When thirty-something Shelby Phillips returns to her quiet hometown just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, she reluctantly takes over her mother's Nimble Needle needlepoint shop-and gets entangled in a murder investigation . . .

It's only temporary. That's what Shelby Phillips tells herself when she returns to excruciatingly harmless Gwen Lake after her graphic arts career-and the office romance blooming with it-get tossed like rejected design mockups. Her plan is as simple and fool-proof as a tent stitch: manage the family needlepoint shop duringher parents' RV vacation. It's just a month. It's not as if they're retiring . . . right?

When Shelby becomes responsible for hosting a trunk show with local vendors, she's determined to pull it off. Even if that means dealing with former classmate Kat Katsaros, a rising entrepreneur specializing in needlework scissors. Kat has changed since high school-and she's angling to take over the Nimble Needle herself. The tension unspools when Shelby makes a terrible discovery on the morning of the event: Kat's dead body.

Shelby can't believe the death was an accident. That's why she's set on exposing who committed the murder with Kat's own equipment. She finds help in a new friend, a potential crush, and the surprising support of her sister and the Nimble Needle stitchers. Still, Shelby must move quickly to stop the crafty culprit before her maybe not-so-temporary new life in Gwen Lake comes apart at the seams . . .