If Harriet had lived anywhere else, she probably wouldn't have bothered with a land line at home. However, the spotty cell phone reception in Foggy Point, combined with the existing phone number that had long been associated with Quilt As Desired, the long-arm quilting business, meant she'd kept the business phone and its antiquated answering machine. When she got home and listened to her messages, she was glad she hadn't gotten rid of either-Aiden had called.
"I've been trying to reach you since we got cut off,” his mechanically distorted voice said from the speaker. “What happened? One minute I was talking to you, and the next I was connected to some strange woman who sounded pretty desperate to talk to whoever it was she thought she was talking to. Weird, huh?
"Well, I worked at the site all day, and now I'm headed to the clinic. We don't have good phone reception here-I had to drive out to the top of one of the bluffs to make this call. You can leave a message, and I'll get it and answer when I can."
He asked about his dog Randy, who was at home under Carla's care. Before he'd left, Harriet had promised she'd visit the strange little dog he'd brought home from Africa and had also promised she'd hug her and tell her daddy loved her at least every other day. He said goodbye and promised to call again soon.
Harriet played the message three more times, but Aiden still didn't magically explain about the baby or the woman.
The phone rang, and she grabbed it up, so quickly it slipped from her grasp, and she had to catch it in midair to avoid dropping it.
"Aiden?"
"Sorry,” Mavis replied. “It's just me."
"I'm being silly. I was listening to a message on the machine from Aiden. He told me he was going back to work. What's up?"
Mavis explained she had taken one of Joseph's quilts, cut it into quarters and was in the process of sewing the new borders onto the first piece. She wanted Harriet to quilt this first one before she put borders on the other three pieces in case she needed to make any adjustments to the scheme. They agreed she would bring it over in the morning, and Harriet would put it on her machine as soon as she could work it in.