Needle and Dread Read Online Free Page B

find the closest computer and let everyone know how horrible your shop was,” Leona countered as she closed the door behind Travis and made her way into the center of the room.
    Rose emerged from behind the register, her sweater pulled tightly against her upper body despite the room’s comfortable temperatures. “You say that like it’s not something she’s going to do anyway.”
    â€œShe probably will, Rose. And you need to prepare yourself for that.” Leona took a quick look at Tori’s numbers and then focused on Rose once again. “But by allowing her to finish the project, we won’t have to wonder if we could have done something different.”
    It made sense. It really did. Yet Tori couldn’t really wrap her head around anything other than Rose’s palpable sadness. SewTastic was supposed to be the thing that lifted the elderly woman’s spirits and kept her feet moving. And,since the sewing shop’s grand opening two weeks earlier, it had done exactly that. Suddenly, Rose’s feet hadn’t shuffled quite so much when she walked, and the often crippling pain from her arthritis seemed incapable of keeping her down. Instead of focusing on the end of her life, Rose was motivated by the experiences still to come . . .
    â€œSo what if Opal gives the shop a bad review?” Tori asked as she closed and put away the logbook once and for all. “There were four other crafters here for the same event, and every one of them seemed to have a good time. And I know that everyone who has walked through those doors since you opened two weeks ago has had nothing but good things to say . . .”
    â€œI wanted
everyone
to love this place,” Rose said between noticeable swallows.
    Debbie finished helping Margaret Louise with the food cleanup and turned to face Rose. “I know from Colby’s novels that one bad review against dozens of good reviews always stands out as suspect. It’s either a wannabe writer jealous of his success, or someone who’s a generally unhappy person. For people who make it a habit to read reviews, it’s easy to pick those out and discard accordingly. The same will hold true with whatever Opal says. Especially when it’s up against nothing but positive accounts of the same event.”
    â€œYou really think so?” Rose asked, her gaze lingering on Debbie’s for a moment before seeking Tori’s for added confirmation.
    â€œDebbie is right. One bad review is hardly front-page news.” Tori came out from behind the front counter and slipped a reassuring arm around Rose’s frail shoulders.“Now, let’s get this event done and over with, shall we? I promised Milo I’d be home at a reasonable time.”
    Charles stopped nibbling on a hangnail and looked up. “Hear! Hear!”
    â€œCharles?” Tori asked, laughing. “Do
you
want the honor of looking in on Ms. Goodwin and telling her that Miranda and the rest of her group are sitting on the bus waiting for her to finish up?”
    Leona’s hand shot up. “No, no. I’ll take this one. It’ll be my pleasure . . .”
    Sagging against the wall, Charles mouthed his love for his fellow fashionista and then followed it up with an air-kiss as she passed.
    â€œWhy don’t you wrap things up for Opal the same way Daddy wrapped things up whenever somethin’ was goin’ on too long,” Margaret Louise said as Leona reached the mouth of the hallway and stopped to take a breath. “Just tell her it’s time to pee on the fire and call it a day.”
    A slow smile inched its way across Leona’s mouth just before she disappeared from their collective sight.
    â€œLeona was always Daddy’s girl,” Margaret Louise said, dropping onto a nearby chair. “Why, when she was not much higher ’n my knee is now, she used to—”
    A bloodcurdling scream from the far