Page 78 of Butterfly Sisters

“What do you think?” Colton asked, coming up behind them, wearing his gameday jersey and holding a small package in his hand.

“I’m honored,” Meredith replied. Then she turned to Colton. “Let me know if you’d rather I paint a pink football to put there. We’ll start her early.”

Colton laughed, the corner of his mouth turning upward in that adorable way of his. “Well, Iwillbe getting her off on the right foot.” He pulled a tiny yellow T-shirt with the Down South Athletics logo on the front from the package.

“That’s the only brand she’s going to wear, you know that, right?” Leigh teased Meredith. “It’s all her daddy wears.”

“Hey, it might pay for her college,” Meredith said.

Leigh gave her sister a wide grin. “Or her art lessons.”

Meredith broke into a smile in return.

“I actually came up because your mama has come over from the cabin and she’s ready for lunch. The game starts in ten minutes. She’s got all the fixin’s on the table outside.”

Mama had left her apartment when the lease was up and moved into the cabin full time. She was to retire next year, so she wouldn’t have to drive into Nashville to work for much longer. Meredith flip-flopped between staying with Mama and in the apartment Leigh had vacated in the Emerald Lane office, where her sister loved to paint because she said the natural light was so good. She tried to visit for all the major holidays and a few other times in between.

And for Leigh and Colton’s wedding, in late July of the year before—a big southern affair under the oaks, on an enormous platform in the middle of the cotton fields, her mother and sister at the front in blush silk bridesmaids’ dresses with gardenia bouquets—Meredith had stayed for three glorious weeks.

Her sister had also come right away when Leigh had broken the news that she and Colton were expecting their first child.

With the big football game playing on the widescreen that Colton had installed under their new porch beside the outdoor stone fireplace, they all gathered around the table to have the fish they’d caught off the side of their boat yesterday, with vegetables and fresh pie they’d bought from their friends at the local market. Elvis had settled at Meredith’s feet.

Leigh stepped out from under the porch onto the deck to soak in the sunshine. When she looked up, through the window she could see the butterflies that Meredith had painted—Nan’s talent that had been passed to another generation—and Leigh knew that her grandmother could see it all from up above: her whole family.Whole.