Read Online Love Inspired November 2014 #2 by Allie Pleiter, Lorraine Beatty - Free Book Online Page B

him back home from college, but I’ll tell you the novelty has worn off.”
    â€œYou were saying you needed more staff at the shop,” Marge Bowers suggested. “Can’t he work there?” Abby ran the town gift shop, which also stocked a small selection of locally produced yarn. Charlotte had been in there numerous times—she wasn’t a parent, but it didn’t take a genius to know it wasn’t a place most young men would ever want to work.
    Jeannie Owens balked. “Can you see Ben making sales in Abby’s shop? The only thing worse would be having him selling my candy—he’d eat all my profits.”
    â€œI thought about sending him over to bag at Halverson’s Grocery just to get the employee discount—that boy eats enough for five people!”
    Violet pointed her free needle at Abby. “You should do that. The bag boys at Halverson’s don’t show a lick of sense these days. Might do them good to have a college graduate in their midst.”
    â€œI just hope they motivate Ben to find a job that actually uses that expensive accounting degree.” Abby looked up from her knitting. “Hey, this is sounding like a better idea every minute.”
    Charlotte let her gaze wander from face to friendly face. How often had she told Melba that this was what she loved about Gordon Falls? The people shared things, getting through life side by side, warts and all. These were the women who had held Melba up during the long, painful decline of her father’s Alzheimer’s. They’d held her friend close when he’d finally passed away, so much so that Charlotte never worried for Melba’s support when she couldn’t make it out to Gordon Falls. Why, then, did she resist telling them—and Melba—how frightening being jobless was to her?
End this wait, Lord,
Charlotte finished her row of stitching as she sent a silent prayer for God’s favor over the dozen electronic résumés she’d sent out earlier this morning.
Send me a job.
    â€œCharlotte, if you could have any job in the world, what would it be?” Jeannie, who filled a room with sunny-eyed optimism wherever she went despite a host of personal challenges, posed the question as she poured herself a second cup of coffee.
    â€œOh, naturally, I’ve always thought about opening a yarn shop. I might do it someday, but I know enough to realize how much work it is.”
    Jeannie and Abby, both small business owners, nodded in agreement.
    â€œI’m still looking to work for someone, to let all the managerial headaches be on someone else’s plate for a while longer,” Charlotte added.
    She thought about Jesse. After they wrestled the bathtub free, she’d managed to get him to open up about his plans to launch his own business. He seemed pretty autonomous as it was, despite working for Mondale Construction, but was bursting with the urge to work for himself and call his own shots. She admired his ambition, but she could also see the dark edge of it. Jesse wanted success to show the world that he could do it, to prove himself worthy. From a few side comments he’d made, she suspected his father had a lot to do with that drive—and not in a good way. She was so fortunate to have Mom and Dad, who believed in her no matter what she did. When she owned her own business, it would be for all the right reasons. For now, it was enough that she owned her own cottage.

Chapter Six
    â€œY ou’ve made quite an impression,” Charlotte’s cousin JJ announced when they ran into each other a few days later at Halverson’s Grocery. This was another small-town phenomenon that still startled Charlotte—a trip to the grocery store turned into a social event every time. She’d yet to fill her basket without running into six or seven people she knew—not to mention being introduced to half a dozen new “neighbors.” That certainly