Last Chance Knit & Stitch Read Online Free Page A

you?”
    “I did.”
    “It’s very nice.” He said this with another obvious glance at her boobs. Her internal thermostat went wacky again. Or maybe the funeral home’s air-conditioning was on the fritz.
    She was tempted to let him think she was some kind of super woman, capable of changing spark plugs and whipping up an apple pie all in a day’s work. But actually, she didn’t want to be a super woman. So why was she arguing with him?
    She met Simon’s gaze directly, squared her shoulders, and told the truth. “My mother owns the Knit & Stitch, the yarn shop in town. She taught me to knit when I was little, and I took to it. I blow at cooking and sewing, though, and I don’t even care.”
    “Well, half odd is better than all the way odd,” he said in a teasing tone.
    Jeez louise! This conversation had taken a strange and uncomfortable turn. It was time to extricate herself. “Look, I’m sorry for your loss. I loved your daddy. He believed in me when no one else would, and he gave me a place to see if I could realize my dreams. I told him a million times that he needed to quit smoking those cigars, and …” Her voice wobbled the minute she thought about Ira standing in the middle of the showroom with an unlit cigar clenched in his teeth. She was never going to see him there again. He was never going to stop by and admire her body work. She was on her own now. And about to lose her garage space.
    Her nose filled up with snot, and the urge to bawl became almost unbearable. She sniffled back her suddenly overflowing nasal passages. She was not going tocry. Not even for Ira Wolfe. He wouldn’t want her to cry over him. Not in a million years.
    Ira would just want her to finish that Shelby and get going building her business.
    And wouldn’t you know it, right then Ira’s too-handsome and somewhat odd son reached into his pocket and pulled out a fine linen handkerchief. He held it out for her, his eyes filled with kindness and deep empathy. “You know, Molly, I could say the same thing about your father. He definitely believed in me when no one else did. I owe him a great deal.”
    She could refuse that hankie the way he’d refused to shake her hand earlier in the day. Or she could accept the handkerchief and his words as the peace offering they were intended to be.
    She snatched the handkerchief and quickly blotted her eyes and blew her nose. She wanted to hand it back to him but realized that a snotty handkerchief was kind of gross. “Uh, I’ll wash it and get it back to you,” she said as she crammed the soggy cloth into the pocket of her slacks. “I guess I’ll need to remember to bring tissues for the funeral tomorrow.”
    Simon glanced down at his father. “Me too.”

CHAPTER
3
    A lonely fluorescent light illuminated a corner of the Wolfe Ford service center, lending the cavernous space an eerie quality. Molly hurried across the spotless gray floor, her sneakers squeaking with each step. She’d stopped at home on her way back from Ira’s wake to change into her work clothes. She was brimming with news and gossip.
    Les Hayes, Molly’s best friend, was going to blow more than a gasket when he heard what she had to say. Heck, he was probably going to throw a piston, too.
    She found him bent over the Shelby’s engine compartment, which had been divested of the radiator, the battery, and all of the engine’s hoses and belts. Tonight they were supposed to pull the block and the tranny. The plan from there was for Les to rebuild the engine while Molly started work on the body.
    The car’s seats and dashboard had already been pulled last week and sent to an auto upholsterer up in Columbia that Molly worked with.
    “Hey, Molly,” Les said without looking up from the engine compartment. “How was your day?”
    “Probably the crappiest of my life.”
    Les looked up. Grease darkened his forehead and smudged one cheek, making his baby blues look bluer than ever. His curly brown hair puffed from around