“Yes, I remember now. It’s like riding a bike. You never forget!” Dorothy started to repeat the stitches, slowly at first but then gaining a nice rhythm.
Ida sat back down and picked up her own knitting, which appeared to be a hat in pale-pink yarn. “So how are things going, Dorothy? You must love Kristen being home.”
Dorothy smiled. “Yes, it’s so nice to have her around. And she’s being so helpful with the business.”
Ida nodded. “Yes, just like Julie. We’re so lucky to have them.”
A fluffy white cat streaked into the room, stopped short at the pink ball of yarn at Ida’s feet, and whacked it across the room.
“Oh, I see you have one of these mischievous little buggers too,” Dorothy said.
“That’s Kringle. Julie got him. He is quite a little devil.” Ida looked at the cat fondly. “I remember Myrtle saying that you adopted a cat from her.”
“George. He’s a little devil too.” Dorothy’s heart warmed at the thought of the furry cat. She actually hadn’t been sure if things would work out with him, but now she couldn’t imagine living without him. “Where is Myrtle?”
“She went for the sleigh ride tonight.”
“The sleigh ride?” Marsha looked up from her knitting. “I used to love going on that, but now I leave that for the younger folks. Too cold.”
“Myrtle usually does too. However, she has some kittens that might need to be fostered, and I think she’s hoping to foist them off on someone, since a lot of the townspeople will be there.” Ida laughed.
“Oh, boy, I hope Derek doesn’t come home with them,” said Naomi, who appeared to be making a rainbow-colored afghan.
“Maybe she’ll be able to talk the new guy into taking them.” Ida glanced at Dorothy. “You know, the one that lives across from you. Kent, I think his name is.”
“The guy who owns that new Christmas tree store?” Marsha asked. Then she turned to Delores. “Dorothy here owns the Christmas tree farm in town. It’s a mainstay of our Christmas season. Their family has operated it for generations. Now, a new guy has come to town and opened a Christmas store with artificial trees, and his house is right across the street from her!”
“I do hope he hasn’t stocked too many of those artificial trees. Everyone loves Dorothy’s balsam firs.” Naomi looked at Dorothy as if to show her support then looked back at her knitting. “He does have some nice ornaments though.”
“I haven’t seen Ethan putting any trees out in the lot. Aren’t they usually out by now?” Marsha asked.
Dorothy’s stomach fluttered. “Usually, we put them out a couple of weeks before Christmas. We don’t have a set date,” she said vaguely. She hadn’t thought people would’ve noticed.
“I can’t wait to pick mine out. We’ve already gotten some wreaths from you,” Marsha said.
Thank goodness the trees from which we got the evergreen boughs for the wreaths were fairly healthy, Dorothy thought.
“I suppose it’s been busy with Kristen coming back. We have to remember to give Dorothy time to get everything set up and running. This is still fairly new to her, and they need to get a process going,” Ida said sympathetically.
“Yes, don’t worry.” Dorothy frowned down at her project, which appeared to be coming out a little lopsided. “We’re just working things out, but we’ll have the trees out in plenty of time for everyone to get one.”
Kristen had her father’s plans for the skating pond laid out on the kitchen table and was taking pictures of them with her cell phone when her mother arrived home from the knitting club.
“Are you home from the sleigh ride already? I thought maybe you might go out with Ivy and Julie afterward.” Dorothy put down the tote bag.
A jumbled knitted mess spilled out of the top. What was that? A sock? A sweater? Hopefully just a practice piece.
“Did you have a good time?” Dorothy asked.
Kristen had had a good time, but when the sleigh had gone past the skating pond, she’d realized that, even though she could see her father’s plans on paper, she wanted to actually go to the site and visualize how her design would look in person.
Of course, she’d seen the skating pond after he’d decorated it many times. In fact, she’d even helped him, but having a visual and putting it together would help her figure out how many trees she wanted and where to place them as well as get an idea of the number of lights she might need.
“I did have a really good time. But Ivy has Malcolm and Julie has Nolan, and it just felt weird. I didn’t really want to be a fifth wheel.” She didn’t mention that she actually wouldn’t have been a fifth wheel had she gone out with them because Mason had been there. She hadn’t wanted to get stuck on a pseudo-date with him.
“I’m glad you had a good time. I get the fifth-wheel thing, but you just had a big breakup, and over time, that feeling will go away.”
George came running out, and Dorothy picked him up and cuddled him like a baby. He purred in her arms, snaking out one paw to touch her chin gently.
