Hightail It to Kinsey Falls Page 2

  Terri nodded.

  She blew out a breath and looked around the shop. The white floor-to-ceiling blocks contained various colors and types of yarn. An oak stepladder on wheels stood waiting by the window for someone to need something from a top shelf. A padded navy bench sat in front of the window and was a wonderful place to knit when things got slow in the shop. Those moments didn’t happen often, but Jade appreciated them when they did.

  In fact, she wished she could sit down now and process what had happened. She really needed to talk to that pet shop guy and try to explain to him that Grandma wasn’t crazy. Sure, she could be a little ditzy now and then—forgetful sometimes—but not crazy. Definitely not crazy. Although putting a possum in a makeup bag was pretty nutso.

  Terri interrupted Jade’s reverie. “Here they come.”

  Jade had no idea why children struck such fear in her petite blond friend’s heart, but she was having fun playing on that fear this morning. “Wish me luck.”

  “See you on the other side.”

  The eight girls came squealing into the shop. Jade introduced herself and had them tell her their names. She repeated them and made it a point to remember them.

  “First, let’s pick out your yarn.”

  “Is it all right if I go over and make sure everything is set up for their tea party at the café?” the mom asked, one foot already back out the door.

  “That’s fine,” Jade said. “If I need you, I’ll send Terri to get you.”

  “All righty. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll be back in an hour.” She paused. “Will they be done in an hour? I can give you more time if you need it.”

  “An hour will be fine,” Jade said firmly. “Their scarves won’t be finished by then, but they’ll be well on their way and the girls will know how to complete them. Should they need any help, they can always come back.”

  Jade was more frazzled than she’d expected to be when the girls finally galloped off to the café with the birthday girl’s mom.

  “That was an excellent sale,” Terri said.

  “I earned every penny of it. From the cast-on row to explaining that fringe was a little too advanced for them on this project.” She looked around. “Where’s Mocha?”

  “He hid when the girls stormed in. I imagine he’ll come out soon.”

  “Hidey-ho!” Greta Parker blasted through the door.

  “What I said about Mocha coming out? Scratch that,” Terri said under her breath.

  Greta was a force of nature. She had short auburn hair with streaks of plum. Today she wore jeans and a baseball shirt bearing the logo for the group Imagine Dragons. Gold sparkly sneakers completed the outfit.

  “I like your shirt,” Jade said. “Are you a fan?”

  “Oh, yes! Imagine if there were dragons.” Greta put up her hands and spread them out slowly as if to illustrate the magnitude of such an idea. “Like in that show everyone is wild over. I haven’t got to see it yet. I’m waiting to have enough time to binge it.”

  Nope. Just as Jade had suspected, Greta didn’t realize Imagine Dragons was a music group. She thought it was a suggestion.

  Terri jerked her head in the direction of the knitting room. “Are you gonna work a while? I’ll be glad to help you get something from your project locker.”

  The knitting room contained four vertical cabinets. Each cabinet had four tiered spaces for a total of sixteen cabinets. At present, ten of the doors contained the name of regular patrons. Jade was sure they’d fill up once the shop had been open a bit longer.

  “No, thanks, dolls,” Greta said. “I’m looking for Millie. Have you seen her?”

  “Not since this morning,” Jade said. She decided not to tell Greta about the possum incident.

  “Oh, well, I’ll find her. And if you see her before I do, tell her I’m looking for her.”

  “Why don’t you just call her?” Terri asked.

  “I’m almost out of minutes.” With that, Greta was gone.

  “It’s safe to come out now, Mocha,” said Terri.

  The cat obviously didn’t believe her and remained in his hiding place.

  “Don’t be so hard on Greta,” Jade said. “She’s…well, she’s unique.”

  “I know. It’s just that she and I are the senior and YP liaisons for the grand opening celebration, and I feel like she isn’t doing enough for the seniors. She’s trying her best to be a millennial, and it ain’t happening.”

  Chapter Two

  ◊

  Jade decided that asking Caleb at Hightail It! Pet Supply and Grooming for permission to put a flyer for the knitting class in his shop would be a good excuse to talk with him and reassure him that Millie wasn’t insane. Well, not completely, anyway. She could still hardly believe her grandmother had taken a possum—be it dead or alive—in her makeup bag, no less, to the pet shop. What had she been thinking?

  She walked into the shop, self-conscious about the bells over the door drawing attention to her as she stepped across the threshold.

  “Hi!” called a handsome man at the register ringing up the purchase of a woman with a Yorkie in her arms. “Be right with you.”

  He had to be Caleb. There couldn’t be two drop-dead gorgeous guys working in this shop, could there? If so, she needed to call Terri and have her friend close up shop and join her. At least Millie hadn’t been exaggerating about Caleb’s looks.

  The woman with the Yorkie finished her transaction, smiled and batted her eyelashes at Caleb a few more times, and then brushed past Jade, leaving a waft of flowery perfume in her wake.

  Jade turned to make sure the woman had, indeed, gone before saying to the handsome man at the register, “She smelled good. Or else the dog did.”

  He laughed. “Well, Princess did have a bath this morning.”

