Read Heart in Hand: Stitches in Time Series #3 for Free Online

doesn’t make you a failure.”
    He dropped his head into his hands, then looked up at her. “It isn’t the first incident. Her grades have been dropping. I’ve had two teacher conferences this month.”
    Anna fumbled for something to say. She hadn’t had children, and even though she had siblings, none of them had ever behaved like Sarah Rose.
    She felt a rush of relief she tried to hide when Nick pulled into the driveway.
    “I’m sorry. I have to go,” she said, getting to her feet. “Maybe we can talk sometime.”
    He got to his feet and nodded. “Thanks.”
    Anna got into the van, and Nick pulled out of the drive. When she looked back, Gideon waved at her and then thrust his hands into his pockets.
    She couldn’t forget the image of him staring off into the distance as they drove away.

    Gideon tried to concentrate on the directions for the knitting kit he and Sarah Rose had gotten at Anna’s store.
    He’d decided Saturday was a good day for the activity after the morning chores had been done. Even though it was something fun and he thought Sarah Rose should stay in her room and think about what she’d done, he figured that it was a chance for them to talk father/daughter.
    So after lunch they cleaned up the kitchen and got out the kit and spread it out on the kitchen table.
    After donning an apron, Sarah Rose read the directions—only stumbling over a few words he helped her sound out—good practice for her reading. Her teacher had said she needed to work on it for twenty minutes a day.
    Gideon spread the packets of Kool-Aid out on the table. Interesting idea to use it as yarn dye , he thought. The drink mix was a summer favorite Sarah Rose was allowed now and then.
    “We each get to pick a color,” he told her.
    “I want pink so I want strawberry,” she said immediately. “Do we get to drink some before we use it?”
    “After. Let’s make sure we have enough for the dye first.”
    “Grape for you?”
    “I’m not wearing purple.” He hesitated, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. “Maybe blue moon berry if we make it dark.”
    Gideon opened the packet of strawberry and stirred it into the big bowl of water sitting in the sink, and immediately the fruity smell of berries filled the kitchen.
    “ Mamm used to make that kind for me,” Sarah Rose told him as she carefully lowered her skein of yarn into the water. “She knew strawberry’s my favorite.”
    In the act of dumping the blue moon berry in his bowl of water, Gideon’s head jerked up. He studied her, head bent as she poked at the yarn with a big plastic spoon.
    “I know your mamm always made you strawberry.”
    She looked up at him and gave him one of her solemn smiles.
    “Sarah Rose, I know you miss your mamm . But she’s watching over you, and I think she’s feeling sad that you’re hurting still.”
    “I don’t want to forget her.”
    “No one expects you to. But we need to remember how God gave her to us for a time.”
    “But why do other kids get to have their mamms a long time and not me?”
    He searched for the right words. It didn’t seem fair to him sometimes, but it was God’s will.
    “We don’t always know why God does what He does,” he said, swirling the drink mix into the water and pushing his yarn into the bowl until it was submerged in the dye. “We have to trust that He knows what He’s doing.”
    Her bottom lip stuck out as she stirred. “I know.” She sighed, a huge sigh that said she didn’t really like what she heard but had heard it enough to know it was the truth.
    “How long are we supposed to let it sit now?”
    She set down the spoon and picked up the directions. “Thirty minutes.”
    “So how long is that?”
    She frowned. “Half an hour?”
    “That’s right. How about we have some Kool-Aid and cookies while we wait?”
    “That would be gut . I’ll get it.”
    “No!” he said quickly. “The pitcher’s full. I wouldn’t want it to get spilled.”
    He withdrew his hands