“Who’s cryin’?” Lizzie asked, coming out of her bedroom. Even with three-inch wedge heels, the seventeen-year-old wasn’t as tall as her older sister. Her blonde hair was pinned up in a messy twist, and she wore a bright-yellow dress that skimmed her knees. “Don’t any of y’all dare start that crap in front of Nanny Kate. She shouldn’t cry on her birthday. And if she cries, so will Nanny Betsy.”

“Or on the day that our sister launches her first legal batch of moonshine.” Annie joined them. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she and Lizzy had such different fashion styles, few people could have told them apart. Ginger smiled at Annie, who reminded her of all three of the sisters that day. Her daughter had chosen a long white dress for the party like the one Connie had worn on the festival days. The hot-pink cowboy boots that peeked out from under the lace at the hem definitely had come from Kate. And Ginger would bet that her daughter’s hot-pink fingernail polish was the same color as Betsy’s.

“That’s right,” Ginger said. “Now go get in the vehicle. We’re all going together.”

“Ahhh, Mama.” Lizzie pouted. “I wanted to take my own car.”

“Not today,” Ginger said. “Today we’re going as a family.”

Change was a good thing.

Kate remembered thinking that was a bullshit statement twenty years ago, when she and her sisters drove down to Hondo to their new hairdresser’s place.

“I was wrong to argue with those words,” Kate told herself as she got dressed that morning in a pink pantsuit that Martha Belle had picked out for her. According to her granddaughter, they needed to wear the same color for the television crew. Today, she and Martha Belle were cutting the ribbon on the brand-new building back behind the cornfield that was their artisanal moonshine business. It was a dream come true for both of them, and Kate was glad she’d lived long enough to see the time come. Martha Belle was being hailed as the youngest entrepreneur ever to start such a business. Of course on paper it belonged to Kate, but as soon as Martha Belle turned twenty-one, it would all shift over to her.

While she waited for Ginger and the whole family to arrive, she picked up the picture book that her mama had started a hundred years ago and flipped through it. She and Betsy had lost Connie ten years ago to a heart attack. Kate was thankful that it had been quick and that Connie had died with a dustrag in her hand.

“Poor little Martha Belle, Lizzy, and Annie,” she whispered. “They took it so hard. Betsy and I couldn’t have gotten over it if it hadn’t been for those girls being here with us so much.”

She touched the next picture and smiled at the expression on Connie’s face. “The house ain’t as clean as when you took care of it, sister, but you trained Lizzy and Annie well. They’ve each bought a car with the money they saved from helping me and Betsy out in this old house. You’d be proud of them. I’m glad you went fast and doin’ what you loved to do. I hope I have a heart attack just like you did when it’s my time to go. Or that I drown in a vat of moonshine,” she giggled.

“Nanny Kate! Nanny Betsy! Are y’all ready?” Martha Belle yelled as she entered the house through the kitchen. “I saw the television van drive past just when Daddy parked out front. Get your cane, and let’s go tell them all about our new moonshine business.”

“I was reminiscing about Connie.” Kate picked up her cane and followed Martha Belle outside.

“I was doing the same thing.” Betsy came from the living room with a cane in her hand. “I hope she’s lookin’ down from heaven and smiling today.”

“I miss her so much,” Martha Belle said.

“I tell you one thing,” Betsy said as she headed outside. “Heaven ain’t never been cleaner. I bet she’s got some kind of fancy stuff that even shines the angel’s wings. When I get there, I just hope they let me grow weed.”

“They ain’t goin’ to give you no lip about it if you do.” Martha Belle helped Kate into the SUV.

“Why’s that?” Kate asked.

“Because,” Annie said from the back seat, “Nanny Connie already got them under her thumb with the cleanin’ business, so if her sister wants to grow weed, ain’t nobody goin’ to say a word.”

Kate laid a veined hand on Martha Belle’s arm as she got into the back seat of the SUV. “I love all of you, and I’m so glad that your mama came into our lives when she did.”

“Hey,” Ginger said from the front seat, “that goes double for me. The Banty House was my salvation.”

Sloan looked over at her and smiled. “And it’s where I met the love of my life.”