“You’ve been over it a hundred times.”

“I want to be certain—”

“You haven’t missed anyone. It’s perfect. Stop worrying.”

She dried her hands on her apron. The stained white fabric covered her chest and long skirt. “Do you have something better to do? Did I interrupt your moping time?”

“I’m not moping.” My voice whined. Not a good sign.

“Resting, recuperating, moping, it’s all the same.” She hauled a kettle filled with water over to the glowing coals in the hearth.

“No it isn’t. A lot has happened—”

She pished at me. My own mother!

“Stop wallowing in the past. What’s done is done. Focus on the future. We only have one hundred and fifty-three days until the wedding! Then it’s only a matter of time for grandchildren and maybe you and Kade…?”

Yanking the chair out with a loud scrape, I plopped on it. I snatched the list from the pile and read names aloud as my mother continued to bustle about the kitchen. She had mentioned Kade almost every day since I’d arrived. Sixty-three days of missing him, dodging her questions and being drafted to help with preparations for an event two and a half seasons away. How could one woman be so irritating? For a second I wished for another family. A sensible one without all this…stuff, like the Bloodrose Clan, living in austere isolation.

“Opal, stop making that face.”

I glanced over the list, but her back was to me. Long strands of hair had sprung from the knot she had tied this morning. She rolled dough with quick efficiency.

“How did you know?”

“I’m your mother. I see all. Hear all. Know all.”

I laughed. “If that’s true, then why do you ask me so many questions?” Ha. Got her!

Her hands stilled. She turned to me. “Because you need to hear the answers.”

My father’s arrival saved me from a retort I didn’t have. He filled the room with his large frame. Even though most of his short hair had turned gray, he still looked young. My brother, Ahir, bounded in behind him. A mirror image of our father except Ahir’s thick black hair brushed his shoulders.