Looking For You All My Life Part 164

Audrey laughed. "I've lived long enough to know that

matchmaking rarely if ever pays off. In fact, I'll bet that the

odds of winning the lottery are a lot better than making a

successful match for someone."

"You're probably right. I'm just so excited to see them

both. Did you tell Barry that Rebecca flies in on Friday, the

twenty-third?"

"Yes, that's what made me think of it, since he was plan-

ning on driving down on the very same day."

"Perfect!"

It wasn't until after dinner that Maggie suddenly remem-

bered her earlier resolve to check up on Leah. She finished

loading the dishwasher, then, bracing herself to hear Leah's

irritatingly confident voice scolding her for being overly con-

cerned, she dialed Jed's number. It rang numerous times and

finally a recorded message came 6n, playing Jed's voice in her

ear as he announced they were unable to answer the phone

right now. Just hearing his voice like that made her long to

speak to him, to tell him how foolish she'd been... but sud-

denly the machine beeped and she was forced to leave a

"brief message." "Hi, Leah. This is Maggie. Just wanted to

make sure you're doing okay. So, give me a call, or I'll prob-

ably call you back again. You know me, the worrying type.

Catch you later."

When Daniel's grandpa came to pick him up, Spencer

talked her into letting him go over and spend the night. It

seemed Daniel had been given a video-game system as an

early Christmas present and the two couldn't wait to try it

out. As it was Christmas vacation, Maggie agreed. Audrey

seemed tired, so Maggie encouraged her to turn in early while

she finished decorating the Christmas cookies. Then she

turned on some Christmas CDs, lit a cinnamon candle, and

Looking for You All My Life257

proceeded to decorate (more traditionally than the boys) the

rest of the cookies. Finally she finished the last one, then

froze them just the way her mother had recommended, one

layer at a time. She separated them with wax paper in boxes

and returned them to the freezer. This way they would still

be fresh for next week. Naturally, she saved a couple for her

reward when she was done to be enjoyed with a cup of tea.

All this time, Lizzie had been staying close to her heels in the

kitchen. She had tossed the old dog a couple of broken

cookie tidbits, but for some reason Lizzie seemed unusually

restless. Maggie wondered if she could be missing Bart, who

had taken to sleeping in the guest house with Audrey (after

she had been delighted to discover that the smart dog could

climb the ladder up to the loft where he still liked to sleep

sometimes).

"What's wrong, old girl?" asked Maggie as she ran her

hand over the smooth black head. "Are you missing Bart?