Healing Beau (The Brothers of Beauford Bend Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

matrimony? It wasn’t so much that she wanted to get married. She could get married; anybody who was willing to settle could get married. But it would be nice to have one unattached friend, to not be the only one at the dinner table without a hand to hold.
    That was selfish and unreasonable, but she wasn’t in the mood for reasonable.
    No matter. Time to knit. She picked up her bag of ever-growing tools and materials for something she was no good at and entered the shop.
    “Christian!” Hope handed her a bag of supplies and held out her hand for the class fee. Somehow, Hope had gotten involved in the classes and ran them like a little dictator—a nice dictator, but a dictator all the same. She probably had a tattoo hidden on her body that said
All Must Knit
.
All must pay for the privilege. All must like it or pretend to.
“Since the angora snowmen turned out so charming, we decided to do snowwomen for our bonus classes.”
    Was there no getting away from the coupling of America? Even in snow and the fiber arts?
    “Maybe we could extend the classes over into the new year?” Christian said. “We could knit 2.5 snow babies, snow cats, snow dogs, snow hamsters, snow ferrets, and snow goldfish. Then we could start in on extended family. By next Christmas, we could have nothing but snow families on our trees.”
    Hope laughed joyfully and ran Christian’s credit card. “You’re funny, Christian. The soup today is Italian wedding soup.” Well, why not? What was for dessert? Wedding cake? Twin Pops? Double Stuf Oreos?
    Hope pointed to the table where Robin from The Café Down On The Corner was giving out mugs of soup, cornbread, and iced tea.
    Christian stashed her new supplies into her bag, collected her food, and went to the table where her friends sat.
    At the sight of them, all the meanness Christian had been feeling melted away. They all leapt up to exchange hugs as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. This was love you could count on—maybe the only kind, at least for her. They were so happy, and that happiness had been hard won.
    “Guess what!” Abby said excitedly. “Rafe’s cousin found the Ada and Anna twin dolls in Birmingham, and I’m meeting her at the state line this afternoon!”
    “Missy always gets her doll,” Neyland said. She was the baby bride of the group, though not by much. She had just eloped with Gabe Beauford, Rafe’s twin.
    “And everything else. No one in the universe ever tells Missy Bragg no.” Gwen turned to Christian. “Christian, since you’re closed, can we borrow Firefly Hall’s twenty-five cup silver coffee urn for Christmas? Ours stopped working this morning, and the others are too big for just family.”
    “Of course. I’ll get it over to you today.”
    “Noel,” Abby said, “when are you and Nickolai leaving for Christmas with your family?”
    “We’re leaving for Louisville Christmas Eve morning,” Noel said. “Neyland is keeping the shop open. I owe you, Neyland.”
    Neyland laughed. “I plan to collect. When football season is over, Gabe and I are going on a honeymoon. I’m hoping you sell some jewelry then.”
    “I’ll do my best. I just appreciate that you’re willing to continue to share the shop until hockey season is over. And I’ll be back in time to open the day after Christmas.”
    Neyland had moved into Piece by Piece when she couldn’t afford to keep open her own shop, Sparkle. But her business had turned around now.
    “You were there when I needed you,” Neyland said. “I won’t forget it.”
    Maybe no one was going to bring up Beau. Was that too much to hope for?
    “All right!” At the front of the room Hope clapped her hands. “You’ll need your size three double point needles. Those are the same ones we used for Mr. Snowman. You have the directions. Go ahead and cast on nine stitches with the white angora. If you need help, Miss Sticky and Miss Julia will be coming around.”
    Click, click, click. These people were serious