Fleece Navidad Part 2

It was a brilliantly sunny morning, as bright as a summer's day. Temperatures had climbed, surprising everyone including forecasters. All the holiday shoppers Kelly had seen walking about Old Town had their coats unb.u.t.toned, their wool scarves dangling uselessly. Capricious Colorado weather at work. Change was the only constant.

"I love your new car, Kelly. I'm glad you went sportier," Jennifer said as they waited for the traffic light to change. "I'm sure I couldn't afford it, but it's nice to ride in."

"It was an impulse," Kelly admitted, glancing back at the sleek red car parked along the street. "First time I've ever done anything like that. I surprised myself."

"Impulses can be good, at least in your case. Me, I have to be careful when those impulses strike. They usually have names."

Kelly laughed, watching the light change. "Now that you mention it, how are things going? Romance-wise, I mean?"

Jennifer snorted. "I gave up on romance a long time ago. I settled for having fun."

Having fun was Jennifer's specialty, Kelly knew that. But she heard something else in her friend's voice. She wasn't sure what. "Any new guys on the horizon?" she asked as they crossed the street.

"Nope. In fact, the bar scene isn't what it used to be. A lot of my friends have either moved, gotten married, or gotten sober. It's depressing, actually."

Kelly recognized the teasing sound returning to Jennifer's voice. "Why don't you join Steve and me some night at the Jazz Bistro?"

"Maybe I'll take you up on that offer, sometime." Jennifer stopped at the foot of the steep concrete steps leading to the weather-beaten church doors. "Good Lord. I haven't been here since last Christmas."

Kelly looked up at the stone church as she climbed the steps. "That makes two of us. I hope n.o.body's keeping track."

"That's why I always check the font of holy water. If the walls start shaking, I'll see the ripples," Jennifer said, following behind.

A huge Christmas wreath adorning the double doors announced the holiday season as they stepped inside the church vestibule. The scent of evergreen beckoned Kelly forward, and she stopped inside the sanctuary. The decorating committee had been working overtime.

Evergreen boughs and branches were everywhere. Tied with red ribbons, they dangled from the metal chandeliers, draped around the altar rails, and framed the stained-gla.s.s windows. The fresh evergreen scent brought back memories-lots of them. They rose in a wave, ready to engulf her in nostalgia-bittersweet and poignant. Christmas always meant Fort Connor to Kelly.

Memories of Christmases Past danced in front of Kelly's eyes. Her father, Aunt Helen, and Uncle Jim opening presents around the tree, sleigh rides across the snowy pastures, sledding down the foothills, Christmas dinner in the farmhouse. Scenes from her childhood when her father, Jim, and Helen were still alive. They were all gone now. Cancer, heart attack, and murder had taken them away.

Jennifer's voice broke through Kelly's thoughts. "Good. Nary a ripple," she said, staring into the font. "Clearly the Powers-That-Be don't know I'm here yet. Better not say my name too loud."

Kelly had to smile, as all twinges of sadness from the past were chased away by the warmth of the present. Friends. Good friends. She'd created a new family when she'd returned to Fort Connor. And she'd never been happier.

Glancing about the sanctuary, Kelly spied another familiar face. Two familiar faces, in fact. "Look, there's Hilda and Lizzie. They'll point us in the right direction," she said, waving to catch the elderly women's attention as they stood in a side doorway.

The two spinster sisters couldn't look more different. Hilda, tall and raw-boned and gangly, and Lizzie, short and round and as plump as a dumpling.

"Perfect timing, girls," Hilda von Steuben said, checking her watch. Still the schoolteacher keeping track. "Come along. The youngsters will be due in a few minutes. This way you'll have time to meet Juliet and get situated. I believe she wants each of us to instruct a group of ten." Hilda beckoned them through the doorway.

"Burt brought the box of donated yarns and needles this morning. Juliet was so pleased," Lizzie added, bringing up the rear.

"Is Juliet the youth group leader?" Kelly asked as Hilda led them down a spiral staircase to a lower level. Cla.s.srooms jutted out from a narrow, linoleum-lined hallway. Scuffed linoleum. Many feet had pa.s.sed through these halls.

"Actually she's a librarian at the city library, but she volunteers to lead the church youth groups."

"Volunteer Extraordinaire," Lizzie said. "She's so good with the children. I always envied her ability to handle all age groups. It was all I could do to handle rowdy high school students."

"It was a good thing you two didn't have me in your cla.s.ses," Jennifer said as she peered into an empty cla.s.sroom. "I was one of those rowdy ones. You probably would have smacked me."

