Chapter 1

Present day

Grace peeked into her 94-year-old great-grandmother’s bedroom. “You awake, Grams?”

Evie pushed herself up in bed and smiled. “For you, my dear? Always. What is that you have in your hand?”

Grace leaned over and kissed the leathery cheek Evie tilted up, and then perched on the side of the bed. “You know, Taylor and I are going through that big box of photos Grandma and Mom found in y’all’s attic?”

Evie laughed. “Find any pictures of my pet dinosaur?”

“You’re not that old, Grams.” Grace laughed too. “No dinosaurs, but a lot of people we can’t identify. You feel up to going through some of them with me?”

“Hand me my glasses and let me see what you’ve got.”

Two heads, one gray and the other dark auburn, bent over a stack of black-and-white photos. For an hour, Evie identified the faces in the old pictures, sometimes with a story about the situation or event depicted. But when she picked up the last photograph, she fell silent. Grace watched as she traced an outline around the person in the picture and chewed her bottom lip.

“Grams? Are you okay? Who is that?”

Evie shook her head and took her glasses off. Grace handed her a tissue from the box on the bedside table. Evie dabbed tears from the corners of her eyes. She studied the picture again before turning it over and looking at the back. She pointed to the date printed there in faded ink.

“June seventeenth, nineteen thirty-seven,” she read. “Freddy’s birthday.”

“June seventeenth? That’s your birthday too.”

Evie nodded. “Yes, it is. Freddy and I were born in the same hospital. Her mom, Miz Addie, and my mother shared a room. They became best friends ’til the day they died. I ’spect they’re hoofing it up in heaven. Freddy and I shared everything, almost like twin sisters probably would. In fact, when we were little, strangers often thought we were twins.”

“Freddy is kind of a strange name for a girl, isn’t it?” Grace took the photo from Evie’s hand and studied it. “I wish I could see her face better. That hat looks a bit big for her.”

Evie laughed. “That was her mother’s new cloche, and Freddy had to try it on. Her daddy had just gotten his hands on that camera and made her pose for this picture. Miz Addie was a big woman, and you can see how small Freddy is. That hat came down to her nose.”

“What’s with the violin?”

“Ah. She could make that violin sing. Her whole family was musical and sometimes would play in three or four churches on one Sunday. And not all of them were Baptist, which just bugged my daddy half to death. As far as he was concerned, anyone not white and Baptist didn’t have a chance of going to heaven. The Prilouxs belonged to our church, but that didn’t stop them from taking their music to a Methodist or Calvinist church.”

“You still haven’t told me why she’s named Freddy,” Grace said.

“Freddy is short for Frieda. Frieda Grace Priloux.”

“Grace?”

Evie nodded. “She was named after her gran’ma, and I named your grandmother after her. Your grandma named your mom Grace after herself, and Cecelia named you Grace after herself. But in my head, you’re all named after Freddy. That’s just how special she is. Was.”

“Did she have any kids?”

Evie shook her head. “No. She died young and unmarried.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Grams. It must have been hard for you since y’all were so close.”

“It was.” Evie’s voice cracked. “I still miss her.”

“What are you two up to?”

Grace turned and smiled at her mother as she came into Evie’s room. Cecelia went to the other side of the bed and kissed Evie’s cheek. “Gracie, what did you do to make Grams cry?”

Evie laughed and patted Cecelia’s hand. “Memories made me cry, my dear, not this child. She brought me some photos to look at and, oh my, the memories they brought back. But I’m getting tired, and I think I need to take a break.”

Grace nodded. “Sure, Grams. Thanks for telling me about the pictures. I’d love to hear more about Freddy sometime.”

“Of course. I love that you’re interested in this old woman’s life.”

“Would you mind if I recorded our conversations?” Grace asked. “That will make it easier to save them.”

“On one condition,” Evie said.

Grace took her great-grandmother’s hand. “What’s the condition?”

“You bring your sweet Taylor with you next time.”

Grace laughed as she kissed the old woman’s hand. “I’ll do that. I know she’ll enjoy seeing you again.”

†

Later that evening, Grace and Taylor cuddled on the sofa as Grace recounted her afternoon with her great-grandmother.

“She said I can record our conversations but only on the condition that you come with me to see her next time,” Grace said as she circled Taylor’s palm with her thumb.

“I’m glad she doesn’t have a problem with our relationship.” Taylor kissed the side of Grace’s head. “I really like her. I bet she was a force to be reckoned with when she was younger.”

“From the stories Grandma and Mom have told, I think you’re probably right.” Grace took a deep breath. “But I think Gramps abused her, at least emotionally and verbally. She’s opened up so much since he died. Grandma told me Grams always deferred to Gramps. She said he was constantly demeaning her. And not just Grams, but Grandma and Aunt Betts too.”

“How do you think your great-grandmother and grandfather got together? It sounds like they were polar opposites.”

Grace shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess that’s one thing I’ll have to ask her about.”

Taylor turned on the sofa until she and Grace were face-to-face. She leaned over and kissed Grace lightly on the lips. “I think we’ve talked long enough,” she said. “There are other things I’d rather be doing.”

Her fingers were busy as she spoke, unbuttoning Grace’s blouse and tracing the outline of her bra over her breasts. Grace took a sharp breath when Taylor reached into her bra and tweaked a nipple.

“Yeah,” she managed to say before Taylor covered her lips again.