Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 87091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 435(@200wpm)___ 348(@250wpm)___ 290(@300wpm)
“No. My granddaughter, Rosamund, is coming to stay. It’s rather unexpected.” Her voice hinted at reasons that he probably didn’t want to know.
“Anyway, I can’t cancel my trip now, and Rosamund says she’ll be perfectly fine in my house by herself. Which of course she will. She’s a grown woman. I just wonder if you and your family wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on her. She doesn’t know anyone here.”
“Yes, of course,” Nick said. Then he pulled out his phone. “What are the dates she’ll be here?”
Margaret smiled at him as though there was something comical in his putting the dates in the calendar. It wasn’t comical at all. It was the practical thing to do.
She gave him the dates. “Rosamund is a knitter.”
Immediately he pictured a quiet young woman. Probably very shy. With glasses, maybe.
“A knitter?” he asked. “That’s her hobby?”
“No,” Margaret said. “That’s her job.”
“Oh.” His mom had gone through a very short-lived phase of knitting in front of the television or while listening to the radio. He hadn’t considered that you could make a living from it. No doubt this Rosamund worked in a knitting shop.
He glanced around at his family, dancing and laughing and glittering. He wondered how this poor, unknown knitter would ever fit in. Still, at least they always welcomed strangers. He’d make sure she got invited to their family breakfast if she wanted to come. And he made a note to check out where the closest knitting shops were.
“I’m on it,” he told Margaret.
She laughed and patted his shoulder. “I knew I could rely on you.”
And then his dad swept Margaret off to dance.
Nick drained the rest of his sparkling water and went back to observing the party.
Mila stopped dancing with Hershel Greenfield long enough to come by and say, “Nick. That girl in the emerald-green dress has been checking you out all night. Go ask her to dance.”
This wasn’t the first time one of his sisters had told him some girl was interested in him. He was usually oblivious. “Oh,” he said. “Sure.”
And headed over to ask the girl to dance. The green dress was figure-hugging and gleamed. It reminded him somehow of the skin of a reptile. Her name was Brie, and she was fun to dance with.
And then a picture flashed into his brain of a much quieter place than this. A young woman sitting, knitting.
Rosamund. It was an unusual name. It was pretty.
He’d try to make Margaret’s granddaughter feel at home when she arrived in Carmel-by-the-Sea.