Cedar Creek Seasons Read Online Free PDF Page B

leg-of-mutton sleeves.
    “Isn’t it gorgeous?” Elsa peered from between two scantily clad mannequins, a corset and a pair of nylon stockings in one hand and a poofy rainbow-colored slip in the other. “Try it on.”
    “The red dress with the twelve-inch waist? Sure. I’ll slip right into that little number.”
    Elsa stuck two open safety pins in her mouth and garbled, “You don’t have to zip it.”
    “I couldn’t get one thigh into that thing.”
    Elsa pinned the corset. “The mirror in your head is warped. You know that, don’t you?” She handed Willow the slip made of layers of tulle. “Put this on.”
    “I’m not the cancan type. Now, if you have a size forty poodle skirt …”
    “Put it on the dummy.”
    “I am the dummy.” Willow lifted the cotton-candy mass over the head and shoulders of the svelte but armless giant Barbie. “I agreed to clean Wilson Woodhaus’s house.” On the last word, her mouth filled with pink netting.
    “You agreed to what?”
    Pressing her lips together to stop the tickle, Willow straightened the elastic waistband on the plastic, hipless mockery of real womanhood. “I’ll explain all that over crepes. How come you didn’t tell me about the shop space contest?”
    “I didn’t think of it. You never said you wanted to open a store.” Elsa handed her a stocking and crouched to put the other one on a stiff celluloid leg.
    “I never did, but I never saw the words
free
and
rent
used in the same sentence before.”
    Elsa nodded toward the glass-sided counter. “Over there.”
    Willow hung the stocking on her shoulder and picked up a bright gold flyer like the one on Wilson’s counter. Next to it sat a stack of applications. She scanned the rules. “I have to write an essay? I can’t write an essay.”
    “You just have to tell people why your stuff is amazing and why the Settlement needs what you have to offer. Crystal and I can help. It’ll be fun.”
    “Where’s the shop space?”
    “Upstairs on that end.” Elsa looked up, red-faced from the exertion of straightening a stocking seam, and pointed. “Go look at it. Jan will be here in five minutes and then I can go for lunch.”
    The stairs greeted Willow with delightful old-building creaks as she ascended to the third floor. Hand-painted signs on the risers of several steps advertised the upstairs shops. Her logo would fit nicely just above E YELASH A RT or right below B ROTHER J OHN’S A RT W ORLD . “Come to Five Cs, Citizens, for the Comfiest Children’s Chairs and Necessities in Cedar Creek Settlement.” Her hand pivoted on the newel post at the top. Her steps echoed as she walked through another doorway, down the hall, and turned right. Maybe she’d have her own tongue-twister contest after she opened shop. A free potty chair to anyone who could say—
“Wilson?”

    Wilson jumped at the sound of his name, dislodging the end of the tape measure he’d wedged into the mopboard. With a slithering whine it recoiled, slicing along the web between his thumb and forefinger. “Flabberdaster!” He flung the metal snail. It clamored across the hardwood floor. His hand whipped to his mouth, and he tasted the rusty tinge of blood.
    The woman to blame stood two feet away with hands upturned and mouth agape. “I’m so sorry. Are you bleeding? Here.” She took a flesh-colored snake off her shoulder and reached for his hand. “Wait.” She dug a tissue out of her pocket without bothering to check it for the obvious and pressed it to his wound.
    “I’ve got it.” He tried to pull his hand free.
    “Just be patient.” She wound what he now realized was an old nylon stocking around … and around … and around his hand. “That should do it.”
    “Thank you.”
I think
.
    “What are you doing in here? Wait … I know what you’re doing here. The same thing I’m doing, only I didn’t know I could actually get into this space to actually do it, but now that …” Her lips blurred as her words picked up