"It is gorgeous, isn't it? You don't think they'll catch pneumonia riding with the top down, do you?" I asked.

"If they did, they'd both die happy," Crystal said with a laugh.

Later that night when everyone had gone home, I sat in the living room in the dark, the quilt rack Billy Lee had given me for Christmas close enough that I could touch it. Tomorrow I'd find the perfect place for it in the sparsely furnished living room.

Billy Lee had asked Crystal what her passion was. I asked myself the same question as I sat there watching the ornaments sparkle on the tree. My first Christmas in my new house had been beyond wonderful. My daughter was home. Momma had been lucid for a little while. Billy Lee? Well, words couldn't describe Billy Lee.

But what was my passion? I'd jumped into remodeling with zeal, but the job was almost finished. We had some minor details in the new downstairs bathroom and the kitchen to finish up, but that didn't involve stripping wood or the floor man's putting us out of the house for three days. When that was finished, what then?

What was my passion?

Had I ever had one, even as a child? I had wanted to fly airplanes, but that dream had disappeared when I put my Barbie plane away with the dolls. I'd wanted to go to college and get a degree back when Drew and I first married, but that didn't appeal to me anymore. I'd enjoyed fixing up the house, but I didn't want to do that again. Billy Lee said I should write the story of the past six months or so, but who would believe such things?

My stomach growled, and I headed toward the kitchen to have a late-night snack. There was so little furniture in the dining room that there was no danger I'd fall over anything. Just the long table surrounded by chairs and a few choice pieces of glassware on the bookshelves. Gone were two rockers and two old overstuffed chairs with tables and lamps beside them, and the walls were bare except for a single quilt hanging from an oak rod.

From the dining room I went into the kitchen and flipped the switch, bathing the room in soft light. I was still trying to figure out whether I wanted a sandwich or just a chunk of turkey when I stepped on a slimy, squishy slug with my bare foot. In horror, I hopped on the other foot to the sink, acrobatically stuck the first foot in, and turned the water on full blast to get the offending debris off me. Naturally, I soaked my pajamas and had to change into a fresh set.

Evidently I raised such a ruckus that a sleepy Crystal came downstairs to see what was going on.

She cocked her head to one side. "I heard some commotion. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine"

"But ... wait. Aren't you wearing different pajamas?"

"Yes, I am"

She covered a yawn with one hand and grinned at me. "So explain, young lady. What did you do to warrant changing pajamas? Did you slip through the hedge to spend some time with Billy Lee? Am I going to have to give you the daughter/ mother talk?"

Scarlet burned my cheeks. "Sit down, kid, and let me tell you all about it. And, honey, what I did wasn't nearly as much fun as sneaking through the hedge to steal kisses from Billy Lee, which, by the way, I've never done"

Okay, so I'd kissed Billy Lee. But I hadn't snuck through the hedge, so I wasn't lying.

She pulled out a kitchen chair. "Then we have to have a serious talk. If you don't get busy, someone, maybe even Betsy, is going to steal him right out from under your nose. Her eyes glittered when she saw the furniture he'd built, and I could see dollar signs in her eyes when he drove that vintage Caddy up into the yard. She had no idea he had that kind of thing going out there in his shop or that he owned a car like that. She's not stupid. I'm surprised he's outrun the women of Tishomingo this long."

"Advice noted and taken" I'd seen the new look in both my cousins' eyes when they realized what Billy Lee was worth and could do.

I went on to tell her about stepping on the slug, getting my pajamas wet when I stood on one leg and put my foot into the sink to wash it off, and having to change. By the time I finished, she was laughing so hard, she couldn't breathe. It wasn't all that funny to me, having just lived through the nightmare, but it was good to see her laughing the way she had when she was a little girl, from deep down in her belly.

She wiped at her eyes with the tail of her nightshirt. Could a baby really be hiding in that flat tummy? What would she look like when she was nine months pregnant and her tiny waistline was gone?

"Momma, you are so funny. You've got to write this stuff down, and don't leave out a word. I want to remember it just like you told it. And write down other things you've done too. In fact, you should write a whole book. Then, when I'm your age, I can look back and read about exactly how crazy and wonderful you were"

She yawned. "Look, it's past midnight. This has been the best Christmas ever in the whole wide world. It will go down in history, won't it, Momma? The Christmas of the Slug. The Christmas when Billy Lee Tucker made me get up at seven in the morning to cook, then gave me a handmade jewelry case. The one when we sat down to dinner with Grandma, and `Billy Bob Thornton' drove her home in his red Cadillac" She looked into my eyes. "I love you, Momma," she said, and she hugged me fiercely.

"You should have seen your grandmother at Thanksgiving. That was when she first became convinced that Billy Lee was Billy Bob Thornton, and she flirted and laughed and told stories that I wished I'd known when I was younger."

"Funny, he doesn't really look like Billy Bob Thornton. He's a sight better looking ... more like ... like .. " Crystal frowned, trying to think of who Billy Lee reminded her of.

"Harrison Ford?" I suggested.

"That's it exactly! Like he looked in The Fugitive." "

"Don't tell your grandmother that. She really thinks he's Billy Bob Thornton"

.,We've been through a lot, but we're in a good place, right, Momma?"

I nodded happily, and Crystal gave me a brilliant smile, then yawned again. "Okay, I'm going back to bed now. You stay out of the kitchen and away from slugs. Good night, Momma."

"Sleep well, pumpkin"

I thought about what Crystal had said about writing down stuff about the past year. If I did, then maybe someday when she was bone tired and her rebellious child had dealt her a week's worth of pure misery, she could read the silly slug story and laugh as hard as she had that evening.

She didn't have morning sickness the next day and was still sleeping soundly when I made my way to the kitchen. Billy Lee had let himself in the back door and was frying bacon when I got there. He picked up a mug featuring Maxine making a wry comment about mornings on it, filled it with coffee, set it in front of me, and returned to the bacon.

"Eggs or pancakes?"

"Both. I'm starving."

"I guess it was a pretty good Christmas if you're hungry enough the next morning for both eggs and pancakes," he said.

I'd started lifting the mug toward my mouth but suddenly spilled the coffee onto my white sweatshirt. I sighed. Coffee stains did not come out of sweatshirts.

"You going to let Crystal sleep this morning?"

I nodded. I didn't tell him that I didn't want to share him and that I treasured the moments we had alone.

"Good. I want to talk to you about something important, and I don't want her to hear."