Quilter's Knot

Patience dabbed at her nose with a tissue. “If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you bring me a bottle of aspirin from the pharmacy? I have a pounding headache, and I'm all out. I found a few packets in the first-aid kit…” She waved two small white packets. “…but these aren't coated. If I keep taking them my stomach will rebel. I'd really appreciate it.'

'Sure, it's no problem.'

Patience dug in her pocket and pulled out a crumpled five-dollar bill. “This should cover it,” she said, and handed the bill to Harriet then left the office.

Harriet hoped Patience's runny nose was the result of crying sad tears or maybe an allergy rather than something contagious, since she'd had no choice but to take the proffered bill. She looked around for signs of a restroom and then spotted a pump bottle of hand sanitizer. She reached across the counter and helped herself to a good squirt. She wasn't going to leave with a cold if she could help it.

'It's getting kind of late to be walking, isn't it?” Darcy asked.

Harriet stepped out onto the porch. The sun was low in the sky.

'I think I can make it if I hurry. I really want to see the picture Aunt Beth has.'

'If you get hung up, call me. If I don't answer, call the office and make them find me. That road is steep, and it's not well-lit.'

Harriet hadn't even made it out of the driveway when rain started to fall as a fine mist. She took the purple hat out of her sweatshirt pocket and covered her hair. The mist was turning into a steady drizzle, and she was thinking about turning around when a white pickup pulled onto the shoulder, blocking her path.

'Going my way?” Aiden said as he leaned out the window and rested his chin on his bent arm.

Harriet ignored him and tried to walk around the truck, but he eased it forward, blocking her way again.

'Come on, you're going to catch your death of cold out here in the rain,” he pleaded. “And you know me well enough to know I'm not going to leave until you get in.'

She stood, pondering her options. She didn't have time to fool around.

'Don't make me come out there,” Aiden said, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

'Fine.” She pulled the purple hat off her head and shook the raindrops from it as she climbed in.

'Buckle up. I'm on my way to the No-tell Motel to have some fun.'

She swatted him with the hat. “Brat!'

'I notice you're not getting out.'

'I'm confident you aren't out trolling for women,” she said and set her hat on the console between them. “What are you doing out and about at this time of day, anyway? I thought you were in surgery from dawn to dark.'

'We were about to run out of anesthetic, and since I'm the newest, I had to drive to a clinic on the other end of the island. Besides, in case you haven't noticed, it is almost dark.

'And your school is donating quilts for the recovering patients to rest on, which I'm supposed to pick up when the teachers get out of their staff meeting. As soon as I deliver the drugs, I'm coming back here to do that, which is why I am at exactly this spot in the universe just when you need me most.'

'Lucky me.'

'Are you running away from school? You're traveling kind of light if you are.'

'Very funny. Class was canceled this afternoon, and I am going into town to find a public computer.'

'Are you one of those people who obsessively check their e-mail? You know the kind-they can't go twenty-four hours without checking, even if it means walking through a driving rainstorm to get to a computer. I never would have guessed.'

'I am not obsessively checking my e-mail. It happens that my aunt is sending me some information that will help clear up a little problem we're having.” Harriet quickly explained Lauren's belief that her work had been copied and the subsequent disappearance of that work.

'You're not one of those people who see trouble around every corner, are you? Do you have to have drama in your life constantly?'

'I don't see that my dramatic needs are any of your concern,” she said, and turned to look at him.

'If I'm going to be your boyfriend, I need to know these things.'

'You are not going to be my boyfriend. You stood me up.'

'For the last time, I did not stand you up. You never called me back. I waited a reasonable amount of time, and then I went to the exhibit-alone, I might add.'

'You didn't look very alone to me, and besides, I did call you back. I left a message with your assistant.'

Aiden pulled to a stop in front of the UPS Store.

'I don't have an assistant. I'm the low vet on the totem pole. Notice how I'm the guy being sent to pick up supplies.'

'Okay, call her what you want, I'm telling you, your phone was answered by a woman. I told her what time, and she assured me she'd give you my message.'

'When did you call?'

Harriet thought for a moment. “It must have been around five.'

'I was in surgery until almost six. My phone was in my jeans pocket in the locker room.'

'Wasn't your locker locked?'

He leaned back and frowned at her.

'We're not exactly in inner-city Detroit here. I don't think the lockers at the pet shelter even have places to put locks. They're more like kitchen cabinets.'

'So anyone could have answered your phone.'

'I suppose, but you said it was a woman. That narrows it a little. There is one woman vet, although her voice is pretty distinct, I think there are three female vet techs. After four, the receptionist is a high school girl, and I think there's at least one lady janitor. Take your pick.

'The point is, any one of them could have heard my phone ring, answered it and then forgotten to tell me. The point is,” he repeated with emphasis, “that although I technically did stand you up, I didn't know I was standing you up because I never got the message.'

'Okay, smart guy, that explains why you weren't at the show with me, but that doesn't explain the blond arm candy you were sporting.'

'That's Doctor Johnson's assistant-and his granddaughter, I might add. She asked me to join her at the pottery show, and given her relationship to the boss, I didn't feel like I could say no. And why am I explaining myself to you? I didn't do anything wrong.'

Harriet kept silent.

'I think this is the part where you say, ‘Oh, Aiden, I'm so sorry I misjudged you… again,’ and then we kiss and make up.'

'That would be a lie. In my book, a guy who moves on with a blonde, boss's granddaughter or not, is not a guy to trust. And since we don't have a relationship, there's nothing to make up.'

He sighed. “You are making this really difficult, and as much as I'd like to continue working on our relationship issues, I've got to get the drugs back to the clinic.'

He jumped out of the truck and came around to Harriet's door before she could get out. He opened it and pulled her into a kiss before she could react-or at least before she could react the way she would have if she'd been able to think.

Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and felt the hard muscles of his back quiver under her touch. Her traitorous hands worked their way up his spine, and then her fingers tangled in his glorious black hair. He deepened the kiss and slid his hands down to her bottom and pulled her toward him. A part of Harriet wanted to know what was going to happen next, but a blue BMW started to pull into the parking spot next to Aiden's truck and they had to separate and move to the sidewalk to avoid being run over.

Two boys who looked like they were ten or eleven got out of the back seat and followed their mother into the UPS Store. As they passed Harriet they made faces and stuck their fingers in their mouths to simulate gagging.

'Hey, just wait a few years, guys,” Aiden said and smiled. He turned back to her and leaned in for another, quick kiss. “I'll swing back by here in about twenty minutes, and if you're done, I can give you a ride back down the hill,” he said then got back into the truck and drove away.

Harriet went into the UPS Store and, in a matter of minutes, had her e-mail open in front of her. True to her word, Aunt Beth had sent a full-page colored scan of a quilt that was almost identical to Lauren's exhibition