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  "I don't know that I would have put it quite that way, but yes, Aunt Charlie. We're hoping folks will want to own a Mary Lane artistic anything especially since it is widely believed she's written her last book." She eyed her cousin questioningly. "And if we are the exclusive source of said items that would mean there's obviously only one place they can come to get it." She sent her aunt another questioning look. She knew darn well the woman understood marketing better than most. Before she'd stopped painting a decade ago her artwork was snatched up as quickly as it hit the market. Just about everything she knew she'd learned from her. She looked over to Mary who was still mulling over everything and realized then exactly what her aunt's purpose had been. Cagey lady, she thought. And not for the first time. "So, Mary, what do you think?"

  Grateful for the change of subject Mary felt amiable to answering Casey's question. "I imagine exclusive will add a few dollars to it." She wasn't that dense. "And as far as writing another book, I have something in mind that I'd like to do before I write any more fiction." She saw the look pass between Grace and Casey and after her aunt's little lecture understood the source of it better.

  "So," Casey felt like rubbing her hands together. Anything her cousin wrote was like gold and greeted with open arms by her huge following. "What's the other thing you have in mind?"

  "That Casey could carry exclusively..." Carrie added with a knowing look at her cousin. She was beginning to get into the rhythm of it though, and had a few ideas of her own.

  Uncharacteristically, Mary felt a twinge of uncertainty. It was just a germ of an idea but one that had become important to her. She glanced at her aunt, still feeling the impact...and the sting...of her words. "It's something I've been playing around with even before we found all of Nanno and Great-Grandma's stuff." She looked around the table, noting that even Mallie, from her place in the doorway where she was still thumbing through an old book looked intrigued. "It's not that big of a deal..."

  "Then spit it out, honey." Aunt Charlie prodded with her usual pragmatic no-nonsense manner.

  "I want to put together a compilation of all the recipes from Great-Grandma, Nanno, and..." she took a breath uncertain how her aunt would feel about the rest of it. "I also want to include some of Mom's favorite recipes as well as Aunt Leslie's, and yours." She nodded at her aunt. Before anyone could speak, she went on quickly more nervous than she wanted them to know. "I don't know that it would be anything anyone outside of the family would be interested in but I'd really like to put it together."

  "I don't know about that." Casey's fertile mind was already revving ahead. "I think if presented right it would be a great idea and very marketable."

  "Presented as in how?"

  "Some great photos of finished dishes with yours truly featured in some of them." Casey really felt like rubbing her hands together now. "We could maybe even do a limited number of short video segments on making some of the dishes."

  "There is no way I'm going to do that." Mary was adamant on that one. She could count on one hand the number of interviews she given in the past twenty years and that wasn't going to change any time soon other than her single exception with Casey.

  "I wasn't thinking of you, Mary." Casey said as she stared steadily at her aunt. "I was actually thinking that Aunt Charlie would be perfect for it. It would be featuring not only her recipes but those of her sisters, her mother, and her grandmother. I can't think of a better person to demonstrate how to make her family's favorites." Left unsaid was she was also the only one left of all those she would be representing. Casey hadn't said it but could see her aunt was thinking it.

  "Mom isn't going to want to be cooking on TV," Carrie interjected, not wanting this to get out of hand.

  "Who says?" Charlie added her own voice to the discussion. "I think it could be fun."

  "This isn't about fun, Mom."

  "Honey, at my age if it isn't about fun it isn't worth it," Charlie informed her dryly.

  Mary studied her aunt, saw the interest contrary to her own distaste for such things. "I think Aunt Charlie would be perfect for it." She thought it through, understood Carrie's concern but thought of her aunt first. "I'm game if you are," she told her aunt.

  "You'll go along with doing some pictures for the book if Aunt Charlie does the videos." Casey clarified.

  Mary nodded with a smile at her aunt. If anyone understood her reasons for this it would be Charlie.

  "I could be Grandma's assistant," Mallie spoke up for the first time.

  "I thought you were going to be my assistant." Casey eyed her. "Turncoat."

  "I could do both." The thought of being in front of the camera appealed to Mallie every bit as much as working behind it.

  "I thought you were going home and registering for classes at the university." Carrie put in, measuring her niece then turning to look at her cousin even as she continued to address Mallie. "I think your Mom and Dad are under the same assumption."

  "Um. Well." Mallie looked to Casey for assistance.

  "There's a pretty good college right here." Casey gave in and entered the fray.

  Not certain what to say as the silence around the table continued and desperate for their support in what she knew was to be a major confrontation with her parents, Mallie grappled for whatever she could for them to see her side. "Mary understands. She came here for the same reason I want to stay."

  Mary looked at her, surprised. Then asked, "Why do you say that?"

  Embarrassed now and afraid she might have gone down the wrong path, Mallie looked for a way to retreat.

  Understanding, Mary pushed the plate of cookies in her direction. "I'm just curious, Mallie, And it could very well be that you're absolutely right," she said, wondering if this teenager was able to put into words what she couldn't.

  "Go on, sweetie." Charlie leaned forward and patted her granddaughter's hand. "We're family and you can say anything to family."