"Nonsense, my dear, one never needs to resort to corporal punishment," Hilda said with a hint of a smile. "There are far more effective ways to rein in the rowdier ones."

"Here we are, Juliet," Lizzie chirped as she ushered Kelly and Jennifer into a brightly lit cla.s.sroom. "Juliet, I want you to meet Kelly Flynn and Jennifer Stroud. Two of our finest young knitters from Lambspun. Girls, meet Juliet Renfrow. She is a master knitter and a weaver, too." Lizzie beamed as she gestured, almost as if she was pointing to exhibits at the state fair.

"Nice to meet you, Juliet, but I'm afraid Lizzie exaggerates my abilities," Kelly said, extending her hand to the slight woman who approached.

Juliet appeared to be in her sixties or so, judging from the amount of gray streaked through her chin-length brown hair. She had an old-fas.h.i.+oned hairstyle, cut straight at the chin and across the bangs. No makeup, either, as far as Kelly could tell. And no jewelry. She was plain and unadorned.

But it was Juliet's clothing that really captured Kelly's attention. Juliet was dressed entirely in brown. A chocolate brown long-sleeved sweater reached to Juliet's hips. A beautifully knitted sweater, too. Beneath it she wore a cafe au lait tunic over a long mola.s.ses-colored skirt that covered dark brown leggings. Knitted leggings. Kelly wondered if Juliet had knitted the entire ensemble.

Juliet shook Kelly's hand in a surprisingly firm handshake. "So nice of you two to help us this afternoon," she said, her light gray eyes smiling into Kelly's. "We'll need lots of help keeping these young ones focused."

"Well, I hope I'm up to the task, Juliet. I've never taught kids before. Except on the ball field. I've coached baseball and softball, but this is way different."

"Not as different as you would think," Juliet said with a quick laugh as she shook Jennifer's hand. "I'll get the kids situated and settled, and start the instruction. They're used to me telling them what to do, so they won't give me any grief. And I'll be watching to make sure they don't try it on you." She winked.

"Don't worry about me," Jennifer said with a dismissive wave. "I used to teach kids at summer camp. They can't mess with me."

Juliet laughed, and the smile transformed her face.

"What can we do?" Kelly asked.

"You can help me put out these yarns and needles." Juliet lifted a large box from the table beside her and headed toward the long, rectangular tables Hilda was cleaning.

"Ohhhh, wait'll you see all the yarns Mimi collected from the shops in town. They're beautiful," Lizzie enthused.

"Everyone was so generous," Juliet said, tipping the box over a tabletop. Out scattered colorful b.a.l.l.s of yarn.

"This is perfect for beginners," Jennifer said, examining a ball of yarn. "Not too thin, not too thick. It'll be easy to work with."

"Jennifer, could you please fetch those paper towels on top of the cupboard for me?" Hilda called. "I'm afraid my old knees are a bit shaky on a stepladder."

"Hold on, Hilda, I'll get them," Jennifer said, hastening across the room.

"About forty children signed up, so we'll have our hands full," Juliet said as she headed to another table.

Kelly helped scatter the yarns this time. Lizzie appeared with a box of circular knitting needles and arranged them in cl.u.s.ters beside the yarns.

Remembering her own experience knitting a hat for the first time last winter, Kelly wondered out loud. "Do you think the kids will be able to finish at home? It gets a little tricky at the end. What with those double-point needles and such."

"Oh, I'll be around to help them. I thought I'd have a knitting workshop twice a week so the kids could have extra help." Juliet smiled at Kelly. "I remember my first hat, too."

"Make sure you don't volunteer all your time away, Juliet," Lizzie said, a twinkle in her eye. "You want to make sure to have enough time for Christmas parties and such."

Kelly recognized the look in Lizzie's eye. It appeared every time something aroused Lizzie's interest, especially her interest in male-female relations.h.i.+ps.Romantic relations.h.i.+ps, in particular.

Juliet's smile disappeared. "Oh, I never go to parties. I'm much too busy preparing for the holidays."

"But that was before your Romeo started courting you," Lizzie continued to tease as she glanced at Kelly. "Juliet has been seeing a lovely gentleman this year. A widower. They'd seen each other for years at the library. Then one day . . ." Lizzie gestured like an aging Tinkerbell. "Poof! Magic happened."

"How romantic," Kelly replied obligingly. She noticed, however, that Juliet seemed uncomfortable. Juliet made no reply. She simply kept scattering colorful b.a.l.l.s of yarn on the next table.

