Last Chance Knit & Stitch by Hope Ramsay Read Free Book Online

ratty cuticles. Bottom line, Molly didn’t care if her hands were dirty. But she resented Charlotte for pointing them out for everyone to see.
    “To whom does this belong?” Simon asked, cutting through the alien emotion that was making Molly’s face flame hot. She turned. He was standing there in all his sartorial splendor, bearing the demon under his arm. The boy hung limp and subdued.
    “Oh, my God,” Kenzie said. “I’m so, so sorry.” Sherushed forward and took the toddler from the man. A suddenly tractable Junior settled in his mother’s arms and put his little red head down on her shoulder. He aimed his angelic smile at Simon.
    And the apostrophes at the corner of Simon’s mouth curled up. Obviously, the guys had bonded.
    “Are you Charlotte’s son?” Kenzie asked.
    “That man is not my son!” Charlotte said. “Millie hired him to do some odd jobs around the house.”
    And just as quickly, Simon’s smile disappeared. He gave both Molly and Kenzie a little shrug that seemed filled with both resignation and something else—was it sadness? But he covered over the emotion almost as quickly as it flashed in his eyes.
    “Do you want me to run down to the doughnut place for you?” he asked. He cast his gaze over the yarn labels and the tangled mass of yak in Kenzie’s hands. “I could take the baby with me. What’s his name?”
    “We call him Junior,” Kenzie supplied. The little demon seemed to know a friend when he saw one. He reached out for Simon. And the man took him in his arms again like he knew how to handle an eighteen-month-old.
    “I’ll take my time,” Simon said, casting his gaze over the havoc that Junior had caused.
    “Oh, that would be wonderful,” Kenzie said.
    “Wait,” Molly said. “What are you doing here? No one expected—”
    He gave Molly a direct and deeply unsettling stare. “Mother insisted on coming. I think she needed to escape from the family. And that’s a feeling I understand pretty well.”
    “Oh. Well.” The words dried up in her mouth. Hewasn’t even trying to hide from his history, was he? She suddenly didn’t know quite what to make of this man.
    “It’s okay, Molly. I’ll go get the doughnuts.”
    And he turned on his heel, the baby riding his hip. He headed out the door and almost ran over Savannah White, who was dropping off her aunt Miriam Randall.
    Simon put Junior down on his feet, and the two of them ambled up the street in the direction of the doughnut shop.
    Savannah and Miz Miriam came into the yarn store.
    “My goodness, Charlotte, was that Simon just now?” Miriam asked as she settled herself into one of the chairs.
    “That man is not my son. Why is everyone saying that? I just told Molly, he’s a handyman and chauffeur that Millie hired for me.”
    “Wow, Miz Charlotte,” Kenzie said, “for a handyman he sure does dress nice. That suit he was wearing looks like Hugo Boss, or maybe Kenneth Cole. And he’s like some kind of Pied Piper. I mean, Junior took one look at him and stopped misbehaving. How’d he do that?”
    Savannah turned and gave Molly a funny look.
    “What?” Molly asked. “Do I have grease on my face again?”
    Savannah nodded. “Yeah, maybe just a little on your right cheek.”
    Molly wiped her cheek with her hand. “Guess I’ll go wash my face. And my hands.” And then after the meeting, she’d have to make a quick trip up to Orangeburg for a new router. Never mind the laundry, or the grocery shopping, or finding someone without a toddler to mind the Knit & Stitch. Or her job at the Pit. Or what she was going to do with the Shelby.
    She headed toward the small storeroom at the backof the shop, but before she could reach it, Kenzie said, “I promise. I’ll pay for all of the crochet hooks.”
    Molly turned. “Crochet hooks?”
    “Well, I put Junior in the storeroom for a minute when Annie Jasper came by for some superwash merino. I’m afraid he opened up a few packages of hooks. He was building a