Elm Creek Quilts [06] The Master Quilter by Jennifer Chiaverini Read Free Book Online Page A

shop like mine. If I don’t keep them happy, they’ll shop at the Fabric Warehouse instead.”
    Yes , Summer thought, where they would pay with cash, check, or credit card . Granted, customers were fickle and sustaining their loyalty was important, but in Summer’s opinion, Bonnie could well afford to lose a few of those so-called loyal shoppers. Summer could name at least twenty who owed Grandma’s Attic much more than two hundred dollars each. If they were any more loyal, they would sink the shop so deeply into the red that Bonnie would never drag it out.
    Summer would just have to figure out some other way to generate more revenue. Then she might be able to leave with a clear conscience.
    At least her three roommates took her news without complaint. One even confided that their real worry had been that Summer would invite Jeremy to move in there. Aaron, the lone male in the household, said he had a friend who would be glad to take over the lease. Karen, who had been her friend since their undergraduate days, asked, “What will your mother say?”
    “Probably something to the effect that I must be crazy to sacrifice my independence and autonomy for a guy.”
    “Really.” Karen folded her arms and regarded her with interest.
    “My mother would be more concerned about all the implied sex.”
    Aaron, on his way from the kitchen with a bag of chips, added, “Your mom’s going to let you move in with a guy?”
    “Let me?” echoed Summer, incredulous. “I’m twenty-seven years old.”
    “Well, yeah, but you know. You and your mom …” Aaron shrugged.
    “My mom and I what?”
    “Ignore him,” said Karen, glaring at Aaron in disgust. “Don’t worry. Tell your mom when you’re ready to tell her. We’ll cover for you until then.”
    Summer thanked her and frowned at Aaron, who managed a sheepish grin before backing away. Things were worse than she expected if even her friends questioned her autonomy. She had learned to expect that from the Elm Creek Quilters, who had known her most of her life and who, despite their assurances to the contrary, still thought of her as little Summer in pigtails with her stuffed bear in the basket of her bike. If she had gone away to college or had found work in a far-off city after graduation, her mother and the other Elm Creek Quilters would have been forced to acknowledge her as an independent adult long ago. The tuition waiver Waterford College offered the children of faculty had been too persuasive, however, and once she had earned her degree she had not wanted to leave her mother or the fledgling Elm Creek Quilts, despite tempting offers from graduate schools. Often Summer wished she had experienced life in other places, experiences deeper and richer than the few glimpses that vacations and one semester of study abroad had afforded. Sometimes she even envied Jeremy, who within a year would be leaving Waterford College with his doctorate for an exciting job somewhere. She wondered what it would be like to have no idea where she would be living or what she would be doing this time next year.

    For the next three weeks, Summer concentrated on the details of moving, and on the last day of January, Jeremy borrowed a friend’s pickup truck and hauled Summer’s belongings to his apartment. Summer left behind her answering machine in case someone called for her during the few days the phone company insisted they needed to switch over Summer’s number to her new home. Jeremy had agreed to leave the outgoing message on his answering machine blank. “We just have to remember the different rings so we only pick up for our own calls,” Summer reminded him as they stacked her books on shelves in her new room.
    “Or we could just tell your mother you moved in, and not worry about who answers the phone.”
    “She wants me to come for supper on Sunday. I’ll tell her then.”
    She worried that Jeremy would ask to accompany her, but he simply wished her good luck, adding, “And the