Sarah returned her attention to the seam she was sewing in her backing material.

Avanell was anxious to visit with Aiden, and no one could blame her.

"Go ahead and go with your son,” Harriet said. “I've got to wait until Sarah finishes her backing, and I'm sure she won't mind driving me and her quilt back to my place."

Aiden gave her a curious look.

"I don't want to take my mom away from what she's doing,” he said. “I know how important her quilting is."

"You always could charm the socks off a zebra,” Mavis said. “But we all know your mom is going to win best in show even if she does take the afternoon to catch up with you, so you just go ahead. And we'll make sure Harriet gets home, don't you worry, Avanell."

It was a toss-up whether Sarah or Lauren had the nastiest glare for Avanell's retreating back. Harriet knew Sarah would have made an excuse to avoid driving her if it hadn't meant she would be walking home carrying the woman's quilt.

It only took Sarah an additional hour after the meeting broke up to finish her quilt back, and it became obvious to Harriet that if she sat in the same room with her, she would never finish. There seemed to be no end to the young woman's ego or her desire to talk about it, so she went to the kitchen and sat at the table with the latest copy of Quilters World until Sarah was done.

Chapter Eight

Harriet dropped Sarah's quilt off in the studio and went into the kitchen. Fred wove figure-eights between her legs, making forward progress nearly impossible.

She picked him up. “Well, Fred, we survived our first Loose Threads meeting on our own."

Fred meowed.

"And we discovered that Avanell has been holding out on us. She has a really hot-looking son we never knew about."

Fred jumped to the floor and fluffed his tail.

"Don't worry, Fred, you're the only man in my life and that's not changing.” After what Steve and his family had done, she would never share her heart again. “Besides, Avanell's son is too young for us. He's probably younger than you are in cat years."