Knit to Be Tied

by Maggie Sefton

  “Oh, I’m really impressed,” Kelly said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

  Jennifer gave Kelly a crooked smile. “Those were my thoughts exactly. Anyway, Tanya says she wants to spend more time with Cassie. She wants Cassie to stay with her for a while before school starts again. And before she and Donnie go out on the road again.”

  Kelly screwed up her face. “She can’t be serious. Cassie’s in the midst of her softball team’s final games. And Megan says she’s got tennis matches scheduled, too. It’s the last month of summer.” She gestured in aggravation. “Cassie’s got a life here. She’s busy with her friends. Tanya can’t pull her away from all that just because she wants to play mother.”

  Jennifer laughed softly. “I can always count on you for an honest reaction, Kelly. Thank you for that. But whether we like it or not, Tanya is Cassie’s mother, so Pete has to take her request seriously.”

  “Dammit! What’s gotten into Tanya?”

  Jennifer shrugged. “I don’t know. Pete and I figure she’s in her late thirties now, so maybe she’s having second thoughts about her lifestyle. All those years following the rock bands and musicians around. Maybe she really does want to settle down with this guy. Who knows?”

  “Well, she can settle down with What’s His Face, but that doesn’t mean she can take Cassie with her,” Kelly said indignantly as she moved closer to the front of the concession line.

  Jennifer reached out and gave Kelly a quick hug. “That’s what Pete and I think, too. We haven’t said anything to Cassie yet. Pete’s still talking to Tanya. We’re hoping she’d agree to having Cassie come down to Denver for a weekend. We’ll see. Keep your fingers crossed.”

  “All right. But I think you two should go talk to a lawyer and a family social worker or whatever. Start finding out what your legal rights are. You two have been Cassie’s de facto parents for over two years now.” Kelly looked Jennifer in the eye and dropped her voice.

  Jennifer smiled. “Pete’s already called Marty. We’re going to see him on Monday. Start the legal proceedings to formally gain custody.”

  Kelly let out a long-held breath. “Okaaaaay. That makes me feel a whole lot better.” The line moved forward again, and Kelly gave the teenager behind the counter a big smile. “I want a hot dog with chili and ketchup and mustard and relish.”

  The teenage girl blinked. “You want all of that on one hot dog?”

  “Yeah. Why not?” Kelly said with a laugh.

  • • •

  Kelly started across the gravel driveway separating her cottage from the Lambspun knitting shop. Monday afternoon’s sun was blazing early-August hot. In another two or three weeks, the temperatures should slowly start to inch downward toward the mid and low eighties. September in Northern Colorado was usually very warm and mild and sunny, sunny, sunny. As usual, the dependability of that Colorado sunshine was one of the things Kelly loved best about living in her old hometown of Fort Connor. “Hey, Kelly,” Burt’s voice sounded from the café patio garden.

  Kelly turned to see her father figure and mentor walk toward her. “Hi, Burt. How was your Saturday in Denver this past weekend?”

  “It was great. Mimi and I will definitely get away some other times like that,” he said with a big smile.

  “I agree. Both you and Mimi work really hard and are always here at the shop, taking care of customers. Connie and Rosa can handle things for a weekend, especially if you have guest instructors coming in to teach Saturday classes.”

  “You make a very good point, Kelly. And believe me, I’ve presented the same case to Mimi. She’s simply not ready to cut back on the schedule yet.”

  Kelly fell in step with Burt as he walked down the sidewalk bordering the patio garden, heading toward the shop front entry. “Well, maybe this past weekend will give Mimi an idea of how much fun it would be to take a little break every now and then.”

  “Let’s hope so, Kelly. We went to the Performing Arts Center in Downtown Denver and saw a Broadway musical. And we even visited the art gallery close to downtown.” Burt walked up the brick steps and heaved open the wide wooden entry door.

  “Well, hello, you two,” Lambspun staffer Rosa said when Kelly and Burt entered. Rosa’s arms were filled with plump oblong skeins of multicolored yarns. “Mimi wants to talk to you about that Denver supplier, Burt. She just got off the phone with him.” Rosa continued to stack the yarn skeins on top of the antique dry sink in the foyer corner.

