Free Rosemary Opens Her Heart: Home at Cedar Creek, Book Two by Naomi King Page A

about the fine time they’d had at the wedding yesterday. After that, when she’d checked
     the messages in the phone shanty by the road to hear how many pies the café wanted,
     Rosemary had also discovered a message from Matt Lambright.
    “I’m calling for Titus Yutzy and for Rosemary,” he’d said in his energetic voice.
     “Titus, I’ve got you two fine yearling rams picked out—a Montadale and a Rambouillet—and
     I’ll bring them over whenever you’re ready. And while I’m there,” he added, “I’m hoping
     to visit with you, too, Rosemary. I really enjoyed meeting you and Katie yesterday.
     I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon, like we agreed.”
    Rosemary’s heart had pounded so hard she could barely take down the phone number.
     She’d been tempted not to tell Titus that Matt had called, but that would have been
     the wrong way to handle this situation. Instead, she’d erased the message and left
     the phone number on the table for her father-in-law before hitching Gertie tothe buggy. The best remedy for her racing thoughts was to visit with her mamm and
     Malinda, her sister. Surely there, at the home where she had grown up—and where she
     and Joe had been living—she would find the support she needed.
    Was she the only one who felt it was too soon to embrace all this excitement about
     sewing and sheep and Cedar Creek? Beth Ann had rhapsodized all the way home about
     Abby Lambright and her Stitch in Time business, as well as about the incredible assortment
     of fabrics at the mercantile. Titus had gotten new ideas for improving his flock,
     and he couldn’t say enough positive words about Matt. And just the mention of Matt’s
     name made Katie ask repeatedly about his border collies. Thank goodness her little
     girl was riding quietly now, anticipating a visit with her grandmother and aunt.
    Rosemary drove past the parcel of land she and Joe had bought, sadly imagining the
     orchard and the beehives they had planned to put behind their new house. It would
     have made such a pretty place to call their own, but now…She sighed. The weedy, unplanted
     fields and the clumpy grass along the fencerows resembled the way she felt this morning:
     needy and ignored and in total disarray.
    She clapped the reins on Gertie’s broad back. Five minutes later she pulled onto the
     familiar lane, where her maiden name, KEIM , painted on the mailbox had faded over the years. Rosemary waved at Malinda, who
     was hoeing the freshly tilled vegetable garden, and hitched the mare at the post beside
     the front porch. “All right, Katie, we’re at Mammi’s,” she said as she helped her
     daughter down. “You’re to stay in the house with your grandmother and me, understand?
     No slipping out the back door while we’re visiting.”
    Katie nodded, her fingers in her mouth, but the twinkle in her eye told Rosemary she
     would have to watch her daughter every moment. Up the porch stairs they went, with
     Katie clutching her hand as she took each tall step. “Hullo, Mamm!” Rosemary called
     out as she entered the kitchen.
    Her mother answered from upstairs, so Rosemary steered hertoddler toward the staircase in the front room. As they walked past the two recliners,
     she noted how the scuffmarks on the walls showed up more in the morning light. Joe
     would have painted these rooms by now, if he were still alive. He had been doing so
     well with his new remodeling business. Because of the downturn in the economy, he’d
     lined up a lot of jobs with English folks who were updating their homes rather than
     buying new ones.
    As she helped Katie up each step, Rosemary forced her thoughts away from all the unrealized
     dreams Joe had left behind. She put a determined smile on her face. “And how are you
     this morning, Mamm?” she asked as she entered the bedroom her parents had shared for
     more than fifty years.
    “Wasn’t expecting you girls to drop by, what with you being gone yesterday.” Her mother