Free Bluegrass Courtship by Allie Pleiter

sensed her hesitation, for he added, “I can only stay an hour anyway—we’ve got the prayer meeting at eight. We can meet somewhere else if you’d feel better about it. Or put it off until morning.”
    You’re being ridiculous, Janet told herself. It’s an hourto go over plans, not a romantic rendezvous. Besides, if you meet him on the bus there’ll be no way you can escape staying for the prayer meeting. “Come on by. Two blocks over, one block down. 82 Anthem Lane.”
    Drew looked at her. “Ballad, March, Anthem, you people do like your music-inspired street names.”
    â€œYou’re on to our little secret. There’s even a Lullaby Lane, but nobody can stomach the address enough to live on it.”
    Drew shook his head. “Then why don’t you just change the…?” He thought better of his suggestion in light of recent events. “Yeah, right, not really a change-friendly town, are we?”
    Janet tucked her hands into her pockets. “Now you’re catching on, Downing. Even if it’s foolish, chances are we’ll keep it around rather than risk something new.”
    Checking his watch, Drew turned to go. “Man, you’d better go over those plans with a microscope if I’m to get out of this alive,” he called back as he headed toward the door. “Six-thirty, 82 Anthem Lane.”

Chapter Eleven
    D rew didn’t know what he’d expected Janet’s house to look like, but it surprised him nonetheless. It was a practical little brick house, basic yet with small-town charm. She’d changed out of the overalls and into a pair of soft mauve corduroy pants and a thickly knit cream turtleneck. It changed her features—all that texture in those hues. Gave her a sensible softness, a girl-next-door femininity that caught him unawares.
    She showed him to the dining room, where she’d cleared off the large table so he could spread out his plans, swatch books and color palettes he and the design team had pulled together. The table was nearly completely covered once he spread everything out.
    â€œJeremy’s trying to stay within a botanical palette—nature-inspired colors but bright enough to engage little eyes.” He pointed to a drawing of some shelving. “We took the motif from the crown molding in the sanctuary and used it here. It’ll mean custom work, but I think it’ll be worth it.”
    â€œYou don’t need to custom cut that. Look at the shelvesmy dad built in the library. It does something like that, but we were able to use some stock molding on the straight pieces and only had to do the corner blocks as custom work.”
    Drew tried to remember what he’d seen in the library. “We won’t find that molding in stock anywhere. I’ve never seen it before.”
    Janet reached for the pencil and began sketching on a blank space of the paper. “Well, not exactly, but if you take a piece like this—” she sketched out one set of angles “—and combine it with a piece like this—” she sketched out a second set “—all you have to do is cut down this one part here and they’ll fit together to make ones really close to the moldings in the sanctuary.” She fiddled with the sketch again until, sure enough, the two shapes came together in something amazingly close to the custom design he’d proposed. Her solution cut their costs in half, not to mention the labor-hours needed to install the shelves. He watched her stand up, cock her head from side to side as she analyzed the drawing, then lean back over and make a tiny revision. She had long, delicate fingers, and she held her pencil with the precise grip of an artist.
    â€œThat’ll work,” he said, genuinely impressed. “I mean, that’ll really work. Half the cost and one-third the time. You know your stuff.”
    She grinned at him, silently accepting the