Redemption by B.J. Daniels

Author:B.J. Daniels [Daniels, B.J.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: HQN
Published: 2012-01-29T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

TRUE TO CILLA’S WORD, the entire quilt club showed up Tuesday evening, armed with gallons of paint, rags, drop cloths, brushes and rollers.

After Jack had left, a shaken Kate had showered and changed to hurry downstairs. She shoved tables and chairs into the center of the room and helped put drop cloths over the booths, as the women, dressed in dungarees, as they called them, went to work.

She worked with them, trying to distract herself from what had happened earlier upstairs. She couldn’t help worrying that she’d made a pact with the devil. She didn’t even want to think about the kiss or how it had affected her.

The quilters were a hardworking bunch, varying in age from early thirties to the oldest, Loralee Clark, who Kate would have guessed was over eighty.

Cilla introduced them quickly. “Don’t worry, you’ll never remember all the names until you get to know the women.”

Kate had wondered why the elderly Loralee had bothered to come. She looked too old for this kind of labor. A petite woman with long, gray hair braided loosely down her back and piercing blue eyes, Loralee quickly went to work supervising the group. Once she had them all working, she asked Kate if she would make a pot of coffee, then reached into a large bag she’d brought with her and took out a half dozen plastic containers of food.

Kate saw that there were six desserts within the containers.

“For after the painting is done,” Loralee announced.

Kate did whatever she could to help, but the women had clearly worked together before and made a quick job of painting the interior of the café.

“Do you like the color?” Cilla asked.

“I love it,” Kate said without hesitation. She hated to think how long this job would have taken her alone. And the color was fine, a nice neutral, as Cilla had said.

When the work was done, the women cleaned up and all gathered at the large table that Kate had pushed by the front window.

Loralee brought out the desserts, while Kate provided the plates and silverware. She was about to pour the coffee when Cilla took the pot from her and insisted she sit down, even though Kate certainly hadn’t worked that hard.

The moment Kate took a chair, she felt the older woman’s keen blue eyes on her.

“Where do I know you from?” Loralee asked.

Kate shook her head, positive she and the elderly woman had never crossed paths before she’d come to Beartooth. “I just have one of those faces.”

Loralee swatted that away with a wave of her hand. “I never forget a face. I just can’t remember where I’ve seen you before and it’s been bothering me all night. But it will come to me. It always does.”

“Mother,” her daughter Marian reprimanded. “Kate’s not from around here, and you’ve only been outside the county a few times, years before Kate was even born, so I’m sure—”

“Pishposh,” Loralee snapped.

The group fell silent as Marian gave Kate an apologetic smile.

Cilla changed the conversation

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