  “Thanks, Rosa. What’d I tell you, Kelly,” Burt said with a grin. “That woman doesn’t know how to slow down.” He walked away through the adjoining loom room toward the front of the shop.

  Kelly paused by the antique dry sink cabinet and fingered the colorful new yarn skeins Rosa had placed there. Fall colors. Forest green and purple plum and burnt orange. Mimi and the Lambspun elves always started putting out hints of the autumn to come while it was still August. Letting knitters and crochet folks and all the fiber artists start to think about warm sweaters and scarves and mittens while it was still summer hot outside. Planting seeds, Kelly figured as she headed toward the central yarn room.

  At that moment, Lisa and fellow grad student Nancy walked out of the main room. Lisa had her arm around Nancy’s shoulders. Kelly noticed Nancy’s red-streaked face and lowered head as she walked with Lisa toward the front door.

  “Give me a call after you get out of class, okay?” Lisa said. “And let me know if you talk to your father.”

  Kelly couldn’t hear what Nancy’s wet voice mumbled to Lisa in the foyer. But Lisa replied in a lowered tone before Nancy walked out of the shop. Then Lisa turned around and approached Kelly. She had a worried expression on her face.

  “What was that all about?” Kelly asked. “Nancy looked all happy and pleased to start a new project the last time I saw her.”

  Lisa let out a long sigh. “It’s complicated. Let’s go to the table. Everyone else has left so we’ll be alone.”

  “Sounds serious,” Kelly observed as she followed Lisa into the main room, dropping her briefcase bag onto the long library table. A shaft of bright August afternoon sun streaked through the wood-rimmed windows, shining across the floor and table. The table’s dark walnut shone under the sunlight, bringing up the faint reddish highlights buried deep in the wood.

  Lisa pulled out a chair right beside Kelly at the end of the table. “Nancy is having problems with her boyfriend.”

  “That sounds pretty typical for young college students. I know you said she’s a graduate student, but she looks pretty young to me.”

  Lisa nodded. “Yeah, she is. Nancy’s very smart. Book smart, as she says.” Lisa gave a crooked smile. “She’s always made good grades and taken advanced courses in school, she told me. But she’s kind of awkward and inexperienced on the dating scene apparently. She’s gotten into a romantic relationship with this guy in her finance and investments class—”

  Kelly perked up. “That sounds like accounting to me. I thought she was a fellow psychology student like you.”

  “Well, she has taken almost all of the psych courses she needs for her master’s degree. But she’s also taking some business courses in finance, if you can believe it. I don’t know how she handles it all. But as I said, she’s supersmart.”

  “She must be. But what does all that have to do with her boyfriend troubles, if anything?”

  “Nothing really. I was simply giving you a little background on Nancy so you can understand what’s happening. Anyway, Nancy started dating this guy in her class, and their relationship moved pretty fast. She said she was helping him in their finance class studies, then they started sleeping together.”

  Kelly leaned back into the wooden chair beside Lisa. “There’s nothing new in that story. What happened?”

  “Well, apparently Nancy believed all this guy’s sweet talk about their being together as a couple and all that. So wh
en she found out last week that she was pregnant, she was really excited. She actually thought this guy, Neil, would be happy, too.” Lisa caught Kelly’s gaze.

  “I have a feeling I know where this is going,” Kelly said in a sarcastic tone.

  “Ohhhhh, yeah,” Lisa said, releasing a tired sigh. “This guy did not take it well—”

  “Big surprise.”

  “And he told Nancy he didn’t want to see her anymore. He’s about to get his MBA and start a bright career with this beer manufacturer who’s expanding into new territory in Arizona.”

  “What a sweetheart. Now I know why she was crying.”

  “Yeah, she’s really devastated. I knew she was all excited about this relationship, but I had no idea how much until she started opening up today. Nancy had convinced herself they were going to get married, and she was spinning all sorts of daydreams about their life together.”

  “Oh, brother . . . that is so sad. I hate stories like that.” Kelly screwed up her face. “What’s Nancy going to do now?”

  “She’s moving back in with her father in town and giving up her space in an apartment.”

  “Oh, boy, that could be a difficult conversation.”

  “Actually, I know her father. He’s an excellent counselor over at the community center and for Larimer County. And he works with recovering alcoholics, too.”

  “Ohhhhh, good. So at least he’ll be understanding. I hope.”

  Lisa nodded. “Oh, yes. It’s not him I’m worried about. It’s Nancy. After she explained to me what happened with Neil, she said she hoped that maybe he would ‘change’ his mind about the baby. Maybe he reacted out of shock at the news.”

  Kelly looked Lisa in the eye. “That sounds like a lot of false hope to me.”

  Lisa didn’t reply, simply nodded her head in agreement.

  Three

  Kelly grabbed her cell phone after the second ring. Boyfriend Steve’s name flashed on the screen as she clicked on.

  “How’s it going? Does that new client like any of those building sites?” Kelly asked as she emptied the coffeepot into her large mug on the kitchen counter.

  “Actually, no. That surprised me, because he sounded like he really wanted to be up here in the mountains. I’d found four different sites in the Summit County area. Great views from all four, so I thought he’d like at least one of them.”

  “Sounds like he’s having second thoughts about living in the more isolated areas.” Kelly snapped the lid on her mug as she glanced outside into her cottage backyard.

  Rottweiler Carl was stretched out on the grass in one of his favorite sunny spots, sound asleep. Midday nap time calling. Irresistible. Of course, Brazen Squirrel was well aware of Big Dog’s nap schedule. Consequently, Brazen and the smaller brown squirrel—Kelly was convinced she was Brazen’s mate—were making tracks across the fence and down to the ground. Scampering along the backyard, checking for tasty nuts or other yummy seeds that summer’s harvest provided. Kelly noticed brown squirrel kept looking over her squirrelly shoulder in Carl’s direction. Clearly making sure Big Dog had not awakened.

  “Yeah, I think that’s it. Once he was up on the different sites, I was able to explain to him exactly how water and electric power could be obtained. He never seemed interested in hearing those details when I mentioned them in our earlier meetings. But he started asking questions this morning.”

  “I’ll bet he did. Once people understand what’s actually involved in living farther out, it starts hitting them. That’s what Jennifer always said. Particularly when they hear how much it costs to provide electricity and water. Oh, and maybe there will be a cell tower you can get a signal from.”

  Steve’s chuckle came over the phone. “Ohhhhh, yeah. When I told him it could be thirty thousand dollars or so to drill for water, his eyes popped wide.”

  Kelly had to laugh. “And that’s assuming you find water the first time you drill. The higher up you go, the farther you have to drill. So add another twenty thousand or so to the bill. They don’t call these the Rocky Mountains for nothing.”

  “That’s for sure. Anyway, I went over everything with him. Digging and installing a septic system and leach field.”

  “And the cost.”

  “Yeah. He had his calculator out by then. That’s when I explained the power situation. If he chose a lot that was only a little farther out from the last electric utility pole, then he could attach to that last pole and obtain electricity from the Rural Electric Cooperative. For a price, of course. If he was the first one on a new section, his cost would be higher until more new customers attached after him. That’s how an electric cooperative works. All the members cooperate in sharing the costs of providing electric power poles and lines and transmission costs.”

  “Did his eyes start to glaze over by then?” Kelly teased as she leaned back against the kitchen counter.

  “Just about. Once I told him the costs could be over thirty thousand dollars initially, his eyes got even wider. That’s when he asked about solar power.”

  “That’s always an option. How large is his family? Oh, yeah, does he have school-age children? That’s another consideration.”

  “No, he and his wife would be the only ones living there. Their older children would come to visit periodically, he said.”

  “Well, maybe their electric needs will be moderate then. A solar array can be kind of pricey to start with. It will save money down the road, but you have to be able to pay the initial costs.”

  “I explained all that to him, and that’s when he told me both he and his wife were self-employed and had Internet-based businesses. They were both online on their computers every day.”

  Kelly started to laugh. She’d heard the smile in Steve’s voice. “Oh, brother. They will definitely need two solar arrays to bring in the power they need.”

  “That’s what I told him. He got really quiet after that.”

  “Has his wife seen any of the places yet?”

  “He’s sent her the videos showing the landscapes from all four sites. She’s flying into Denver tonight from Omaha. So tomorrow morning I’ll take both of them out to see whatever is on their short list. He said he’ll go over all the details with her tonight at dinner. They’re staying in Downtown Denver at that new residence hotel.”

  “So you’ll be staying in Denver again tonight? Darn.”

  “Yeah, it’s easier to get an early start in the morning. That’s assuming this couple want to see any of these mountain sites. Once he explains all the costs to his wife, they both may have a change of heart.”

  “For sure. Those thousands of dollars add up quickly when you’re developing virgin mountain property. Pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

  Steve laughed softly. “Spoken like a CPA. That’s why I’ve been talking with the real estate broker who handles a lot of these mountain sites. She’s told me about another development that’s closer in and less difficult to build on. Yet the properties are situated so they have that isolated feel with panoramic views. Anyway, we’ll see if those sites live up to her salesman’s description. I wanted to be able to show this couple something else in case they decide today’s sites are a little too isolated.”

  “Smart. I’ll bet you that couple is having that discussion right now. And tomorrow, they’ll want to see those other sites.” Kelly took a large sip of coffee, strong and black.

  “We’ll see. They have to decide where they want their house located. My job is to design a house that will fit that location.”

  “Plus you love the challenge,” Kelly teased.

  “Yeah, that, too,” Steve admitted with another chuckle.

  “Okay, I’ll let you know how our game goes tonight. Don’t forget, we’re all getting together at Megan and Marty’s tomorrow night.”

  “Got it on my schedule. Don’t worry. I’ll be back
on time. It’ll be fun to see what the little firecracker is up to.”

  “Cassie will be babysitting, so she’ll have Molly under control.”

  Steve laughed out loud. “You hope.”

  Kelly had to join his laughter. Ohhhhh, yes.

  • • •

  As Kelly strolled through the quiet and empty patio garden, she spotted Megan getting out of her car in the driveway up ahead. “Hey, Megan!” She gave a wave.

  Megan looked up and smiled. “Hi, Kelly. I thought I’d bring Molly over now, since it’s late Friday afternoon. The shop is quieter.”

  Kelly watched with interest as Megan released a chubby-cheeked baby with a mop of fiery red curls from a car seat in the back of her automobile. “Come on, Molly. Let’s go visit Mimi and Burt.” Then Megan lowered the baby into a fabric and metal baby carrier. Molly’s sturdy little legs kicked and wiggled as Megan secured straps around Molly.

  “Boy, you’ve really got that down pretty slick. It used to take you a lot longer to get Molly into the carrier.”

  “Practice, practice,” Megan said with a wry smile as she slid her arms through the carrier and lifted baby Molly behind her back, facing forward.

  “Hey, hey, Molly,” Kelly said with a big smile. “Wanta go see Uncle Burt and Aunt Mimi?” Molly grinned back at Kelly and patted her mother’s head.

  “Here we go,” Megan said, setting off toward the Lambspun front entry at her usual quick pace. Kelly did notice there was a slight slowdown, caused by the extra weight no doubt.

  “How much does Molly weigh now? She looks bigger every time I see her. It’s been two weeks, I think.” Kelly walked alongside the twosome.

  “She’s ahead of schedule because she’s almost tripled her birth weight now. Usually it’s at a year. She’s gonna be a big girl,” Megan said as she climbed the steps to the wooden entry door, then abruptly stopped at the top step. “Yeow! Let go, Molly!” she cried out, eyes shut. Molly had a fistful of Megan’s dark curls and yanked.