by Unknown
“You ready to go?” Jenna asked as Charlotte crossed the yard to greet her.
Charlotte’s head bobbed up and down. “The station wagon and U-haul are both stuffed to the gills. As soon as you’re settled, I’ll be on my way.”
“If you’re in a hurry to get going, don’t let me hold you up,” Jenna said. She slammed the car door behind her and turned to face her aunt, rainbow-striped valise in one hand. “I know my way around, and some of the girls are coming over tomorrow night to keep me company.”
“Oh, good! And you know where everything is, right? Even in the barn?”
Jenna’s lips curved indulgently. “Don’t worry, Aunt Charlotte, your babies are safe with me. I’ll take good care of them, I promise.”
A small weight lifted from Charlotte’s chest. “Of course you will. I’m sorry, it’s just that I don’t leave them very often, and I’m too used to taking care of them all by myself, I guess.”
“Except when I come over to help you out, which is how I know all of their names, their little quirks, and where everything is that they could possibly need.”
Jenna leaned in and Charlotte hugged her back, then let her niece herd her toward her late-model station wagon. It was sort of a buzzard barf brown, according to Jenna, with the prerequisite faux wood side panels. A “woody,” as they used to say . . . though the last time she’d called it that, her niece’s cheeks had turned bubble-gum pink and she’d been quietly informed that “woody” was a term currently reserved for a rather private, highly aroused portion of the male anatomy. Charlotte hadn’t referred to her station wagon in that manner since.
Jenna often told her she should trade the outdated rattletrap in—if a dealer was even willing to take it—and find something a little more modern to get around in. But Charlotte liked her wagon. It had plenty of space and got her where she needed to go, which was all she required of her mode of transportation these days.
Vinyl seat squeaking as she climbed behind the wheel, Charlotte deposited her purse on the passenger side floor before fitting the key into the ignition.
“Oh, I nearly forgot.” She hadn’t, of course, but the more spontaneous her gift seemed, the better.
Taking the skein of purple yarn from her lap, she held it out to Jenna. “I made this for you. Thought it might give you something to do while I’m away and you’re in that big old house all by yourself.”
Jenna took the yarn, running a few of the fringe-like strands between her fingers. “It’s beautiful, thank you. Purple is one of my favorite colors.”
She leaned in to press a kiss to her aunt’s cheek, then straightened and pushed the door closed.
“Drive carefully,” she said through the open window. “And good luck with the show. I hope you sell out of everything.”
“Me, too, dear. Of course, if that happens, I’ll just have to start all over again.”
One corner of her niece’s mouth quirked up in a grin. “Yes, but you love every minute of it.”
“You know I do,” Charlotte returned with a grin of her own. She cranked the engine and waited for the low throb to vibrate along the car’s long metal frame all the way to her posterior. “All right, then, I’m off. You take care, and if you need anything . . . Well, I don’t have a cell phone, so if you need anything, you’re going to have to run to someone else. But I will call as often as I can to check in.”
“I’ll be fine. And so will the alpacas. You just go and have fun.”
With a nod, Charlotte put the car in gear and rolled slowly out of her drive. She eased the wagon and U-haul onto the dirt road, kicking up dust and waving into her rearview mirror at Jenna, who stood where she’d left her, enchanted yarn clasped tightly in one hand.
Charlotte hoped for a lot of things for this trip. Safe traveling, high-volume sales of her hand-spun yarns and knit goods . . . but most of all, she hoped for a very special man to appear in her niece’s life. One who would take the shadows from her eyes and make her smile—really smile—the way she hadn’t since her separation from Gage.
It was a lot to ask of one tiny skein of yarn.
But the spinning wheel had worked its magic before, and Charlotte was confident it would do so again.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Row 1
Row 2
Row 3
Row 4
Row 5
Row 6
Row 7
Row 8
Row 9
Row 10
Row 11
Row 12
Row 13
Row 14
Row 15
Row 16
Row 17
Row 18
Row 19
Row 20
Row 21
Bind Off