Harper laid her hand in the middle of the table. Tawny covered it with hers, and Brook and Dana did the same.
“By the joining of hands, we agree to keep this place as it is and run it as long as we can,” Harper said.
“Amen,” the other three said in unison.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The Clancy sisters, along with Brook, hit the floor running Mother’s Day morning and didn’t slow down until they closed up the café and store. The cabins had been full all weekend, so there was cleaning and laundry. Harper had worried for days about the chicken and dressing dinner she’d prepared from Zed’s recipes, but everyone had declared that he must’ve left part of himself behind in her, because it was as good as it had always been.
Now it was eight o’clock. In a half an hour the sun would be sliding down past the horizon. It was time for that journey to the big rock. Tawny didn’t want to go. It was the final step, and she wasn’t sure she could bear to tell her grandmother and Zed goodbye for good. She gripped the handle of the chair on her porch so tightly that her knuckles ached, but she couldn’t make herself rise up. Not until Nick parked his old work truck in front of her cabin and held out his hand. She put hers in his and it gave her the strength to go down the steps.
Dana appeared from the store with the wooden box in her arms. Payton’s arm was around her shoulders. Brook and Johnny were right behind them, and Johnny had Brook’s hand tucked into his. Before they crossed the gravel, Wyatt and Harper came out of her cabin, his arm around her waist.
“We can do this. Remember, we are strong.” Tawny didn’t know if she was encouraging her sisters and niece or herself—maybe it was a little of both.
It was a solemn walk all the way to the big rock where Annie loved to sit in the evenings and fish with Zed. Tawny had gone out there the day before with her cell phone and found one spot on the very edge of the rock where she could hold her phone up to the sky and get service, so she’d tucked it into her hip pocket, hoping that she could find the spot that day.
When they arrived Dana stopped at the place where Granny Annie always sat. “I don’t have anything planned because she didn’t leave us instructions. I guess this is for our own closure.”
“She said we might sing a song,” Tawny said.
“I know you have one ready,” Brook said. “But I think she’d like this one.” She started an old familiar gospel tune, and the others joined in. “Some glad morning when this life is over.”
When the last notes of “I’ll Fly Away” had drifted out over the lake, Brook said, “Happy Mother’s Day, Granny. I love you and I love Uncle Zed. I’m glad that you can be together forever this way.”
Dana opened the lid of the box. “From ashes to ashes.”
Tawny handed her phone to Nick, who carried it to the spot she’d marked with an old piece of concrete chalk the girls had used as children. He touched a button and Jamey Johnson’s deep voice filled the air as he sang “Lead Me Home.” When the lyrics said that his new life began with death, Tawny said them out loud as she brought out a fistful of gray ashes and scattered them on the still waters of the lake.
Harper’s voice shook a she sang right along with the lyrics that talked about hearing the angels singing and let her handful of ashes drift slowly through her fingers. Then Brook brought out a double handful and sobbed through a line that asked for the Lord to take his hand and lead him home, only she substituted Annie for Lord.
Dana knelt and let the ashes in her hand float away on the water, but she couldn’t sing or even say a word. Then Wyatt gave her the box and she gently poured the rest of Granny Annie and Zed into the lake.
When she stood up, the four Clancy ladies joined hands and sang with the music, all of them substituting Annie for Lord when he asked the Lord to lead him home. There was total silence when the song ended for several moments, and then all four of them gathered together for a group hug.
“We might be sometimes friends from now on, but you three need to be always sisters,” Brook said.
“Amen,” the other three agreed as their tears all mingled together.
EPILOGUE
One year later, Mother’s Day
It was a blustery day with tornado warnings all across the northern part of Texas. Wyatt had to cut his fishing trip short because there was no way he’d take a group of men out on the water when there was lightning, so he’d gotten up early that morning and made coffee.
“I love it when we have coffee at home,” Harper said as she made her way into the kitchen of their new two-bedroom house that Nick had barely finished in time for the new baby’s arrival. “I’ve got maybe fifteen minutes before I have to get to the café. If Clancy isn’t awake, you can bring him over later.”
“Or I can just keep him here and not share.” Wyatt grinned. “When he’s over there, I seldom even get to hold him. And before you leave, Clancy said I’m supposed to give this to you.” He handed her a lovely velvet box. “He picked it out all by himself.”
“Yeah, right.” She grinned. “He’s six weeks old, Wyatt.”
“And super smart. Open it.”
She’d remembered to get roses to take to the big rock and toss out on the lake water for Granny Annie that day, and she’d even sent her mother a card with the newest picture of Clancy in it. Maybe someday Retha would come around, but if it never happened, Harper intended to do what was right.
She flipped open the box to find a beautiful bracelet with a tiny disk attached to it.
“It’s Clancy’s fingerprint from the day he was born. Each year I will add a new fingerprint to it until we can’t fit another one on the bracelet,” Wyatt said. “I can’t love you enough. Happy Mother’s Day.” He gathered her into his arms and tipped up her chin for a long, sweet kiss.
“And what if we have a dozen kids? Do I get a dozen bracelets?”
“Yes, ma’am, you do,” he said. “When are we having a little sister for Clancy?”
“In a couple of years,” she answered with another kiss.
Dana snuggled up to Payton’s side and wished that she could spend the whole day in bed with him. But the store didn’t run itself. They planned to have dinner with his daughter, Alison, and her new boyfriend that evening. She was slowly coming around to the idea that her father had remarried—thanks to Brook, who’d taken it all in stride with cheer.
“Good morning, my beautiful bride,” Payton whispered. “Happy Mother’s Day.”
“Thank you,” she said.
He opened the drawer of the nightstand and brought out a present, all wrapped in white paper with a red bow. “This is for you.”
She tried to be gentle, but impatience got the better of her and she ripped into the package to find a necklace with entwined hearts encrusted with tiny diamonds. “Oh, Payton, it’s beautiful. Put it on me. I’m going to wear it all day.”
He pushed her thick blonde hair to one side and fastened it around her neck, then kissed that tender spot at the base of her skull. “I don’t only love you, but I’m in love with you.”
The words from Granny Annie’s letter came back to her mind, and she realized just how lucky she was. “Moving here was the best thing that ever happened to me and Brook,” she whispered as she touched the hearts.