Free The New Year's Quilt (Elm Creek Quilts Novels) by Jennifer Chiaverini

it’s a good thing he didn’t mention that until he was on his way out the door with the manuscript in his briefcase.”
    “Please do tell me that this story has a happy ending,” said Sylvia, remembering how upon meeting her friend at the restaurant, she had strongly suspected that Adele was concealing a secret. Now Sylvia was certain she knew why.
    A smile lit up Adele’s face. “My book is coming out next fall.”
    Sylvia and Andrew cheered and embraced her, offering their congratulations and promising to buy copies for all of their friends. “It’s not going to be a best-seller,” warned Adele. “I’m just hoping it will do well locally and in academic bookstores and libraries.”
    “Don’t downplay your success,” Sylvia admonished her. “What a wonderful achievement. I’m sure the Colcrafts would be proud.”
    “All this came about because of a New Year’s resolution,” Andrew marveled.
    “A New Year’s resolution that I kept,” Adele emphasized. “Anyone can make promises. The challenge is in following through.”
    They peppered Adele with questions about her forthcoming book until Julius glanced at the clock and reminded them of the time. With a start, Sylvia remembered their theater tickets. She and Andrew hurried off to the Garden Room to dress, and before long, they were on their way.
    Sylvia gazed out of the cab window, drinking in the beauty of the city at night and reflecting upon all that Adele had shared with them. Sylvia admired her resolve and her determination to put aside her fears and find a more fulfilling path. Sylvia had made a similar choice not long ago, when she accepted a challenge from a young friend, Sarah McClure, and transformed her family estate into a quilters’ retreat. Embarking upon that journey had been a risk, the most significant chance she had taken in decades, but at that point in her life, she’d had very little to lose. She wondered how her life might have been different if, like Adele, she had taken measures to change her life years earlier, and not waited for her sister’s death to return home to Elm Creek Manor. If only on one lonely New Year’s Eve she had made a resolution as Adele had done, and had come home to ask forgiveness instead of waiting for Claudia to apologize first.
    Resolving to start a New Year with a vow to mend broken ties with her sister never occurred to her, Sylvia thought ruefully as their cab pulled on to Broadway. Even if it had, Claudia would not have responded well to the gesture. The sisters had a fractious history when it came to New Year’s resolutions, and as much as Sylvia wanted to blame Claudia for that particular conflict, at her ruthlessly honest core, she knew she was at fault.
    Sylvia was six years old when her mother and father announced that a new baby brother or sister would be joining the family in the coming winter. Sylvia was torn between delight over the exciting news and worry for her mother’s health. On more than one occasion, she had heard her father gently admonish her mother for overexerting herself. He was always encouraging her to rest, to sit down with some quilting or a book instead of chasing around after her daughters. Her mother tried to accept his suggestions graciously, but Sylvia saw her mouth tighten even as she allowed her husband to help her into an overstuffed chair. Sylvia knew that a baby meant sleepless nights and busy days, and she resolved to help her mother care for the baby so that she could get the rest Sylvia’s father and old Dr. Granger insisted she needed.
    Sylvia would even willingly change diapers, something Claudia had already confided that she would never do. “Babies are stinky and noisy and they cry all the time,” Claudia warned. “Mama and Father will spend all their time with the baby and we’ll only get what’s left over. You wait and see.”
    Her sister’s warnings filled Sylvia with apprehension, but she brushed them aside when she realized that no one else