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“Have you found out more information?”
“No, not really.”
Twyla wasn’t sure how long the men would be gone and didn’t have time to mess around. Crossing her arms, she gave her sister a glare that said she needed more of an answer.
“I haven’t had time,” Norma Rose pointed out. “Ty said Forrest didn’t want you driving home alone. That Nick Ludwig had been here and he was afraid the thug might follow you.”
“He was here, all right.”
“We should leave,” Norma Rose said. “Get your stockings.”
“No,” Twyla said, frustrated. “I know you claim to hate Forrest, but do you? Or are you still in love with him?”
Norma Rose pinched her lips together before she hissed, “Of course I’m not in love with him. I love Ty.”
When Twyla shook her head, Norma Rose sighed.
“I am in love with Ty,” she insisted.
Twyla did believe her, but still pointed out, “Not so long ago you loved Forrest. When he returned last fall you told us all to stay away from him. Why? Did you still love him then?”
Norma Rose remained quiet for a few long moments, and the solemn look that formed on her sister’s face left Twyla wondering if she wanted to hear what Norma Rose was about to say.
“The only person I’ve told is Ty.”
Twyla’s stomach gurgled.
“I may have thought I loved Forrest at one time, but he never loved me.” Uncrossing her legs, Norma Rose leaned forward. “Galen Reynolds didn’t catch us kissing that night. Forrest had told me he was going to Harvard and that he’d probably never be back. He said I should forget all about him and find someone else to marry.”
Twyla couldn’t come up with a response. All she’d truly heard was the fact that Forrest had planned on leaving and never coming back.
Her sister stood and crossed the room to stare out the window for a minute before turning around. “Galen said we were necking and I let everyone believe it, even Father, thinking maybe he might make Forrest return.”
“Why?”
“You remember what it was like back then,” Norma Rose said. “We were so poor we didn’t even have mice in our house because there wasn’t anything for them to eat. Father worked at the brewery, but the money didn’t go far when there were so many to feed and clothe. Besides all of us, Grandma and Grandpa lived there, and Uncle Dave until he went to the war. Mother depended upon the baskets of food Karen Reynolds used to bring over when she’d drop Forrest off. You remember them, don’t you? They held things we never got otherwise. Bananas and oranges, candies and cookies and other store-bought treats.”
The baskets must not have meant as much to her as they had to Norma Rose because Twyla really couldn’t remember them. Everyone had been poor back then, except for Forrest. It hadn’t been until Forrest had left that she realized how poor they were. Perhaps because that was when the days started to drag on. One was just like the last, with nothing to look forward to. Or perhaps she’d realized because Galen, and Norma Rose, had shouted how poor they were from the rooftops and pointed it out daily.
Norma Rose sighed heavily. “I remember them as if it was yesterday, and I remember thinking that would be me someday, bringing baskets of food home so none of you would be hungry.” She glanced around the room. “I remember dreaming about living here, too, and wearing fashionable clothes and never, ever, worrying about money.” She shrugged. “When Forrest told me he was leaving and never coming back, he stole that dream. I had nowhere else to look for it. No hope.”
Twyla could relate to Forrest’s departure stealing dreams. He’d certainly left her without any. Or at least changed the ones she’d once had.
“I was furious with Forrest,” Norma Rose said, “but eventually, I transferred that energy into thinking of ways I could make money instead of marry it. Father had started his business and I suggested we could offer the men he was dealing with places to stay at the cabins. It worked.”
It had worked. That was also when Norma Rose had become a slave driver. Twyla had been the one who’d had to clean the cabins, make the beds and wash the sheets every day before and after school. That was when she’d formed new dreams. Dreams of money, enough to hire people to make beds and wash sheets. Even when their father’s business had started to make money, her dreams had continued. The money he made all went back into the resort. The parties had started at the pavilion, too, but Norma Rose had been the only sister allowed to attend.
“You see now?” Norma Rose asked. “I never was in love with Forrest. Just his money.” She sat back down on the sofa. “And now I—we—have our own money, which is a lot more than Forrest has. He’s broke.”
