Sweetgum Secrets — Beth Pattillo

The Sweetgum ladies are all keeping secrets.Even as they gather each month to discuss the great romances of literature and their accompanying knitting projects, the members of the Sweetgum Knit Lit Society are hiding behind their novels and their needles. The pastor's wife doesn't want her husband to know that she's being blamed for a drop in church donations. The young woman who dreams of leaving her small town behind won't admit her true feelings when a man from her past returns. The newly widowed town matriarch is keeping quiet about her surprising new best friends, and the youngest member, a struggling teenager, doesn't want anyone to know that her erstwhile boyfriend doesn't want to date her openly. The newest member of the group finds herself struggling to keep her family together after her father's death. And then there's the mother of four who's hiding her grief at leaving her infant son in daycare so she can return to the working world. What will happen when each of their truths comes out?Reading some of the great love stories of literature might just open their eyes to the possibility of happiness if they would let their secrets out. Sure, it's scary, and there's a lot on the line. But the truth about love is that as long as it's a secret, it can't transform their lives. *first published as The Sweetgum Ladies Knit for Love (2009)