AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His smile got wider. “Don’t worry.”
He poured himself a cup and for the first time, she noticed what he had on. A plain white T-shirt, with a faded medical school logo on the right side of the chest. What a chest. She had forgotten how good he looked in something as ordinary as a T-shirt. He had on faded jeans with worn areas of white that defined the musculature of his legs. Her gaze moved over him from head to toe. He looked ready for summer, and younger than he usually did, his brown hair a bit shaggy.
His stance was relaxed as he found a cup and poured himself a cup of coffee, adding a wickedly large shot of half-and-half, then tapping the two sugar packets on the side edge of the counter. He ripped them open and poured them into his cup.
“You’re a doctor. Don’t you know sugar and cream are bad for you?”
Jonas shrugged, grinning. “Hey, I like to walk on the wild side.”
He sipped his coffee, looking at her over the rim until she had to smile back. Almost imperceptibly, she felt herself relax.
“Aren’t you going to have some?”
“I guess I will.” She moved toward the counter and he stepped sideways. Bridget kept her tone of voice brisk and businesslike as she fixed her cup. “It’s going to be a long day and I want to stay on top of things until the shoot’s done.”
“I can understand that. Looks like they kind of took over.”
Bridget nodded. “The good part is, they featured the items I wanted. I’m hoping to get the knitters’ names featured in the article. Every little bit helps. The Randolph economy isn’t exactly booming.”
“No? You seem to be doing well.”
Bridget sugared up her coffee and clinkety-clinked the spoon as she stirred. “That’s because a lot of my business is online.”
“Smart.”
She felt a flash of defensive irritation, even though she was sure he hadn’t meant to sound patronizing. Granted, she hadn’t gone away to college, hadn’t even had a chance to think about it with a little girl to raise—but that wasn’t anything she was going to discuss with him.
“Once the website was up, the orders started coming in from knitters and quilters all over the country. I run side-bar ads in sewing and crafts magazines, but word of mouth is what really brings in new customers.”
Jonas nodded, motioning with his free hand to a display of quilting brochures not too far away. “Those are for customized kits, right?”
He must have walked by them on his way in. Bridget couldn’t help but feel relieved that he was sticking to safe questions. “Right. The brochures have a quiz on hobbies, color preferences, pets, things like that—and the online brochure is the same. They fill it out and then I e-mail each interested customer a mini-version of a quilt she could make, using her preferences and design templates I created.”
“Hmm. Clever idea. Did you think up that concept yourself?”
“Yup.” Bridget picked up her cup of coffee and nodded at her computer. “I’ll show you how I do it.” She walked over and sat down, waiting a minute for the screen to come to life as Jonas looked over her shoulder.
Bridget pulled up a file and filled in its boxed blanks, typing with one hand. “Let’s say a customer’s hobby is gardening. And she likes pastel colors. And cats.” Bridget clicked back and forth between her graphics program and the form she was filling out, picking out stylized flowers and cats in pink, blue, and yellow.
“All I have to do is put those elements together using standard blocks I create for each category—it takes me about five minutes. Then I e-mail her a couple of different versions. The design is personalized but it relies on standard elements that don’t have to be redesigned each time.”
“Very cool. And very smart. But what if you get a request from someone who likes motorcycles, ripped denim, and bulldogs?”
Bridget laughed. “I can handle special orders. It takes a little longer to come up with the images, so I charge more, that’s all.”
She opened a folder on the computer and an assortment of art popped up, from tattoo-style mermaids to geometric glyphs. Jonas looked genuinely interested and she warmed to her subject. “These are hard to do. Most people prefer the easy stuff like daisies and stars. If they like the miniversion and place an order for a kit, I graph the blocks for the design they choose, add the instructions, print it all up, and send it out. They sew it from their own fabrics, which means no inventory to speak of.”
“That’s a business for the new millennium.”
“Yeah, well, thank God for PayPal.”
Jonas laughed. “You really are ingenious. I’m impressed.”
Bridget blushed a little. “I get more orders every month. Which means I can set my own hours and stay here in Randolph with Molly—”
She stopped, feeling his thoughtful gaze on her.
“That makes sense.”
