Home to Hart's Crossing by Robin Lee Hatcher Page B

stared at Angie with the determination of a drill sergeant. “Get out, young lady, and don’t come back for the rest of the day. We’ll see to your mother.”
    “But—”
    “You know better than to argue with your elders. Shoo, I said.”
    Angie looked from Till to Steph Watson to the three other members of the Thimbleberry Quilting Club who stood in her mother’s living room, sewing baskets in hand.
    Till’s hand alighted on Angie’s arm, and her voice softened when she spoke again. “Go on, now. You haven’t had a day to yourself in nearly a month. We promise we won’t let Frani do anything she shouldn’t.”
    Angie glanced toward her mother.
    “I’ll be fine, dear. Go and enjoy yourself.”
    “If you’re sure.”
    “I’m sure.”
    As Angie turned toward the stairs, Till said, “And remember. Don’t come back until supper time.”
    Fifteen minutes later—wearing a baseball cap, a pair of comfortable Levis, a pale green T-shirt, and her white athletic shoes—Angie walked toward town, breathing in the sweet midmorning air. It felt good to get out for a while. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed having some alone time, and she was glad Till Hart had insisted. Not that she’d minded these weeks of caring for her mother. It had actually been an unexpected…blessing. She’d felt as if she were coming to know her mother in a new—and better—way.
    “Good morning, Angie,” a woman called from a driveway. “How’s your mother today?”
    Recognizing Liz Rue, the woman who owned Tattered Pages Bookstore, she answered, “She’s doing well, Mrs. Rue.”
    “Tell her I’ll be by to see her again soon. I received a shipment of new novels yesterday, and I know she’ll want to read some of them while she’s laid up. I’ll bring by a few and let her choose.”
    “I’ll tell her. Thanks.”
    Was there anybody in town who didn’t know and care about her mother?
    When she walked past the elementary school a short while later, Angie remembered that today was the last day of the school year.
    Lyssa must be excited. More time for baseball.
    She smiled, remembering summers in Hart’s Crossing when she was a kid. Long, warm days of fun. Bike rides and swimming and camping and horseback riding. It seemed to her that she’d had access to most of the back doors in town. If her mother wasn’t near, someone else’s mother was. What a carefree existence.
    She wondered how Terri managed, a self-employed single mom with a deadbeat ex and no close living relatives for backup support. Was there some sort of daycare program in Hart’s Crossing? Or did Lyssa have to go into the salon with her mother during the summer months? It couldn’t be easy for Terri, juggling so many things while raising a daughter alone.
    In contrast, all Angie had to think about was herself. She used to believe hers was the perfect life. But lately…
    “Hey, stranger.”
    She slowed her steps at the sound of Bill Palmer’s voice. She glanced quickly at Terri’s Tangles Beauty Salon, her original destination, then almost without a conscious decision, headed across the street to where Bill stood.
    “How’s your mom?”
    “Doing well.”
    “Glad to hear it. Sorry I haven’t been by to see her this week. I had to go out of town for a few days. But I plan to drop by tomorrow after church, if that’s all right.”
    “We’ll be there.”
    “Hey, if you’d like, I could come by before church and take you both with me.”
    Surprisingly, Angie was tempted to say yes. “Sorry. Mom doesn’t think she can manage being out that much just yet. And you know my mother. If she was able, she’d be there in a flash. She doesn’t like to miss church.”
    “I know. I’m the same way. Best day of the week, in my humble opinion.”
    Again she was tempted to respond, this time to tell Bill about the books she was reading. Research, she called it. She’d taken up her mother’s challenge to investigate the Bible and its accuracy. Of