  Feeling a bit more fortified, Mallie tried to explain all the thoughts that had been rolling around in her head since the night before. Since her Grandma dragged her over a thousand miles on an adventure that had turned out better and more exciting than anything she expected. She didn't want to lose the sense of purpose she seemed to have found with the last people on earth she expected to. "You came here for the same reason I want to stay," she looked at Mary, not realizing how imploring her eyes were. How they drew on the emotions of every woman in the room including her Aunt Carrie. "I heard you talking with Aunt Carrie and I know how it is."

  "Tell me," Mary encouraged softly.

  "Like life is passing you by, like there's all these things that are happening, things that you're doing and you're good at. They're important but not important enough." Mallie struggled for the right words. "Maybe important isn't right, it's more like....meaningful." She looked around the table. "A person can do important things and still feel like it's not meaningful enough, not then, at least not to them." She took a cookie, looked at it like she wished it would communicate her feelings for her. "I don't have a problem going to college but it's not nearly as important to me as is it to my folks." She took a bite of the cookie, chewed while she thought, while everyone else around the table quietly waited. "What you guys are doing here means something. Not just what you're doing but that you're doing it together. That is just so cool and I want to be part of it." She didn't mean to raise her voice, didn't realize she had. So she leaned back in the chair with her cookie, knowing everything depended on the support she could get from these women, especially her aunt. "I can still go to college and like Casey said there's a good one here. Besides I still have no clue what I'm going to study and maybe this will help me to figure that out." She looked to her Aunt Carrie, trying to see what she was thinking. Her aunt, she knew, had major sway with her Dad. And he had sway with her Mom. It worried her that her aunt wasn't smiling but neither did she have that stern look on her face like she did at first. Mallie sighed, a sad sound that made her seem far older than her yea
rs and that alone had the attention of everyone else in the room. Then all they heard were her final words. "You don't have to be old...older to feel like life is passing by and you've missed the bus somehow."

  There was a quiet in the room, a comfortable silence but it seemed to go on forever to Mallie.

  "Well," Mary said to the room at large. "I don't know how much it will help you Mallie, but I'll give your parents a call."

  "Swell." The breath Mallie didn't realize she was holding expelled in a long wheeze.

  "I'll talk to them too," Carrie said with a small smile. "And I'm sure your grandma will add her two cents, won't you Mom."

  "It would probably be better for her if I didn't," Charlie grumbled. "Your brother thinks he knows better than me."

  "He thinks he knows better than anybody." Mallie said. "Um," she looked around a bit sheepishly, "I didn't say that."

  "I think we can handle that," Carrie allowed dryly. It would be hard not to, she thought to herself wryly. Not when her niece was absolutely correct.

  "What are you going to do, Aunt Carrie?"

  Carrie leaned back, uncomfortable as she became the center of attention. "What makes you think I'm going to do anything?" she asked her niece curiously.

  "You have to, Aunt Carrie. It won't be right if you don't. You're one of the three!"

  "She's what?" Casey turned to Mallie.

  "One of the three. Just like Grandma is one of the three." She looked around the table and saw varying degrees of confusion. Patiently, as though talking to little kids she continued. "Grandma is one of three sisters. All of you are the only daughters of three sisters. Three. Three. Three." She repeated for emphasis. "Oh!" She opened the book to where her finger had held its place. "And look what I found." She laid the book on the table in front of her grandmother. "Your Grandmother Tekla was one of three sisters too. She talks about it in here." She flipped back a few pages and pointed. "And here she talks about how she met your grandfather. It was when they were on the boat together and there was a storm. Everyone had to help pan the water out and they were in the same spot. And that's when they first met." She leaned down to point out the passage to her grandmother who was squinting trying to read the spidery writing. "Isn't that so cool!"

  "I can't think of a more solidifying way to start off a relationship than trying to stay alive." Casey commented dryly, but was quietly dying to see the passage in the book for herself. "Where did you find that? Everyone single one I looked at was in Swedish."

  "It was buried under some of the other books." Mallie scooted in on the chair next to her grandmother. "But she was one of three sisters too. It's meant!"

  "One of the three." Casey said it out loud and again to herself. "She's right Carrie. You can't not be part of this." She looked shrewdly at her classy cousin and for the first time in a long time didn't feel like the odd one out of the two. It wasn't that she couldn't stand toe-to-toe with her when it came to style, they just each went about it differently. "You love to shop," she held up her hand. "And no, I'm not being snide, not this time. But let's face it, you're good at it. I don't know anyone who can sniff out a deal quite like you can. How about you join Mary and me in my little online venture. Mary's name will bring people in but beyond that we need to have the unique...things they won't easily find elsewhere to get them to spend money and keep them coming back to spend more. I've been around some of the shops here in Burlington. I even drove up to Ottumwa the other day searching out all the little hole-in-the wall shops there that carry just about everything you can think of if you dig around enough. There's little antique and what-not shops all over the place in both cities and everywhere in between. You could be the buying end. Heck, you can have the whole merchandising end for the matter."

  "But I can still help you out on the video stuff, right?" Mallie edged forward, determined not to be left out.

  "You bet, kiddo." Casey looked over at Carrie. "So, what do you think?"

