A Wicked Yarn by Emmie Caldwell

Author:Emmie Caldwell [Caldwell, Emmie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2020-12-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Lia followed Belinda to the kitchen, and together they searched through the cupboards for coffee grounds and filter papers. Belinda set up the drip coffee maker on the counter, and Lia was glad to find powdered creamer, not trusting anything in the refrigerator. Within minutes they were sipping from two nonmatching logoed mugs, more conference giveaways, at the small kitchen table.

Lia stared through the window at the flagstone patio. “You handled the self-appointed security guard really well.”

Belinda added a little more sugar to her mug and stirred. “If I’d been smarter I would have found out if she’d seen Eva Mathis coming to the house alone.” She tasted her coffee, then took a longer swallow. “I’ll bet she could have told me.”

“Probably better to keep it short and send her on her way. You had me worried when you invited her in.”

Belinda smirked. “Yeah, I took a chance there. But I think it convinced her we were legit. Not taking me up on it and thereby holding me up from my work made her feel virtuous. A win-win.”

“You know,” Lia said, “if you put that kind of effort into dealing with all the craftspeople, you’d have fewer complaints and a happier atmosphere at the barn.”

Belinda leaned her head on one hand. “I know. But I’m not you. Being diplomatic doesn’t come naturally.”

“You think I don’t struggle to bite my tongue sometimes? Everyone does. Eventually it gets to be a habit. You handle the business side of the craft fair brilliantly, Belinda. You could manage to crack a few smiles and throw out more words of encouragement. You’d be surprised at what you’d get back.”

“You’re right, I know. It’s just . . . Well, never mind. I can work on it, and I will. I should have done so a long time ago. Maybe my marriage wouldn’t have been such a miserable failure if I’d learned to be a little nicer.” She smirked. “Better yet, maybe I would have found someone a thousand times better than the guy I settled on.”

“That would have been the preferable result,” Lia agreed.

They grinned at each other, then fell silent, each sipping their coffee and mulling their own thoughts over what might have been, along with what might have been avoided, if only.

Saturday morning, the Crandalsburg craft fair doors opened, with a sparse crowd showing up for the second week in a row. Instead of the surge of shoppers Lia had grown used to during her weeks at the knitting booth, those who straggled into the barn in ones and twos looked like tourists who’d run out of things to do and were filling an empty block of time with a little browsing.

At least Lia had her work on the alpaca sweater to keep herself occupied. Others, like Olivia with her soaps and Zach with his honey, could only wait and hope for customers. Maggie, she saw, was busily stitching a quilt. Lia intended to talk to her about the Graham mansion. With luck, she could tell Lia something useful about Martin Brewer’s reaction to its planned demolition.

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