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  “I’m just glad you’re home safe.” Additionally, she was grateful not to know their decision to ride nonstop beforehand. If she had, she would have worried.

  “I have to tell you, bed sounds mighty good about now. I’m turning forty this fall, and I’m feeling my age. This many hours in the saddle is no longer my idea of fun.”

  Lauren grinned. “Just what is your idea of fun?”

  Her question seemed to amuse him, because he chuckled. “For starters, watching you enjoy a Mariners baseball game.”

  Lauren decided she’d been wrong about him. Rooster Wayne was quickly turning into a silver-tongued devil with the ability to sweet-talk her right off her two feet.

  “I looked at their schedule, and it just so happens the Mariners have a home game this coming weekend.” This was her less-than-subtle way of letting Rooster know that she would welcome his return to Seattle soon.

  “Ah, Lauren,” he said, sighing with what sounded like regret. “I’m afraid I’m going to need to take a rain check on that.”

  “Oh.” She wasn’t able to disguise her disappointment.

  “I’ve got a business trip.”

  He’d mentioned that he often traveled for business but hadn’t said anything about an upcoming trip. “Will you be away long?” she asked.

  “Long enough. I’ll be in New Zealand.”

  “New Zealand?” she repeated, and her spirits sank even lower. New Zealand was half a world away; this trip would easily involve a week or two, if not longer. She couldn’t help wondering just how much time it’d be before she could see Rooster again.

  “Their Marlborough region does an excellent sauvignon blanc,” he told her, as if selling her on the reason.

  “Isn’t that the wine you brought with you to Max and Bethanne’s for dinner?”

  “I’m impressed you remember.”

  “I enjoyed the citrus flavor.”

  “I did, too. The taste reminds me of grapefruit.”

  “Me, too.” The small talk wasn’t distracting her from the fact that she might not see him again for several weeks.

  “A number of vineyard owners have invited large distributors from around the world to visit their facilities.”

  “And you’re one of them?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a wonderful opportunity.” She forced enthusiasm into her voice, although she wasn’t able to hide her disappointment.

  “It is,” he agreed.

  “Then how come I feel like crying?” she whispered, and tried to pass off the comment with a choppy laugh as if she were joking.

  “I’d been looking forward to this trip for months, and all at once I’m thinking I’d rather get back on my bike and head straight north instead of this all-expenses-paid trip down under.”

  “You aren’t thinking clearly, remember? You’re tired and saddle sore.”

  “That’s the problem. My mind might be too tired to think straight, but my heart is wide awake. I’d rather be wherever you are.”

  He sounded so sincere, so earnest, that Lauren felt like she could break into sobs. “You say the most beautiful things.”

  “Don’t let Max know; he’ll razz me.”

  “What’s happening with us?” she asked, thinking out loud. This was a new experience for her. She wasn’t like other women who had a lot of relationships, intense or casual. She didn’t fall in and out of love easily. She held on to her heart, and yet within a few days she felt like her head was in the clouds over Rooster. The attraction between them was so intense it felt as if she could barely recognize herself.

  “I don’t know what’s happening, but whatever it is, I don’t want it to change. Do you?”

  “No,” she agreed quickly. “Not for anything. In a matter of days my entire perspective has turned around. I’ve been attracted to men before, but nothing like this.”

  “And you claim I say beautiful things?” he asked, chuckling.

  “Is it the same with you?” she asked, needing to know.

  “In spades.”

  Lauren was almost giddy to hear it. “Has anything like this happened to you before?”

  Rooster hesitated. “Only once, but that was when I was really young. Too long ago to remember. Besides, this is different, way different.”

  “But not so long to forget.”

  “Something like that.”

  “Will you be able to keep in touch while you’re in New Zealand?”

  “It isn’t the end of the earth, Lauren, but I suspect I’ll be able to see it from there. I’ll be in touch, don’t worry.”

  They spoke for several minutes longer, until they were both ready to fall asleep on the phone.

