appeared formidable. “They don’t do a thing for me. Either we get some actual crochet from her this time or she’s out.”
In the hopes of toning Adele down, Dinah and I flanked her as we walked up to the small porch and I knocked on the door. Kelly opened the door and invited us in. I heard the two men from the production company call to her.
“Kelly, we’re going to be heading over for lunch,” one of them said. She called them by name and wished them a good meal. Then she led the way back to her workroom, apologizing for not making the morning meeting.
“Sit, sit,” she said indicating the chairs and small couch. “Would you like something to drink?”
“We’re not here for any of that Popsi Cola,” Adele said, still standing. I tried to give Adele an admonishing look, but she avoided my eye. Just as Adele opened her mouth to speak again, I stepped in.
“We appreciate how busy you are, but CeeCee needs to get an idea of how many crochet pieces we have for the Jungle Days Fair. We really need to pick up whatever you’ve made.”
Kelly smiled at me and her dimples kicked in. “Sure, I have them all in a bin. I’ll get them for you.” I turned to nod at Adele when Kelly’s doorbell rang. She excused herself to answer it. Adele still seemed unconvinced that Kelly would give us something she’d crocheted.
“Watch, she’ll come back and make an excuse.” The words were barely out of Adele’s mouth when Kelly did come back in the room. “Okay, what is it this time?” Adele said with her hand on her hip. I tried to shush her and stepped in front of Adele, not that it stopped her mouth. “You’re too busy with whoever came to the door to show us what you crocheted?”
Kelly seemed preoccupied and then after a moment said it was only a real estate agent handing out brochures. She passed in front of us and went into the closet. After rummaging around, she came out holding a plastic bin that was considerably smaller than the ones stacked in the room. “Here, take this,” she said. Adele reached out for it, but Kelly handed it to me. Now that you’ve gotten what you came for . . .” she said in a dismissive tone. She glanced toward the door to the rest of the house and then hustled the three of us to the sliding glass door. “If you wouldn’t mind going out this way,” she said, pulling it open.
I had to push aside one of the potted poplar trees that were lined up along the glass to get out. Dinah brought up the rear and put the tree back in place.
“She certainly rushed us out of there,” Adele said.
“After what you said, can you blame her,” I said. “Well, I guess this means she’s still in the group, if she wants to be.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Let’s see what she gave us.”
CHAPTER 6
Adele wanted to open the bin as soon as we got outside, but I held firm and kept walking. As soon as we got to the bookstore, we headed straight back to the yarn department.
“Now I want to see what she gave us,” Adele said, pulling the bin out of my arms and laying it on the worktable. With her back to Dinah and me, Adele flipped off the top and hovered over the contents. I was expecting some kind of haughty comment about the quality of Kelly’s crochet, but instead Adele squealed and slammed the bin shut.
“We want to see, too,” I said, reaching around her and trying to open the container, but Adele leaned on it and held it shut.
“It’s nothing,” she said. “I’m going to stow the bin over here.” Adele pulled the container away and started opening cabinets in the yarn department, looking for a space.
“Hey, we’re supposed to bring everything to CeeCee’s,” I protested, but Adele kept moving things around to make room for the container. What was going on? Adele seemed very upset and was totally ignoring me. Finally, I cornered her and pulled the container from her grasp.
“Don’t, Pink,” she wailed as I set it on the worktable and prepared to remove the top. Adele lunged at it and made a last attempt to hold the lid closed, but I pulled it off anyway. When I looked inside, I couldn’t understand why Adele seemed so upset. Dinah joined me and we ruffled through