Read Let it Sew for Free Online Page B

you,” Dixie stammered.
    Rose raised her elbow to the table and rested her forehead in her wrinkled hands.
     “Is his little boy okay with this?”
    Waving off the question, Maime readdressed an eerily silent Leona. “So, as you can
     see, Sweet Briar is every bit as much
my
town as it is yours. And since my fiancé is a
council member
, my say actually counts.”
    “I can’t believe Avery is okay with this.” Dixie pushed back her chair and drew her
     purse onto her lap. “Okay with your attitude.”
    Like a passing cloud giving way to the sun, Maime’s face broke into a plastic smile.
     “Avery is thrilled that I am embracing Sweet Briar and that I’m eager to make it the
     perfect home for our new little family.”
    “Avery and his son have been a family forever.” Slowly, Rose lifted her head from
     her hand and pinned Maime with bifocal-enlarged eyes. “There’s nothing
new
about that.”
    And just like that, any hint of sun—artificial or otherwise—was pushed from the sky
     by the kind of cloud that sent people scurrying for the nearest basement.
    “You just wait,” Maime hissed from between clenched teeth. “By the time I’m done around
     here, there won’t be a single shred of Avery’s former life
anywhere
. And that includes inside your precious little Sweet Briar.”
    *   *   *
    Despite the presence of a brownie, a slice of apple pie, a blueberry scone, and a
     piece of chocolate fudge, the mood around the table was dour at best.
    Every few minutes, Dixie would start a sentence, only to shake her head and go back
     to poking at her scone. Rose didn’t even attempt to speak, her lips pursed tight in
     a visible mixture of grief and anger. Leona, on the other hand, had no trouble speaking
     at all, her play-by-play recap of the Christmas committee meeting pouring from her
     mouth with little to no filter.
    “Can you believe the nerve of that woman? Who does she think she is, blowing into
     town like that and changing everything to suit her evil ways?” Leona pushed her plate
     of fudge into the center of the high-top table and folded her arms around a sleeping
     Paris. “She didn’t listen to a word we said. Not one.”
    Tori forked off a corner of her brownie and popped it into her mouth. “I thought I
     was going to fall out of my chair when she said she was doing away with the Santa
     visit and the holiday food drive.”
    “And don’t forget the caroling,” Dixie reminded via her first complete sentence in
     over an hour. “Why, there are people who come from two or three towns over to be part
     of that tradition every year. I can’t imagine just stopping it, can you?”
    “I can’t imagine any of the things she suggested,” Leona snapped. “Aluminum trees
     around the square? A holiday gift snatch? Christmas Eve ring and runs?”
    Dixie snorted. “We should have just left. Let her figure out how to execute her insanity
     all on her—”
    “No, we shouldn’t have left.” Rose extricated her hands from each other just long
     enough to push her glasses back into position, affording the matriarch a better view
     of the women seated around her. “That woman is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
    “I didn’t see anything even resembling a sheep except when Avery came to pick her
     up.” Leona pulled her plate back to her spot and stared down at the block of fudge.
     “Why did I order this? I don’t eat chocolate.”
    “I do.” Reaching across the table, Tori stilled her hand just shy of Leona’s plate
     before addressing Rose’s statement. “Leona, the way she was when Avery showed up is
     exactly what Rose means by sheep’s clothing. She’s showing him a different side.”
    “If Avery is stupid enough to fall for one of the oldest tricks in the book, he’s
     got what’s coming to him.”
    Rose glowered at Leona. “
He
might, but that little boy of his certainly doesn’t.”
    Avery’s son.
    Kyle.
    The epitome of an honest, sweet, loving