  “Time for bed,” she whispered. “Night, Rooster. Dream of me.” She was fairly certain he would occupy her dreams.

  “Good night, my beautiful, sweet Lauren.”

  She reluctantly ended their conversation. Although it’d been late, she’d been relieved when Rooster’s call came through. He’d told her he’d phone and she’d waited all day, though not anxiously, because instinctively she knew Rooster Wayne was a man of his word. All was well; he was home and safe now.

  Tuesday morning, when Lauren arrived at work, Elisa was there. Lauren’s employer had spent the weekend with her daughter and Katie’s boyfriend in Pullman, Washington.

  “You’re back,” Lauren greeted as she removed her raincoat and hung it in the back room. “How did everything go with Katie and Dietrich?”

  “Not good,” Elisa responded. “In fact, it went about as bad as it could, and I’m afraid it’s all my fault.”

  “Oh, Elisa, I’m so sorry,” Lauren sympathized as she helped her friend set out the window displays.

  “Garry didn’t want me to go, and he was right. It would’ve been better if I’d stayed home. It’s just the thought of my daughter, so young and pregnant, makes me a little crazy.”

  “How is Katie?”

  Elisa shrugged. “Physically, she seems to be doing fine. Emotionally, she’s better off than me. Well, I guess she is, but then it’s hard to tell because she’s no longer speaking to me.”

  Mother and daughter generally spoke every day, so this must be devastating to Elisa. Lauren glanced toward her employer, unsure of what to say or how to comfort her friend. A tear rolled down Elisa’s cheek, and she quickly brushed it aside as though to hide the fact that she was crying.

  “I wish I knew what to say.” Lauren felt Elisa’s regret and disappointment over the disastrous weekend.

  “I insisted on taking Katie to see a doctor,” Elisa explained. “Dietrich wanted to come along, but I refused to let him. That set Katie off, but you know how stubborn I can get, and I insisted it was just me and Katie. Now I wish Dietrich had been with us; everything would have gone much better if I hadn’t been so stubborn.”

  “You saw an obstetrician … not a clinic, right?” She left the question about forcing Katie into considering an abortion unasked.

  Elisa nodded. “I promised Garry I wouldn’t pressure her to end the pregnancy. It wasn’t easy, but I kept my word.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and blew her nose.

  “What did the doctor say?” Lauren asked.

  “Nothing new. The home test was accurate. Katie is indeed pregnant.”

  Lauren pressed her hand over Elisa’s and gave her a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

  Gathering up her resolve, Elisa squared her shoulders and continued, “My little girl is pregnant, and she’s blissfully happy about it. Can you imagine? From all outward appearances she’s overjoyed about this baby who’s about to ruin her life.

  “I don’t know, Lauren, I honestly don’t know what’s happened to my intelligent, beautiful daughter. I swear to you that young man has brainwashed her. She isn’t thinking clearly. Katie is no more suited to being a farmer’s wife than Donald Trump is to cleaning toilets. I give this relationship another month before Katie wakes up and realizes what a terrible mistake she’s making. And by then it will be
too late.”

  Too late to do away with the pregnancy is what Elisa meant.

  “You were her age when you found out you were pregnant with her,” Lauren reminded her friend.

  “This is different.”

  “Oh?”

  “The world has changed since I was her age. Katie has opportunities that weren’t available to me, and she’s throwing them away. These days it’s so much harder to support a family. When Garry and I discovered I was pregnant there were expectations for us to marry. It isn’t like that any longer; women no longer feel the need to find a husband when they’re still in college. Look at you.”

  “Me?” Lauren repeated.

  “Many women wait to marry until they are thirty or older. If Katie decides to marry Dietrich now, she’ll live to regret it. If she wants to have this baby, then fine, come home and we’ll raise this child together or put it up for adoption. It would be a kindness to give this baby to a loving home. But Katie marrying Dietrich could well be the biggest mistake of her life.”

