A sigh escaped. There’d been a time when she thought her art was unique, and in the unsophisticated town of Maple Falls, itwas. But not here. Mixed-media artists were everywhere, and getting herself noticed in a sea of aspiring creatives had beenbeyond difficult. But she wasn’t going to give up. There wasn’t time to fix the piece the way she wanted to, but she wouldtackle it when she returned. Right now she had to go take care of her grandmother, which meant working at Knots and Tanglesagain.
A car horn sounded below, jolting Riley’s thoughts. She’d never imagined she’d be working there again. During her teen yearsshe spent hours in her grandmother’s yarn shop. Not only working but practicing her art in the all-purpose room in the back.The old yarn store had been her job and her haven. But even she could see that it was a fifty-year millstone around her grandmother’sneck. Mimi needed to sell the store and retire. Riley had mentioned it to her over the years only to be instantly shut down.Maple Falls was in decline when Riley moved away, and from little hints she gathered during conversations with Mimi, thingshadn’t improved.
Riley thought her grandmother not only needed to sell the store but also needed to put her large house on the market and movein with Myrtle. Or maybe Myrtle could move in with Mimi. Riley wasn’t naive enough to think her grandmother would come toNew York with her, but Mimi moving in with one of her good friends was a possibility. They were both widows, and paring downexpenses would benefit them both. If there was something Riley was an expert at, it was pinching her pennies.
While her brain knew retirement and consolidation were in Mimi’s best interest, the thought of the store being in someoneelse’s hands pinched at her heart. She shoved the feeling away, as she normally did when she grew sentimental. It was timeher grandmother embraced change. This visit was a prime opportunity for Riley to convince her of that.
She felt an unexpected spark of hope. She had a plan now—help Mimi heal and convince her to sell her shop and the house. Allthree tasks wouldn’t be easy, but she was determined. Once her grandmother unchained herself from the past, Riley could too—andwhen she left Maple Falls this time, it would be for good.
She crossed the small living room, opened her ancient laptop, and started to search for a flight. As she surfed, another thoughtpopped into her mind. But no—she didn’t have to worry about running into him. Like her, he’d moved on from Maple Falls. Still, remembering the crush she’d had on him in high school—one he had no ideaabout—caused a tiny flutter in her stomach. Talk about silly. She hadn’t given him a single thought since she left Maple Falls.Okay, maybe one . . . or fifty thoughts since she’d left, but not any recently. And there was no reason for her to think aboutHayden Price again now. She put him out of her mind and booked her flight to Arkansas.
* * *
“Erma Jean McAllister, you need Jesus.”
Erma set her cell phone on the counter and looked at her friend of close to sixty-five years. She tapped her chest with twofingers. “I have Jesus. Right in here.”
“Then you need a double portion.” Myrtle Benson straightened the business cards on the counter next to the small antique cashregister that was just for show. A working adding machine from the eighties was right next to it. “Good thing we have eveningservice tonight.”
Erma wheeled herself from behind the counter, trying not to knock down a display of knitting needles with her outstretched,plaster-covered leg. She was proud that her little store, Knots and Tangles, was one of the original businesses in Maple Fallsand at one time had the most yarn and fiber art supplies within a one-hundred-fifty-mile radius. Her mother owned the shopbefore Erma, and her grandmother had started the business. A woman entrepreneur was almost unheard of back then. Erma hadworked here since she was twelve, and very little of the shop had changed since then. The place was full to the brim, andthat was the way she liked it.
Her wheelchair, however, did not. “What are you prattling on about?” she said.
Myrtle sighed. “That phone call you just made to Riley. Land sakes, woman, you know I can cancel my trip anytime.”
“And let you disappoint Jorge?”
“His name is Javier. And I’m sure he’s long gone from the ship anyway. You know those jobs can be temporary.”
Erma caught the dreamy look in Myrtle’s eyes, the same one she’d had when she came home from her cruise eight months ago aftermeeting Jorge, er, Javier, the silver-haired—and silver-tongued, apparently—maître d’ at one of the fancy restaurants on thecruise ship. Erma couldn’t remember the name of the place, but she did remember how Myrtle wouldn’t stop talking about thefood—and the service.
“You’ve been looking forward to this trip for so long.”
“I haven’t heard from him since my last letter.” Myrtle stuck out her lower lip, covered in a soft pink lipstick that coordinatedwith her oversize handbag. “I might as well cancel.”
“If you cancel, I’m going in your place.”
“With a broken leg?”
Erma gave her a pointed look. “In a heartbeat.”
“You might just do it too.” Myrtle grimaced. “Fine. You win, as usual. But that still doesn’t make it right that you actedlike it was an emergency and Riley had to come right away.”
“It is an emergency.” She gestured to the overstuffed shelves and baskets in the store. “How am I supposed to maneuver around thisplace in this thing?” She slammed her hands on the wheelchair armrests, which jolted the chair and made her leg twinge. Uh-oh,that was more than a twinge. “I need a pain pill.”
“Right away.” Myrtle rushed to get a glass of water from the bathroom sink in
