Read Online Knit to Be Tied by Maggie Sefton - Free Book Online Page A

phone into her white summer pants pocket, then grabbed her empty travel mug and her briefcase bag and headed for the cottage front door. She might as well take her own advice and find a comfy small outdoor table in the café patio garden and start on her client accounts. Besides, one of Eduardo’s yummy cinnamon rolls would easily serve as breakfast.
    Stepping outside in the beautiful sunny August morning, Kelly checked the cars in the driveway. Breakfast customers. Carl barked once behind her and she turned to see her rottweiler behind the chain-link fence. It was made secure years ago by an addition to the top of the fence to make sure Carl the Explorer didn’t go roaming again.
    â€œKeep those squirrels in line, Carl,” Kelly called to her dog. Carl woofed once in reply then trotted back into the yard to do as he was bade.
    Kelly walked slowly over to the garden patio, glancing around her and savoring the view of the Rockies in the distance behind the outlines of Old Town Fort Connor. Once more, she was glad that years ago she’d decided to leave the East Coast and stay in Fort Connor and make it her home. Even though that decision meant Kelly had to walk away from her corporate CPA career in Washington, DC, to createan entirely new accounting career in Fort Connor. And she had done so.
    Now, Kelly’s high-level accounting expertise was completely focused on two clients. Both of them extremely successful businessmen in entirely different areas. Both of them more than satisfied with the corporate-level accounting that Kelly provided. One of them, Arthur Housemann, older and wiser, called Kelly’s level of service “concierge accounting.” Something available to just a privileged few. Kelly had laughed at that description and wished her father were still alive to share her success. But then she looked around her world and her life in Fort Connor, and she knew she had more than enough “family” to share success and struggles with. Kelly counted herself lucky.
    As she strolled into the patio garden itself, Kelly spotted a table beside the small outdoor classroom building in the corner of the garden. Kelly promptly claimed it, setting her briefcase bag on the table, and pulled out a chair.
    â€œHey, Kelly, can I get you some coffee?” Julie asked as she walked along the flagstone path, tray in one hand.
    â€œYou’re reading my mind again, Julie,” Kelly said and handed over her oversized mug.
    â€œI’ll be right back,” Julie promised.
    Kelly settled in at the table and pulled out her laptop and client files. The sound of traffic along the busy street was muffled by the tall stucco walls that surrounded the back and side walls of the garden and café.
    â€œHey there, Kelly,” another familiar voice called.
    Kelly looked up to see Father Figure Burt walkingthrough the garden, heading her way. “Hey, Burt. Want to join me for a cinnamon roll?”
    â€œDon’t tempt me, Kelly,” Burt said as he walked up. “I’m trying to stay on my diet. Mimi and I both. We slipped a few times when we were in Denver. Found some new restaurants.”
    â€œYou and Mimi deserve to ‘slip’ every now and then, if you ask me,” Kelly decreed in her best executive tone. “Both of you are far too good.” Kelly gave Burt an enigmatic smile as she pushed her files and computer across the table. Julie was headed her way with a newly filled coffee mug.
    â€œHere you go, Kelly. Can I get you anything else?” Julie slipped her waitress pad from the pocket of her summer pants.
    â€œMatter of fact, you can bring me one of those yummy cinnamon rolls,” Kelly said. “And bring two forks, would you, please? I’m trying to corrupt Burt.”
    â€œOh, Lord,” Burt said with a sigh and shook his head. “Believe me, Kelly, neither Mimi nor I need any encouragement to corrupt our diet plans. We’re quite capable