  She resisted the temptation to ask whether Princess was the dog or her haughty owner. Instead, she said, “My grandmother was in here this morning. She brought you…a possum.”

  “Millie! Yeah! I was just getting ready to call her.”

  So, she’d been right in guessing this was Caleb.

  “Perry is awake and considering tasting the electrolyte and water solution I offered him—or her.” He jerked his head toward the back of the shop. “Wanna see?”

  “Um, okay.”

  Caleb used the microphone next to the register to tell someone named Aidan that he was going into the back for a minute. Then he headed for the back of the shop.

  Jade fell into step beside him.

  “You are a pretty redhead,” he said.

  “Excuse me?”

  He chuckled. “Millie said her granddaughter was a pretty redhead.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry. She can be a bit much sometimes.”

  “I thought she was a delight. Not that many people would be so kindhearted as to pick up a baby possum in a makeup bag. Most folks would’ve thought, ‘Eh, it’s just a possum.’ But not Millicent Fairchild.”

  Jade didn’t respond. She was digesting the fact that Caleb had just called her grandmother by her full name.

  “And unless I miss my guess,” Caleb continued, “that wasn’t an inexpensive bag.”

  “Probably not.” She stopped. “Just how long did you and my grandmother talk this morning? I mean, you seem to know an awful lot about her.”

  “Not really.” He shrugged. “I know her name, that she had a nice makeup bag that she emptied in order to save a baby animal, that she lives upstairs, and that she has a pretty, red-haired granddaughter. Oh, and she seems to like alliteration. Is that a lot to know about someone?”

  Jade was mortified that her grandmother had spent the morning talking her up to this guy. And then Jade herself had rushed over at the first opportunity. Caleb must think Jade was laughably desperate. “Whatever. Look, I need to get back.”

  “I thought you wanted to see Perry,” he said.

  “No, I’m good. You can work all that out with
my grandmother. Good luck with the…Perry.” She turned and stalked out of the store.

  She realized when she returned to Nothin’ But Knit that she still had the flyer in her hand. She slammed it onto the counter, causing a customer to turn in surprise.

  “Sorry,” Jade mumbled. “I didn’t mean to startle you. Would you be interested in taking our beginners’ knitting class?”

  “Honey, I’ve been knitting the biggest part of my life,” the customer retorted.

  “Oh. Good. Well, you’ve come to the right place then.” She smiled, feeling like an idiot.

  She hated that she’d let her irritation get the best of her at the pet shop, but she couldn’t help it. She could just imagine her grandmother in the shop trying to fix her up with Caleb, and it made her blood boil. She expected that sort of behavior from her mother, but how dare Grandma interfere with her personal life? They’d always had each other’s backs. Now, it seemed, Grandma had Mom’s back. And to think a guy like Caleb would be interested in Jade—and vice versa—was ridiculous.

  Fighting tears, she strode over to the window and looked out at the parking lot. There was a maple tree on the grass that bordered the lot, and it was beautiful—large branches, thick with bright green leaves. In a few weeks, those leaves would begin turning yellow and red.

  She started when Terri touched her shoulder. “You all right?”

  Jade nodded.

  “Good. Ms. Easterling is coming down to talk with Greta and me. She wanted to have a quick meeting here.”

  Sandra Easterling was the forty-something manager of the Kinsey Falls Living and Retail Community Center. Neither a senior nor a young professional, she was theoretically hired for her ability to relate to both groups. Even her apartment, which was adjacent to the Community Center office, was centrally located between the two groups.

  “I can handle things in the shop, if you guys would prefer to meet in one of the conversation rooms,” Jade said.

  “I’ll see what Sandra wants to do. I just hope she could track down Greta.”

  “And that Greta was willing to use the necessary minutes to take the call.” Jade gave her friend a slight smile.

  “Did you see that guy, Caleb?”

  Jade nodded. “Yeah. I doubt I’ll ever see him again though. He probably thinks I’m a real snot.”

  “Why?” Terri asked. “What did you do?”

  “I was pretty abrupt with him. He was going to show me the possum, and I was following him into the back. Then he started talking about Grandma, and I said I had to leave.”

  She narrowed her brown eyes. “Did he say something mean about Millie?”

  “No, he was complimentary…even complimented me by saying I must be her pretty redhaired granddaughter. But to think Grandma went over there to try to fix me up with him makes me so angry.”

  Terri huffed. “She didn’t go there to fix you up with anyone. She went there to save a baby possum. I think that’s kinda sweet, albeit a little icky. I mean, not as icky if it had been a snake. But then I can’t see Millie picking up a snake.” She inclined her head. “Had you asked me prior to this morning though, I’d have never imagined her picking up a possum.”

  “The reason she went over there is beside the point,” said Jade. “All of a sudden, she’s trying to get me a boyfriend. I don’t like it. Besides, how pathetic does that make me look? My grandma thinks she needs to help me get a date.”

  “Well, talk with her about it. When you can do so calmly and rationally. There’s Ms. Easterling.” Terri hurried over to greet the Community Center’s manager.

  “Hi, Terri,” Sandra said. “I’m sure you’re busy today. Thank you for making time for me.”

  “No problem. Did you get in touch with Greta?”