  “Were you able to meet Dietrich’s parents?” This was one excuse Elisa had used to convince Garry she should make this trip across the state. Elisa was convinced the Friedmans shared her concern for their son. She had counted on them being reasonable people who would be against Katie and Dietrich marrying as much as she was.

  “Just my luck, they were out of town at some onion-growing convention or some rally having to do with growing Walla Walla sweet onions.” She looked up at the ceiling, as if calling upon God’s assistance in this dreadful situation.

  “How did it go with Dietrich?” Lauren asked. Part of Elisa’s plan was to “talk sense” into Katie’s young man.

  “Badly. Even worse than you can imagine.”

  This entire trip sounded like it had been disastrous.

  “Katie refused to let me speak to Dietrich without her being there. He’s a decent enough kid. I don’t have anything against him,” Elisa said, “well, other than the fact he doesn’t seem to understand the concept of birth control. His parents, either, apparently. I learned Dietrich is the oldest boy in a family of eight children. Don’t these people realize there’s a population problem?”

  Now was probably not the best time to remind Elisa that birth control was a shared responsibility. Katie played an equal role in this pregnancy.

  “I was polite and kept my cool with Dietrich,” Elisa continued evenly. “I simply asked him a few questions, which Katie insisted on answering until Dietrich stopped her. He claims to love Katie, and he loves their baby. He feels the responsible action is for them to marry. That was when I lost it.”

  Lauren had seen Elisa lose her cool more than once, and it wasn’t a pretty sight.

  “And now Katie’s no longer speaking to you.”

  “Unfortunately, she took exception to a few of the words I chose to call Dietrich.”

  “Did you apologize later after you’d had a chance to cool down?” Elisa had a quick trigger, but once she blew off steam she generally had a fast recovery.

  “I sent them both a text with a mea culpa.”

  Lauren knew none of this had been easy for Elisa. “Did you hear back from Katie?”

  Her employer reached for a fresh tissue and held it against her eyes. “Katie’s due home for the summer in two weeks, and she let me know that she won’t be coming back to Seattle.”

  This explained why Elisa was so upset. “Katie’s staying in Pullman? Does she have a job for the summer?”

  “She’s going home with Dietrich … As for a job, I can only assume she’ll be working in the fields.”

  Lauren hugged her friend and let Elisa cry on her shoulder. This entire situation was turning into a huge ordeal. Although she wanted to comfort her, Lauren wished Elisa had listened to Katie and Dietrich instead of trying to make their decision for them. She seemed to think she could steamroll them into doing what she thought best, and clearly that hadn’t worked.

  “Getting away for a few days will do us both a world of good,” Lauren said, hoping that was the truth.

  “Away?” Elisa lifted her head from Lauren’s shoulder. “We’re going away?”

  “The gem convention is in a couple weeks, remember?”

  “Right. It slipped my mind. You’re coming with me.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “I hope your weekend went well,” Elisa said, composing herself and changing the subject from the sensitive area of her daughter’s situation.

  “My weekend was lovely. Rooster and I—”

  “Who’s Rooster? You’ve never mentioned him before.”

  “That’s because I just met him.”

  His name seemed to amuse Elisa. “Doesn’t he get teased with a name like Rooster?”

  Lauren had wondered the same thing, and she smiled as she recalled his answer. “I asked him and he said, if he was teased, it never happened more than once.”

  Elisa smiled. “I haven’t met this new man in your life, and I like him already.”

  “I like him, too.” Like, Lauren mused, was such a weak word. It didn’t come anywhere close to expressing how she felt about Rooster.

  Elisa’s gaze widened. “My goodness, look at you. You’re positively glowing. This new guy must really be someone special.”

  “Rooster is beyond special. I’m in serious danger of falling in love.”

  “Really? After only a few days? This isn’t like you, Lauren.”

  Elisa was right. This was an entirely new experience for her. “I’m sorry to be so happy when you’re so miserable,” she told her friend, “but I can’t help myself.”

