Free Down by the River by Lin Stepp

to Gatlinburg and toured around Townsend. What else did you do?”
    It was exactly the opening Grace had been waiting for. She took a deep breath, smiled, and answered. “Well, I bought a bed-and-breakfast while I was in Townsend—a wonderful, old, historic inn on the Little River.”
    The room grew suddenly quiet.
    Grace smiled at her children. “The place has been beautifully kept and profitably run by the previous owners. It’s called the Oakley Bed-and-Breakfast now, after the past owners, but I think I’m going to rename it the Mimosa Inn.”
    You could have heard a pin drop for a few moments in the room before Mike replied in a quiet voice. “Did you say you bought a bed-and-breakfast, Mom?”
    â€œYes.” She looked at the stunned faces of her family.
    Margaret regained her wits the quickest. “Are you crazy, Mother? Whatever possessed you to do such an impulsive, outrageous thing? Plus you never even breathed a word about this to me the whole weekend—not even when we were packing up the cars at the dorm. When did you even find time to see a bed-and-breakfast and make a decision about one, anyway? And why would you do something stupid like this? Honestly, Mother; this just isn’t like you at all.”
    A murmur of shocked and outraged voices filled the air now.
    â€œMaybe the sale’s not final,” Frank put in, always the practical administrator. “I’ll contact my attorney the first thing tomorrow and ask him to start some proceedings so Grace can back out of this. I’m sure Mother Grace can still do that. She might lose her deposit, but I don’t think they can hold her to the sales contract.”
    â€œYeah, we probably can still stop this.” Mike leaned toward Frank in agreement. “I’ll call our Conley attorney, too, as soon as I get to the office. I’m sure he can find a way to get Mom off the hook. Some sort of loophole. Maybe he can bring in the widow-still-in-grief aspect or something. That should help.”
    Ken looked at Grace in bewilderment. “Mom, whatever were you thinking to do something like this? And without asking any of us? What do you know about running a bed-and-breakfast, for goodness sakes? You’re not a businesswoman. You’re a mom. You cook and do crafts and go to civic meetings and stuff. You’ve never even worked or anything. And what education have you gotten to even prepare you for this?”
    Grace sat up straighter. “Running a bed-and-breakfast is not much different than running a big household like I’ve done all these years, Ken. And if you’ll remember, I do have a college degree.”
    â€œPah! A degree in home economics that is practically useless today.” Margaret rolled her eyes in disgust. “There isn’t even a degree in home economics anymore, Mother. Like Grandmother Jane said, you found a way to get a degree in something becoming obsolete. The whole college even has some different name for that field of study now.”
    â€œI’ll have you know the skills and learning from that degree are still valid.” Grace felt her face flame. Everyone had always teased her about her degree. “In fact, I learned just the sort of skills that will be useful in running a bed-and-breakfast in the field of home economics, Margaret Jane.”
    â€œLook,” put in Ken, trying to restore balance like a typical middle child. “We didn’t mean to put down your degree, Mom. That’s not the point. But classes in things like cooking, nutrition, sewing, and table arrangement don’t begin to prepare you for all the aspects of budgeting, accounting, business planning, and marketing that are a part of running an actual bed-and-breakfast.”
    Grace reined in her annoyance. How little regard these children had for her abilities! “Kenneth, if you will think back for a minute, perhaps you’ll remember that I have handled the