Read Online For Better or Worsted by Betty Hechtman - Free Book Online

than once that I was the best friend she had, and she was upset that the relationship wasn’t mutual.
    Eduardo complimented Thursday on her skill, and Elise suggested she might want to make a vampire-style washcloth. Before Sheila could say hello, Thursday was admiring the mohair shawl she was making in blue, green and lavender mixed together.
    I was about to let out a sigh of relief. I’d been worried about how they would react or what they would say to Thursday, and I’d wanted to talk to the group first, but it appeared to have been unnecessary. I say
appeared
, because in the next breath, Rhoda asked Thursday for the real details of what happened at the wedding.
    “I’m just trying to get the facts,” Rhoda said, after getting nudged and gasped at by the rest of the table. “And who would know better?”
    There were rumblings of Rhoda being insensitive, but Thursday stopped them. “All I can tell you is what I know. I saw my mother fidgeting around the cake, and I went to see what was going on.” Thursday stopped, and for the first time I saw emotion welling in her face and her eyes filled with water. “I tripped over something, and when I looked down I saw Jonah was on the ground. I was trying to help him sit up, but—” she stopped, clearly unable to go on.
    Was this the moment when the you-know-what hit the fan that Barry had warned me about? I looked around the bookstore, glad that it was relatively peaceful if she was going to have a meltdown. Only Mrs. Shedd and Ben Sherman, the kids’ writing instructor, were around. When I looked back at Thursday, she had swallowed back her tears and regained her self-control. To make sure things stayed calm, I changed the subject to the crochet birthday party.
    Dinah got what I was doing and gave me an affirmative nod from across the table. For Thursday’s benefit, I explained the whole situation. “It all started with a little girl bored with pizza parties,” I said before going into the girl’s encounter with the crochet group. When I explained the Parties with a Purpose idea, Thursday brightened.
    “What a wonderful idea. I’m a teacher, you know,” she said to the group. “The kids all spend so much time with electronic things these days, they will love actually doing something with their hands.”
    I told her I appreciated her enthusiasm and then got to the challenging part of the party planning. “When I offered to do the party, I was thinking we’d just offer the place and the crochet lesson, but the mother is expecting me to take care of everything. All they want to do is show up.” I heard Adele clearing her throat in a pointed manner from down the table.
    “Molly really isn’t doing this party business on her own. I’m functioning as the crochet instructor,” Adele said. I was a little stunned by the restraint in her manner and the fact that she had called me Molly instead of by my last name, Pink, as she usually did. I was beginning to hope that Eric’s mother never left.
    “In any case, the whole thing falls on us. We can’t just teach the kids to crochet, we need to give them a project that, if they can’t finish completely at the party, they can get a lot done and know how to finish it.”
    “What a wonderful idea,” Eduardo said. “It would be a whole new business for the bookstore, making optimum use of the same space.” His whole focus on things had changed since he bought the Crown Apothecary and started reading books on business management. I think it was important to him that we realized he was more than just a pretty face.
    “There’s another issue. We only have one chance to make this right, otherwise it will be our only party.” I gave Adele a pointed look, and she threw it right back at me.
    “My children’s programs always come off perfectly. It’s your author events that end up being a problem.” Adele was still watching her words and how she said them. She was being so careful, she was beginning to sound like