Lizzie, however, continued to fill in the silence. "Surely you and Jeremy have some special holiday plans."

Juliet's lips pursed together. "I'm afraid we don't. Jeremy's been busy lately-"

"Surely not too busy for you," Lizzie teased again.

Juliet's discomfort was palpable now, and Kelly wished there was some discreet way she could get Lizzie to keep quiet short of stuffing a ball of yarn in her mouth.

Juliet shook the box, emptying the remaining yarns on the last table. "I've heard he's seeing another woman," she said softly, her cheeks aflame. Then she turned and hurried toward the cla.s.sroom doorway. Children's voices could be heard in the hallway.

Lizzie stared after Juliet with an expression of embarra.s.sment and contrition as a noisy group of elementary students burst into the cla.s.sroom.

Three.

Kelly looked up into the Colorado blue sky as she crossed the driveway between the beige stucco, red tile-roofed knitting shop and her lookalike cottage. Another bright, sunny morning. Balmy temperatures, too. Balmy for December, that is. Was this another Indian summer? No rain in sight and no chance of snow, according to the weatherman.

She glanced over her shoulder at the Colorado Rockies in the distance. Snow-capped peaks glistened. The High Country had snow. She and Steve, Greg, Lisa, Megan, and Marty had gone skiing the day after Thanksgiving. All the mountain ski resorts had snow.

Denver had snow. Colorado Springs had snow. Even Greeley had snow. But nary a flake in Fort Connor so far. Maybe that was the Cheyenne Ridge effect. She'd heard since childhood that the Cheyenne Ridge in Wyoming protected Fort Connor from severe winter snowstorms. Denver and Boulder would be dumped on, but Fort Connor would only get a couple of inches. However, every few years a blizzard would roar through the Front Range, and all bets were off.

Kelly paused to admire the Christmas greenery that adorned the Lambspun front door. Jewel-like beads wound through the evergreen boughs, and tiny ribbons dangled. Balancing her coffee mug and knitting bag, she pushed open the door and stepped inside the winter wonderland that Mimi and her elves had created. Kelly paused in the tile foyer, the skylight above flooding the area with sunlight.

The colors of autumn had been cleared away after Thanksgiving. Soft golds and browns, burgundies, deep purples, and forest greens were once again stored downstairs awaiting the inevitable turn of the seasons. Now, the old Spanish colonial farmhouse was alive with bright holiday colors, as each room opened and flowed into the next. Vibrant reds, greens, yellows, and blues were everywhere.

Fat, fluffy b.a.l.l.s of jellybean-colored yarns tumbled from an old steamer trunk. Silky skeins of vermillion hand-painted silk beckoned from an antique cabinet. Gossamer fibers draped along the walls waiting to be spun by holiday elves or fairies. Christmas green wools were wound in skeins piled high. Whites, so bright they sparkled. Royal blues, hand-dyed and wrapped in soft bundles of mohair and silk.

Kelly drank in the color surrounding her as she wandered from the foyer into the adjacent room. Gloves, hats, and mittens dangled from the ceiling. Scarves were draped across an antique dresser. Plump skeins of royal blue merino wool spilled from bins along the walls, tidy b.a.l.l.s of cotton and silk were piled high atop tables, scrunchy multicolored ribbons tied in bundles were stacked on shelves, luscious soft skeins of baby alpaca overflowed baskets.

Everything begged to be touched. As usual, Kelly obliged and sank her free hand into a bin of soft, puffy b.a.l.l.s of jellybean-colored cotton and silk. Next, she stroked a variegated green twist of mohair, then caressed the vermillion hand-painted silk, coiled tight as a woman's braid.

She was fingering an unusual combination of bamboo and cotton when Jennifer's voice called to her from the next room.

"Join me, Kelly. I've got a few minutes of break left."

Kelly strolled into the main room, the largest in the shop, and plopped her knitting bag and coffee mug on the library table that dominated the room.

Shelves lined the walls, alternating with overflowing yarn bins. There were books and patterns for every kind of fiber imaginable. Kelly found all those choices confusing and usually wound up asking Mimi's friendly shop staff.

"I thought you'd be out with your new real estate clients. Didn't they come in Sat.u.r.day afternoon?"

Jennifer's circular needles worked a bright green yarn quickly. Kelly recognized a charity hat coming into shape. Way faster than her own project.

"Oh, yeah, and are they eager. They're from Nebraska, and they're looking for land where they can build their retirement home. They've been vacationing in Colorado for years. I swear, they want to see every mountain property between Fort Connor and Wyoming, starting with the farthest and most remote. So I took them up Cherokee Park Road to some of those building sites yesterday. You know, waaaay out there."

