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Chapter One

White Bear Lake, Minnesota, 1925

Twyla Nightingale swore she’d been reborn Released Free Like a bird that had just learned to fly, or a dog that had finally chewed through the rope tying it to the porch Excite on her lips was there when she woke up and still there when she went to bed It was real, too As genuine as a new bill At ti

And she loved it

L-O-V-E-D It

Rightfully so

Just a feeeks ago she’d have been watching out the bedrooh the spindles of the staircase that led from the ballroom to the second floor of the resort But now she was front and center, wearing that cheek-aching grin while greeting guests, as men in neatly pressed three-piece suits and dapper hats escorted their ladies through the double front doors of the resort The latest fashions these wo thee-covered flapper dresses and two-piece skirt outfits in the reen

Green

Now that was a color Twyla’s favorite The color of money Lettuce, kale, clams, jack—whatever you wanted to call it, it was all ed her life She gave her father the credit for that A few years ago he’d been a breorker, bringing hoh money to keep his family clothed and put food on the table Now she and her sisters were dressed in the height of fashion and Nightingale’s resort served finer food than some of the most famous hotels in the world

Life was so good she wanted to skip instead of walk Just standing here her feet itched with exciteined, but still couldn’t believe hoonderful things had beco on the sidelines

Intransforet down and kiss her sister’s toes That’s how appreciative she was, and she would do anything and everything to keep things going just as they were this veryplace at the resort tonight, and she was the hostess Well, one of them Norma Rose and another sister, Josie, were here, too, but in s better

Shtly painted nails, Twyla greeted another couple and directed them toward the elaborately carved wooden front desk, where Josie would write them a meal receipt They would then be directed to the ballroo rooe’s fiftieth birthday would soon begin

Up until teeks ago, Josie, younger than Twyla by two years, and Ginger, younger by five years, had also been living on the sidelines Norma Rose, the oldest at twenty-five, had been the only one per parties Mainly because until recently she’d run Nightingale’s all by herself, ever since it had been transfor to those ads of cash to spend Their father, Roger Nightingale, claimed he ran it, but everyone knew that Nor business Her father’s profession didn’t bother Twyla in the least Without bootlegging, she’d still be wearing Norma Rose’s hand-me-dohich had been someone else’s hand-me-downs before Norma Rose had acquired them

Folks could hate Prohibition all they wanted; Twyla loved it

She loved the glitzy and glamorous parties, the racy freedoround world that flourished e so fast Especially not Twyla It had all happened when Ginger had run aith Brock Ness, and Ty Bradshaw had shown up searching for soht Ty was a lawyer, Twyla no differently, but her lips were sealed and would reht the hoodlum he was after out in Wisconsin, or so Twyla had heard, but that wasn’t what had changed things Norma Rose had Shortly after Ty arrived, Norma Rose turned a proverbial corner Love, that’s what had done it Ever since falling for Ty, Nor the resort by herself

Finally, thank heaven above, she’d asked her sisters to help run the place

Twyla had juer was still in Chicago and Twyla didn’t expect her to return home anytime soon, but that opinion she kept mostly to herself—except when she ith Josie, who felt the saer had been in love with Brock for so for love They had other seeds to sow