Read Online Bluegrass Courtship by Allie Pleiter - Free Book Online

project out on me that she saw on the show.”
    Emily shot Janet a glance as she took a stack of folded agendas out of the machine’s bin and placed them in a box on the counter. “Your back deck trellis is lovely. I want one.”
    Which was an amusing comment, because it’d be hard to find any more places to put decorations or flowers on the gingerbread cottage where Emily lived. Janet had wondered—more than once—how she was going to add her brand of charm to the huge work-a-day house she’d live in on Homestretch Farm once she and Gil were married. Gil wasn’t exactly the flowerbox and cottage garden type. Perhaps it was living proof that opposites really do attract.
    â€œI’ll send Mom over as soon as you’re married. And it’s not the work I object to. From what I can see Missionnovation does good work despite how fast they move. It’s the hype. You can’t go near that site without somebody pointing a camera at your face.”
    â€œOh, I can imagine. Gil told me they were half an hour late for dinner because he couldn’t get the guys to step away from the cameras.”
    Janet let loose a laugh. “The Homestretch guys? Hamming it up for cameras? Now that’s entertainment. That show is turning everyone in this town upside down.” Her laugh died down. “I wonder if we’ll all still be as thrilled when the circus leaves town.”
    â€œDon’t you think Missionnovation is on the up-and-up? They’re going to use your rainwater collection idea. And you said yourself, the team’s been doing solid work. Even thehardware store is better off with all those orders. I don’t see the downside in this.” She paused and pointed at Janet. “Except that we may never hear the end of it from Howard.”
    Janet let the machine finish its batch and then gave it time to cool off before reloading it. She didn’t want to have this conversation with Emily over the noise of that thing, anyway. “I know there’re dozens of logical reasons why this could be a good thing. But I don’t seem to be able to shake my gut feeling on this. If anyone else had asked to buy all my birdhouses and put them up in the church preschool, I might even be fine with it. So why is it bothering me that Drew asked?”
    Emily raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell me he asked for all of them.”
    â€œHe asked for as many as I can give him. And you know his rush-rush timetable.”
    â€œYou could do it. If you wanted to.”
    Janet looked at her. “But do I want to? Pipes and drywall and stuff are one thing. My birdhouses are another. Those are personal, you know? I take a lot of time and care with those.”
    â€œJanet, no one’s ever pressured you about church before, they’re not going to start pressuring you now about your birdhouses. They already have the one you made.”
    Emily was another of those church people like her mother and Dinah. Janet appreciated Emily’s soft touch when it came to church matters—and was one of the few people other than Dinah who knew the full story of Tony’s fraud. Emily seemed to understand the scars Janet carried. She still invited Janet to church things, but was fine when Janet declined.
    Bebe never gave in so easily. She’d asked Janet again tocome to the prayer meeting at the bus—resulting in another near argument when she declined. Did her mother somehow think the famous green bus would suddenly dissolve years of well-grounded resistance? As if those kinds of wounds could be erased by the right cute guy?
    When had she come to think of Drew Downing as cute?
    The thought must have shown on her face, for Emily responded with the worst possible question. “Janet,” she asked, “is this not about church or birdhouses? Is this about Drew Downing?”
    This was why she found it hard to be around newly engaged people. They were forever