"You mean out past where the electric poles stop? I remember those sites. Talk about wide-open s.p.a.ces." Kelly chuckled as she pulled out her circular needles, blue-green yarn dangling from them. The charity hat. Only two inches knitted so far. She eyed Jennifer's hat, which had at least six inches completed.

"Yeah, emphasis onopen . I told them they'd have to rely on solar energy out there. In fact, they'd have to have a whole array of solar panels. They both do consulting, and they're on their computers all day."

This time Kelly laughed out loud. "Whoa! They'll need more than one solar array. What'd they say when you told them?"

"Their faces fell, because they really liked that prairie-type look to the land. So they're modifying their search closer to town where there are still electric poles on the building sites. But nothing has caught their fancy yet."

"Have you taken them up into the canyons yet?"

"I'm taking them into Poudre Canyon this afternoon. They're speaking with lenders and such this morning, which gives me the chance to work here at the cafe. Pete was sweet to let me off the last two morning s.h.i.+fts. I told him I'd make it up by catering some of his evening functions."

"Sounds like his catering business has really picked up. That's good."

Small business success stories made the accounting lobe of Kelly's brain go warm all over. It brought back memories of her first years in the Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., CPA firm where she used to work. Her first year there, she'd had to intern in the small business division. "s...o...b..x" clients they were called, because they often kept their records in a s...o...b..x and would dump them on Kelly's desk. She'd been glad when her time in the trenches was finished and she could move up to corporate accounting, which was her goal.

"Yeah, Pete's doing really well. I'm proud of him."

"Good morning, girls! How lovely to see you here this Monday morning," Lizzie announced as she entered. She was dressed in her traditional Christmas outfit-bright red winter coat with knitted green wool scarf, topped off with a red bow adorning her silver hair, which was swept into a bun. "It was wonderful working with you two on Sat.u.r.day, and Juliet was delighted with your help. We handled thirty-eight students, all told."

"I'm not sure who handled whom," Kelly said. "That was a heckuva lot harder than teaching baseball. I'm not sure my students will be able to finish their hats on time."

"Nonsense, dear, you did a splendid job." Lizzie slipped off her coat and perched on the chair next to Kelly. She reached into her bulging knitting bag, and lemon yellow froth appeared.

"Baby blanket, right?" Kelly guessed. "I swear, every one of your nieces and nephews must be swaddled in blankets by now."

Lizzie laughed. "This one is destined for Lucy. I thought she could use another. Her little boy is growing by leaps and bounds."

"How is Lucy doing? I haven't seen her since the baby was born," Jennifer asked.

"She's doing quite well. Her spinning business is picking up, and she's teaching more cla.s.ses. And the baby is a healthy little rascal. Yes, Lucy has really turned her life around." Lizzie's fingers moved swiftly as she stared at the yarn. "Actually the person I'm concerned about now is Juliet. She looked so sad and despondent Sat.u.r.day, not her usual cheerful self at all."

Kelly wanted to reply but didn't. Juliet had appeared in good spirits until Lizzie started prying into her social life. Clearly, Juliet was a private person.

"Break's over. Gotta get back to the cafe," Jennifer said, putting away the holiday green hat. "Maybe I'll see you folks tomorrow. It depends on my real estate clients," she said as she hurried out.

"Who is this man Juliet's seeing? Where'd she meet him?" Kelly asked, switching the focus of the conversation.

Lizzie perked up. "Jeremy Cunningham is a lovely gentleman, a retired university professor and a widower. And he would be an excellent match for Juliet. Shy and bookish, just like Juliet." Lizzie's busy needles paused as she stared off into the bookshelves along the walls. "Juliet told me they had known each other at the library for years. Historical research is Jeremy's hobby. They shared their love of books and began having long discussions. Then, he began asking Juliet out in late spring." Lizzie looked up as Hilda and Megan entered the room.

"Hey, there," Kelly greeted them. "Were you two taking a cla.s.s?"

"Yes, indeed. Megan and I have progressed to Mimi's intermediate spinning cla.s.s. I confess, I'm beginning to have hope that I will master the wheel at last."

"Don't listen to her," Megan said, giving a dismissive wave. "Hilda's doing beautifully."

Lizzie picked up her sad musings, like a dog chewing a favorite bone. "I just don't understand what happened with Jeremy. Do you, Hilda? He and Juliet were perfect for each other. They looked so sweet together. Juliet adored him, too, you could tell. He was her heart's desire. How could he simply stop seeing her?"