  Carrie looked at Casey wondering if she had any sense of what she was giving her. She was offering her everything she had been ready and willing to ask for. She drew a shaky breath. "And Mary's part in it?"

  Casey glanced at her cousin who'd been quiet up till now. "She gets to be our moral compass and keep us on track and....we get to sell her stuff and use her name." She held her hand up delaying further questions and looked at Grace who had yet to say much. "And Grace is going to be our PR person for both the online and video ventures. It's her strength and we'd be foolish not to take advantage of that and her." She shrugged carelessly. "Right now I can see she's just chomping at the bit to tell us all we're doing wrong and what we're not doing right."

  Laughter rang through the room.

  "I'm not that bad," Grace protested.

  "Maybe not...but I can tell you've been dying to say something," Casey pressed.

  Grace looked around, saw nothing but open acceptance. With a deep breath she launched into her thoughts on everything that had been discussed so far. "I think featuring Charlie in your cooking videos is a wonderful idea. She would appeal to all generations...she's the epitome of everyone's favorite grandmother and aunt, so she won't just appeal to her own generation but to ours and Mallie's as well. It's amazing who's watching food shows these days."

  "We all eat," Mallie said simply.

  "Exactly." Grace agreed with a smile for the teenager and continued on. "Carrie's got that classic style we all wish for. I think not only should she be the primary buyer for vintage clothes, jewelry, home décor, and anything else she comes across at a price we can resell to give us a reasonable profit but also be the spokesperson for it." She tapped her fingers against the table to a beat only she heard. "And later down the road, short videos of how to have style without paying for it, something along those lines."

  "Another great idea!" Casey turned to her cousin for her thoughts on it.

  "Maybe," Carrie allowed. "But I think for the time being, whatever I contribute should be as an employee."

  Casey studied her, shrewdly noticed that neither Mary or her aunt were surprised by the request. That meant only one thing in her mind. "Okay," she agreed slowly. "We can have a partnership agreement drawn up for the rest of us for now and amend it to include you whenever you want."

  Carrie nodded, grateful her cousin understood without requiring a major discussion over it.

  Oblivious to all the subtle undercurrents Mallie asked what mattered most to her. "Where are we all going to live?"

  Grace laughed, she could understand her concern and was grateful she didn't have to worry about it. "You know Mallie, I don't have a place for you to live but if things work out with your folks, I do need a part time assistant at the store. It wouldn't be many hours each week but with everything else you've got going I think we could work something out if you're interested."

  "Wow!" Mallie couldn't believe her life was coming together like this. She turned to her grandmother and hugged her hard.

  "What did I do to deserve that?" Charlie asked, nevertheless pleased with the unusual outburst of affection.

  "You bribed me into bringing you here."

  "Ummm." Charlie looked at her fingernails, not particularly wanting to go any further with that direction of the conversation with her daughter in the room.

  "The carriage house will be ready for Aunt Charlie in a couple of weeks." Mary said quickly, glancing at her cousin in time to see the quizzical look Carrie sent in her mother's direction at Mallie's statement. "The back bedroom here is small but anyone is welcome to it." She looked around the table where only weeks ago she had sat alone believing that solitude was what she wanted. What she needed. "There are four good size bedrooms upstairs at the Marshall Street house." She shrugged. "They need some decorating but Court says that structurally they're fine." She looked around the table, saw both pensive and rapt expressions, and wondered where everyone was going to land. "There'll be something of a mess there when the stairway is opened up in the upstairs hallway but that shouldn't
take more than a day or two to get done then cleaned up." She looked around, waited.

  "Well, honey," Charlie patted her granddaughter's hand. "Do you want to hang out with me in the Carriage House?"

  "Sure Grandma!" Mallie thought about the cool dollhouse like rooms above the garage. "That would be great!" .

  Mallie turned to Mary. "Are you still going to use the bottom of the building as a garage?"

  "Actually," Mary began, looking at her aunt. "I was thinking of converting it, maybe expanding the living quarters some."

  "Honey, why are you looking at me like that. It's your house." Charlie shook her head, she understood the worry but wasn't always sure how to handle it.

  "I think of it more as yours, Aunt Charlie." Mary took her aunt's hand. "Yours, my mom's and Aunt Leslie's."

  "It was more our parents than it was ever ours, honey. We lived there, grew up there." She squeezed the hand that held hers. "Things change and I'm old enough to know that you can let it drag you down or you can make an adventure out of it." She winked at her granddaughter. "Mallie here can attest to which direction I tend to follow."

  "She's not the only one."

  "Carrie, sweetie, admit it. Without me your life would be dull as dust."

  "Thank you, Mother." Carrie ducked her head so no one would see the small smile she couldn't stop. "Just go ahead and tell everyone the story of my life."

  Casey knocked shoulders with her starchy cousin. "Don't worry, that will all change now that you've signed on with us."

  Carrie simply shook her head wondering what she'd gotten herself into.

  "This is great." Mallie felt better now about the phone call she'd yet to make to her parents. "I'm going to call Mom and Dad." She fled from the room with all the carefree energy and enthusiasm that could only be found in the very young.