  “She should be here—”

  “Hidey-ho!” Greta called as she came into the shop.

  There was a flash of brown as Mocha raced to hide in his bed under the counter.

  “And there she is now,” Sandra said. “Where would it be best to talk?”

  “There’s no one in the knitting room at the moment.” Terri led the women into the knitting room, and they took seats at the table.

  Jade wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t help but hear the women’s conversation. She wondered if she should tell them, but then she decided that since the shop was currently empty and their discussion wasn’t likely confidential, she’d let it go.

  Sandra was speaking. “So, here’s the thing: the grand-opening celebration is in a week, and the two of you can’t agree on anything.”

  “I can’t help it if Terri wants to be an old fuddy-duddy.”

  “Greta, you’re only thinking about the young professionals. You’re not sparing any thought at all for your people.”

  “My people? My people? I thought the point of all of us living here together was to become a united group. How can we do that if we still have my people and your people?”

  “Ladies,” Sandra interrupted sharply. “This has to stop. If you can’t pull everything together, compromise, and provide me with the entertainment and food to be served by Monday, then I’ll do everything myself. And, sadly, neither of you will get any credit. Nor will you have the opportunity to help coordinate any other Kinsey Falls LRCC events.”

  “You mean, we won’t get our names in the paper?” Greta asked. “But, I’ve already been looking forward to talking to that reporter, that—what’s his name—Mitch Reedy?”

  Jade recalled that Mitch Reedy was an attractive field reporter for one of the local television news teams.

  “There’s nothing I’d like more than to be able to tell Mitch Reedy that you two planned everything and have him do an in-depth interview with each of you,” Sandra said. “And if I have the information I need by Monday, that’s what we’ll do. May I count on you to work out your differences?”

  By this time, Sandra was striding out of the knitting room with Terri and Greta trailing in her wake.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Terri.

  “You can count on me,” Greta began.

  Terri shot her a look of pure venom.

  “And Terri,” Greta finished lamely. “You can count on me and Terri. We’ll figure this out.”

  “Thank you.” Sandra left the two women standing inside Nothin’ But Knit glaring at each other.

  “So, now what?” Greta asked, as soon as Sandra was out of earshot.

  “You and I get together after I get off work and do what you told Sandra we’d do—figure this out.”

  “Do you need a referee?” Jade asked.

  Both Terri and Greta vowed they didn’t, but Jade wasn’t convinced.

  Chapter Three

  ◊

  After Millie unpacked and put away her groceries, she hurried downstairs to Hightail It! to see Caleb and Perry. Caleb was with customers—a woman and two children—when she walked in. He grinned and winked at Millie over top of the woman’s head.

  She smiled. He was beautiful. Jade was beautiful. They could make her some gorgeous great-grandbabies. And Jade could knit up the cutest little booties, hats, and blankets for them.

  Caleb brought the woman’s purchases up to the counter. It appeared the children would have everything they needed to take care of a puppy. As Caleb scanned the items, the boy and girl yammered to him about their new dog.

  “It’s a boxer,” the boy said.

  “Yeah, and Daddy wanted to name her Ali, who was a famous boxer, but our puppy is a girl!”

  “We went with Allie,” the woman said. “Close enough, right?”

  “Right. Just as long as Allie can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,” Caleb said.

  The boy scrunched up his face. “I think you’re confused. Allie is a dog.”

  When the trio left, Millie chuckled. “Youth is wasted on the young. Who said that?”

  “Shaw,” Caleb answered.

  “That’s right—George Bernar
d Shaw. I’m impressed that you know that.”

  “He preferred to be called Bernard. Didn’t care much for George.”

  “How do you know?” Millie asked.

  “He used to come in here, buy things for his boxer.”

  She laughed. “I was so relieved to get your call about Perry. I really thought I’d killed the little thing—given it a heart attack or something.”

  “He’s just fine. Want to go see?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Millie followed Caleb into the back where little Perry cuddled on a heating pad. There was room inside the box where Perry could crawl away if he got too warm.

  “The vet brought that over for us to borrow,” Caleb said, nodding toward the heating pad. “And although he said Perry appears to be healthy, our vet can’t really help us. He recommended we call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who would know more about possums.”

  “Did he recommend someone?”

  “Yes. He said there’s a wonderful rehab center in Elizabethton. He gave me their number, and I left a message for someone to return my call.”

  Millie pointed toward a medicine dropper and a small bottle. “What’s that? Did he give you some kind of medicine for him?”

  “It’s actually water mixed with an electrolyte formula. This is what we’re supposed to feed Perry, provided we can get him to eat.”

  “How often do you feed him?”

  “I try every hour or so. I’ve been successful once, but that’s it.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t have to do all this on your own,” said Millie. “I’m the one who found him. I’ll be happy to take him to my apartment and take care of him there.”

  “Really?” He arched a brow. “You’ll be happy to do that?”

  “Well, I won’t be thrilled, but I do feel like Perry is my responsibility. Yet here you are doing all the work.”

  “I don’t mind. I’m actually glad I was able to help keep him alive and to figure out what to do for him. And once we hear from the wildlife refuge, I can take him to Elizabethton.”