Looking For You All My Life Part 110

romantically involved with him." She peered at Maggie curi-

ously. "You're not are you? I mean, he's awfully nice, and

rather good-looking too."

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous, Mom. Why is

it that everyone a.s.sumes if I spend any time with a man that

I must be romantically involved with him?"

"Well, you just never know." Then taking on a teasing

tone, Audrey continued, "And you must admit, you've been

seen with a number of attractive men lately. I'm sure it's just

a matter of time until you'll have all of Pine Mountain

atwitter."

Maggie laughed. "And what would be new about that?"

Leah came home late. She'd been helping Jed to Organize

some things for his trade show next week. "Michael's going

to drive up to Seattle with him," said Leah as she ate from

the plate of leftovers they'd saved for her.

Maggie turned the heat up beneath the teakettle. "How's

old Jed doing?" she asked, hoping to sound nonchalant,

though just speaking his name seemed to make her heart

pound a little faster.

172Melody Carison

"Okay, I guess. Probably working too hard to get every-

thing just perfect for this crazy show. He's renting a big truck

to take everything in. It's sure good that he has Michael to

help him with all the loading and unloading. I just hope this

show is worth all his effort."

"I'm sure it will be. Once people see the quality of his fur-

niture, he can't help but line up lots of work."

Leah brightened. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be a huge success.

I wish I could go too, but I need to stay home and keep the

shop open. Hey, did you hear we got some new snow up at

the higher elevations last weekend? Jed says just one more

good dump and the resort should be open. Then we'd be

really busy in the shop."

Maggie explained to Leah about their new houseguest,

then made herself a pot of chamomile tea and said goodnight.

In her room she looked longingly at her laptop computer.

Was it possible that Jed had answered her email? Did she

want to chance looking and be disappointed? And yet, how

could she not? It felt as though years had gone by since they'd

last spoken. She quickly plugged in her modem and waited

for the computer to connect. What if this brief span in their

relationship had actually weakened things? Could it undo

something important? Yet if their feelings for each other were

real, wouldn't they be able to withstand a small break? At last

the line connected, and with trepidation she opened her

email. First was a message from Rebecca, which she skipped

because the next return address was whitewaterworks.com!

Quickly she opened it, almost afraid to read.

*Dear Maggie: