Georgia Sweethearts

by Missy Tippens

  Lilly hustled the girls inside so the boys could get back to work, and then on to their homework. As she shut the door, she looked down at Daniel—couldn’t resist.

  He gave her a thumbs-up.

  Feeling silly, she gave him one in return.

  “Isn’t Jenna here?” he asked.

  “No. She decided to put Will down for a nap at home.”

  He appeared to understand the part she’d left unsaid and gave her an apologetic look. “I hope the meeting goes well.”

  She didn’t know what to say, so she gave him another goofy thumbs-up and hustled inside.

  The expressions on the girls’ faces as they checked out their personalized tote bags from Belinda were priceless. The gifts made them feel as special as Lilly had.

  “Hey, do y’all mind if I take some photos?” Lilly asked.

  “Fine with me,” Cricket said. The others agreed.

  She started snapping shots of them admiring their new bags. “I thought it would be fun to follow your progress on the projects.”

  “Okay, girls,” Belinda said, herding Zaria and Cricket toward their chairs. “I want to show you how to get started knitting. Then once you get the hang of it, we’ll talk.”

  Once she taught them how to cast on and do a simple knit stitch, she looked at Lilly. “Why don’t you show them your scarf?”

  Sharing her less-than-perfect work might encourage the girls. “I’m still learning and practicing,” she said as she held up her half-done scarf that looked as if a kindergartner could have done it.

  “You mean you own this place and don’t even know how to knit?” asked Zaria.

  “It’s true.”

  “Oh, man, that’s awesome,” Evette said. “Kind of like Theresa being in high school.”

  Theresa’s head jerked up from her knitting. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’m dumb?”

  “Hey, none of that,” Belinda said. “Remember what we talked about last week? Being kind to each other. Trying to understand we all have problems no matter what things look like on the outside.”

  “Yeah, Miss Goody Two-Shoes has problems, all right. The problem of deciding between carrying Coach or Dooney & Bourke to school each day. Rough life,” said Evette.

  “That’s not funny. Besides, my handbags are old, from before my dad lost his job.” Theresa pursed her lips and focused on the yarn, jabbing a needle through the yarn loop and then pulling too quickly. Two stitches fell off. “See what you made me do?”

  Zaria gave another of her snorts, obviously siding with Evette in laughing at Theresa.

  “Come on, you two, be nice,” Cricket said. “I’m stuck. I think I messed up on the last stitch.”

  As Belinda helped the girl, Lilly worked on her own scarf, wondering what she’d gotten herself into with this group. She hadn’t dealt well with girl relationships as a kid. Never really had the chance. How did she think she could possibly have something to offer?

  About the time she finished one row of her scarf, the bells jangled, letting her know a customer had arrived.

  Thankful business had picked up, she left Belinda and the girls.

  She headed to the front. “Oh, hi, Vera. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m tired of the shawl I’ve been working on. I want to start a new project. A nice gift for an old friend.”

  About the time Vera had narrowed her choice to two different yarns, the front bell rang again. Another new customer.

  “Vera, if you don’t mind, I’ll leave you a minute to make your decision. Just holler when you’re ready.”

  Lilly scurried over to a cute young woman holding a pattern she’d printed off the internet. “I want to make this, but I don’t have a clue how to start.”

  While she helped the woman pick out supplies and gave her a flyer about the knitting class, the front bell rang again.

  “I’ll be right with you,” Lilly called.

  When the front bell rang a fourth time, she wanted to cry, then thought better of it. Lord, though it looks as if I won’t get to meet with the girls at all, thank You for these customers. “Feel free to look around,” she called in the general direction of the door. “I’ll be right with you.”

  Heavy footsteps headed her way as she rang up the first purchase. She glanced up as she placed the items in a bag.

  Daniel’s handsome face stopped her midmotion. “Oh, hi, Daniel.”

  “Came to see if I can help since Jenna’s not here today.”

  He’d come to her rescue. Because he knew how much it would mean to her to be able to help the girls.

  Her heart soared, and the smile she gave the young customer as she handed over the shopping bag felt as if it stretched her mouth to its limits. “Thank you. I hope you’ll be able to make the next class.”

  The pretty woman’s gaze darted to Daniel, and she blushed. “I think I will.”

  Lilly fought the insane urge to say, Back off. He’s mine.

  But one kiss didn’t infer ownership. It didn’t even, technically, infer a relationship. Though, in her book, it should.

  Lilly held her pleasant expression in place. “Good. We’ll look forward to seeing you.”

  As the beautiful customer left, she noticed Daniel didn’t pay the woman a bit of attention. He simply stared into Lilly’s

  eyes as if waiting for her to say something. For the first time in ages, she felt beautiful. “Thanks for showing up.”

  He nodded at Vera and the remaining woman looking through the yarn bins. “I’ll do my best to help them. Go back to the group.”

  She knew he might be clueless about yarn and knitting, but he certainly had a way with the ladies. She had a feeling she’d be leaving her business in good hands. “Thank you. Holler if you have someone paying with a credit card or if you need me.”

  She hurried back to the circle around the table. As she picked up her scarf and needles, he said, “Ladies, what can I do for you?” in his most charming voice.

  One of them tittered. The other, Vera from the sound of her voice, told him maybe he could help her make a decision. Their voices faded as Daniel skillfully moved them away from the gathering area.

  “I’m such a spaz,” Zaria said. “See how awful this looks.” She held up two rows, the beginning of her scarf.

  “You know,” Theresa said, holding up her nicely progressing scarf, “I think I’ve done this before. I think Miss Ann showed me and Chelsea Reynolds how to knit a long time ago.”

  Evette shook her head and made a disgusted face. “Another goody-goody,” she mumbled under her breath.

  “Who’s Chelsea?” Belinda asked as she helped Cricket fix a dropped stitch.

  “Chelsea Reynolds. My former best friend from kindergarten up.”

  “So you’re not friends now?” Lilly asked.

  Without skipping a beat in her knitting, Theresa let out a huge sigh. “No. Her dad’s the police chief, and he won’t let her hang out with me anymore.”

  ‘You’re better off,” Evette said. “Who needs the law on your back constantly?”

  “I miss her.” The words came out quietly, and Theresa’s hands stilled.

  Belinda leaned across the table. “Do you think you’d still be friends if you’d made better choices?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Were the choices worth it?”

  Theresa glanced around the other girls as if afraid to speak her mind.

  “We need to be honest with each other, and with ourselves,” Belinda added.

  Theresa knitted half a row without answering, as if considering the question. “At first, I thought it was worth it. I was having fun and making new friends.”

  “Yeah, me,” Cricket said with a laugh. “Might have been your first mistake.”

 
“No, I’m glad you’re my friend. But I wish I hadn’t gone so crazy. It wasn’t worth it.”

  “Crazy’s good sometimes,” Zaria said. “You know, to keep life exciting. Especially when you have a boring family who won’t let you do anything and expects you to be perfect.”

  “Well, my family doesn’t trust me now. My mom hardly speaks to me. My dad won’t look at me. And my ex-boyfriend still won’t leave me alone. He was a definite mistake.”

  Cricket shivered as if creeped out. “Yeah, talk about scary.”

  “So are you trying to rebuild trust with your parents?” Lilly asked—she who now had no relationship at all with her parents. “Because, believe me, if you have parents who care about you, then it’s worth it for you to make the effort.”

  “Didn’t yours care?” Cricket looked stricken, ready to cry for Lilly.

  “I guess they did in their own way. Most of the time, though, they were too wrapped up in their own drama.”

  “I’m sorry.” Theresa reached across the table and squeezed Lilly’s arm. “My parents say they love me. I guess I should try.”

  Evette threw down her needles and yarn. “Y’all just need to grow up. Accept that you can’t change your parents’ opinion of you. They’re always going to expect the worst.” She stalked away.

  Belinda inclined her head toward Evette as a silent hint to Lilly. Great. She thinks I can do something. All she’d managed so far was to discourage the girl. But she got up and went to find her. Located her beside Daniel and Vera.

  “I vote for the purple yarn,” Evette said, her opinion obviously unsolicited.

  Vera eyed the teen with the wild red hair and short leather skirt over polka-dot tights. Then Vera puffed up—shoulders thrown back, chin tilted up to look at Evette through the bottom of her bifocals. “Who are you?”

  Daniel gestured to the girl. “Vera, this is Evette. She’s taking a class with Lilly and Belinda.”

  “Um, Evette,” Lilly said, “why don’t you come back over to the group?”

  Evette shrugged. “Whatever.”

  Vera’s eyes narrowed at the girl’s disrespectful tone. She slowly drew her attention back to Lilly. “Before you go, which do you think I should choose? The purple or the blue?”

  Lilly glanced at Daniel, who patiently examined each color as if truly interested. She almost laughed out loud but caught herself. “The purple, I think.”

  “Me, too,” Daniel said as if hoping Vera would finally settle on something...anything.

  Evette snorted a laugh as she walked away. Loud laughter broke out in the gathering area and quickly faded to chatter.

  Vera glared at Evette’s back. “I’ll take the blue. And, Lilly, if you want a thriving business, I suggest you think twice about allowing these—” she wrinkled her nose, repulsed

  “—rude teenagers to overrun the place.” She leaned closer to Lilly to whisper. “Did you see the one in that low-cut top and skintight jeans?”

  “Vera, these girls have signed up for a class,” Lilly said. “A class I need to get back to, if you’ll excuse me.”

  Vera handed Daniel three skeins of blue yarn. Then she looked down her nose at Lilly. “I gave your business card to three more of my friends. I hope they’ll experience the cozy, classy place I experienced here in the past.”

  Daniel’s jaw muscles flexed. “Ma’am, these young ladies and the boys are here as part of a ministry of the church.”

  “Well, ministry or not, I expect a business to cater to its paying customers.”

  What could Lilly say to that without alienating Vera? She grimaced and hoped it passed for a smile. “I’ll see you for class tomorrow. Thanks for shopping with us.”

  She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake. Because their ministry might scare off all the new customers, the same customers who were finally making the business profitable—and were her ticket to being able to sell the shop and head back to Kentucky to launch her new career.