  “Be happy, please. I’m sure I’ll remember what that feels like again, one day, myself.”

  Lauren’s cellphone chirped. Normally when on the job she would ignore it. “Do you mind if I get that?” she asked hurriedly. She hadn’t heard from him yet this morning. “It might be Rooster.”

  “Go ahead. Far be it from me to stand in the way of young love.” Then realizing what she’d said, Elisa added, “Young love doesn’t mean I’m referring to age.”

  After four rings, just before her cellphone went to voice mail, Lauren dug it out of her purse and answered. She didn’t recognize the number and had to assume it was Rooster phoning from a landline.

  “Morning, sweetheart.”

  It was Todd.

  Lauren’s heart sank first with disappointment, then frustration. Both emotions warred with each other and she found herself unable to speak for the first few seconds.

  “I’m calling from a line at the station. I thought you said you’d be in touch. I waited all day Monday. You’re normally so responsible. What’s up?”

  He’d waited for her? After all the times he’d left her sitting in a restaurant, all the times he’d left her dangling or just plain stood her up.

  “What’s up?” she repeated. “I told you before, Todd, it’s over. This isn’t a ploy to get you to marry me, I’m sincere. I’m moving on, and I suggest you do the same.”

  “You don’t mean it,” Todd insisted.

  “Yes, Todd, I do mean it. Now, please, don’t call me again.”

  She tried to be kind; she wasn’t angry, just determined, and all she could do was hope that Todd would believe her and leave matters as they were.

  Chapter Eighteen

  My knitting changed when I allowed myself to look up from other people’s patterns and instead started to watch the work build in my hands stitch by stitch. I stopped worrying about making errors and began wondering “What if …” New directions presented themselves.

  —Kathryn Alexander,

  spinner, knitter, and weaver

  Lydia knew something was troubling Casey the minute her daughter slumped into her chair at the breakfast table. The teenager, who was by nature a chatterbox, didn’t say a word. Even Cody noticed.

  “Morning, sweetheart,” Lydia said, and served up a bowl of old-fashioned oatmeal she’d cooked with plump raisins. Because the yarn store was c
losed on Monday for the holiday, she wasn’t opening until noon on Tuesday and took more time than usual with breakfast.

  “Are you sick?” Cody asked as he dumped sugar and milk over his oatmeal, and when he thought Lydia wasn’t looking, he added two additional scoops of the sweetener.

  “No,” Casey snapped. “Do I look sick?”

  “No, you look mad,” Cody returned. “What did I do that was so terrible?”

  Lydia delivered toast to the table. “Did you get out on the wrong side of the bed?” she asked, and placed her hand on Casey’s shoulder.

  “What does that mean, anyway?” Casey shrugged off Lydia’s hand.

  Lydia exchanged looks with Cody. He seemed to be saying he was glad he could escape. The school bus would pick him up in ten minutes, which was one reason he rushed to finish his breakfast.

  “What does that mean?” Lydia repeated the question as she sat down across from her daughter. “I don’t really know. I never thought about it before. It’s something my mother used to say to me. I bet we could find out where it originated online.”

  “I’ll ask Grandma.”

  “Okay.” Actually, it was a curious question. “I know it has to do with being grumpy in the mornings,” she said, musing out loud. “From what I remember, it goes back to something from the Middle Ages about getting out on the left side of the bed, but I could be wrong. Mostly it has to do with being cranky.”

  “I’m not grumpy, and I’m not mad,” Casey insisted, raising her voice.

  Cody stood, shoved another spoonful of oatmeal into his mouth, grabbed a slice of toast and his backpack, and headed out the door. “What’s for dinner?” he asked, pausing in the doorway.

  “I haven’t given it any thought yet,” Lydia asked. “What would you like?”

  “Spaghetti,” Casey muttered, knowing it was Cody’s favorite meal and generally what he requested.

  To his credit, Cody pretended not to hear his sister. “Can we have tacos and Spanish rice?”

  “That’s a switch,” Casey said, louder this time.