Maybe the same was true of Ginger. Wasn’t it possible that she married Gregg’s brother to escape Sun Grove?

Possible, perhaps, but she’s not the one telling the lie.

For the remainder of the afternoon, Suzanna ran through scenarios of what she would do if Ginger did recognize her. She considered turning it off with a laugh, claiming Suzanna Duff had to be a look-alike. Supposedly everyone had a twin somewhere. Or she could say she’d suffered a bout of amnesia and only recently remembered her true identity. New schemes popped into her head one after another, each of them more foolish than the one before and none of them believable. The sorry truth was that if Ginger recognized her, the life Suzanna had built here was as good as gone.

If this were only about her she could live with it, but she was not the only one involved. It would break Ida’s heart to discover she was not Darla Jean. All the trust, the hopes and dreams, would be gone in a flash. And Annie… Suzanna couldn’t even bear to think of how it would affect Annie. She’d have to be dragged off kicking and screaming, torn from the arms of the only grandmother she’d ever known. It would be worse than it was before they came to Cousins. Back then, she and Annie were united against a common enemy: Earl. If they had to leave here, Annie would see her as the enemy.

Suzanna closed her eyes and pictured Annie standing side by side with Ida, their faces knotted with anguish, their eyes angry and

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