  Her heart hurt at the thought of leaving. Like it always had when her parents said it was time to move again.

  Only this time the pain was different. Because she knew, even if she made the decision to stay in Corinthia, Daniel would eventually leave.

  Had the sharing of feelings...and a kiss...been a mistake? Would it only make it more difficult to leave when the time came?

  She had to prepare mentally—and emotionally—to follow through with her goal of carrying out Aunt Talitha’s wishes. To hope for anything beyond that was asking for disappointment and, as Jenna had said, for heartache.

  * * *

  “That was quite a grand opening,” Daniel said to Lilly as he closed the folder of food pantry vouchers, pleased with the response.

  “Seems like everything went well.” Lilly stretched and rubbed her back. She’d worked hard the past two hours, helping visitors to the food pantry select their items. Then sometimes carrying the items to their car or bicycle.

  He glanced around the small, somewhat dilapidated building. A larger church had provided it for them to use for two hours twice a week to hand out food to the needy, and he was thankful. “Appleton’s about twice the size of Corinthia. Having this new food pickup location in addition to the one we opened a few months ago in our community will serve a lot more people closer to where they live.”

  “I’m a little surprised at the turnout,” she said. “I thought it would take a while for word to get out.”

  “Word of mouth for this type thing travels like wildfire.”

  She crossed her arms in front of her and looked up at him almost shyly. “You did a good job organizing the distribution process. If we can get enough volunteers to work, it’ll be a huge success.”

  We? She was now including herself in the church membership. Something that made him ridiculously happy. “We have a core of active, committed members for all our projects. I appreciate you signing up to help.”

  “You know, I’ve been thinking and praying about where to be involved in the ministries of the church. But it just now hit me that it’s probably time for me to come down front and officially join.”

  He leaned toward her, brushed her hair behind her ear, questioning this crazy relationship of theirs. A relationship that left him wondering about their future. “Everyone will be happy about that. Me especially.”

  He dragged himself away from her, leaned back in his chair and let out a satisfied sigh. He looked into Lilly’s eyes and thought she felt it, too. “You know, this is the last item I had on my list of goals for the church.”

  Her expression fell. She glanced away. “So what does that mean?”

  A weight suddenly pressed on his chest. Had the time to leave come sooner than expected? “Well, this place has been opened one day and cleared the shelves. Looks like we’ll be busy collecting donations for next week.”

  She jumped up as if she had rockets on her feet. “Then we should celebrate. Maybe with lunch?” She reached for his hands and pulled him out of his seat.

  He tried not to show his surprise. “Sounds good. Let’s lock up and—”

  “Hello? Anyone still here?” Daniel’s dad called from the front door.

  “Over here.”

  “Oh, there you are,” Blake said as he strode across the room. “I thought I’d stop by and see how your distribution went.”

  Daniel was surprised for the second time that day.

  “We had a great day, Mr. Foreman,” Lilly said. “Gave out all the food and will have to step up donations to meet the demand.”

  “Sounds like it was successful, then,” he said. “As long as you can keep it stocked.”

  “Dad, we were about to grab lunch. You want to join us?”

  “I...uh, no thanks,” he stuttered. “But I did want to speak to you for a minute, Daniel.”

 
“I’ll head to the back room and straighten up,” Lilly said before slipping quickly away, leaving him with his father.

  Blake leaned toward Daniel as if to keep from being heard. “I actually came by to take you to out to eat, but I don’t want to intrude on your date.”

  “Take me to lunch?”

  “I’d like to talk to you sometime about...well, about how God’s working in my life.”

  “Tell me now. I have a minute.”

  “No, I don’t want to keep you from Lilly.”

  “Dad, come on...”

  “God’s been convicting me.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, a gesture that reminded Daniel of himself. “I’ve been hard on you, son. Pushing you toward what I considered success.” He raised his chin, ground his teeth, obviously uncomfortable. “And I regret it. I’m sorry I didn’t support you when you felt called into the ministry.”

  Daniel worked to keep his expression neutral, when in reality, his jaw nearly dropped open. “Thanks, Dad. I appreciate you telling me.”

  Blake shook Daniel’s hand. “Enjoy your date.” He took off toward the door as if he couldn’t get away fast enough. Either playing matchmaker or embarrassed for sharing about his faith.

  He caught up with Blake at the door. “We’re not dating, we’re simply—”

  “Come on. Don’t tell me you’re still ignoring the fact that something’s going on between you and Lilly.”

  Their kiss had definitely confirmed the connection. So had their conversations and shared interests. “I did acknowledge I have feelings for her. But I also have to acknowledge we’re two people heading in different directions.”

  “That’s hogwash.”

  “She has plans for a future in Kentucky. And I have my calling.”

  “Your calling shouldn’t keep you from settling down, marrying, starting a family. You can serve God here.” He said it with surety, as if he’d heard it from God Himself.

  “Of course I can. But I think God is calling me to something else. I’ve always planned to be a church starter.”

  “Maybe God called you to start only one church—a church that needs you. And I think Lilly needs you, too.”