Purl Up and Die Read Online Free Page B

taller now. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, I guess.” Kelly smiled back at Cassie. “Are you ready for your game? You’re playing a Loveland middle school, I think.”
    Cassie took a sip of soda. “Yep, we’re playing Loveland Central. Then my friends and I will come over to your game and watch you guys.” She straddled a chair backward in the way Jayleen Swinson did. Kelly figured Cassie had picked that up from one of her adopted grandmothers.
    Barb swiped her face again and rose from the table. “Well, I’d better get ready for my class. I’ll talk to you later.”
    Mimi rose as well. “I’ll help you set up, Barb.” She glanced back at Cassie. “Did you have fun at Greg’s lab, dear?”
    â€œOh, yes! The geeks had a new project they’re working on so they were explaining it to me. Greg also showed me some of the newest computer chips.” Her big blue eyes grew even larger with delight. “It was
awesome
!”
    â€œTake care, Barb,” Kelly said, watching Barb head for the doorway.
    Barb nodded but didn’t say anything as she followed Mimi into the workroom. Kelly noticed Cassie staring after them.
    â€œIs she okay? It looked like Barb was crying,” Cassie asked, smile gone from her youthful face.
    Kelly sought for an answer a young teenager would understand. “Barb’s had kind of a rough day. A really rough day.”
    Cassie pondered that then nodded. “Kind of like when we lost that close game to Lafayette.”
    â€œYeah, like that,” Kelly nodded. “But worse. Now, tell me, are you and the team ready for that Loveland batting lineup? As I recall, they were really good last fall when your middle school played them.”
    Cassie took a sip of her soda and smiled at Kelly. “Oh, yeah. We’re gonna take ’em. You watch.”
    Kelly chuckled. The sound of Youthful Confidence. You had to love it.
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    â€œWow, that is serious stuff,” Steve said, reaching for another piece of barbecued chicken.
    â€œIt is, indeed,” Marty said, following suit and stretching toward the metal café table and the platter stacked with chicken.
    Kelly tipped back her bottle of Fat Tire ale and relaxed in the wrought iron chair at their favorite café in Fort Connor’s Old Town plaza. After all the congratulations to Steve and the accompanying lifting of beer mugs, bottles, and soda cans in salute, Kelly ventured into a more serious subject. The normal postgame conversation became considerably subdued when she described the situation Barb had related earlier in the afternoon.
    â€œIt sounds like a ‘she said, he said’ situation,” Greg offered as he snagged a larger piece of chicken.
    Megan dipped her chicken morsel in the spicy sauce sitting open on the table. “I’ve never met Tommy but all I’ve heard are good things. You know . . . worked as a paramedic, got accepted for med school, worked hard, and is now a doctor. Sounds like a homegrown success story.”
    â€œI have met him and Tommy comes across exactly the way you described him. Workaholic and high achiever. I just don’t see him as someone who’d make a move like that.” Kelly reached for one of the fast-disappearing BBQ chicken pieces.
    â€œWell, I’ve been on the other side of that situation,” Lisa said. “No one has ever tried it with me—”
    â€œBecause you’d give him a fist in the ribs, right?” Greg probed.
    Lisa gave him a patient look. “No . . .”
    â€œKnee to the groin?”
    â€œNo, I—”
    â€œWell, put those on your to-do list,” Greg decreed, then tipped back his bottle of craft brew.
    Lisa rolled her eyes. “I was about to make a different point. I’ve been around girls and women who have been in the situation of being groped. And there’s